Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Prof Championship

The format was EXTREMELY fun, but flawed. I made it into top 2, drafting a sick deck in swiss, going 5-1 when I scooped to Tracy in round 6 since she was 4-1 and got paired up and wanted to see her make it in, plus I was the only X-0 at the time so I was guaranteed top seed regardless in my flight.

Solomon drafting was AMAZING. Only problem is, if two friends get paired in top cut, they can do something which actually happened. When they draft, since one has to lose anyways, they can just left one person take all the good cards, near guaranteeing they are borderline unstoppable for the rest of the top cut. Tracy K was lucky enough to get paired vs her good friend and as a result, received all of the good cards from their combined cardpool. I lost to her in top 8. First and foremost, let me say I'm not in the least bit bitter: I almost beat her, and put up a very good series of games vs her. I can't blame them for taking advantage of that situation. I'd expect anyone to. The problem was the fact that the way the tournament handled Solomon Drafting didn't do a redraft for each round. Half of the skill in a Solomon draft comes from out drafting a particular player, and hate drafting, and building your deck on the fly according to what they are drafting. Had that been handled properly, this issue can be avoided.

My point for bringing this up stems from the fact that besides this loophole, this format was UNBELIEVABLY good. I'd love to see it used in future Prof Cups because it was very balanced and fun besides that. Swiss isn't even that relevent...players have 6 rounds ahead of them, they are not going to throw a draft away to let a friend do better. In top cut, when they have to have one of them lose anyways, they will. A good idea would be to, in top cut, NOT have your drafting partner be your first round opponent. I know it defeats a portion of what the format is about, but since every round after the first already does that, its restoring more balance than it is causing harm.

I know each year has been a different format, but this one was fantastic and I'd love to see it repeated in future years.
 
Huh...my understanding of having the draft partner be the 1st round opponent was that it was to prevent players from team-drafting. Apparently, that just set things up for what I'd consider to be less likely (throwing the draft to help a friend.) Well, stuff happens, I guess.
 
The Prof Cup was by far the most fun I had this weekend. Cooperative drafting with your draft partner gave a definite advantage over those players that simple hate drafted to win their first round matches. I'd happily play this format again in the future because it was so much different from everything else that is typically played in Pokemon.
 
I'm glad to hear the format was that much fun :D

The booster packs, were they Rising Rivals only?
 
Interesting point about friends meeting in the first round of the top cut. Not playing the draft partner in the first round of the top cut does not reduce the benefit that can be gained when a pair of friends meet, but it does reduce the incentive to do so. As it also cuts down the effectiveness of counter drafting for everyone else would more be lost by such a change than is gained? tricky!

If such a change is adopted then it would make sense (to me at least) for draft partners to be from opposite sides of the single elimination bracket, for example

. 1 - 15
. 16 - 2
. 8 - 10
. 9 - 7
. 4 - 14
. 13 - 3
. 5 - 11
. 12 - 6

this way the incentive to cooperate is maintained for friends to meet in the final just as it is for those that don't know each other. Sacrificing counter-drafting though seems like a big loss :(

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I suppose the top cut could be made into a complete hate draft where sucessfull non-cooperation is rewarded. Players Solomon draft and then return their draft stacks to a pool. Players are then randomly assigned stacks from the pool with the pair of decks that they drafted being excluded from being given back to the originating pair. But that cure seems worse than the illness.
 
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Yeah, the 1st round opponent deal works fine in swiss...but in top cut, when one player is automatically out, with no prizes but 3 packs, its easier to effectively organize a prize split, than give someone a monster deck. When only 1-2 of the pairings consist of friends, it results in a great unbalance. If you randomize it, it returns the draft state to that of swiss, where all the pairings are cooperative, this returning balance. Its not that the formats bad, its just that it needs a bit of tweaking now that the first event has ironed out some of its flaws. Still, fantastic format, with a great draft set. Rising Rivals is the best Limited set since Legend Maker.
 
