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Published on February 13th, 2015 | by pookar

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VGC 2015 North American Winter Regionals Preview

This article was a collaboration between Chris Semp (pookar) who did the Virginia, Missouri, and SoCal sections and Chalkey Horenstein (Chalkey) who put together the Oregon section.

The first set of regionals for the 2015 format have arrived. What some can consider a modernized 2013 format, we might find some players that had great success in the 2014 format have to adapt to this vastly different format. With Mega Pokémon involved and the removal of Gems being the main differences between the 2013 and 2015 formats it will be exciting to see what new strategies veterans and new players alike attempt to pull out this weekend. Lets see who some of these players are who are going to be crafting these strategies and who has the best chances of winning!

Virginia Regional

Difficulty Rating:

aggron-megavenusaur-megalandorus-therianslowbro-megabisharp / 5
Location: Exhibition Hall at Meadow Event Park, 13111 Dawn Boulevard Doswell, VA 23047

Registration Time: 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM

Last Year’s Winner: Ray Rizzo (Ray)

This year’s Virginia Winter Regional is being hosted at the same venue as in 2014 at Meadow Event Park. It will be a particularly interesting Regional because local YouTube Superstar Aaron Zheng (Cybertron), who has been on a hot streak of late, has decided to take his talents to… St. Louis? Notable other absent regional players include Aaron Traylor (Unreality), Enosh Shachar (Human), Jeudy Azzarelli (SoulSur), Patrick Donegan (Pd0nz) and Edward Fan (iss). It also seems like you can roll a twenty sided die to figure out whether former 2013 Virginia champion Ben Rothman (Nightblade7000) is attending an event or not.

The Usual Suspects

Even without Aaron, Virginia Regional attendees have their work cut out for them. We are going to get this preview going strong with last year’s champion, Ray Rizzo (Ray). Ray has not attended any events yet this year, but he also had not attended any other events at this point last year when he won Virginia Regionals either. Ray is always a threat to flip the switch and dominate the competition. Wolfe Glick (Wolfey) was just kicked out of the Top 8 by Spurrific over the weekend, but looks to pull back into the Top 8 with a strong finish in Virginia. New to east coast Regionals but definitely a familiar face, Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom) sits just ahead of Wolfe in CP with 288 and he looks to continue his success after his third place finish at the 2014 World Championship with his third Regional attempt. Just outside the Worlds trip Top 8 CP boundary is VGC’s favorite “villain”, Ashton Cox (linkyoshimario). Ashton’s unconventional Pokémon have him maxed out on Premier Challenge CP which means that he can only increase his CP total with Regional finishes. He has a Top 128 finish and a pending finish allotted, so he has time to break into the Top 8. Toler Webb (Dim) is another east coast regular and 2014 Worlds competitor in attendance. Toler was able to get sixth place in the grueling 243 person Top 8 cut at the Ft. Wayne Regional in the fall and looks to get another Top Cut under his belt in the first Regional in 2015. Rounding off the list of 2014 Worlds competitors in attendance are Ben Hickey (darkpenguin67) with 166 CP and Michael Lanzano (JiveTime), who also cut the Apex tournament and is no stranger to east coast Regional Top Cuts.

Veteran Presence

There are plenty of players left who have been in the game for a while with past results. Matt Coyle (PrettyLittleLiar) with two Worlds invites in his repertoire comes to mind immediately. Matt made it into Virginia’s Top Cut in 2014, currently has 78 CP for this year, and always has the potential to go far in an event. Trista Medine (ryuzaki) has been to a load of events this year and with her consistent results has earned 160 CP so far and looks to compound that with another strong Regional finish. Simon Yip (Simon) is another east coast regular who has put in work at his Premier Challenges with 174 CP. His friend, Chuppa Cross IV (chuppa), has not had the same Premier Challenge fortune (68 CP), but remains a threat nonetheless. Caleb Ryor (BlitznBurst) has also been cleaning up nicely in the Connecticut Premier Challenges with 152 CP and along with Chuppa and Trista, managed to Top Cut the Massachusetts Regional in 2014. Angel Miranda (CT MikotoMisaka) usually finds himself playing on Saturday at the Trading Card Game but will be playing VGC this time around with his 152 CP from Premier Challenges. Oliver Valenti (Smith) is a solid member of the Boiler Room group who rounds this section of experienced players out.

