Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Announcement European Challenge Cup 2013

sandshrew

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European Challenge Cup 2013


Last year the European Challenge Cup was an International Special Premier Event visited by 335 players from 16 European countries, USA and Mexico.

Location
This tournament will be held on Saturday 9 February (Swiss rounds) and Sunday 10 February 2013 (finals) at Sporthal Elderveld, Breezandpad 13, NL-6843 JM Arnhem, The Netherlands.*

*The venue is just a couple of kilometres from the German border, it's trainstation one of the major stops of international trains coming from the Airports of Cologne (Köln - Germany) and Amsterdam (The Netherlands). There is a public tribune where family and nonplaying friends can watch the games from reasonable distance. A catering service is present at the location, just like a shopping mall at a distance of 500 meters with several restaurants and supermarkets. The venue is easily to reach with public transport from the Central Station, where also most of the hotels are located. There are enough possibilities for parking cars in the vicinity of the venue. The whole building will be available for the whole weekend for the tournament exclusively. No food or drinks allowed in the playing area, at the tribunes only drinks in plastic cups.

The tournament starts at 10.30 am, but the registration at the venue opens at 08.00 am (till 09.45 am).
A total of nearly 600 participants can be accommodated at most.

The size of the divisions are dependent on the number of players. The tournament is open to participants from all over the world.

(Pre)registration
Preregistration starts at: November, 21st, 2012 at www.pokemon-organizedplay.nl
Please add your country code behind your name in the registration form. For example: Danny Player (UK)

Tournament structure
Participants play with their own decks in the Modified Constructed format.
That means that the use of cards is limited to certain series. Prior to the tournament, during the player meeting, one has to hand over a decklist and during the tournaments there will be deck checks.
Cards present in the series mentioned below are allowed:
- Black & White
- BW Emerging Powers
- BW Noble Victories
- BW Next Destinies
- BW Dark Explorers
- BW Dragons Exalted
- BW Boundaries Crossed
- Dragon Vault
- Black & White Trainer Kit
- Blackstar promo BW 1 and on
- McDonalds Collection 1 and 2

NOTE: The next release (Plasma Storm) is scheduled at February 6th in the European zone, but due to the possibility that this set will not be available in the larger part of countries it will not be included in the format of this tournament. Hence, (pre)releases of the new set are scheduled for February 10th as side event for those who want to have more Pokémon fun and is not in the Topcut of the main event!

Participants are divided into 3 divisions, dependent on the year of birth. These divisions are:
Junior division: born in 2002 or later;
Senior division: born in 1998, 1999, 2000 or 2001;
Masters division: born in 1997 or earlier.

At Saturday the tournament is run using Age Modified Swiss pairings, gameplay in rounds of 30 minutes + 3 turns. During this part of the tournament each pairing is made randomly by the Tournament Operations Manager program, the results of the competitors will influence the pairings of the next round. The outcome of a match of each player is of importance to one’s rating and thus helps players to earn an invite for the World Championships. The European Challenge Cup 2013 is intended as a higher qualifying tournament and winners will earn Championship points and the results will be used for calculating your rating. This is important for players to earn an invite for the World Championships. Based on the number of attendants per division there will be a Top-cut (max. Top-32). Top-cut will be played at Sunday being 2-out-of-3 + 3 turns in rounds of 60 minutes.

Program (preliminary)
Saturday 9 February 2013:

8.00 - 9.45 am - Registration players
10.00 am - opening hall to players to check player roster (10.10 a.m.) and pairings (10.20 a.m.)
10.30 am - start first round Swiss.
Lunch after round 2 for 1 hour.

Sunday 10 February 2013:
9.30 - 9.45 am - Arrival finalists/pairings
10.00 am - Start first round finals.
10.15 - 10.45 am - Registration Release Events Plasma Storm
11.00 am - 15.00 pm Release events Plsama Storm
17.00 pm - End of last round finalists (MA division) followed by handing out the prizes to the Winners of the ECC 2013

Don’t forget when you participate in this tournament
Take care that you have your PlayerID at hand;
Read the tournament rules, so you know what to bring to this event;
Have your decklist form (see left under the "Registration › decklist” button) filled in completely prior to the tournament;
Have your cards at the same follow order as you decklist for deckcheck;
Be at the venue on time, as those that arrive too late will receive a “round loss”.

