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Published on October 26th, 2013 | by Scott

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2014 North American Fall Regionals Preview Part 3: Finale

Finally, the last of the BW2 Regionals is upon us! I’m about 60 Wi-Fi matches into Pokémon XY now, and like I imagine is the case for most of you, playing Black 2 and White 2 again kind of feels like I may as well be playing Gold and Silver to me, but we’d be wise not to overlook this weekend’s events: one strong Regional or one terrible one can easily make or break anyone’s season as we saw with how close the standings were last season.

Last week in Phoenix we saw one of the smaller VGC events in recent memory go to Stephen Morioka (Stephen). Stephen is one of the community’s most consistent players, nicest dudes, and also someone who hadn’t won a tournament in a very long time, so it was cool to see him take one home. The runner-up was birthday boy Ben Irons (benjitheGREAT), who is another guy it was cool to see in a Regional finals again after a weaker second half of the season in 2013. While Pleasanton was dominated by the ghosts of players past, we seem to have rejoined the present a little bit last weekend, since even though Stephen has been around forever both finalists were 2013 World Championship participants. Both Phoenix finalists will be back in action this week in Texas along with Omari Travis (BadIntent) and Len Deuel (Alaka), two other players near the top of the overall CP lead and the only two players I know of who are attending three events in three weeks. One of the more controversial changes to the Championship Points system players were very interested in this year is how having events on multiple dates and a best finish limit would play out, so Texas should be an event everyone has their eyes on this week to gauge the impact of the new system as players start hitting a number of events that would have comprised an entire season before we actually enter the year the season is attached to. I’d also like to give a shoutout to Maylee Hornak, who became the first VGC player to win two Regionals in the same Regionals season with back-to-back wins the last two weeks.

In other community news, I should note that while I’m not sure if we’ll be seeing any VGC games streamed this weekend — we’re sort of limited on the equipment and manpower needed to stream events where we’re all at different places and playing instead of spectating — one place we definitely wouldn’t have been streaming from is the Texas Regional. While we wouldn’t have been doing anything there streaming the video game anyway, the TCG definitely would have had a stream from On The Bubble, except the Texas PTO is… trying to charge them to stream the event. I know most of Nugget Bridge’s readers don’t care very much about Pokémon’s TCG, but there’s a bigger community issue here that’s pretty relevant to growing competitive Pokémon as a whole. Obviously, streaming is something that’s pretty important to me both as a competitive player and someone who is running a site dedicated to part of the competitive Pokémon enterprise because it’s an important part of making the game grow by highlighting the most important matches and making the game feel exciting and accessible to players and potential players. For the most part, the same people are running events in VGC and TCG, so it’s pretty important if we want both games and Pokémon itself to grow — which is fairly obviously good for players, organizers, and vendors — that the people running events get on the same page as the players trying to help grow the game to make that happen. I imagine we’re largely stuck with each other and this game, so instances of things like this are pretty major setbacks and are probably not going to disappear on their own. It is very frustrating to me to see what I think is hard to view as anything but a PTO trying to exploit a fangroup for extra revenue to provide a service that is obviously good for the PTO’s event and the game the PTO is profiting from. I feel like in the real world, businesses tend to pay to have their events promoted, not the other way around. Streaming is something that everyone should be encouraging, because it’s good for everyone… hopefully, this is an isolated incident and something happens to lead to some change.

With that said, on to this weekend’s events! I’m going to try to mention a relatively even amount of players at every Regional because the point is supposed to be to mention the most of the best players at each event, which is going to read a little weird this week given the discrepancy in the experience of players in the different events.

Texas Regional

Difficulty Rating:

/ 5

(four greedy Meowths out of five)

Tournament Organizer: Mike Cook

Last Year’s Winner: Ben Irons (benjitheGREAT)