Young Bloods

It is surprising to wait this long to mention the 2015 leader in CP at this date, but I will start this section off with David Mancuso (Mancuso). After playing through 2014 as a relatively unknown in the overall picture, he exploded with a Regional victory and Top 4 finish in the fall and still has not maxed his Premier Challenge CP yet. David’s situation is very beneficial as he does not have to even cut to have a successful Regional with his two strong finishes unlikely to be matched by most players. Still, look for David to keep up his hard work in this Regional. Another up-and-comer to look out for in Virginia is Nick Borghi (LightCore). A first year Master, Nick was able to top cut the Philadelphia Regional in the fall in addition to a Premier Challenge win. At 178 CP, Nick is on the cusp of the Top 40 Worlds invite. Another first year Master, Paul Chua (pwny person) has been dominating the Battle Spot Doubles ladder in OR/AS. Paul finished second in Seniors at Virginia last year as well. With a Top 8 finish at Philadelphia he has 112 CP so far and definitely has the potential to repeat that performance in Virginia. Alec Rubin (amr97) made a splash last year at US Nationals, finishing 19th overall, and currently sits at 19th in CP for NA. With 224 CP, Alec looks to improve on his two Top 64 finishes this year going into Spring. Tommy Cooleen (Tman) has only attended Premier Challenges this year, but in 2014 he was an absolute monster in Swiss during Regionals and it would be no shocker for him to dominate in Swiss again (118 CP).

Bonus: Premiere Challenge Heroes

I am including this section to go just one step further in the preview process. These are just some players who have put in great PC results but have little or no Regionals experience. It will be exciting to see if these players can translate their success on the next level.

  1. Daniel Stein (BlazikenBurner): 134 CP
  2. Amelia Zoldy (VioletPumpkin): 160 CP
  3. Stephen Brown III (pyromaniac720): 182 CP
  4. Daniel Litvin (TalkingLion): 144 CP – Cut Virginia last year
  5. Matthew Terriberry (Crazysnorlax): 126 CP – Cut Massachusets last year
  6. Jonathan Evans (Ezrael): 78 CP – Top 32 at Philadelphia in 2014
  7. Justin Rodrigues (Serapis): 202 CP
  8. Arbin Jun Tumaneng (Cypher): 20 CP – Not much CP this year, but former Apex 2014 champion looks for his first top finish

Smart Money: I am gonna have to go with Wolfe for this one… Wolfe always impresses at Regionals and if he takes this the least bit seriously I can see him easing through Swiss into the best-of-three Top Cut where he is such a dominant player. With the metagame still being established with Battle Spot Doubles, Premiere Challenges, and Apex, it will be exciting to see what these players pull out for the first regional of the 2015 format.

St. Louis Regional

Difficulty Rating:

/5

Location: Definitely not St. Louis: St.Charles Convention Center, 1 Convention Center Plaza, St Charles, MO 63303

Registration Time: Saturday: Check In: 9:30-10:30 am. All Players.

Last Year’s Winner: Matthew Carter (mattj)

The folks over at TPCi have decided to officially stream their first Regional, and they have chosen St. Louis! Just when Scott thought he escaped the midwest, he makes his return with Evan to commentate this two-day Regional. VGC coverage will be from 2:30pm to 6pm CST on Saturday and 10am to 1pm CST on Sunday on the official Twitch channel, with additional rebroadcasts on Monday and Tuesday. Be sure to tune in if you do not have the chance to attend a Regional this weekend!

Aaron Zheng (Cybertron) leads off this preview coming off of a recent grassroots victory at Apex 2015 in New Jersey and comes into St. Louis with 320 CP, which puts him at third in North America. Aaron still has a third Regional to fill, plus a few PCs to improve on, but he is looking really good so far this year. Greg Johnson (bgt) joins Aaron in players qualified for a Worlds trip at this point in the season with a near perfect PC record and three Regional finishes of Top 32, Top 64, and Top 64. Greg looks to replace one of the Top 64 finishes with something much better at St. Louis. The third player who just recently snuck into the Top 8 in NA CP with two PC wins over the weekend (Where were you, Zubat?), Justin Burns (Spurrific) looks to add on to his Top 8 Texas Regional finish.

