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Published on January 2nd, 2013 | by Duy

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Looking Back: The Top 12 VGC Moments of 2012

2012 was a banner year for VGC and competitive Pokemon in general. We saw some incredible matches, intensely competitive tournaments, and a complete reshaping of the North American tournament circuit over the course of the year. Nugget Bridge contributor and distinguished member of the Ha Dynasty Duy Ha (Duy) takes a look back his his top 12 moments of 2012.

12. Japan Returns After 2011 Absence

After missing the 2011 season due to the devastating tsunami, Japan returned to the VGC scene with a vengeance in 2012. The presence of the historically dominating Japanese trainers was sorely missed in 2011, but Satoru Masukata and Jumpei Yamamato represented Japan well in the Masters division in 2012 where Jumpei was able to Top Cut Worlds. Unluckily for him, he was paired up against the number one seed Ray Rizzo and had to settle for an 8th place finish. In the Seniors division, Shota was able to qualify again after being one of the only Japanese representatives in 2011, thanks to his invite from Worlds 2010, and Santa Ito continues his streak of qualifying for every Worlds since 2009 by going through the Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ). (Both of their fathers ended up facing off in the Masters LCQ as well!) Santa ended up cutting but was dispatched in the Top 8 by Nugget Bridge’s very own Snake.

Without a doubt, Japan’s return to the VGC scene has upped the competitive level across the board. Though Japanese trainers only competed against North American and European trainers at Worlds, their influence was felt even before then with the results of Japan’s National Championships sending shockwaves through the other regions’ metagames, most notably by the introduction of Swagger as a mainstream tactic. I look forward to following their performance in the 2013 season.

11. Scott Bursts the Bubble… Only to Bubble

Around the Nugget Bridge offices, we have a few inside jokes. There are the obvious like betting pools on which Regional drcossack won’t attend next and who will win which tournament with one of Cybertron’s teams, but perhaps the most lasting has been Scott Glaza (Scott)’s relationship with The Bubble. The Bubble has been unkind to user Scott. In 2011, he placed 17th at US Nationals, missing out on the Top Cut of 16 on the strength of his tiebreakers and was knocked out at the final round of the Worlds LCQ in San Diego. In 2012, well, he placed 17th in his flight again and missed out on yet another Nationals Top Cut. Unlucky. But Scott persevered and was finally able to prove to the world that he deserved a spot in the World Championships by going through an LCQ stacked with top users, delighting the world and breaking his very own Curse of the Bambino. Scott rolled pretty hot at Worlds, defeating skarm in a mirror match that was broadcast on stream and finished with a respectable 4-2 record. Unfortunately, curses die hard and just like previous years, his tiebreaker was not enough to carry him through, and he bubbled at 10th place. With 2013, Scott has another shot at beating the Curse of the Bubble and has already managed to Top Cut one Regional, though he unfortunately bubbled just out of the prize money. Look for Scott to continue falling just short of great things throughout the season!

10. Chinese Dood Becomes Canada’s First and Possibly Last National Champion

Pokemon has never been kind to the great white north. From skarm’s loss to Flyquaza, to skarm’s disqualification from Journey Across America for being Canadian, to skarm messing up 2010 Nationals by forcing organizers to denote which country the players in Top 16 originated from, to skarm’s chances at invading 2011 Nationals being ruined by Simisear… err, maybe Pokemon is just not kind to skarm. But nonetheless, the first Canadian Nationals was hosted this year, and Tony Cheung (Chinese Dood) emerged as the champion of the tournament, upsetting tournament favorites R_Inanimate and the perpetually unlucky skarm (though he did place 2nd). Of course, since Canada can never have anything nice, Canadian Nationals has been cancelled, making Chinese Dood the only Canadian National Champion and undisputed King of the North.

