Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Nebraska States: Report

Austino

New Member
It was Nebraska's first State Championship and my roomate is from Lincoln, so we decided to hit it up to finish off spring break. He decides on luxchomp, and I go ahead with gyarados since I see 1 vilegar. We get there and I meet Jaeger, turn in my list and whatnot. I don't know anyone else's name from this event as there weren't really any other "ranked" players. Bummer.

Round 1: Bellosom/Cherrim

He flips over two oddish to my two karp and I about defecate a brick. Luckily I sea spray for a couple and start to set up before he evolves either, preparing for him to start trainer locking me. I ko both oddishes in one turn thanks to a previous tail revenge for 30 followed by flash bite, then regimove to bring the other active, then start to set up in safety as he slowly builds up cherrims and 2 more bellosom. He almost ohko's a G'dos with vespiquen but I warp/seeker and ohko it. He pulls up bellosom and smacks me, I return with 90 thanks to resistance to which he heals 80 off. I flash bite/tail revenge for game.

1-0

Round 2: Yanmega/Jumpluff

He gets an explosive start setting up several things in his first turn, but doesn't have the energy to retreat, so passes. I get most of the thigns i need in my hand then portrait his 10 card hand only to find a judge.....:frown: Luckily I hit a collector, BTS, and pokedex off the judge and go back to town setting up. I end up OHKOing anything he has, belted or not and take all 6.

2-0

Round 3: Vilegar
She starts double tomb...but nothing else. I T1 collector and start setting up, taking the game by T3 when I seeker up her 3rd tomb and tail revenge the active.

3-0

Round 4: Jaeger - Luxchomp
Best game of the day. I take a 4 prize lead, but resources are thin and he has a belted lux that I can't hit my junk arm to save my life, even after playing cynthia's guidance twice in a row. He pulls it back down to 1-1. I regimove around it once, bait out a few sprays, but still whiff the junk arm AND ssu out of the 4 cards in my deck and send up regice (warp in hand) hoping he can't snipe. He can, so he takes the win. Great game.

3-1

Round 5: P. Kingsley - Uxie Donk
I whiff the bts since two are prized and so I miss the donk on him. He takes 3 prizes his first turn. Guy had no SotG during our match or integrity for the game after he beat his kid 2 rounds later then intentionally scooped to get him into top cut even though his son lost.

3-2

Round 6: Yanmega/Jumpluff
This guy was who the previous player got his list from, so I knew what to expect, however this guy played his judges much better and almost beat me after judging me out of double drawer +/rescue energy/seeker. Comes down to 1-1 prize but I hit the double drawer + for my recovery and ohko his jumpluff for my last prize.

4-2

Top cut is announced and I'm 9th due to the father scooping to his son. Guess that's how it goes, players who don't earn it make it in, and playing the system means more than playing the game.

Another issue was a judge intervening in a top cut match prematurely, causing my friend to be misinterpreted and losing his game after he clearly BEAT the other player after the judge didn't even pay enough attention to notice unown q AND expert belt on the opponent's registeel. Basically more rules lawyering against someone who's attending their 2nd premier event and first top cut, costing him top 4. In understand that with this being Nebraska's first States though, that there aren't going to be many experienced judges.

As far as improvements go, for those wondering: Verify match slips as they're turned in, don't rely on players to turn them in. Then you don't have to post standings after EVERY round. Provide sleeves for those who need to resleeve for top cut. DO DECKCHECKS!!!! I don't know why there wasn't a deckcheck line, just turning in lists can lead to serious problems in a tournament like this.

The event really just left a sour taste in our mouths overall.

Props:
Thomas winning in Sr's.
Chillin in Nebraska with friends
Meeting Jay, great guy, great player
Only losing 9 points for 4-2
Tron Soundtrack on the way home

Slops:
Expensive haircuts
Poor judging
Players in top cut who didn't earn it
 
Austino, sorry to hear that your tournament experience in Nebraska wasn't that great. Hopefully people/judges can learn from your report and strive to make a better tournament for the next time.

