So I arrive to St. Louis's delightful temperature at 7PM on Thursday, make my way to the hotel I'm staying at, and then travel over to the Hilton after dropping off bags and stuff. Watch a couple games before the rest of the crowd gets there, and then we all have to go traveling to find some food. We come across Hooters as the only place thats open.
Fail. God I hate that place >.>
For friday I go over to Zane's extra room that his 'Uncle,' Cousin, Patrick, and Greg are staying at for random games until it occurs to everyone that maybe we should attend to our stomachs. After what seems an eternity finding the Hardee's we gorge ourselves before making our first stop at the convention center.
Once there I find Steven playing in the modified tournament (which i had completely forgotten about >.>) and we look at the top tables. Most of it looked like flygon, with luxrays and gengars as well. I stupidly make the descision to change my deck from dialga or luxray/ape to Beedrill, on the grounds that it beats flygon fairly easily, and it can beat gengar with the second unown G. Of course I never actually tested the gengar matchup since I never expected myself to play bees for nats. Pretty much dooming myself right there. =\
I test lux/ape a bit more that night, but decide on Bees for the next day.
Saturday I get up, eat some leftover room service, and make my way to the convention hall in time to hang out with Zane and Steven a bit before people start getting seated.
Once seated we have to sit there for like an hour before they get the pairings up, but the eventually do, and I attempt to brave the massive tornado of people attacking the poor pairings board.
After what seems like hours of fighting my way through the mob I find my name on the list and get seated.
I apologize for my lack of remembering names. =(
Round 1: Casadia? with beautifly
She starts with wurmple, and i go second and get two beedrills out for the donk GG.
1-0
Round 2: ??
Agh. Memory blank. I had this match in my mind earlier but forgot it. =\ I ended it somewhere within the first couple turns though.
2-0
I was a smart person and bought my lunch from the deli place there after round 1, when the line was only like 10 people. I felt so special after seeing the line now reaching into the main table area. I follow Patrick, Zane, and Steven to the ccasino so they can get Chinese food though. =o
Round 3: Joseph ? W/gengar
As we're shuffling he continuously goes through his deck and changes cards around, claiming he's making sure everything is randomized and such. I hate it when people do stuff like that >.>
So I six pile his deck and make myself feel better when he gets a mulligan and then a bad-ish start. Mine's ok, but for some reason I play down 2 baltoys, and then realize I need to azelf for a prized beedrill. =\ I just put down too many pokemon with powers that game, and then the one time I kill a gengar without uxie + Plus Powers, he flips heads of course. And then one time I cosmic for like 5 trainers I can't burn, he uses poltergiest. GG
2-1
Round 4: ?? W/Flygon/machamp
I see machop and fighting when he's shuffling, so i pray to god I don't get donked. I start with weedle, baltoy, AND unown G. I felt happy with that. =D
I get T2 3 beedrills, and then start killing basics. He pulls out a flygon and gets 2 energies of it before he's forced to attack with it, I warp it after he uses sand wall, then on the next turn he levels up and does 70 to my beedrill. But then all kinds of crappy stuff happens. First I cosmic power, and then the kid says I already used it >.> my memory was kinda blank, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and agreed that I already did. Luckily I hadn't shuffled my hand around at all, so everything is still in place and rewindable. I get a prize penalty, but it's doesn't really matter since he doesn't have a claydol and can't get anything out.
After the judge does all that and gives us the time extensions, then we realize we forgot to do wind erosion, so then we call him back over for that >.> luckily it's nothing severe and we just discard a card from the top.
Then to make matters worse on the following turn I NM my beedrill back in and play it down after using flutter wings, but forgot to play BTS first. I still knock out his flygon though, but we don't even bother to try to fix the beedrill really and he just scoops since he has nothing. GG
He was a good sport about everything even with my continuous bumbles though. =)
3-1
Round 5: ?? W/blaziken
I was worried about my bad luck starting to kick in, and it finally happened. Unown G start with 6 random trainers and energy. I warp up his cherubi and use pokedrawer for 1. Energy. I pass, he evolves and does 30, and I draw a kakuna. he does another 30 for game. =\ And it was like another 4 turns before I drew an uxie or anything really.
3-2
So I know I have to win my next 2 at least, so that I can make the cut, but at this poitn i also want to make up my lost points, since I know my first two roudns are only going to get me like 5-10 each.
