Cyrus
Iron Chef - Master Emeritus
Woah, this is pretty neat, lol 
. Must say I'm flattered!
Why should I (John K.) be voted as best United States player?
First, I feel that I play the game well: I make the absolute best effort to not just make "good" plays, but perfect plays. This includes the finer points of the game that many of you recognize, such as deck thinning, prize searching, etc. Like everyone else, I'm not immune to making a misplay or two, but a strong attempt is all that's asked of anyone, and I consistently try my hardest, even with little fits of abysmal luck every now and then. This will be emphasized in my third point.
Secondly, I feel that I'm an even better deck builder and deck theorist. I have yet to show much this season (except that Infernape is still viable), but there are _many_ projects I've either contributed to, or made all on my own. Here is an abbreviated, incomplete list of things I either directly or indirectly contributed to:
-Gatrqueen and variants
-Metalix
-Super Stantler
-Banette (minor role: pushed strength charm and cyclone energy heavily, and was one of the first to play them)
-Speed Spread (<b>very</b> minor role: I just added a couple tiny elements that would ultimately appear in later
standard lists)
-Infernape/Delcatty! Many who were there when the deck began to develop can attest to how critical I was to shaping this into what we have today. Running pluspower or using a giant Delcatty line wasn't even heard of until I pushed it, and with the help of several good internet friends (Scizor, SHPanda, Krayzie, etc), who helped improve it even _more_, it became a force. The deck was so good that people had to play tons of Cursed Stone, Empoleon, Cessation Crystal, and Lunarock tech just to shut it down!
Ironically, Ape is why America lost worlds: we pushed the metagame "too" quickly, and in countering each other, Europe just came in with their decks/our older decks, and ultimately swept the finals. Regardless of that there are a few people that'll always be associated with this killer deck, and I'm one of them.
-Flygon ex LM: Again, while all of the United States (bar a few people) thought that this was a joke, I understood how fast and powerful this could be in the right Metagame. Michael W. (Rokman) and I did a whole lot of different things to our lists, and by states we were surprised to find out we'd both been working on the same thing. The only difference is that he chose to play it, and I didn't. However, I would eventually find my preferred metagame for the deck: Worlds 2007. If my luck was a liiiiittle bit better in any of my last three games of worlds, I could've been there instead of/alongside Steffen From.
Overall, I've worked very hard on my deck theory, and it shows. Hopefully it will show even more as this season goes on.
Now that brings me to my third point: consistency. I'm a very, very consistent player at all levels, being one of only a handful who's been to every Nintendo Worlds. Last season in particular, I was tied for most tournament wins, went four of them undefeated, made worlds, and didn't do half-bad (23rd place: top of the 3-3's) when I got there! Among those wins was one of the nation's harder regionals (and easily the largest, with almost 90 players in the Masters division): the Southern Plains.
Point four: I try my hardest to be a good personality in this game. Ever since its birth I've severely disliked the term "Spirit of the Game" because it's trite and corny, but its goals, such as friendship, player improvement, and respect, are good things. Points on how this applies to me are:
-I appreciate what almost all of you bring to this game, and as a result I have many friends in many cliques. I'm just as much a Pokegymmer as I am a Team HB'er, or Lafonte'er. I'm also the most available of anyone nominated (indisputable) for all kinds of discussion. I share everything but secret lists, freely talk strategy, etc.
-I really try to be tactful. In tournaments you'll see me being very calm/collected about judge disputes, and in tense top cut games you might even see me have a couple laughs with my opponents. This is part of my overall attempt to uphold the CONCEPT of SotG (again, I HATE that expression :X). Sometimes it may not seem like it, and sometimes I may seem like I have hot air, but just keep in mind that there's always a process of me genuinely attempting to be a better person. As "they" always say: Who gives a "*******" if you're good at Pokemon when you suck at life?
So that's my entire shpeel. I hope you enjoyed my speech, 'cause I sure enjoyed writing it. Even now it's making me think about how much _more_ I could add onto this season, and makes me thrilled to be a part of this TCG.