As for your slops, hopefully I'm not on that list :D LOL. J/K I was your third round opponent who wiffed on any good draws, and even though the game didn't last that long, it was awesome getting to meet/play you. Good report and I hope your Regionals go well.
 
wow u won ur auto loss.. nice.. i also played gdos but in colorado
r1 luxchomp idk how i beat him but i did..
r2 i got a kinda donk i went first drew pass he then drew thought about attaching an energy to his only pokemon regirock
r3 another luxchomp but this time its in the hands of the top colorado player.. i lose oh well..
r4 i play against another magnazone rock deck(i found out thats wat the r2 opp was playing) well it was an epic game went to time and on the turn 3 i whiffed the cyclone for my defeat
r5 donphan, i got set up my first turn after he went first so he scooped
r6 random rogue deck.. sitting at a kinda high low ended table(outside top 16) and i look to the table lower than me and its my second lost opp.. great for res.. beat the rogue with out lossing a prize..
well there was only 60 people at this event so we were 4 sigh of top 16 and i got 11th also did the best at that tournament out of the players from ok..
 
Austino, to point things out to you...
As far as improvements go, for those wondering: Verify match slips as they're turned in, don't rely on players to turn them in.

I am not sure if this was done, however, most events, the players are told to raise the slip up and a runner/judge gets them. Usually after round 2, most people forget

Then you don't have to post standings after EVERY round.

Tournament documents would disagree with you here, standings should be posted every round to verify that the scorekeeper did not mess up.

Provide sleeves for those who need to resleeve for top cut.

Sleeves are not a requirment for playing the game. Be prepared, or play unsleeved. When I go out of area for any event, I have 2 packs of extra sleeves with me just in case.

DO DECKCHECKS!!!! I don't know why there wasn't a deckcheck line, just turning in lists can lead to serious problems in a tournament like this.

Deckchecks for an entire state cannot be accomplished with the minimal staff on hand. Even US Nationals does NOT do a mandatory deck check, because deck checking 1000 people would take FOREVER. The guidelines state that 10% of the field must be checked at some point, so seeing an attendance of 60 players, did at least 6 decks get checked?

replies in bold

also, your "poor judging staff" is totally incorrect, as the head judge was a Nationals floor judge, and the rest do a superb job, since they did so last week at Kansas states.
 
We get there and I meet Jaeger, turn in my list and whatnot. I don't know anyone else's name from this event as there weren't really any other "ranked" players. Bummer.


Ima second ranked master in Kansas. Sure we're lame, with no players. Im 2-0 vs Austino and John Kettler this year at cities and states. Very cool disregard. No prob 'players', I'm probably done with this game, gonna move on to more fun stuff.

Was def cool beating Austin when he was 25-0 at cities. Beating down Mr. Kettler round one at states. Wait! It was more fun to listen to Johnnies cry baby whines about how he lost to my sub-optimal plays..., was way cool when he called judge on MY(!) pace of play.I played him like a fiddle...

Haha!

Disregard me mans, throw me on the ground,

Will not be troubling you or anyone else Pokemon all stars!

You are so cool!

Ed

BTW, Was cool to have Nebraska States! It was small, but well run, thanks Mr. Feral and Mr. Clouse, you did great!

Tournament moved very smooothly, was top notch event.
 
Hey Austin! Tough luck on the 9th place finish :( I feel your pain tho, I finished 9th out of top 8 as well this weekend at SC states with Vile Gar. It's the 2nd year in a row that's happened, but I think my time will come around (hopefully next year!!). Good luck at regionals!

Guy
 
Ima second ranked master in Kansas. Sure we're lame, with no players. Im 2-0 vs Austino and John Kettler this year at cities and states. Very cool disregard. No prob 'players', I'm probably done with this game, gonna move on to more fun stuff.

Was def cool beating Austin when he was 25-0 at cities. Beating down Mr. Kettler round one at states. Wait! It was more fun to listen to Johnnies cry baby whines about how he lost to my sub-optimal plays..., was way cool when he called judge on MY(!) pace of play.I played him like a fiddle...

Haha!

Disregard me mans, throw me on the ground,

Will not be troubling you or anyone else Pokemon all stars!

You are so cool!

Ed

BTW, Was cool to have Nebraska States! It was small, but well run, thanks Mr. Feral and Mr. Clouse, you did great!

Tournament moved very smooothly, was top notch event.
First of all, you're third place now, and I have no idea who you are whatsoever. Second of all, most of our competition is from Missouri. Thirdly, you're not really a ranked player. . . at all.
 
Another issue was a judge intervening in a top cut match prematurely, causing my friend to be misinterpreted and losing his game after he clearly BEAT the other player after the judge didn't even pay enough attention to notice unown q AND expert belt on the opponent's registeel. Basically more rules lawyering against someone who's attending their 2nd premier event and first top cut, costing him top 4. In understand that with this being Nebraska's first States though, that there aren't going to be many experienced judges.