Andy Himes (Amarillo) sits just outside Top 8 at twelfth with 248 CP and it will be interesting to see if he continues to bring the Smeargle that he used throughout 2014 into this 2015 Regional. Jake Muller (majorbowman) is right behind Andy at fourteenth place with 232 CP and looks to improve on his two Top 32 finishes. Hopefully the NB Major PMs do not get to his head. Thomas McCready (Tmac) is just two CP behind Jake at 230 CP and finished fourth at the Ft. Wayne fall Regional. Just behind Thomas is Kamaal Harris (Kamaal) with 226 CP. A veteran of the VGC scene, Kamaal had a less-than-Kamaal 2014 season, but made Worlds in 2013 and with a similar metagame style I expect him to be more comfortable in 2015.

Last year’s winner of St. Louis, Matthew Carter (mattj) enters the competition with no CP for 2015 but cannot be underestimated after taking home the crown last year. Former 2013 Regional god Zach Droegkamp (Braverius) returns to the Midwest with 212 CP in 2015 and looks to get back into the top Regional form that we know he is capable of. Another strong competitor, Keegan Beljanski (Darkeness) currently has 204 CP and managed to go undefeated in Swiss last year at St. Louis, so watch out! Jonathan McMillan (MrEobo) is tied with Keegan in CP and looks to represent Team Michigan and Team Fabulous with the absence of Scott as a competitor at St. Louis. Greyson Garren (Greysong) finished Top 4 last year at St. Louis and got second place at Kansas, too, so expect a strong performance here. Andrew Burley (Andykins) is sitting cozy just inside the Top 40 Worlds range with 192 CP after a Top 8 finish at Fort Wayne and a Top 16 finish at Philadelphia. He also finished ninth at Apex 2015. Jonathan Rankin (JRank) is a Midwest/South regular and made the Top Cut last year in St. Louis and just barely missed a Worlds invite last year (along with Wesley, Stephen, Greysong, and Zach). Just outside the Top 40 is Evan Deligiannis (nave) with a Top 16 finish and 182 CP. Jon Hu (Jhufself) has not done much since his Top 4 at US Nationals 2014 but his creativity is definitely something to look out for.

Hopefully the Morioka trio will be in attendance, too. As I just noted, both Wesley and Stephen narrowly missed Worlds invites last year. What is interesting is that Mama Morioka leads all Moriokas in 2015 CP, beating Stephen 116-114. Other Midwest veterans include 2014 Worlds competitor Tiffany Stanley (Shiloh) who currently sits at 76 CP, Clayton Lusk (Zubat) whose affection for horses does not match his skill at Pokémon, Nico Villalobos (CalmLava), who always manages some solid finishes, and Aaron Grubbs (LPFan).

Bonus: Premiere Challenge Heroes

I am not as familiar with the Midwest area so I am sure a few names will be left off here, but these are some standout names I noticed at a glance:

  1. Cody Bernheisel (CodeUmbreon) 192 CP
  2. Matthew Peroutka 196 CP
  3. Michael Hall 192 CP
  4. Kyle Epperson 176 CP
  5. Aaron Traylor (Unreality) 162 CP – Look for this Young Buck to get out of his difficult region and into the Midwest and prove himself to the circuit.

Smart Money: Gotta be CT Aaron “Cybertron” Zheng. Cliches aside, he’s on a definite hot streak and is definitely putting the work in lately to make winning events seem easy. Winter Regionals, being the first of the format, are often dice rolls but it would take a lot to outplay or outwork Aaron this early.

Portland, Oregon

Difficulty

salamence-megasalamence-megasalamence-megasalamence-mega

(Four Mega Salamence who fled here from states that are having more terrifying winters/5)

Last Year’s Winner: Alex Stempe (Stempe)

Portland, much like St. Louis, had a reputation a few years ago of being a somewhat easier regional compared to others, which overtime has attracted more and more of the affluent players who want easier Championship Points and can make the trip. While I in no way intend to diminish the competition of California and Virginia, this one is no longer a free ride to the top, and frankly wasn’t even that easy to begin with. While the challenge of wading through considerably larger crowds of competition is more apparent in those states, the challenge here comes from having very little room to avoid the big threats that are coming.