. Must say I'm flattered!Why should I (John K.) be voted as best United States player?
First, I feel that I play the game well: I make the absolute best effort to not just make "good" plays, but perfect plays. This includes the finer points of the game that many of you recognize, such as deck thinning, prize searching, etc. Like everyone else, I'm not immune to making a misplay or two, but a strong attempt is all that's asked of anyone, and I consistently try my hardest, even with little fits of abysmal luck every now and then. This will be emphasized in my third point.
Secondly, I feel that I'm an even better deck builder and deck theorist. I have yet to show much this season (except that Infernape is still viable), but there are _many_ projects I've either contributed to, or made all on my own. Here is an abbreviated, incomplete list of things I either directly or indirectly contributed to:
-Gatrqueen and variants
-Metalix
-Super Stantler
-Banette (minor role: pushed strength charm and cyclone energy heavily, and was one of the first to play them)
-Speed Spread (<b>very</b> minor role: I just added a couple tiny elements that would ultimately appear in later
standard lists)
-Infernape/Delcatty! Many who were there when the deck began to develop can attest to how critical I was to shaping this into what we have today. Running pluspower or using a giant Delcatty line wasn't even heard of until I pushed it, and with the help of several good internet friends (Scizor, SHPanda, Krayzie, etc), who helped improve it even _more_, it became a force. The deck was so good that people had to play tons of Cursed Stone, Empoleon, Cessation Crystal, and Lunarock tech just to shut it down!
Ironically, Ape is why America lost worlds: we pushed the metagame "too" quickly, and in countering each other, Europe just came in with their decks/our older decks, and ultimately swept the finals. Regardless of that there are a few people that'll always be associated with this killer deck, and I'm one of them.
-Flygon ex LM: Again, while all of the United States (bar a few people) thought that this was a joke, I understood how fast and powerful this could be in the right Metagame. Michael W. (Rokman) and I did a whole lot of different things to our lists, and by states we were surprised to find out we'd both been working on the same thing. The only difference is that he chose to play it, and I didn't. However, I would eventually find my preferred metagame for the deck: Worlds 2007. If my luck was a liiiiittle bit better in any of my last three games of worlds, I could've been there instead of/alongside Steffen From.
Overall, I've worked very hard on my deck theory, and it shows. Hopefully it will show even more as this season goes on.
Now that brings me to my third point: consistency. I'm a very, very consistent player at all levels, being one of only a handful who's been to every Nintendo Worlds. Last season in particular, I was tied for most tournament wins, went four of them undefeated, made worlds, and didn't do half-bad (23rd place: top of the 3-3's) when I got there! Among those wins was one of the nation's harder regionals (and easily the largest, with almost 90 players in the Masters division): the Southern Plains.
Point four: I try my hardest to be a good personality in this game. Ever since its birth I've severely disliked the term "Spirit of the Game" because it's trite and corny, but its goals, such as friendship, player improvement, and respect, are good things. Points on how this applies to me are:
-I appreciate what almost all of you bring to this game, and as a result I have many friends in many cliques. I'm just as much a Pokegymmer as I am a Team HB'er, or Lafonte'er. I'm also the most available of anyone nominated (indisputable) for all kinds of discussion. I share everything but secret lists, freely talk strategy, etc.
-I really try to be tactful. In tournaments you'll see me being very calm/collected about judge disputes, and in tense top cut games you might even see me have a couple laughs with my opponents. This is part of my overall attempt to uphold the CONCEPT of SotG (again, I HATE that expression :X). Sometimes it may not seem like it, and sometimes I may seem like I have hot air, but just keep in mind that there's always a process of me genuinely attempting to be a better person. As "they" always say: Who gives a "*******" if you're good at Pokemon when you suck at life?
So that's my entire shpeel. I hope you enjoyed my speech, 'cause I sure enjoyed writing it. Even now it's making me think about how much _more_ I could add onto this season, and makes me thrilled to be a part of this TCG.
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