When I finally decided to make the financial effort to take the trip to Hawaii for the 4 or us and told my wife and kids, they all went crazy and started to practice and discuss ideas of decks and techs to use at the tournament. Even though the kids had done very well throughout the year and ranked well enough to both get their invites, I did not want to create any expectations or pressure on them to win or reach certain stage , just wanted the trip to be as fun as possible, and an event to last on our memories . And thankfully at the end, sure it was.
My story and my wife’s is very short; we tried the grinder, She did great for her first competitive event ever with Gengar / Garchomp C winning 3 matches , and I had a rough time with my LuxChomp + Techs loosing 2 of my matches , both very close ones , on time and by one prize. So I was left out of Worlds as each flight just got 6 invites or so as we all discovered, and only the 7-0 and some 6-1’s made it. But it was fun and I was able to beat a few really good guys, so it was OK.
Now on to the real story. Both kids decided to go with LuxChomp after testing many options, just with different techs and a few differences on the trainers. Both where solid and consistent builds that we play tested extensively against most potential matchups. I consider both my kids equally good players just with very different styles, but as it happens in this game luck played a key role as it always does, and Andres finished swiss 4-3 , with a couple of those looses being really close matches lost by 1 prize. One of his looses was to Yuka, the eventual world champion. So he finished 23rd, enough to get his top-32 prizes for which he was very happy anyways. I was very proud of him and of his effort.
Juan Pablo went 6-1 in swiss :
1-0 Mirror match vs. a German player , with a Dragonite FB tech ( Andres lost to a mirror match in Nats due to that tech , so this time we prepared better for it )
2-0 Mirror match vs. Koichi Nishida from US, great player from Oregon with lots of very creative techs in his build like Mr. Mime and others.
3-0 Mirror match vs. another US competitor , good hand and good setup. Thankfully luck on his side on this one.
3-1 Mirror match vs. Gustavo Wada, Brazilian National Champ , dead draw all the way, he did not take a single prize
4-1 Cursegar vs. Canadian player , JP went for the draw and dragon rushed claydols and sprayed Uxies , Flash Impact took care of the Spiritombs, and fortunately a fully powered Cursegar only attacked once in the whole game
5-1 ?? vs Japanese girl … JP started with Garchomp C and the girl with Baltoy .. She went first, drew and passed .. JP attached DCE, and went for the donk using Cynthia’s Feelings on turn 1 ( his pure style … ) so out of the 4 cards he got Expert Belt, attached .. game.
6-1 Mirror match vs. Nathan Sweet from the US , also good hand and good draw vs another top player.
1st day finished in promising fashion, and he was feeling very good about his chances. I was already happy and proud of his Top 16. He went on to watch a movie and play in the pool with friends for a while.
Top 16 vs. Titouan Vannay, Switzerland National Champion with Shuppet Donk
2-0 . For both Games Lookers played a key role, as JP was able in both to Lookers back his hand full of Plus Powers , Expert Belt and Shuppet at key times. Also his draw on match 1 was great. On match 2 fortunately he started with 2 pokemon to avoid the donk, but his hand was not as good, so he trailed prizes until he finally set up a 3 energy belted Luxray X able to take down Mr. Mime with Garchomp C benched and ready to heal, coming back from a 2-4 prize deficit to win the mach leaving Titouan with his 2 prizes. Great match.
Top 8 vs. Koichi Nishida from the US , again
2-1 . Koichi had just defeated previous World Champ Tsubasa Nakamura, so he was in a roll. This was a specially stressful match for me as they had been hanging out and playing video games after their swiss round, so JP started to joke around, sing and laugh around with Koichi while playing, and I got VERY nervous and afraid he would misplay as a result of that. Thankfully Ryan Vergel, a fellow Floridian player and good friend was there by my side to calm me down ( thx much Ryan ! ) . 1st game went down fast as JP’s hand was great and took the 1st dragon rush , never looking back. Match 2 was much tougher as Koichi took the lead and some of his techs paid off big time at the right moments. For game 3 they both started well and traded prizes until 3-3 , and from there on lookers did its thing and Koichi did not get a good hand after that, loosing steam and JP ended up taking the last 3 prizes without response. At the end Stephen Silvestro, another fellow Floridian, was also there cheering for him, and when the match was over I took JP a picture with the world champ, who also gave him some advice for the next rounds ( thx much for your words Steve ! ) . He was getting close, and I started to wonder …..
Top 4 vs. Thomas Harle, France National Champion with Gyarados – AMU
2-0 This was a matchup we had played out extensively and JP knew the drill very well. Thomas decided to set up AMU as a priority, and that gave JP the time to set up his field and start taking prizes early, so by the time Gyarados hit the field Luxray was ready in both matches. The deck responded great and luck was on his side.. so on to the Finals !!