Frankly, this is just insulting. We brought the exact same team (less one person) that successfully ran Kansas States the week prior. I have judged Nationals, and the others have done plenty of local-level events with me. We got a lot of compliments in Kansas and we got a lot in Nebraska, too.

It seems a lot more like your friend forgot about Snowpoint Temple and is sad that it cost him the match. I have one person that heard him say Uxie as the target for Dragon Rush, and two more that saw a very clear motion toward the Uxie. It was also very clear that he expected to win the game on the knockout, and it was only after my judge pointed out the stadium that the story changed. I do not believe my judge would have intervened unless something had occurred to make him think a target had been clearly declared.

If your friend doesn't want to be misinterpreted, he shouldn't do things that can be misinterpreted. I tell my league players to think in their head, not over the play area, because this is exactly what happens. Personally I don't believe there was any misinterpretation, just regret over an error.

Pointing out the two tools on the opponent's Registeel at that point (where it had zero bearing on the game outcome) seemed a lot like fishing for a penalty to me. I very politely ignored that and focused on the issue at hand.

Sorry your friend's sour grapes are leading you to take cheap shots at the tournament staff. I expected better from you.

Also, your friend simply left in anger without even getting his 4 packs. Not very sporting, in my opinion.

As far as improvements go, for those wondering: Verify match slips as they're turned in, don't rely on players to turn them in. Then you don't have to post standings after EVERY round.

Actually, we do.

Pokemon Tournament Operations Procedures said:
4. Posting Standings and Pairings

After each round of the tournament completes, the Tournament Organizer should post the current standings and make an announcement that he/she has done so. Posting the standings allows players to check their match record after each round to ensure accuracy. Standings should remain posted for a reasonable amount of time before the next round is paired.

Are you seriously criticizing us for operating the event as prescribed in the floor rules?

Provide sleeves for those who need to resleeve for top cut.

Feel free to provide the funds to do so. Some TOs can afford to do this. We cannot. You shouldn't expect us to shell out for things that are the player's responsibility to provide, especially when they are optional (sleeves are not required to play).

DO DECKCHECKS!!!! I don't know why there wasn't a deckcheck line, just turning in lists can lead to serious problems in a tournament like this.

Again, feel free to provide the staff to cover all that work and the funds to pay them for their efforts.

If Nationals can get away with not doing deck checks, so can we. It is always the player's responsibility to present a compliant deck for play. If we find issues (especially at top cut), we assess penalties appropriately. In 3 years of judging this region I've had 5 cases where a deck issue elevated to any serious penalty (PL or higher), out of probably 1,500 tournament entrants. Since deck issues are the exception and not the rule, we choose not to needlessly delay the tournament searching for problems that are unlikely to manifest. We do check the decks when they matter (top cut and random checks).
 
First of all, you're third place now, and I have no idea who you are whatsoever. Second of all, most of our competition is from Missouri. Thirdly, you're not really a ranked player. . . at all.

You are an idiot. How can you say he is third place and then say you have no odea who he is? Secondly everyone is a ranked player so please quit posting ignorant comments.
 
You are an idiot. How can you say he is third place and then say you have no odea who he is? Secondly everyone is a ranked player so please quit posting ignorant comments.

I've never seen or heard of him except for on pokegym. I've never heard of him top cutting. Only way I know his rating is because of rankings.
 
edwarpy , his wife and his son are all good people.

---------- Post added 03/21/2011 at 02:26 PM ----------

Austino, Texas was the place to be this weekend. You knew there would be a top 16 cut.
 
I'm too tired to argue with you people, but..

@ Happiny
You don't know him because he's not from our part of the state and dosn't attened our tournaments anymore.

@ Ed
By ranked players he means players that are nationally recognized. (Pooka, Jeager, Ness etc) And others that are in the top 40~20 in their division with huge rating. 1790<

@ Austino
Its a shame the way you didn't make the cut even though you earned it... :<
 
Ima second ranked master in Kansas. Sure we're lame, with no players. Im 2-0 vs Austino and John Kettler this year at cities and states. Very cool disregard. No prob 'players', I'm probably done with this game, gonna move on to more fun stuff.

Was def cool beating Austin when he was 25-0 at cities. Beating down Mr. Kettler round one at states. Wait! It was more fun to listen to Johnnies cry baby whines about how he lost to my sub-optimal plays..., was way cool when he called judge on MY(!) pace of play.I played him like a fiddle...