I definitely have to give the first mention on the threat list to Alex Stempe (Stempe), who won last year and is very much a contender. Hailing from California, he’ll be making the long commute up here just like last year. During the previous Oregon Regional, Alex made use of Goodra, who at that point in the metagame was considered a very odd choice – and while Goodra got both spots of Oregon’s finals last year and got a handful of other notices, it was still typically overlooked. Expect someone as smart and creative as Alex to pull some interesting choices.

On the more local-ish side, Randy Kwa (R Inanimate) from British Columbia is a nearby opponent who qualified for Worlds last year. Randy is especially noteworthy because he breaks the mold – both in terms of the painfully obvious pun on his overuse of Excadrill and in terms of the fact that he ran basically the same team at four events last year and still did very well in all of them, despite numerous articles on Nugget Bridge explaining how the team works. In short, this is a man that cannot be stopped by team scouting; he’s experienced, and can read players very well. Also, if you play Randy, try not to be too intimidated by his highly probable “BP Earned: 20,000 BP” footnote that you’ll see during idle screens of the battle.

Speaking of British Columbia star players, it is reasonable to assume we’ll see Jason Wynja (Arti) and Tony Cheung (Chinese Dood), who both made top 8 at this tournament last year, and April Hooge (Phenac), who is entering her second year in the Masters Division. April’s first year in Masters kicked off with a 5th place in NorCal Regionals, an already difficult tournament. Considering this is the closest regional British Columbia is going to get this month, if these trainers show up anywhere, it will be here.

Hajime Uesegi (Aravalent) made top cut last year, beating Sam Haarsma (DrFidget) in the eighth and final round of swiss. Both players are both strong players and reliably consistent. Sam has been a little more active this year, having won a handful of Premiere Challenges, and also has a history of doing well at Winter Regionals, getting a top 4 finish in Florida in VGC ’13, despite using an un-EV trained Beartic. Expect him to top cut this year – unless Hajime comes out of nowhere and blocks him again. Coming in 9th at this regional last year was Gabby Snyder (JTK), who has only gotten better in the last year, having gotten 5th place out of 208 at Houston Regionals this past fall.

Leading the troops coming here from the East Coast will be Patrick Donegan (Pdonz), who top cut in Philadelphia Regionals this past fall and has been bubbling near or in the top 40 all season. Patrick hails from New York, a state with some of the hardest Premiere Challenges in the country – and those Premiere Challenges have honed his skills far more than those who have been sniping easy Championship Points in competitively quiet areas. It’s really tempting for a lazy player to analyze an opponent solely on their ranking on the ladder, but considering where Patrick has been training I would not underestimate him.

The big question, of course, is who from Oregon’s top cut last year will be returning. Also on the list of players from last year’s top eight include our National Champion, Alex Ogloza (Evan Falco), Michael Hutchinson, and Sean Webb. It should be no stretch of reason to assume Alex Ogloza has potential to be a huge threat as both a Worlds qualifier and National Champion, though he has been suspiciously quiet this season so far as far as attendance goes. Nonetheless, we can’t overlook the fact that he won the very first three day National Championship for VGC. That’s all sorts of time for people to figure out his team and style – and to win enough games in a row to pull this off in spite of that means a consistency that can’t be forgotten from a little time off.

Premiere Challenge Heroes coming to this regional:

  1. Hayden McTavish (Enigne)- 222
  2. Conan Thompson (conan) – 212
  3. John Steffen (Legend X) – 200
  4. Patrick Donegan (Pdonz) – 170
  5. Max Douglas (starmetroid) – 166
  6. Jason Wynja (Arti) – 146
  7. Demitrios Kaguras – 146
  8. Rushan Shekar (Firestorm) – 144

The Smart Money Is On: This is going to be an interesting regional; players like Sam Haarsma and Alex Stempe are known for their unique teams that catch people off guard, and players like Randy Kwa and Alex Ogloza are known for their ability to have their whole team apparent to the opposition and still doing well through experience and strong predictions. When you’ve got players known for their tricks and players known for their ability to read others, it’s hard to say either is a real advantage. Right now Sam and Patrick Donegan are probably the ones trying the hardest right now – that we know of. Their Premiere Challenge attendance and successes there are a good indicator of what will happen, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a regional where it was as simple as looking at the numbers. If you want to base this solely on who has been training hard this year and regularly attending and doing well, Sam and Patrick are the easy picks four top four or better. But I would not be surprised at all if Randy, Alex Stempe, and Alex Ogloza are preparing a ton of tricks that we don’t know just yet.