Top 2 vs. Yuka Furusawa from Japan with Jumpluff .
0-2 . We where hoping for another Gyarados matchup in the finals, but unfortunately Yuka beat Simon in a thrilling 2-1 matchup in top 4. So on to the matches. Probably some of you saw this on video, it was a very though match for him. First match went fast and easy , as JP’s hand was not good at all and Yuka set up extremely fast with her 3 claydols and Unown R's, taking prizes from turn 2 and on …. So match 2 was closer as JP took 3 prizes early ( 2 baltoys and 1 Jumpluff ) , but in order to take the 1st baltoy he needed Azelf to get a prized Crobat out and had to fill his bench, which is suicide against Jumpluff , but he had no choice. So I prayed that would be enough of a lead to win the 2nd, but unfortunately Yuka came back strong and plus powers sealed JP’s fate, taking down a Garchomp that was critical to keep in the field. JP fought fiercely, and at one point in the game he did Cynthia’s for 8 with just a Garchomp C with a DCE active , risking it all, and he got the Energy Gain and the Lv X as part of the bounty, which kept him in the game .. Little brave man. I admired him for that.
So match ended, and he was 2nd in Worlds !!!! . He obviously was disappointed for the loss and was not smiling when the game finished, but I tried to make him realize the incredible feat he had just done. Later on he started smiling with the trophy, ceremony and all. It was just a great experience, and as my report’s title reads, I was the proudest Dad in the world there.
I want to finish my report with a sincere and deep thank you from the bottom of my heart to all the people that cheered in there for both my kids, and specially for Juan Pablo in the finals. I hope I don’t forget anyone: Ryan Vergel, Stephen Silvestro, Heidi, Orion, Miranda and Eric Craig, Randy, Ronae and Aaron Curry , Jim Roll, Petros Ogbamichael and family, the Harris family from Texas with whom we made great friendship there and where cheering for JP as if they where Floridians, Simon Taylor’s Dad in the finals , also a great guy … and from Miami all the crowd that was constantly texting me to see how things where going .. Jorge , Justin, Benji, Gaby, Kevin, William, Michelle Peck, Tony Bryan …. It was great to feel your support all the way. God bless you all.
So JP will be the Worlds Runner-Up for the next season, and still in Juniors. Andres will go to Seniors, where I’m sure he’ll do great. I’ll keep trying my luck in masters facing world class players in Florida. I am looking forward to another great season of Pokemon fun , with more and more friends that we’ve made along the way that will hopefully will keep for many years to come. Thx Dave and the whole Pokemon Company crowd for making this a fantastic event in a dream place.
Thanks for reading.
Roberto.
My story and my wife’s is very short; we tried the grinder, She did great for her first competitive event ever with Gengar / Garchomp C winning 3 matches , and I had a rough time with my LuxChomp + Techs loosing 2 of my matches , both very close ones , on time and by one prize. So I was left out of Worlds as each flight just got 6 invites or so as we all discovered, and only the 7-0 and some 6-1’s made it. But it was fun and I was able to beat a few really good guys, so it was OK.
Now on to the real story. Both kids decided to go with LuxChomp after testing many options, just with different techs and a few differences on the trainers. Both where solid and consistent builds that we play tested extensively against most potential matchups. I consider both my kids equally good players just with very different styles, but as it happens in this game luck played a key role as it always does, and Andres finished swiss 4-3 , with a couple of those looses being really close matches lost by 1 prize. One of his looses was to Yuka, the eventual world champion. So he finished 23rd, enough to get his top-32 prizes for which he was very happy anyways. I was very proud of him and of his effort.
Juan Pablo went 6-1 in swiss :
1-0 Mirror match vs. a German player , with a Dragonite FB tech ( Andres lost to a mirror match in Nats due to that tech , so this time we prepared better for it )
2-0 Mirror match vs. Koichi Nishida from US, great player from Oregon with lots of very creative techs in his build like Mr. Mime and others.
3-0 Mirror match vs. another US competitor , good hand and good setup. Thankfully luck on his side on this one.
3-1 Mirror match vs. Gustavo Wada, Brazilian National Champ , dead draw all the way, he did not take a single prize
4-1 Cursegar vs. Canadian player , JP went for the draw and dragon rushed claydols and sprayed Uxies , Flash Impact took care of the Spiritombs, and fortunately a fully powered Cursegar only attacked once in the whole game
5-1 ?? vs Japanese girl … JP started with Garchomp C and the girl with Baltoy .. She went first, drew and passed .. JP attached DCE, and went for the donk using Cynthia’s Feelings on turn 1 ( his pure style … ) so out of the 4 cards he got Expert Belt, attached .. game.
6-1 Mirror match vs. Nathan Sweet from the US , also good hand and good draw vs another top player.
