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Published on May 22nd, 2015 | by pookar

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VGC 2015 North American Spring Regional Preview: Week 2 of 3

As we enter the second week of the VGC 2015 Spring Regionals, let’s look at some of the top competitors coming to Utah and Kansas City Regionals this weekend.

Utah Regionals

Difficulty Rating:
kangaskhan-megaamoongussthundurus-incarnate / 5

(Three simple but effective Pokemon out of Five)

Location: Utah State Fair Park – Grand Hall 155 N 1000 W, Salt Lake City, UT 84116

Registration Time: Sunday 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Last Year’s Winner: Joey McGinley (joej m)

If you’ve read the Week 1 Regional preview, you’re going to see quite a few familiar names who attended the Seattle Regionals who are also attending the Utah Regionals. Since both events are located in the West Coast area of the United States, it makes sense for repeat appearances by some of the top players looking to maximize Championship Points. We’re going to begin this preview with some of the top finishers of last week’s Seattle Regionals, starting with Riley Factura (gengarboi). In addition to winning Seattle last week, which put him into the Top 8 in CP, he also made Day 2 of US Nationals last year in Indianapolis. Second place at Seattle was Mark Hanson (Crawdaunt). His second place finish actually bumped him into the Top 40 in CP for North America after an otherwise quiet season. Continuing to go down the list, Harrison Saylor (Crow) came out of the shadows last week to come in third at Seattle. It’s possible we might see him again at Utah this weekend with another strong showing. Wesley Warthe-Anderson earned fourth at Seattle last week, and attends University of Victoria in Canada with Mark and Max Douglas (starmetroid), who finished at seventh in Seattle. It wouldn’t be out of reach for him to tag along with his buddies down to Utah and prove himself with another performance. At fifth came last year’s World Championships Senior champion, and last year’s Utah Senior’s champion as well, Nikolai Zielinski (Nikolai). Remembered for his heartfelt World Championship interview, Nikolai has continued his success into the Master’s division this year by controlling a Top 8 CP spot in North America. Kimo Nishimura (TFC) rounds out players who made the Top 16 going to Utah as well.

A couple of players who didn’t do as well as they hoped at Seattle are also attending Utah regionals this weekend. Nugget Bridge admins Rushan Shekar (Firestorm) and Huy Ha (Huy) are both going to Utah. Rushan is in the Worlds qualification hunt and Huy looks to leave the middle of the pack and get a bit higher before Nationals. I can also guess that Duy Ha (Duy) will be on the mic this weekend on the stream, but that only means the field will be missing one more top competitor. Jason Wynja (Arti) is another core Nugget Bridge veteran who is doing the back-to-back. Demitrios Kaguras (Kingdjk) has had a great season so far and actually bubbled out of Top Cut at Seattle last week at 17th. He’s going to have to improve that performance this week in order to gather any CP from this event. Sam Johnson (RastaCharmander) earned 24th in Seattle last week and has room for improvement at Utah. Tyson Gernack (Firefly) has the same Regionals finishes as Sam and can similarly improve from a good Utah placing. Alberto Lara (Sweeper) has been a West Coast Top Cut staple over the last two years, but was unable to place last weekend. It will be interesting to see if a good finish can propel him into the Top 40 for CP. Finishing off Seattle attendees is Conan Thompson (conan), who previously won in Oregon in the winter. He has two Top 64 finishes in addition to his victory, so he goes into Utah looking to replace one of those.

There are still quite a few players left that chose not to attend the Seattle Regionals last weekend. Tied in finishes with Conan is Chase Lybbert (I Am A Rookie). Previously solidified in the Top 8 in North American CP with his brother, Colten Lybbert (Rookie Slayer MLG), other players have caught up and both brothers now sit around the 8-16th place range. In 16th place is Michael Fladung (Primitive). Michael has been a pretty consistent player the last two seasons and has two Top 32 finishes in addition to a Top 4. Alejandro Jimenez (Legacy) is just outside of the Top 16 right now, but has not hit his best finish limit yet for Regionals. His brother, Anthony Jimenez (DarkAssassin) is a bit further out, just outside the Top 40, but also is not at his best finish limit yet. Both of them have high finishes this season and look to repeat their success. Tracy McLaughlin (Mack) and Williams Halls the Third (Biosci) are two Arizona residents looking to invade the neighboring Utah for some Regionals CP. William is right outside Top 16 CP so this event is especially important if he wants to secure a spot in there before Nationals. Tracy is right outside Top 40, and both players’ worst finish is Top 64, so they both need to get Top 32 or better to improve their totals for the season. Mitchell Davies (MissingNoL) has earned all of his CP from Premier Challenges and looks to make a splash with a strong Regionals performance.

Smart Money is on: Nikolai Zielinski (Nikolai). Call it a hunch, I think Nikolai can take Utah for a second year in a row across divisions. He was second in Seattle after Swiss and I think Seattle had a stronger field of players than Utah will, based on experience.

Kansas City Regionals

Difficulty Rating:
kinglerslowkingnidokingseaking / 5

(Four Royal Pokemon out of Five)

Location: Overland Park Convention Center 6000 College Blvd Overland Park, KS, 66211

Registration Time: Sunday 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Last Year’s Winner: Ben Irons (benjitheGREAT)

The Kansas City Regional came as quite a surprise last year, being announced late compared to the other Regionals. As such, it didn’t have the strongest attendance or players attending. That should change this season, as all players were properly alerted of the event’s existence and planned accordingly. I wouldn’t expect enough attendance for a Top 16 Cut… but it should definitely be more competitive than last year.