The Story: Texas surprisingly features several players with recent success this season. While 2013 runner-up Oliver Valenti (Smith) has joined the big leagues in the northeast, 2013 champion Ben Irons (benjitheGREAT) is back to defend his crown after a second place finish last week in Phoenix. He was a roll or two away from another title last week, and I think he has an excellent chance of repeating in Texas this week if he plays as well as he did in the finals last week. The player who defeated him last week, Stephen Morioka (Stephen), will be here as well, and you can expect to see him do well again here: he was right up there with Aaron Zheng, Enosh Shachar, and Randy Kwa as one of the most consistent players in 2013 and had a solid outing in all five 2013 events. Speaking of consistency, Zach Droegkamp (Zach), he of the three consecutive Regional wins, will be here as well and looking to get a larger chunk of BW2 points banked. He’s had some harder times recently with poor performances at Nationals and Worlds and his first missed Regionals cut in Pleasanton, but it would be very surprising if he didn’t at least get himself back in the top cut in Texas. Omari Travis (BadIntent) and Len Deuel (Alaka) are both on pace to attend nine Regionals this season, and each have one top cut appearance to show for it so far. Like Ben, Omari was very, very close to winning a Regional already this season, so you can expect he’ll be hungry to finish the job this time after deciding to drop at X-2 last week. Len’s past handful of events have been pretty solid, which is lost a bit because he missed Nationals in 2013, and he’ll look to continue his recent consistency here and finish high enough that he’ll actually want to use the finish as he continues travelling around the country. It’s worth noting that all of the players I just mentioned who are playing in this event have something interesting in common: they have all played in at least one 2014 Regional already and will likely be among the region’s point leaders heading into XY.

While that’s usually about where I expect the list of names to end before I really start reaching for the events in the south, there’s actually quite a few more players that need to be mentioned this time. DeVon Ingram (dingram) had one of the more impressive looking losing series I have ever seen in the Seniors Nationals final, and I think his predictive skills make him one of the safer graduating Seniors to expect to transition well to Masters-level play. There’s a really small pool of players that I find particularly interesting to watch, but DeVon is on that short list of players who I think make the game exciting and I’m hoping he does really well this year, because I’d love for him to get some more spotlight, and he definitely has the talent to do it. Tiffany Stanley (Shiloh) seems to be the most easily forgotten player in VGC history, but she finished in the high teens overall in each of the last two seasons and has been consistently solid at every event she’s ever played in. Blake Hopper (Mrbopper) is one of those players that has had some strong internet tournament finishes but hasn’t quite had the same success in real life. Thomas Lamont (Captain Falcon) came onto the scene about a year too late to really fit into the whole ghost of Poke-Christmas past thing we’ve been seeing on top of Regionals so far this season, but has been solid in events he’s attended in recent years even though he hasn’t had a big finish since his Regional win in 2011. Ryan Booker (lolfailsnail) probably wins the prize for most eccentric team choice I saw at Nationals that almost worked, so he’ll be another player where it will be interesting to see what he brings and whether it helps or hurts him. Richard Ashby (TheAshAttack) sort of came out of nowhere and finished 9th at US Nationals using Lajo’s team, so it’ll be interesting to see if he can chain that into more success in a much easier event. Other Nationals Top Cut participants attending this Regional include Jonathan Rankin (JRank) and Kevin Fisher (Uncle Taint).

The Smart Money is on…: Ben Irons. I know it’s a little odd to do this now after (correctly) predicting Stephen to win the last one over Benji, but I like the odds of the Texas champion staying the same. I thought he played a good series last week and he has that extra motivation coming off a loss instead of a win, which I think drives people a lot harder. Everyone in that first paragraph has a fantastic shot, though, and I hope most of them make into the top cut to battle it out.

Attending this event? Join your fellow competitors in discussion on our forum.

Indiana Regional

Difficulty Rating:

/ 5

(two city-defining Garbodor out of five)

Tournament Organizer: Derek Farber

Last Year’s Winner: Zach Droegkamp (Zach)