Southern California Regional

Difficulty Rating

garchomp-megakangaskhan-megaludicolotangela / 5
Location: Pioneer Event Center 45000 Valley Central Way Lancaster, CA 93536

Registration Time: Check-in 9:00 AM Saturday Feb 14th

Last Year’s Winner: Omari Travis (BadIntent)

After last years record breaking attendance for a modern regional, resulting in two flights and a top 32 cut, the SoCal regional moves to Lancaster to be better prepared for similar attendance numbers. Last year there were about 475 masters and 800+ participants across all divisions and it will be interesting to see if those numbers can be eclipsed this time around.

Veteran Leadership

SoCal regionals is full of veterans of the VGC scene, as well as young up and comers. Last year’s winner, Omari Travis (BadIntent) has been playing forever and made Worlds last year and even brought Mega Garchomp when he did. Omari does not stray too far from the norm in Pokemon choice, but almost always has some surprising but effective moveset choices. He was able to get Top 8 at Houston in the fall bringing the Mega Garchomp back, but I do not expect to see it come back a third time from Omari. Huy Ha (Huy) is another one of the oldest members of the community and one of the founders of Nugget Bridge. He has been pretty quiet so far this year, only collecting a few CP from a Premiere Challenge, but Huy is one of those players who could always go on a run, as we saw at US Nationals in 2014. Huy’s brother Duy Ha (Duy) will be in attendance, but not playing, choosing to hone his skills at the caster desk instead. Does Rushan lead all Nugget Bridge founders in CP or what? Paul Hornak (Makiri) has attended a whopping zero events this year but did finish third at last year’s SoCal regional in Long Beach and never holds back when he does attend. Thomas Mifflin (PBB) is another name to add to this long standing list of veterans. He was able to win the NorCal regional in 2013, and finished third at the Seattle regional in 2014. If he is attending then he is definitely a strong player to look out for. And finally, Len Deuel (Alaka) is considerably younger than most of these guys but is just as experienced. He has a bunch of CP from Premiere Challenges and finished Top 32 at Phoenix back in the Fall.

William Hall (Biosci) had a short stint on the east coast last year, but is back on the west coast in 2015 and has two top 64 regional finishes under his belt so far for 166 CP. Look for him to improve on these finishes at SoCal in preparation for the Spring regionals. Gavin Michaels (kingofmars) is definitely one of the most consistently strong players on the west coast. Do not let his 132 CP deceive you, as he got Top 4 at Phoenix in the Fall and only has two PCs to his name. Gavin joins Omari as the two players who made Worlds in 2014 at this regional, and also the two players who met in finals at SoCal last year, too. Kamran Jahadi (Kamz) has two very strong regional finishes for him in the fall, getting second at San Jose and eighth at Phoenix. Riley Factura (gengarboi) has been collecting a lot of CP from premiere challenges and has 232 CP overall including a top 16 finish in the fall. Shreyas Canchi Radhakrishna (Shreyas) was able to take home the victory in San Jose in the fall, so we look for a follow up performance, this time in SoCal. San Jose was his only event this year so it is extra important for him to have another good performance.

Brotherly Love

There are actually two pairs of brothers that we are looking out for attending this event. Anthony Jimenez (DarkAssassin) was the winner of last year’s Nugget Bridge Major and has 144 CP this season from Premiere Challenges. His brother, Alejandro Jimenez (Legacy) is beating him in CP this year with 150 CP, partly due to his Top 64 regional finish in the fall. Our second set of brothers are the Lybbert duo. They have put in a ton of work this year and are both in the top 8 in CP going into this regional. Chase Lybbert (I’m A Rookie) won Phoenix in the fall and has five PC wins, plus a top 64 finish in San Jose. Colten Lybbert (Rookie Slayer MLG) has been a bit more consistent than his brother and sits at 282 CP. He has two Top 8 regional finishes and one PC win. Look out for these two pairs of brothers at this regional as they have shown they can perform at a regional level.