Haha!

Disregard me mans, throw me on the ground,

Will not be troubling you or anyone else Pokemon all stars!

You are so cool!

Ed

BTW, Was cool to have Nebraska States! It was small, but well run, thanks Mr. Feral and Mr. Clouse, you did great!

Tournament moved very smooothly, was top notch event.

Your taking this was to personally. He was refering to points, which I can understand considering I don't think anyone else there was over 1750 besides me and he was risking upwards of 25 points a game.

Frankly, this is just insulting. We brought the exact same team (less one person) that successfully ran Kansas States the week prior. I have judged Nationals, and the others have done plenty of local-level events with me. We got a lot of compliments in Kansas and we got a lot in Nebraska, too.

It seems a lot more like your friend forgot about Snowpoint Temple and is sad that it cost him the match. I have one person that heard him say Uxie as the target for Dragon Rush, and two more that saw a very clear motion toward the Uxie. It was also very clear that he expected to win the game on the knockout, and it was only after my judge pointed out the stadium that the story changed. I do not believe my judge would have intervened unless something had occurred to make him think a target had been clearly declared.

If your friend doesn't want to be misinterpreted, he shouldn't do things that can be misinterpreted. I tell my league players to think in their head, not over the play area, because this is exactly what happens. Personally I don't believe there was any misinterpretation, just regret over an error.

Pointing out the two tools on the opponent's Registeel at that point (where it had zero bearing on the game outcome) seemed a lot like fishing for a penalty to me. I very politely ignored that and focused on the issue at hand.

Sorry your friend's sour grapes are leading you to take cheap shots at the tournament staff. I expected better from you.

Also, your friend simply left in anger without even getting his 4 packs. Not very sporting, in my opinion.

I'll be honest I've never judged anything bigger than a battle roads and its alot harder than people give it credit for and I think its really easy to look back the next day and second guess stuff. So I'm going to tread very carefully here but I think you should be really careful what you say here, you didn't personally see what happened. Your judge, both players, and the three of us spectating were the only one turely there. I really don't want to get into a he said she said situation on the gym. But basically your judge made a comment about the match before the action had "fully" taken place. I never heard him say Uxie but I wasn't listening that carefully. I do believe he would have choosen Uxie had your judge not said something the problem that came up was your judge did point out Snow Point Temple before the other player confirmed the dragon rush target. I also feel like that last line was kind of a cheap shot at his friend, after all these are all Austios comments not his friends, and do you really blame him for being pissed? Someone was going to leave that room angry after what happened. Austinos feels like his friend got the short end but your also trying to cover your judges. Honestly I don't blame either one of you but nothing is going to get settled over this.

Overall I thought it was a pretty smooth ran tournament even with the few mess ups. Hopefully you guys will get another one next year.
 
Frankly, this is just insulting. We brought the exact same team (less one person) that successfully ran Kansas States the week prior. I have judged Nationals, and the others have done plenty of local-level events with me. We got a lot of compliments in Kansas and we got a lot in Nebraska, too.

It seems a lot more like your friend forgot about Snowpoint Temple and is sad that it cost him the match. I have one person that heard him say Uxie as the target for Dragon Rush, and two more that saw a very clear motion toward the Uxie. It was also very clear that he expected to win the game on the knockout, and it was only after my judge pointed out the stadium that the story changed. I do not believe my judge would have intervened unless something had occurred to make him think a target had been clearly declared.

If your friend doesn't want to be misinterpreted, he shouldn't do things that can be misinterpreted. I tell my league players to think in their head, not over the play area, because this is exactly what happens. Personally I don't believe there was any misinterpretation, just regret over an error.

Pointing out the two tools on the opponent's Registeel at that point (where it had zero bearing on the game outcome) seemed a lot like fishing for a penalty to me. I very politely ignored that and focused on the issue at hand.

Sorry your friend's sour grapes are leading you to take cheap shots at the tournament staff. I expected better from you.

Also, your friend simply left in anger without even getting his 4 packs. Not very sporting, in my opinion.



Actually, we do.



Are you seriously criticizing us for operating the event as prescribed in the floor rules?



Feel free to provide the funds to do so. Some TOs can afford to do this. We cannot. You shouldn't expect us to shell out for things that are the player's responsibility to provide, especially when they are optional (sleeves are not required to play).