Team Michigan

Although former force of Michigan has since gone west to rainier endeavors, Team Michigan looks to show up strong in Kansas City. Team Michigan features who I believe is the person with the most Championship Points attending this event, Andrew Burley (Andykins), who has already amassed three solid regional finishes (Top 4/8/16) during the season. Jonathan McMillan (MrEobo) is another strong trainer from Michigan who is currently at 32nd place for North American CP. He’s maxed out on Premiere Challenge CP, but can improve his Regionals CP with a Top 32 or better. Keegan Beljanski (Darkeness) made a much larger splash last season but has a respectable 204 CP and is just outside Top 64. With a strong finish here and next week at Madison, Keegan could quickly be in the running for Top 16 or better. Kevin Beach (RandomVGC) is just below Keegan in the standings and is in a similar situation where he can really move up in the next two weeks before entering Nationals. Rounding out Michigan is Sam Schweitzer (Sam). Less accomplished than the other four players listed, Sam is a younger player who can use this event to prove he can play.

Team Illinois

Kamaal Harris (Kamaal) leads the pack of Chicago players with a few Worlds appearances and he looks poised to get to another one this season. He’s at 30th overall for CP and can really solidify his place entering Nationals. Evan Deligiannis (nave) borders Top 64 and could definitely push into stipend range with a strong Regionals performance. Rounding out the Chicago area mentions is Matt Swanson (Swanner). Matt has had some decent performances this season and could be a name to look out for.

Team Texas

Arguably the strongest “state” attending the Regional, Texas features some of the strongest competitors in the Video Game Championships. Ben Irons (Benji) is a former Worlds competitor from 2013 who most definitely yearns to get back there and make a statement. He’s just outside Top 64 right now and wants to prime himself for a strong Nationals run in order to get back to the World Championships. Oliver Valenti (Smith) is one of Ben’s close friends and is a strong player when he wants to be. He hasn’t gotten himself to many tournaments this year, so his CP total is low, but the finishes he has are respectable and he’s a player you can’t count out. Cedric Bernier (Talon) echoes Oliver’s tournament appearances, but has better results, winning a Regional in the fall. Along with some strong Premiere Challenge results, his Regional win has him comfortably at 25th in North American CP. Last but not least (literally) is Texas’ leader in 2015 CP, Jake Muller (MajorBowman). He’s made the rounds this season, picking up CP from all over the United States and leads Cedric by just 3 CP. Unlike Cedric, Jake needs a Top 16 or better finish at Kansas City in order to gain CP.

Team Arkansas

It’s just Justin Burns (Spurrific) and Jonathan Rankin (JRank). But Justin has kinda dominated my buddy Clayton all season and has Top 8/16 Regional finishes to boot. And Jonathan is another good regional placement away from a seriously good position going into US Nationals. Arkansas might not be too deep but these two sure can play.

Team Kansas Vacation

As with most Regionals, we’re gonna have some travelers coming. Caleb Ryor (BlitznBurst), Patrick Donegan (Pd0nz), Paul Chua (pwnyperson), and Mike Suleski (OmegaDonut) are coming from the Northeast. Mike was able to top cut last week’s Massachusetts Regional so he might be on a bit of a hot streak. Ben Hickey (Darkpenguin67) comes from Maryland and is right around the 32nd place cutoff for Nationals stipends. Adit Selvaraj (LithiumAcid) has gotten to play in Florida for this season and was able to get Top 8 there in the winter. It will definitely be interesting to see if he can prove himself with another good finish.

The Smart Money is on: I’m going with Ben Irons (Benji) for the Kansas City Regionals. This does mean I am calling for the repeat from Benji, which should be significantly harder to achieve this year with the increased attendance and overall strength, but I believe he is motivated enough to get it done.


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11 Responses to VGC 2015 North American Spring Regional Preview: Week 2 of 3

  1. LightCore says:

    I need to ask if someone going to Utah would be willing to get me the Top Cut teams. Just going around and getting the six mons and sending that info to me would be great. This goes towards the teams article and towards usage statistics.

  2. Blazikenburner says:

    Look forward to seeing you all there at Utah!:3 This weekend should be fun :3

  3. Bopper says:

    Looks like I forgot to mention I was going to KC, oops. Good luck to everybody this weekend!

  4. Talon says:

    Looks like I forgot to mention I was going to KC, oops. Good luck to everybody this weekend!

    I bet pookar knew.

  5. OmegaDonut says:

    I am going to Kansas City but I won’t be competing, I’ll be streaming the event on Cybertron’s Twitch channel; Andrea is joining me on the mic.

  6. IntensifyVGC says:

    Good luck to all in participation this weekend!

  7. pookar says:

    Looks like I forgot to mention I was going to KC, oops. Good luck to everybody this weekend!

    despite mr bernier’s ANIMOSITY i did not FORGET i just didn’t know! I asked zach a few days ago and he didn’t say your name so i didn’t assume anything!
     
    i will use this post as a PSA!: i like doing these previews, but I am not going to reach out to every VGC player that is worth mentioning, so if you’re going to an event, just vote in the thread. You can tell me too, of course, but I use the voting in the threads as a starting point for these things.
     
    Anyway, thanks for any who reads these things. I appreciate constructive feedback on it as well, because I’m still kinda new at doing it. I think it’s going alright, though.

  8. IamJabberwocky says:

    anyone going to Ga next week?

  9. Syncie says:

    Omg everyone forgot about David Kubiak. He’s my bet for KC

  10. Tman says:

    Maybe I’ll hop on a flight to Kansas tomorrow? Maybe I’ll go to Australia again? Maybe I’ll go to the Brooklyn Premier Challenge?

    Find out in the next installment of “Where In The World Is Tommy Cooleen?”

  11. Azazel says:

    dont know if I’m happy or sad that Daniel finally didn’t get mentioned in a preview, but I think I’m leaning more towards happy.

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