The Story: The Ft. Wayne Regional of the 2014 season has an attendee list that is a little odd. While the competitive community around Pokémon has been growing and the amount of “big names” going to most events has been increasing as a result, Ft. Wayne is the one event in the Fall cycle that looks a little more sparse as far as established resumes go than it did in 2013, ignoring potential total attendance. Gone are both 2013 finalists, with Zach Droegkamp and Stephen Morioka both going to Texas instead of the lovely Ft. Wayne. Without those two, Ft. Wayne is only left with one 2013 Worlds competitor: Kamaal Harris (FonicFrog), who surprisingly didn’t make it into the top cut in Ft. Wayne in 2013. After a disappointing first Regional in 2013, he went on to win his second in St. Louis, and he’ll look to do the same thing within the Fall cycle of 2014 after a disappointing first outing in Pleasanton two weeks ago. Unlike the finalists, the 2013 semifinalists will both be returning. Tylar Hagan (Tyler) is probably the most underrated player who top cut two Regionals in 2013, which actually puts him in pretty elite company. I feel like even people who know Tyler forget he still plays the game sometimes, but he actually finished 17th in CP in 2013, which would make him the illustrious Worlds bubble boy this year. On that note, the other 2013 semifinalist is Scott Glaza (Scott), who finished 5th in North American CP and was one of two people who cut the four pre-Worlds events in the North American circuit last year, but was too busy practicing writing in third person to participate in Worlds. On some level, as far as players who are well-known in VGC’s community and who have had reasonably strong finishes at sanctioned events, this is probably the extent of the list… but I think it would be silly to think that the three of us are the only “favorites” heading into this weekend.

Cory Moeller (cmoeller22) has done the impossible in that he won the Wisconsin Regional but has still stayed far enough under the radar that if I mention him to someone I still have to qualify the statement with “the guy who won the Wisconsin Regional” before they know who I mean. He ended up with a pretty solid body of work during the 2013 Regionals season between that win and bubbling out of Ft. Wayne’s top cut last year. The next highest finisher in 2013 CP is Adib Alam (honchkro13) at 36th, who didn’t have too fantastic of a Regional season but made it all the way to the round of 16 at US Nationals, and has had some notable online tournament success in the off-season as well. Travis Standiford (MagmaBSTS) seemed to finish just outside of the top cut at every event he played in last year, and will be looking to join the VGC-veteran-Regional-winning-renaissance. The last player with a relevant 2013 season is Maurice Easterly (Reeseesee) in 54th, who made the top cut last year in Ft. Wayne and in Nationals last year as well, but was unable to get passed me in the first round of top cut both times. Outside of Travis, who just needs to find a way to get his resistance on the right side of the top cut bar, I feel like these guys are all kind of in a group of players who have had some good events and some bad events and are looking to find more consistency in 2014, but who have shown that they can play with anyone when they’re on their game.

There are a handful of other players who are also kind of in that good-enough-to-mention-but-not-established-enough-to-be-a-favorite-ordinarily group. Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom) stands out as a player who doesn’t have many real life accomplishments to point at but who has been pretty successful online, so hopefully he’ll get a strong start to the 2014 season here. Luke Swenson (theamericandream38) is actually the player who won Ft. Wayne in 2012 and made it to the top 8 of US Nationals in the same year, but hasn’t really accomplished much since. Chris Wiley (IceKingz) made it to the top 8 of Madison last year, but ran into Zach Droegkamp a round before his win a million Regionals in a row streak ended. The last people who probably deserve a mention are Keegan Beljanski (Darkeness), Andy Himes (Amarillo), Brandon Mitchell (Bisty), and Andrew Burley (Andykins). Ft. Wayne is really wide open: with the field consisting mostly of people who could have really good or really bad days easily, anyone who has been putting particular effort in could vault on top of a fairly shallow group of players this season.

The Smart Money is on…: I know I blew this prediction two weeks ago already, but the last time I predicted Kamaal Harris to win the second Regional he competed in in a season he won, so this time for sure Kamaal to win. Admittedly, the keep-trying-until-it-works system of predictions didn’t work very well when I tried it on EnFuego last season, but what could go wrong if I try it here?

Attending this event? Join your fellow competitors in discussion on our forum.

Pennsylvania Regional

Difficulty Rating:

/ 5

(five time travelling Celebis trying to use magical powers to get an east coast tournament to run on time out of five)

Tournament Organizer: Dorian Redburn

Last Year’s Winner: Matt Sybeldon (bearsfan092)