Rest of the Pack

Alec Wild (PM649) does not have any CP this year, but had a strong showing in NPA and definitely would not surprise me with a strong finish this weekend. Kimo Nishamura (TFC) has gotten much more active lately and has 106 CP this season with a Top 8 finish in San Jose. Daniel Cardenas (KermittheFrog14) was able to grab a Top 4 finish at San Jose in the fall and with a few good PC finishes has 186 CP, good for 40th in NA and is the cutoff for the Worlds invite. Alberto Lara had some solid finishes last season and has 30 CP this year from his top 32 finish at San Jose. Sam Johnson (RastaCharmander) has 170 CP this season and was notorious for his scarf Breloom in 2013 so it will be interesting if it makes a return. Tracy McLaughlin (Mack) is one of the few active Pokemon streamers and has 196 CP season including a strong Top 16 finish in the Fall. Hopefully he makes the trip over to this event for some more CP. Erik Holmstrom (Cyrus) has been quiet this season with only 20 CP but finished 2014 with 252 CP good for 28th overall, so we can hope he tries to get back to that level with the increased number of invites.

Smart Money: I’m going to have to with Gavin Michaels (kingofmars) for this regional. As I mentioned earlier, he is one of the most consistent players in the region and that sort of experience is key in an early regional like this.


About the Author

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41 Responses to VGC 2015 North American Winter Regionals Preview

  1. TwiddleDee says:

    Really wishing things would have worked out to get me to Virginia, but alas, they did not. I really hope everyone has a great time at regionals. Good luck to everyone, but some of my friends in particular, Stephen, Joey, David, Tyson, Jackson, good luck guys<3

  2. pyromaniac720 says:

    It’s cool to be mentioned in one of these! I also had a top 32 finish this year in Philly just for the record.

  3. feathers says:

    Just want to give Pookar and Chalkey a HUGE thank you for stepping up to do this so close to the deadline. Filling Scott’s shoes is a bit of a daunting task, and the original volunteers all had things come up only just last week. I’d love for these preview articles to continue and I think it would be great if we could get some feedback on this one. Though it was written somewhat last minute, I think it still captures the feel of the old previews to an extent. I only enforced deadlines but I’ll keep track of any suggestions you guys have for future previews. Do you like the premier challenge section? Do you still want to see current usage stats in these articles? Any input is welcome.

    Once again, huge thanks to the volunteers for this. Soon we’ll be seeing Chalkey’s take on Florida!

  4. Yea, major props to those that stepped up to fill Scott’s shoes. I really enjoy the previews and I’m glad they’re still going

  5. R Inanimate says:

    Don’t worry, I don’t even have 10k total BP in ORAS. Though I do still have a 1k win maison streak.
     
    I think the previews were written well enough. There might have been a few people here and there that didn’t get a mention that I thought should have, either that or mentioned in one section but probably moved to another section, but that’s always going to happen so it isn’t really too big of a deal.
     
    One thing that did kind of bother me was that pookar only put down Pokemon (or Aaron) pictures /5 without describing them. Now I don’t know what they all mean.

  6. pookar says:

    Hey guys, it was really cool to be able to do these preview articles. I know it’s not perfect, but it’s hard to fill Scott’s preview shoes :P I was also a bit sick and took on a lot more responsibility on this project than I signed up for, so hopefully I get to do it again with a better timeframe and healthier. With that being said I’m sure I left a few people out here and there but with the short notice it was hard to find out where/if everyone was going to certain places, and I hope they understand I meant no offense. Definitely drop some feedback here because I will read it but i will also get mad if your feedback is stupid so be careful.
     
    Shout outs to andrea and rushan for editing this thing on super short notice too, although I heard it was easy to edit ;)

  7. MrGX says:

    Seems helpful. good job.

  8. The Wullz says:

    Thanks to the volunteers who wrote the article. Been looking forward to this for nearly a year!

  9. Evan Falco says:

    I’d like to mimic what feathers said – trying to take Scott’s place is definitely no easy task, but I think you guys did a great job! I’ve always really enjoyed these articles so I’m really glad NB found a way to keep them coming.

    Minor feedback: It might be impossible for Ogloza or Stempe to do anything at Oregon regionals. We regret to inform you that they will not be there. Or anywhere. I think we’ve retired. Or at least I think I’ve retired.