I thought the Prof Cup was great fun and was amazed at some of the lines people were able to draft. My opponent and I cooperated but there is only so much you can do when you have 5 Weezing and ZERO Koffing.

My boys were mini-judges and had a great, great time. Thank you to everyone for including them and making them feel even more a part of the Pokemon family.

Funny sidenote, the boys received Prof Sleeves as part of their judge support and, of course, had to use them at Nationals on Saturday. My older son was picked for a random deck check and the Prof sleeves are too reflective! Oh no!
 
Heatherdu said:
I thought the Prof Cup was great fun and was amazed at some of the lines people were able to draft. My opponent and I cooperated but there is only so much you can do when you have 5 Weezing and ZERO Koffing.

My boys were mini-judges and had a great, great time. Thank you to everyone for including them and making them feel even more a part of the Pokemon family.

Funny sidenote, the boys received Prof Sleeves as part of their judge support and, of course, had to use them at Nationals on Saturday. My older son was picked for a random deck check and the Prof sleeves are too reflective! Oh no!
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So the sleeves will be illegal? lol
 
Heatherdu said:
Funny sidenote, the boys received Prof Sleeves as part of their judge support and, of course, had to use them at Nationals on Saturday. My older son was picked for a random deck check and the Prof sleeves are too reflective! Oh no!
Click to expand...

That is funny, too reflective lol. I saw from the pics taken, that a few people were using them. Just funny that he was the one of the ones picked for the random deck check.
 
I heard they were being banned too...not entirely sure. Wish I would have sold them when I had the chance =(
 
I certainly hope not, as they were a really neat item and style.

This coming from someone who did not get a set of professor sleeves....some of us sacrificed so others could have...but I did get a PROFESSOR CUP!

2nd Place BABY!

Vince
 
meganium45 said:
I certainly hope not, as they were a really neat item and style.

This coming from someone who did not get a set of professor sleeves....some of us sacrificed so others could have...but I did get a PROFESSOR CUP!

2nd Place BABY!

Vince
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Best you send that cup to me Vincey!!

Congrats on 2nd place :D
 
Congrats on the 2nd place, Vince! It's very cool how the Piglet Draft Master proved to everyone how he's a true expert of the draft format :D
 
One of the seniors top cut players was using prof sleeves.
A judge from another division noted the reflective issue.
I sat at the table and tried to see anything in the reflection.
I saw no problem.

I did not see the deck that had an issue.
I hope it had to do with them being brand new.
But the deck I saw in Seniors was fine with me.
 
I hope they are legal, as they are very nice sleeves. Nice, simple design. Plus, unlike playmats, I wouldn't be embarassed to actually use them. 'Pop, if we could get a confirmation on the legality of the sleeves, that would be a HUGE favor. As I understand it, they are intended to be made available for Prof points, so those of us who'd like to move them would appreciate the opportunity to do so while the demand is high without people wondering about their legality. I don't want to sound greedy still, but well, I need to get money to make it out to Worlds since I qualified by rating. It'd just be a huge favor. Thanks :)
 
Ruiner said:
I hope they are legal, as they are very nice sleeves. Nice, simple design. Plus, unlike playmats, I wouldn't be embarassed to actually use them. 'Pop, if we could get a confirmation on the legality of the sleeves, that would be a HUGE favor. As I understand it, they are intended to be made available for Prof points, so those of us who'd like to move them would appreciate the opportunity to do so while the demand is high without people wondering about their legality. I don't want to sound greedy still, but well, I need to get money to make it out to Worlds since I qualified by rating. It'd just be a huge favor. Thanks :)
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Well, if I had a set of new sleeves to look at, I could give my opinion.
However, they were short on sleeves, so PTOs didn't get any at the prof cup.
Anything I might say would just be my opinion.
 
What an amazing tournament this was, congrats to Andrew for winning and Vince for making a crazy good game out of it. It was an honor to be able to head judge it and watch the people who help make this game possible showcase their skills. Good stuff.
 
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