Round 6: ?? W/gengar
I have a really slow start, and need to play down two baltoys in order to get a claydol out, so that already gives him a prize lead. He takes like 3 prizes from my azelf, extra claydol, and one RR beedrill. Then I get my other RR bee G'd, along with my claydol. I make a comeback by continuously doing 90 and then attaching 2 plus powers to an uxie to kill gengars without activating fainting spell. I do have to activate one critical Spell with a beedrill, since I couldn't get my uxie. He flips tails, thank god. If he had gotten heads it probably would've been game right there, but now I have a chance to win this.
He gradually whittles down my beedrills with 30 a turn, and I bring it to 1-1 prizes. At the point I have 3 energies on my RR beedrill, and have a beedrill with 40 left. I could warp and needle shock and try to KO whatever he send up the next turn, but he's only played 1 warp. He also has played all 4 poketurns, but he has another crobat left, so I decide that the chances are highly in his favor that he can get out of the paralasys and KO my benched bee, so I take the KO in front of me and risk the Fainting Spell. Heads, of course. =\
Sudden Death:
I get an azelf start of all things, while he gets baltoy. =(
I even go second, but all I can do is bebe's for a baltoy and retreat azelf. He goes rosy, candy, warp, crobat, energy, kill azelf for game. :\ GG
3-3
Now I'm pretty sure I'm outa top cut, but I want to continue to make up whatever points I can.
Round 7: ?? W/ beedrill
I get a pretty good start, and take the first prize T3 I think. That puts me in a good position for the rest of the game, and even though i had to spend an extra bench spot on Azelf after needing 2 claydols to set up, after he killed a beedrill I bring up my azelf to die. He waprs, so I let him get a claydol, but I have everything anyway. Two drawers to get NM when a bee dies, and then 1 Nm in the prizes when I need to draw it. Add to the fact that I'm ahead in the prize exchange, and I have this pretty much won. Then he goes a turn with whiffing on a maintenance, and therefore can't KO a beedrill that turn, and he scoops a little after that. GG
4-3
I think about dropping, but decide I will risk losing my last match just to gain some of my meager points back. It's probably a good thing i did, since I gained 12 points from my round 8 match. (Like the most I got all day >.>)
Round 8: Daniella? W/T-tar
I get a sorta-slow start, but so does she. I evolve both my weedles to kakunas T3 I think, and then am going to claydol to see if I can get the BTS and start sweeping, but then she says I already used cosmic >.>
I know I didn't, but I don't wanna argue since neither of us can prove anything, so i just warp out my active kakuna with 30 on it and poison her larvitar, but get tails on the evolving effect. She attaches a fourth energy to the t-tar she's building on the bench, bit I get out all my beedrills on my turn and KO her larvitar and then weavile one after the other. She sends up her T-tar and grinds for 70 I think, And I whiff on the pluspower for the return KO. She Lucian's some most of the energy to the benched T-tar, leaving 2 on to KO my current Bee. I KO the active one and she then KOs my fresh guy with the T-tar with like 6 energy on it. I NM and get it back out, and double drawer for the two plus powers to Ko it. She has nothing in play after that and scoops. GG
5-3
So I finish with a semi-mediocre record, coming in at 89th place, but I know I wasn't trying my absolute hardest since my main goal was to make worlds. I end up losing 30 points from this >.> but I'm still 11the place at 1873. Good enough for me, as long as I get my invite.
Steven goes 5-3 as well, but makes the cut at 64th place exactly, sadly he loses in 64 to gengar though.
For Sunday I go over to the convention hall at like 10 to play some games and see who wins Nats. So few people were actually there it seemed kinda lonely when they announced the winners, lol. We head back to the Hilton and play some more pokeymanz for the next 3 hours, until we head out to the Spaghetti Factory at about 7. It was originally just 7 people, but they picked up Zane and I when we entered their room earlier and found out about their plans, then Matt C. outside the Convention hall, his friend MK a little later, and then Ben C. once we reach the end of the first street. So we end up the the Factory with 12 people, and somehow all manage to squish in at the table. We amused our half of the table with a variety of, er, jokes. Easily the best part of the trip.
Overall, I liked the event quite a lot, the staffing was really good, but I hated the location. Origins had more stuff to do, the hotels were better, there were plenty of open spaces to play (hotel and at Origins itself) and there was food nearby. Heck, there was a whole food court inside the place. In St. Louis, like everything was closed >.> and even when it wasn't, there were still very few places to eat.
But despite my griping about the place, I still had an extremely good time. Just hope they choose a different location next year. ;D
Props:
Patrick beating Gino round one.
Spaghetti Factory
Great Judging
Good food at (most of) the places we went.
Greg's '1' deck.
Slops:
Very few places with food nearby >.>
Me for taking out SSUs. I really don't know why.
Gengar.