    And fun fact of the day, last year we put Goodra on the team literally the morning of the tournament itself. I almost ran three dragons that tournament (Salamence, Garchomp, Goodra) but Stempe slapped me hard enough to realize that that would have been terrible. But it would have been awesome.

    But seriously, great job. I really enjoyed the read. Good luck to everybody this weekend!

  10. pookar says:

    If I learned anything from my few viewings of your stream Alex… it is stumps fault and I will not be persuaded otherwise

  11. Simon says:

    Wow, I’m not even going to a regional. Good Job Pookar!

  12. rapha says:

    What the yams are winter regionals actually already here?

    Will be at Oregon for my first regional with the help of some awesome people. So stoked. So looking forward to the tournament and meeting some new faces at Portland! Good luck to everyone competing this weekend!!

  13. Firefly says:

    Hopping on a plane to Portland in few hours. Sad to hear you won’t be there Alex. Best wishes to you for the future!

    Love the article and makes me excited for regionals. Good luck to everyone this weekend and safe travels!

  14. Evan Falco says:

    Pookar <3

    You are indeed the intelligent man everybody makes you out to be.

  15. MajorBowman says:

    Hopefully the NB Major PMs do not get to his head.” Definitely just cracked up in the middle of the airport.
     
    Great previews pookar and Chalkey, looking forward to a fun tournament!

  16. LightCore says:

    I love how you mentioned me Chris, but unfortunately, I cannot go this weekend due to me qualifying for a state swim meet. Its State Championships and ya

  17. P3DS says:

     
     

    St. Louis Regional

    Difficulty Rating:

    NkowJck.pngNkowJck.pngNkowJck.pngNkowJck.pngNkowJck.png/5

     
    So ama-zheng
     
    (Please forgive me for the awful pun ;-; )

  18. Mancuso says:

    Nice read, good luck to everyone competing this weekend and hopefully I get to see many of you at Virginia regionals!

  19. kingofmars says:

    I look forward to proving the smart money prediction wrong

  20. Arch says:

    Fantastic read! Kinda funny how two guys with less cp in my carpool (Matt & Cody) got mentioned while I was missed :). Alas, attempting to cover every detail would be a Herculean task.

    Big thanks for the effort from all involved! Great read for the road trip.

    Good luck to all contestants! And safe travels.

  21. Scott says:

    I sure don’t miss these replies!

    Good work guys, I know it’s a pain, but it’s done.

  22. mattj says:

    Last year’s winner of St. Louis, Matthew Carter (mattj) enters the competition with no CP for 2015 but cannot be underestimated after taking home the crown last year.

    lol
     
    I’m not competing this season.  I’m helping my daughter play.  I’ll be there though.

  23. kingdjk says:

    I got mentioned! (sort of) I’m a premier challenge hero going to Oregon, even though most of those points come from my finish at NorCal regionals… Anyways, I’ll be in Oregon, good luck to everyone else competing. Enjoyed the article, glad to see they still exist.

  24. jacsaz says:

    Why is Florida not here? I’m sad that we get almost no recognition still, despite having a masters show out of about 300 last year

  25. Cybertron says:

    Why is Florida not here? I’m sad that we get almost no recognition still, despite having a masters show out of about 300 last year

    Because Florida isn’t this weekend. As feathers pointed out above, there will be one for it written by Chalkey.

  26. Lulu2325 says:

    D:

    Why no seniors preview T_T

    After Long Beach last year it proved I can place well but we’ll see if I crack under finals pressure again.

  27. Duck On Quack says:

    No love for Florida ;(

  28. pookar says:

    No love for Florida ;(

    Because Florida isn’t this weekend. As feathers pointed out above, there will be one for it written by Chalkey.
  29. BCnate says:

    No love for Florida ;(

    I question if you even read the preview since you neglected to read the subsequent comments and responses.

    Can’t wait to see who comes out on top!

  30. NicaraguaNightmare says:

    No love for me either… Idk if I registered wrong when I show up to these events or what but I finished top 4 in Arizona and had a top 16 finish at a pc yet my name (Javier Madrid) doesn’t show up on any of the cp list… I’m Not sure what to do about this, especially on the eve of the SoCal regional. Any suggestions on how to solve this problem would be highly appreciated!

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