Again, feel free to provide the staff to cover all that work and the funds to pay them for their efforts.

If Nationals can get away with not doing deck checks, so can we. It is always the player's responsibility to present a compliant deck for play. If we find issues (especially at top cut), we assess penalties appropriately. In 3 years of judging this region I've had 5 cases where a deck issue elevated to any serious penalty (PL or higher), out of probably 1,500 tournament entrants. Since deck issues are the exception and not the rule, we choose not to needlessly delay the tournament searching for problems that are unlikely to manifest. We do check the decks when they matter (top cut and random checks).
The only declared target my friend stated was "whoever I can KO". That's a statement. Your judge prematurely made a comment about the gamestate before damage was dealt, before a stated target was chosen, and before any other action was taken. Defend your inexperienced judge as much as you want, but the judge was half paying attention and missed that the opponent attached two tools to one pokemon for the entirety of the game. Last I checked, the game came down to skill, not who can misinterpret a game winning target, but whatever. He outplayed his opponent and that wasn't taken into consideration at all, instead the player who's attaching double tools, pointing to his own uxie as a target (misleading to opponent) gets the win. Good luck running your next events.

Also, been to several events where standings aren't posted between rounds, but the runners all *confirm* match results while both players are at the table. Those tournaments ran just as smoothly. It is humorous that you post standings between every round, but don't do deckchecks....

Shell out money for sleeves that PTO's have left over from PR's? PLEEEAAASE make me laugh more. :lol:

My friend left without his packs because of the poor judgement and not really caring to have to do anything with an event with results like that. No matter what, someone was going to be mad over the decision made, but that's what happens.

For what it's worth, Texas States last year was a MUCH worse experience for me, this one just happened to leave a sour taste in my mouth, mostly due to uxie donk scooping to his kid to ruin the integrity of the top cut, IMO.

And to all my TX friends, don't worry, we'll be back down next season!
 
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Nice job. You really deserved to be in top cut. That sucks for your friend and his top cut game. I was the kid who got 10th playing magnezone btw.
 
Ima second ranked master in Kansas. Sure we're lame, with no players. Im 2-0 vs Austino and John Kettler this year at cities and states. Very cool disregard. No prob 'players', I'm probably done with this game, gonna move on to more fun stuff.

Was def cool beating Austin when he was 25-0 at cities. Beating down Mr. Kettler round one at states. Wait! It was more fun to listen to Johnnies cry baby whines about how he lost to my sub-optimal plays..., was way cool when he called judge on MY(!) pace of play.I played him like a fiddle...

Haha!

Disregard me mans, throw me on the ground,

Will not be troubling you or anyone else Pokemon all stars!

You are so cool!

Ed

BTW, Was cool to have Nebraska States! It was small, but well run, thanks Mr. Feral and Mr. Clouse, you did great!

Tournament moved very smooothly, was top notch event.


You were that dude playing Jumpluff who donked Kettler? lol
 
You shoulda mentioned something, Austino, if the other guy had two tools attached. If you didn't see it, your friend should have mentioned it.
 
Beating down Mr. Kettler round one at states. Wait! It was more fun to listen to Johnnies cry baby whines about how he lost to my sub-optimal plays..., was way cool when he called judge on MY(!) pace of play.I played him like a fiddle...

I sincerely think you gave me more wiggle room than you should have (you yourself mentioned that in-game, although about plays other than Tail Code or Switcheroo). If you've got a "problem" with my commentary, say it to me rather than whine about it on a Pokegym thread. Maybe it wasn't the most inspired thing in the world for me to say that without qualification, but you acting like a brat certainly doesn't make your win against eight turns of draw-blink-pass any greater. As for calling pace of play? I always do that when someone takes a big chunk of time with their pace of play - it's my right as a player, and it's yours too. I think my concerns were at least a bit justified due to our final prize count by time being 4-6.

(Fwiw, I don't think I've ever heard someone get offended over me calling their plays "sub-optimal"...We all make sub-optimal plays, and me losing to you was supposed to illustrate MY sub-optimal list choice.)

As for Austin: I don't know why I got to your thread, but I'm here now, and I just wanna say I heart you sugar buns.

(Same for you, Daryl. That was an intense game at TX States.)
 
This was a fun tournament. First Pokemon tournament I played at, ended up getting 14th, I think. I was playing VileGar, 3 of my friends were playing Yanmega/Jumpluff. I could probly tell you which two you played lol.
 
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