9. Founding of Nugget Bridge

Full disclosure: My handsome, intelligent, witty and all around nice guy editor made me add this. Still, Nugget Bridge’s founding just before US Nationals is kind of a seminal moment in the VGC community. Before Nugget Bridge, we had many different websites we could go to for VGC support, ultimately splitting our community and knowledge base. The creation of Nugget Bridge was able to bring all of us from Europe to Canada to America to Japan and beyond together under one united website. From its founding, we have all had great times, and I think we all have grown as a community. A lot of us have learned more about the VGC metagame and have made some of our closest friends on here that we have since had the opportunity to meet at live tournaments across the country and around the globe. Nugget Bridge is continually expanding and providing more opportunities for the VGC community to grow. [Thank you. — Ed.]

8. RNG’ers Get a Chance to Shine

RNG’ers are an integral part of our community — they supply Pokemon to practically all of the top players on Nugget Bridge! Even though they are so important, they rarely have a chance to be in the spotlight, with their only shot at glory being when their nicknamed Pokemon were shown on the big screen (an option that was, sadly, taken away during the season). Two of the biggest RNG’ers of Nugget Bridge, however, got their time in the spotlight for their battling prowess in 2012. At Nationals, in only her second VGC Tournament, cassie was able to Top Cut a difficult field and was even about to knock out the eventual winner of the tournament, Wolfe Glick, when the timer ended her tournament. Her story can be found here.

On the other hand, user Biosci was finally able to use his RNG’d Pokemon himself and get his feet wet in the battling scene at the Worlds LCQ, where he was eliminated just two wins away from qualifying for Worlds. In the last moments of the year, he then followed up this success by winning the first ever Wi-Fi Challenge, netting himself 10 Championship Points and a Bye to whichever Regional he is able to attend. No longer can you look at these users as just a means to an end as they have clearly established themselves as threats to contend with in the coming season!

7. Abram Burrows Dominates His First Year

Rarely any coverage of Juniors occurs unless Nugget Bridge’s very own Babbytron is involved. That’s unfortunate because 2012 saw one of the greatest first year success stories in Pokemon history. In only his first year competing, Abram Burrows notched up an impressive record, placing second at a California Regional, going undefeated throughout Nationals, and then going undefeated throughout Worlds. The only competitor that comes close to this kind of dominance in a season was Jeremy Fann back when he was a Junior in 2009, who also won Nationals and Worlds that year after getting second place at California’s Regional. As a bonus, Abram used cool mons to secure his victory at Worlds, including Landorus and Cloyster — a Pokemon that was released before he was even born!

6. Graduating From Their Class

In 2011, the Masters Division was added to allow Juniors some time to adjust to a different metagame. A lot of doubt was in the air as to whether or not this would actually help and whether or not players could do well their first season after moving up a division. Boy did they prove us wrong. Human, a Senior in 2011, was able to succeed in the Masters division, nearly qualifying for Worlds through Nationals, and Snake, a Junior in 2011, was able to take it all the way to the Top 4 of Worlds in the Seniors division. Sejun Park, Seniors runner-up from 2011, performed exceptionally well at Worlds for his first year as a Master. How well? He Top Cut, falling only to Worlds Runner-Up Wolfe Glick in the Round of 8. The 2013 season is poised to have even more graduation stories, including some that have already begun with 2011 World Champ Kamran Jahadi (Kamz) taking first place in the Fall San Jose Regional (defeating yours truly), perpetual competitor Aaron Zheng (Cybertron) placing second in the Fall Philadelphia Regional (using Kamz’s Worlds team), and 2012 World Champ Toler Webb (Dim) making it to the Top Cut of that same tournament.

Not bad, kids. Not bad.

5. User Dim Shuts Me the Yams Up

Speaking of Toler, as we all know, I can be a real jerk sometimes. Back when Dim was just a young upstart, I did not think too highly of him because he was just a kid trying to compete with the big boys. The nerve! Turns out 2012, his final year as a Senior, was his breakout season, and Dim was able to capture the elusive title of World Champion. He has since followed that up with an impressive Top 8 finish at the Fall Philadelphia Regional and looks to be a threat for the remainder of the season and Worlds. He has grown so much as a player that I even stole one of his spreads to use on my Regional team. His story can be read here, and congratulations again! That’ll teach me to ever doubt anyone ever again.