Bad deck choice.
Heat. Sunday and Monday a breeze picked up though (Thank god) and it was actually possible to walk around. =o
Massive mobs around the pairings.
Fail. God I hate that place >.>
For friday I go over to Zane's extra room that his 'Uncle,' Cousin, Patrick, and Greg are staying at for random games until it occurs to everyone that maybe we should attend to our stomachs. After what seems an eternity finding the Hardee's we gorge ourselves before making our first stop at the convention center.
Once there I find Steven playing in the modified tournament (which i had completely forgotten about >.>) and we look at the top tables. Most of it looked like flygon, with luxrays and gengars as well. I stupidly make the descision to change my deck from dialga or luxray/ape to Beedrill, on the grounds that it beats flygon fairly easily, and it can beat gengar with the second unown G. Of course I never actually tested the gengar matchup since I never expected myself to play bees for nats. Pretty much dooming myself right there. =\
I test lux/ape a bit more that night, but decide on Bees for the next day.
Saturday I get up, eat some leftover room service, and make my way to the convention hall in time to hang out with Zane and Steven a bit before people start getting seated.
Once seated we have to sit there for like an hour before they get the pairings up, but the eventually do, and I attempt to brave the massive tornado of people attacking the poor pairings board.
After what seems like hours of fighting my way through the mob I find my name on the list and get seated.
I apologize for my lack of remembering names. =(
Round 1: Casadia? with beautifly
She starts with wurmple, and i go second and get two beedrills out for the donk
GG.1-0
Round 2: ??
Agh. Memory blank. I had this match in my mind earlier but forgot it. =\ I ended it somewhere within the first couple turns though.
2-0
I was a smart person and bought my lunch from the deli place there after round 1, when the line was only like 10 people. I felt so special after seeing the line now reaching into the main table area. I follow Patrick, Zane, and Steven to the ccasino so they can get Chinese food though. =o
Round 3: Joseph ? W/gengar
As we're shuffling he continuously goes through his deck and changes cards around, claiming he's making sure everything is randomized and such. I hate it when people do stuff like that >.>
So I six pile his deck and make myself feel better when he gets a mulligan and then a bad-ish start. Mine's ok, but for some reason I play down 2 baltoys, and then realize I need to azelf for a prized beedrill. =\ I just put down too many pokemon with powers that game, and then the one time I kill a gengar without uxie + Plus Powers, he flips heads of course. And then one time I cosmic for like 5 trainers I can't burn, he uses poltergiest. GG
2-1
Round 4: ?? W/Flygon/machamp
I see machop and fighting when he's shuffling, so i pray to god I don't get donked. I start with weedle, baltoy, AND unown G. I felt happy with that. =D
I get T2 3 beedrills, and then start killing basics. He pulls out a flygon and gets 2 energies of it before he's forced to attack with it, I warp it after he uses sand wall, then on the next turn he levels up and does 70 to my beedrill. But then all kinds of crappy stuff happens. First I cosmic power, and then the kid says I already used it >.> my memory was kinda blank, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and agreed that I already did. Luckily I hadn't shuffled my hand around at all, so everything is still in place and rewindable. I get a prize penalty, but it's doesn't really matter since he doesn't have a claydol and can't get anything out.
After the judge does all that and gives us the time extensions, then we realize we forgot to do wind erosion, so then we call him back over for that >.> luckily it's nothing severe and we just discard a card from the top.
Then to make matters worse on the following turn I NM my beedrill back in and play it down after using flutter wings, but forgot to play BTS first. I still knock out his flygon though, but we don't even bother to try to fix the beedrill really and he just scoops since he has nothing. GG
He was a good sport about everything even with my continuous bumbles though. =)
3-1
Round 5: ?? W/blaziken
I was worried about my bad luck starting to kick in, and it finally happened. Unown G start with 6 random trainers and energy. I warp up his cherubi and use pokedrawer for 1. Energy. I pass, he evolves and does 30, and I draw a kakuna. he does another 30 for game. =\ And it was like another 4 turns before I drew an uxie or anything really.
3-2
So I know I have to win my next 2 at least, so that I can make the cut, but at this poitn i also want to make up my lost points, since I know my first two roudns are only going to get me like 5-10 each.
Round 6: ?? W/gengar
I have a really slow start, and need to play down two baltoys in order to get a claydol out, so that already gives him a prize lead. He takes like 3 prizes from my azelf, extra claydol, and one RR beedrill. Then I get my other RR bee G'd, along with my claydol. I make a comeback by continuously doing 90 and then attaching 2 plus powers to an uxie to kill gengars without activating fainting spell. I do have to activate one critical Spell with a beedrill, since I couldn't get my uxie. He flips tails, thank god. If he had gotten heads it probably would've been game right there, but now I have a chance to win this.
