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Published on October 30th, 2012 | by Scott

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Nugget Bridge Major Round Two: Highlight Matches

The Nugget Bridge Major is officially underway with Round 1 ending late last night. Round 1 was full of closely contested matches and amazing upsets, but more on those in the power rankings update. First, let’s take a look at the rules and the stakes of the Nugget Bridge Major:

Rules

The rules for the Nugget Bridge Major are as follows:

• Each match will be played in a best of 3 series, and teams cannot be changed between those games. However, teams can be changed after the conclusion of each round.
• The current GBU ruleset will be used which means Pokemon Black 2 and Pokemon White 2 formes and tutors may be used.
• Matches can be played on either Wi-Fi or Pokemon Online, however if a battling medium cannot be agreed upon, Wi-Fi must be used. Matches may NOT be played on the Skarmbliss PO server.
• If playing Pokemon Black 2 or Pokemon White 2 against a player on Pokemon Black or Pokemon White, a player using formes must announce the forme to the opponent.

Anything not covered here will be handled at the discretion of the NBC Major host, makiri.

Prizes

Results of Last Week’s Highlight Matches

Before we move on to the next round of highlight matches, let’s take a brief look at the results of last week’s highlights:

Babbytron vs benjitheGREAT

Babbytron pulled off a strong win, proving that the Junior phenom is in it to win and taking out Houston Regional Champion in the Masters division benjitheGREAT in a close set of three.

evan vs Alaka

Nugget Bridge’s intrepid Editor-in-Chief pulled off a close win over Regional champ and one-time US National finalist Alaka in a tense set of three. It’s the start of what could be a break-out tournament performance for evan who has never won a major VGC tournament.

Dubulous vs cakesofspan

cakesofspan displayed how he made it to the top 16 of last year’s US National Championship with a decisive 2-0 victory over Nugget Bridge editor Dubulous. cakes will be hoping to maintain his momentum as he wades through one of the most difficult quadrants of the tournament.

Nickscor vs Dozz

Nickscor defended the honor of America by defeating Dozz, the intrepid Brit who top cut US Nationals last year, 2-0. Nickscor, who also top cut US Nationals, hopes to translate this victory into a Nugget Bridge Major championship but will face some tough competition in later rounds.

Darkpenguin67 vs JiveTime/TheBattleRoom

While JiveTime managed to win his buy-in against TheBattleRoom, current NBC top seed Darkpenguin67 managed a strong 2-0 victory over the former Philadelphia Regional champ in another cross-generation battle.

Unreality vs DrFidget

DrFidget’s success in Ft. Wayne clearly translated into a victory over a strong opponent in one of the many upsets of Round 1. The Doctor managed a convincing 2-0 victory, his unorthodox style clearly throwing Unreality off.

Round Two Highlight Matches

Babbytron vs Human

One of the interesting parts of internet Pokemon is that we break out of the age divisions we normally compete in to see how players who wouldn’t normally be able to play each other stack up. Perhaps the most interesting case of this is that of Babbytron, who managed to win a live tournament in spite of being a Junior and then managed to get past Houston Masters Regional winner benjitheGREAT during Round One of the Major.

The lifetime record-holder for most Regionals won will perhaps find stiffer competition in Human, who is now the favorite in that quadrant according to the prediction tournament after RubeNCB’s elimination due to (in)activity. Even with Ruben out of the way, the road ahead is difficult for both of them, but you have to figure whoever wins this likes their shot at going deep with only another tough match next round and then one more easier one to get through to make it to top 8. Human will likely give Babbytron one of the harder matches he’s had to handle in a serious tournament, though there’s currently no word on whether or not Zach plans to give Babbytron’s team to Human’s father.

Fishy vs MrFox

Fishy vs MrFox gives us another interesting interdivisional matchup. MrFox could be considered the favorite after making it to the finals of Seniors Nationals last year and finishing 10th at Worlds, but Fishy’s 9th place Masters Nationals finish(and 2012 Regional win) reminds you there will be a strong player on both sides of the table. Both trainers have made some effective but eccentric Pokemon choices in the past, so this could wind up being one of the more interesting matches of the early part of the tournament, especially with a new ruleset for both players to tinker with.

JRank vs FonicFrog

While JRank seems to have been almost forgotten since winning a Seniors Regional last year, he should provide a pretty challenging match-up for the favored FonicFrog. This is another match from that quadrant Ruben was in, so the winner of this will be in pretty good shape if they can get beyond the Babbytron/Human winner next round. FonicFrog is reasonably the favorite considering his long history of consistent performances, but if JRank is having a good day or the two battlers engage in a game of Pokemon, this match could go either way.

SoulSurvivor vs nachocheese999

While these trainers aren’t quite as well known as some of the other people who tend to appear in this sort of post, I think both of these players are pretty reasonable dark horse picks, so it should be interesting to see how things play out when they face off. nachocheese999 has already proven he can hang with the toughest competition by top cutting in Philly Masters after an impressive 2012 season in the Seniors division, and SoulSurvivor did pretty decently himself going 5-3 with an interesting team at the same Regional. nachocheese is the obvious favorite here, but this should be an interesting match.

Biosci vs cakesofspan

This match should be one of those interesting upset potential matches since both players are pretty solid and have done well in recent competition but neither have overbearing resumes to imply the match should be lopsided. cakesofspan is probably the favorite after a top 16 Nationals run that ended at the hands of soon-to-be-power-rankings-3-seed Crow, but this is one of those matches that could go either way. With their section of the bracket already hurting for a lot of people after skarm and Unreality lost round 1 and failed to be potential opponents for these guys next round, lots of early points in the predictions tournament could be decided in this match.

evan vs Evan Falco

In any tournament, there are a handful of hysterical matches we hope to get that are a cut above the rest for entertainment value. Fish vs Fishy, Huy vs Duy, Cybertron vs Babbytron, skarm vs anyone we’ve never heard of, makiri vs basically any female at all or who might be female… and of course, evan vs people who aren’t actually named Evan.

In this battle between evan and “Evan Falco”, we have Evan Falco coming off a strong 3rd place finish in San Jose, and evan, who… uh… Well, if you look at past performance, we have Evan Falco, who finished 13th in the World in 2010, and evan, who… uh…

Well, here’s hoping for an activity win for my admin buddy! Who will be the strongest sort-of-evan???

Follow along with all of the action on our Tournaments Forum.

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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