4. Wolfey and Cybertron Repeat as National Champions

The 2012 season saw a lot of changes to the tournament format that we had become used to since 2009. Perhaps the most notable was the decision to switch Nationals from an invitational to an open field tournament, making the tournament just that much more difficult to take. Add on Byes that could be attained from placing well at Regionals and the 2012 US Nationals field was completely different from what I was used to. As a spectator just sitting on my lazy butt from home, I was pretty unsure as to who would win after the first day because of a vast array of names that I did not even recognize along with the powerhouse names on the list of top cutters. Turns out all of that speculation was for naught as known-quantities and defending National Champs Wolfe Glick (Wolfey) and Aaron Zheng (Cybertron) were able to cement themselves as some of the greatest American players ever, capturing their second titles in a row from a field that scared me to death. Congratulations to the both of them!

3. Ray Rizzo Threepeats Worlds

Winning Worlds is difficult. Winning worlds a second time is even more difficult. Winning worlds a third time seemed impossible, but to the surprise of even himself, Ray Rizzo (Ray) stepped it up and took his third World Championships title in a row and second from Hawaii. Ray was a little bit out of practice coming into Worlds, having not had to seriously train for any tournaments prior to Worlds, but his innate skill carried him through the tournament as he became only the second player to go undefeated in Worlds after Kazuyuki Tsuji did it in 2009 (the only Worlds that Ray has not competed in). His story can be read here on Nugget Bridge.

Is a fourpeat in the cards for 2013?

2. Doing it Big in Hawaii

Worlds is distinct from the other events in the circuit: they do it big at Worlds. They hold nothing back and unlike other events, Worlds becomes more of a showcase of Pokemon and what that stands for to me. It brings the best players from all across the globe and truly shows me how universal Pokemon is. You see foreign players who can barely speak English playing and being able to communicate with their fellow trainers through the game of Pokemon. Because Worlds is such an exclusive event compared to Nationals, many players you might see deeply focused on Pokemon earlier in the season are, by Saturday, just ready to relax, hang out with their fellow trainers and cheer on those left in the tournament. Me, I did not care if I qualified. I just wanted to be there to hang out with people that I did not get to see during the year (the only person I didn’t get to see was evan [We’ll do it big in Vancouver instead — Ed.]). Put all that together at a beautiful location such as Hawaii and, well, you’ve got a winner. Worlds is consistently the best event of the VGC season and TPCI has not dropped the ball yet. Here’s to doing in big in Vancouver next year!

1. Swiss Regionals and an Open Nationals

This is probably the best thing that has happened to the competitive scene since VGC tournaments began. The 2012 season was huge for VGC because it shook up everything about the circuit as we know it. Not only did we see long-time VGC head Mike Liesik move on to greener pastures as TCGO baron and be replaced by Smash Bros. staple Chris Brown (AlphaZealot), but 2012 also saw the elimination of the single elimination Regional tournaments that were the bane of competitive players everywhere and replaced by much stronger Swiss style tournaments. Swiss Regionals allow for players to continue playing, even after losing. Since Pokemon a luck based game, this allows players to have an unlucky battle here or there and still have the chance to win the entire tournament as well as allowing less competitive players to play more matches in a day.

The other huge change was alluded to earlier: Open Nationals. An open Nationals allowed for everyone to compete and have a chance to qualify for Worlds, though previous Regionals winners had a significant advantage. This weeded out those who simply got lucky at a Regional (like yours truly!) and allowed all of the best players to compete! Considering that the top 2 from US Nationals went on to place 2nd and 4th at Worlds at the end of the year, I think we can call the new format a pretty significant improvement.

Well, that’s it… 2012 in a nutshell. For my money, 2012 was one of the best years for competitive Pokemon ever, and there was so much happening that I wasn’t able to cover everything in just this one article. Let me know your favorite moments from 2012 in the comments below. Here’s to more great battles, more great memories and above all more Pokemon in 2013!

From all of us at Nugget Bridge, we wish you a safe and happy New Year!


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