The Story: As usual, the east coast Regional looks by far to be the deepest, and I could easily mention 20-25 people here who would be favorites if they’d driven to Ft. Wayne instead. Pennsylvania is the only Regional that retains both of its 2013 finalists, though they each went in very different directions after the event last year. Matt Sybeldon (bearsfan092) won the event sort of out of nowhere, having kind of been in that group of players that the community respected but who hadn’t really had a high finish in an official event. From there, however, he only went to one other Regional and didn’t make the top cut of Nationals. 2nd place finisher Aaron Zheng (Cybertron) may not have won the event, but he did go on to win another Regional, make it to the top 16 of US Nationals, and then finish 3rd in the World Championships. That 3rd place finish nets him an automatic invitation to the 2014 World Championships, but he says he’s going to try hard (for the hunnies), anyway. Enosh Shachar (Human), the third place finisher in 2013, had by far the most consistent season of anyone in North America, top cutting all three Regionals he attended, finishing 2nd in US Nationals, and ending the season with a 6th place finish in the World Championships, making him the only player to cut all five events last year. The other player who top cut in 2013 that deserves a closer look is Toler Webb (Dim). He was in sort of an awkward situation last season where he was still mostly trying at every event but didn’t actually have the pressure of needing to qualify for Worlds driving him because he was the 2012 Seniors World Champion, so it’ll be interesting to see what he does this year without the automatic invite to start the season. He’s perhaps the head of the list of players that tends to be underestimated by a good chunk of the community because he doesn’t do much self-promotion, but I’d expect at the end of the season he’ll be one of the sixteen players representing North America in the World Championships.

The final 2013 Masters Worlds competitors in Philadelphia are 2012 Worlds runner-up Wolfe Glick (Wolfey), Ben Rothman (Nightblade7000), and Trista Medine (ryuzaki). Like Toler, Wolfe hasn’t played an event outside of Worlds he actually needed to win in a very long time, so it’ll be interesting to see how he adapts to the Regional metagame after a controversial Worlds run. Ben ended up having a more conventionally controversial Worlds run that involved a tie to the strangest mechanical errors I’ve seen in a Pokémon match since the power knocked out a battle box in 2010 US Nationals, but he made it to two Regional finals in 2013 and won Apex. Trista had a rough Worlds run but was otherwise one of the most consistent players in 2013, making it to the top cut of three of the four events she played in and making the finals once. While he didn’t actually qualify for Worlds, Simon Yip (TDS) is probably the most motivated player in the field after finishing tied for 13th in 2013, which no one seems to be letting him hear the end of. I’d expect him to come out of the gates storming in 2014 to avoid his season ending the same way this year. There are also at least a couple aged-up Seniors from 2013 Worlds looking to make the mark on the Masters division in 13th place finisher Jonathan Hiller (MrFox) and 20th place finisher Edward Fan (iss). Matt Coyle (EnFuego) is my go-to for predictions in this region, but in spite of finishing 16th among North Americans in CP he had a 2013 season that fell below the expectations set by making the top cut of Worlds in the previous two seasons.

There are a variety of other players in the field who had one or two top cut finishes last year. Some notables include Oliver Valenti (Smith), the similarly named Alex Valente (avdc90), Tom Hull (TheGr8), Michael Lanzano (JiveTime), Patrick Brodarick (wer), Dan Levinson (dtrain), Alan Sutterlin (Dubulous), and inexplicably, Evan Latt (plaid).

The Smart Money is on…: There are about 20 players who could realistically win this event, but I’m going to go with the safest on average finish in Enosh Shachar. In spite of his consistency, he’s actually kind of the epitome of the type of player I don’t like to predict because he tends to make a couple risky choices with creative movesets on every team he uses. For whatever reason, in BW2 it always seems to work out for him. I know it’d probably be smarter to predict him to finish in 3rd, but getting close is good, too, so I’ll go with the 2013 season’s most consistent player in an unpredictably difficult field.

Attending this event? Join your fellow competitors in discussion on our forum.

That’s all for BW2! I hope everyone who can makes it out to the last BW2 events and presumably, the last premier VGC events of 2013. XY might be shiny and new, but in the end of the season the shiniest thing is cold, hard, intangible Championship Points.

I think it’s just Evan and I going to Regionals this weekend, but if you’re in Philadelphia, say hello to your favorite balding VGC Worlds commentator/Nugget Bridge administrator (and follow him on Twitter @NBplaid), or if you’re stuck in Ft. Wayne, you can always try your luck saying hello to me!

About the Author

Scott started playing VGC in 2011. He finished 17th at US Nationals, then lost in the final round of 2011 Worlds LCQ. He finished 10th in the 2012 World Championships and qualified for Worlds again in 2013 after going into US Nationals second in CP. Instead of playing, he commentated at US Nationals and the World Championships in 2013 and 2014. Follow him on Twitter @NBNostrom!

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