He gradually whittles down my beedrills with 30 a turn, and I bring it to 1-1 prizes. At the point I have 3 energies on my RR beedrill, and have a beedrill with 40 left. I could warp and needle shock and try to KO whatever he send up the next turn, but he's only played 1 warp. He also has played all 4 poketurns, but he has another crobat left, so I decide that the chances are highly in his favor that he can get out of the paralasys and KO my benched bee, so I take the KO in front of me and risk the Fainting Spell. Heads, of course. =\
Sudden Death:
I get an azelf start of all things, while he gets baltoy. =(
I even go second, but all I can do is bebe's for a baltoy and retreat azelf. He goes rosy, candy, warp, crobat, energy, kill azelf for game. :\ GG
3-3
Now I'm pretty sure I'm outa top cut, but I want to continue to make up whatever points I can.
Round 7: ?? W/ beedrill
I get a pretty good start, and take the first prize T3 I think. That puts me in a good position for the rest of the game, and even though i had to spend an extra bench spot on Azelf after needing 2 claydols to set up, after he killed a beedrill I bring up my azelf to die. He waprs, so I let him get a claydol, but I have everything anyway. Two drawers to get NM when a bee dies, and then 1 Nm in the prizes when I need to draw it. Add to the fact that I'm ahead in the prize exchange, and I have this pretty much won. Then he goes a turn with whiffing on a maintenance, and therefore can't KO a beedrill that turn, and he scoops a little after that. GG
4-3
I think about dropping, but decide I will risk losing my last match just to gain some of my meager points back. It's probably a good thing i did, since I gained 12 points from my round 8 match. (Like the most I got all day >.>)
Round 8: Daniella? W/T-tar
I get a sorta-slow start, but so does she. I evolve both my weedles to kakunas T3 I think, and then am going to claydol to see if I can get the BTS and start sweeping, but then she says I already used cosmic >.>
I know I didn't, but I don't wanna argue since neither of us can prove anything, so i just warp out my active kakuna with 30 on it and poison her larvitar, but get tails on the evolving effect. She attaches a fourth energy to the t-tar she's building on the bench, bit I get out all my beedrills on my turn and KO her larvitar and then weavile one after the other. She sends up her T-tar and grinds for 70 I think, And I whiff on the pluspower for the return KO. She Lucian's some most of the energy to the benched T-tar, leaving 2 on to KO my current Bee. I KO the active one and she then KOs my fresh guy with the T-tar with like 6 energy on it. I NM and get it back out, and double drawer for the two plus powers to Ko it. She has nothing in play after that and scoops. GG
5-3
So I finish with a semi-mediocre record, coming in at 89th place, but I know I wasn't trying my absolute hardest since my main goal was to make worlds. I end up losing 30 points from this >.> but I'm still 11the place at 1873. Good enough for me, as long as I get my invite.
Steven goes 5-3 as well, but makes the cut at 64th place exactly, sadly he loses in 64 to gengar though.
For Sunday I go over to the convention hall at like 10 to play some games and see who wins Nats. So few people were actually there it seemed kinda lonely when they announced the winners, lol. We head back to the Hilton and play some more pokeymanz for the next 3 hours, until we head out to the Spaghetti Factory at about 7. It was originally just 7 people, but they picked up Zane and I when we entered their room earlier and found out about their plans, then Matt C. outside the Convention hall, his friend MK a little later, and then Ben C. once we reach the end of the first street. So we end up the the Factory with 12 people, and somehow all manage to squish in at the table. We amused our half of the table with a variety of, er, jokes. Easily the best part of the trip.
Overall, I liked the event quite a lot, the staffing was really good, but I hated the location. Origins had more stuff to do, the hotels were better, there were plenty of open spaces to play (hotel and at Origins itself) and there was food nearby. Heck, there was a whole food court inside the place. In St. Louis, like everything was closed >.> and even when it wasn't, there were still very few places to eat.
But despite my griping about the place, I still had an extremely good time. Just hope they choose a different location next year. ;D
Props:
Patrick beating Gino round one.
Spaghetti Factory
Great Judging
Good food at (most of) the places we went.
Greg's '1' deck.
Slops:
Very few places with food nearby >.>
Me for taking out SSUs. I really don't know why.
Gengar.
Bad deck choice.
Heat. Sunday and Monday a breeze picked up though (Thank god) and it was actually possible to walk around. =o
Massive mobs around the pairings.