Prizes
1st place ECC 2013 Trophy and 72 boosters ofPlasma Storm and 120 Championship Points
2nd place Regionals Trophy and 72 boosters of Plasma Storm and 110 Championship Points [Kicker 4]
3rd place Regionals Trophy and 36 boosters of Plasma Storm and 90 Championship Points [Kicker 8]
4rd place Regionals Trophy and 36 boosters of Plasma Storm and 90 Championship Points [Kicker 8]
5th-8th place 18 boosters of Plasma Storm (= including the booster at registration!) and 70 Championship Points [Kicker 32]
9th-12th place 9 boosters of Plasma Storm (= including the booster at registration!) and 50 Championship Points [Kicker 64]
13th-16th place 9 boosters of Plasma Storm (= including the booster at registration!) and 40 Championship Points [Kicker 64]
17th-32nd place 4 boosters of Plasma Storm (= including the booster at registration!) and 20 Championship Points [Kicker 128]
33th-64th place 10 Championship Points [Kicker 256]
All participants receive a goodie, a booster of Plasma Storm and the USA State promo (while supplies last) at registration. Also a big raffle of playmats and binders during the tournament.

Admission fee
5 euro

Side Events
On Sunday there will be a (pre)release event of Plasma Storm (€ 24,- à person). One can also experience a demo of Raindrop Chess. Have a photo moment with a live Gengar!

For questions or more information you can always contact:
[email protected]
 
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Yes, Topcut 32 as you can read a few lines above the program part of post #1. It is rated as a Regional in points.
 
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We are approaching 175 preregistrations, growing to TOP 8 for both JR and SR, TOP 32 MA has been reached!:thumb:
 
Last update:

We are still ahead of preregistrations compared to last year. :thumb:

We have passed 200 preregistrations, almost reached TOP 8 for JR, TOP8 guaranteed for SR now, maximum of TOP 32 of MA has been reached by far! :thumb:
 
I never thought I would say this but I'll be there.


I'll probably be the only player from Poland there [I've preregistered twice, nothing came to my e-mail should I be worried? First time I forgot to enter my country after my lastname.]


Could ANYONE be so kind to post any directions how to get from nearest train station to tournament Venue? I'll be traveling from Amsterdam.
 
I never thought I would say this but I'll be there.


I'll probably be the only player from Poland there [I've preregistered twice, nothing came to my e-mail should I be worried? First time I forgot to enter my country after my lastname.]


Could ANYONE be so kind to post any directions how to get from nearest train station to tournament Venue? I'll be traveling from Amsterdam.

@ Tomasz, I have send you twice a confirmation, but get a "Delivery notification" that my message will not reach you, because it is registered as a spam message. I will send you the confirmation with PM on this site! It also contains reference to Public transport sites and a listing of hotels. Any other questions can be send as a PM through this site as long as you can not get your spam box fixed!

There is a direct trainconnection from Amsterdam to Arnhem (check www.ns.nl -there is an English page too!). It takes appr. 75 minutes to Arnhem, then 15 minutes by trolley-bus.
 
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Just double checking I'm preregistered? Is there a final cofnirmation email to let you know you're on there, and in case I've lost it in a cluttered inbox, what is the address I should look for?

Thanks in advance!
 
Hey, It´s Philipp L. (preregistered Senior, Germany).
I got a question from Dario G. (preregistered Senior, Germany), who isn´t on PokeGym, if it´s likely that we reach the Top 16 count in senior division.
We thought you might know, you´ve been there more often than we have ;).
 
Hape! Wow, this looks like a great event.

To all of my European friends, CHEERS and enjoy!!!

Your Preregistration numbers are amazing...keep posting them on here!

Vince
 
Just double checking I'm preregistered? Is there a final cofnirmation email to let you know you're on there, and in case I've lost it in a cluttered inbox, what is the address I should look for?

You get your preregistration confirmation from [email protected]

Send me an email with your name and I can confirm your preregistration ánd send you through your PM a confirmation message too. No problem, great pleasure to help you out!


Hey, It´s Philipp L. (preregistered Senior, Germany).
I got a question from Dario G. (preregistered Senior, Germany), who isn´t on PokeGym, if it´s likely that we reach the Top 16 count in senior division.
We thought you might know, you´ve been there more often than we have ;).

At this moment we passed the number for Top8 comfortably, but not yet reached the number of preregistrations at SR division for Top16 yet. Last year we were had 70 SR players and 34 JR players eventually. Thus far we are ahead of preregistrations compared to last year, so we might reach those numbers this year too. At this moment we have nearly 250 preregistrations!

Last year we had 293 preregistrations, but finally 335 players. The team is ready to accomodate more this year.

Guess who will be attending too: a live GENGAR! Let's shake hands with Gengar and have a photo moment with him.


@Vince: If you want you can volunteer for staff!
 
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Thx for the information!
I feel sry for the guy in the gengar costume, he must sweat like crazy in there.
And he has to wear it all day.
Jeezzzzz...
 
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