1st day finished in promising fashion, and he was feeling very good about his chances. I was already happy and proud of his Top 16. He went on to watch a movie and play in the pool with friends for a while.
Top 16 vs. Titouan Vannay, Switzerland National Champion with Shuppet Donk
2-0 . For both Games Lookers played a key role, as JP was able in both to Lookers back his hand full of Plus Powers , Expert Belt and Shuppet at key times. Also his draw on match 1 was great. On match 2 fortunately he started with 2 pokemon to avoid the donk, but his hand was not as good, so he trailed prizes until he finally set up a 3 energy belted Luxray X able to take down Mr. Mime with Garchomp C benched and ready to heal, coming back from a 2-4 prize deficit to win the mach leaving Titouan with his 2 prizes. Great match.
Top 8 vs. Koichi Nishida from the US , again
2-1 . Koichi had just defeated previous World Champ Tsubasa Nakamura, so he was in a roll. This was a specially stressful match for me as they had been hanging out and playing video games after their swiss round, so JP started to joke around, sing and laugh around with Koichi while playing, and I got VERY nervous and afraid he would misplay as a result of that. Thankfully Ryan Vergel, a fellow Floridian player and good friend was there by my side to calm me down ( thx much Ryan ! ) . 1st game went down fast as JP’s hand was great and took the 1st dragon rush , never looking back. Match 2 was much tougher as Koichi took the lead and some of his techs paid off big time at the right moments. For game 3 they both started well and traded prizes until 3-3 , and from there on lookers did its thing and Koichi did not get a good hand after that, loosing steam and JP ended up taking the last 3 prizes without response. At the end Stephen Silvestro, another fellow Floridian, was also there cheering for him, and when the match was over I took JP a picture with the world champ, who also gave him some advice for the next rounds ( thx much for your words Steve ! ) . He was getting close, and I started to wonder …..
Top 4 vs. Thomas Harle, France National Champion with Gyarados – AMU
2-0 This was a matchup we had played out extensively and JP knew the drill very well. Thomas decided to set up AMU as a priority, and that gave JP the time to set up his field and start taking prizes early, so by the time Gyarados hit the field Luxray was ready in both matches. The deck responded great and luck was on his side.. so on to the Finals !!
Top 2 vs. Yuka Furusawa from Japan with Jumpluff .
0-2 . We where hoping for another Gyarados matchup in the finals, but unfortunately Yuka beat Simon in a thrilling 2-1 matchup in top 4. So on to the matches. Probably some of you saw this on video, it was a very though match for him. First match went fast and easy , as JP’s hand was not good at all and Yuka set up extremely fast with her 3 claydols and Unown R's, taking prizes from turn 2 and on …. So match 2 was closer as JP took 3 prizes early ( 2 baltoys and 1 Jumpluff ) , but in order to take the 1st baltoy he needed Azelf to get a prized Crobat out and had to fill his bench, which is suicide against Jumpluff , but he had no choice. So I prayed that would be enough of a lead to win the 2nd, but unfortunately Yuka came back strong and plus powers sealed JP’s fate, taking down a Garchomp that was critical to keep in the field. JP fought fiercely, and at one point in the game he did Cynthia’s for 8 with just a Garchomp C with a DCE active , risking it all, and he got the Energy Gain and the Lv X as part of the bounty, which kept him in the game .. Little brave man. I admired him for that.
So match ended, and he was 2nd in Worlds !!!! . He obviously was disappointed for the loss and was not smiling when the game finished, but I tried to make him realize the incredible feat he had just done. Later on he started smiling with the trophy, ceremony and all. It was just a great experience, and as my report’s title reads, I was the proudest Dad in the world there.
I want to finish my report with a sincere and deep thank you from the bottom of my heart to all the people that cheered in there for both my kids, and specially for Juan Pablo in the finals. I hope I don’t forget anyone: Ryan Vergel, Stephen Silvestro, Heidi, Orion, Miranda and Eric Craig, Randy, Ronae and Aaron Curry , Jim Roll, Petros Ogbamichael and family, the Harris family from Texas with whom we made great friendship there and where cheering for JP as if they where Floridians, Simon Taylor’s Dad in the finals , also a great guy … and from Miami all the crowd that was constantly texting me to see how things where going .. Jorge , Justin, Benji, Gaby, Kevin, William, Michelle Peck, Tony Bryan …. It was great to feel your support all the way. God bless you all.
So JP will be the Worlds Runner-Up for the next season, and still in Juniors. Andres will go to Seniors, where I’m sure he’ll do great. I’ll keep trying my luck in masters facing world class players in Florida. I am looking forward to another great season of Pokemon fun , with more and more friends that we’ve made along the way that will hopefully will keep for many years to come. Thx Dave and the whole Pokemon Company crowd for making this a fantastic event in a dream place.
Thanks for reading.
Roberto.
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