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Published on July 11th, 2014 | by Boomguy

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2014 Australia Pokémon National Championships Preview

Australia & New Zealand will be holding their 2nd VGC national event so many thanks to Nintendo Australia & New Zealand for organizing the event.  My name is Phil Nguyen but you may know me by my online name Boomguy as pictured on the right of the photo.  This year is my first full on season playing VGC and I recently became the first Australian to qualify for the Nugget Bridge Invitational.   I am here to bring you a preview of the Australian Nationals Masters competition.

According to Nintendo we are playing a one day Swiss style tournament similar to American Regional events in 2014.  This will be a welcome change for everyone since each regional event has been a different style of tournament and most of us wanted to play the same style as that used in American and European tournaments.  Thanks to last year’s Nationals event and the release of Pokémon X and Y,  there has been lots of interest from old & new players alike. Player participation has increased in Australia and New Zealand this year throughout the Regional events and the Nugget Bridge Circuit so I will introduce to you a few people who may represent Australia or New Zealand at the 2014 World Championships

The Worlds 2013 Australian Representatives

The defending champion Ben Kilby has confirmed that he will not be present at the Australian Nationals this year.  Our other representative from last year, Hugh Ronzani, will not be attending this year Nationals either due to personal reasons meaning this year we will be guaranteed to see new representatives going to the World Championships in Washington D.C.

The 5 Regional Winners

5 out 6 Regional winners have confirmed they will be going to the Australian National event.  Matthew Borg (DarkMalice) the winner of the Adelaide Regional has confirmed his withdrawal from the event.

Alister

It will be interesting what he has done to his game, since there was some controversy at the Perth Regional event where his game got corrupted during the tournament and the organiser allowed him to continue on using another players team.  I praise him for winning using a team he wasn’t used to playing with. This proves that Alister is a great battler no matter what he is using. What will he do to make sure his game doesn’t get corrupted again?

Lionel Pryce (Cat-Gonk)

Arguably Lionel was the outstanding performer during the Australian Regional circuit this year winning the Sydney event and finishing 3rd in Brisbane the day after. Lionel has been around the online Pokemon community for many generations and he certainly sticks to using teams based on successful standard trends, to a high standard. Will there be any changes to his line up?

Ash Siddiq Abu Bakar

Ash is a mainly a TCG player who loves to play the video game as well and he does play it really well.  He has been using heavy Trick Room teams ever since I met him in March and it proves that if you are not prepared for Trick Room you need to watch out.  If he decides to stick with the same team will it survive the Swiss format?

Sam Pandelis (Cypress)

Sam became Australia’s first Masters Regional two-time winner when he successfully defended his regional title in Melbourne in May.  Sam has been using a standard team since February and it has given him regular success at events this year winning at grassroots tournaments as well as the sanctioned ones. Last year he lost in the second round in Nationals but with the format being Swiss this year will it be his time to shine?

Bronson

New Zealand’s first National winner using a team which looks very identical to German player Peer’s (Bjart) team that he used in the final of the 2014 Nugget Bridge Major. Not much is known about the teenaged Kiwi but it has proven that his style of team works well in 2014.  I also luckily played against Bronson during the June International Challenge and I got a better understanding of his style. He certainly knows how to play as I was soundly beaten by him. How will he fare with an estimated six times more competitors in comparison to his home tournament?

Other Great Regionals Performers

Dayne O’Meara (Umberrific)

(As pictured left of the photo). I personally lost to Dayne in Round Two in the Melbourne regional and he really had a clever team, inspired by Canadian player Tony Cheung (Chinese Dood).  Dayne finished 2nd at the Victorian Regional which had over 200 players.   His other achievements in the 2014 VGC season include finishing 1st in Australia for Season 2 of the Special Battle Spot ladder where the rules were 2014 VGC.  He has also been playing in a few events on the 2014 Nugget Bridge Circuit where his best result was an equal 3rd in the 24th live tournament finishing the Swiss rounds undefeated.  Who knows what this creative professor has up his sleeve for Australian Nationals?

Martin Larumbe (XxXBase420)

Completely unknown to the Pokemon community but he is a serious threat to anyone wanting to win Australian Nationals. Martin is currently on form finishing the June International as the number one Aussie and finishing 51st in the World defeating the Italian national champ Florian (DaFlo) en route to a 1789 rating using a very aggressive team.  In his Regional event in Sydney he finished 5th losing to the eventual champ Lionel. He also performs consistently well at grassroots tournaments at home and Australian online tournaments as well. Will this young player have it what it takes to lift up the trophy?

Chris Giagozoglou (The Batman)

Chris went to 4 out of 5 Regional events in Australia finishing 2nd in Adelaide and 4th in Melbourne using Tman’s team from at the Virginia Regional this year. He was also involved in the Nugget Bridge Major this year, just making the cut finishing with a record of 5-3. Chris has been a proven strong battler at grassroots tournaments in Melbourne consistently finishing in the top ten but at last year’s Nationals he fell in the third round.  Can he redeem himself this year and make it all the way?

The Hard Workers

I personally believe success comes with hard work with the right strategies and pure dedication to succeeding. The following Aussies are definitely on the way to that and have had some good results along the way.

Layne Hall (Lejn)

Layne is an up and coming player in the VGC world.  He regularly follows the world news of VGC, posts on the Nugget Bridge forums and is always on Pokemon Showdown every night. This year his hard work has paid off as he finished in the Top 16 in the Regional event in Melbourne and scored an impressive 18-1 record in the International Challenge in June, giving him a rating of 1699.  Can he be the one surprising everyone during Nationals?

Jackson Lakey (FamousDeaf)

(As pictured 2nd from left of photo). FamousDeaf has been dedicated to VGC since 2012 and by far, he has been the most successful Aussie result wise in the 2014 Nugget Bridge Circuit.  He made the Top Cut of the Nugget Bridge Major finishing top 32 losing to makiri but defeating Mrbopper and Unreality along the way. He also became the first Aussie to make finals of a Nugget Bridge live tournament at the 11th tournament defeating Lajo in the semi finals and losing to LPFan in the final. Despite a terrible Regionals campaign, will he come back strong on the big stage?

The Dark Horses

Paul Amedee (NinPaulo64)

Locally in Brisbane Paulo performs really well in most Nintendo games, even with little practice.  Pokémon wise he is an avid Smogon OU player but does like to play VGC as well and he does pretty well at it, finishing in the Top 8 at the Brisbane Regional and winning a recent grassroots tournament in the end of June. He doesn’t consider himself as an elite player though.  This will actually be his first time traveling to Melbourne for a Pokémon event.  How many upsets can he score at Nationals?

Saamid Zikria (Yourf)

Sam is really new to the VGC community this year and he is a great student to the game.  His biggest strength is his battling skill. He can read situations really well and he could mentally give you a hard time. Locally in Sydney he has scored two semi final appearances in grassroots tournaments. Unfortunately he ran into Chirion in the 2nd round of the Sydney Regionals and lost to him.  I certainly believe he can make a serious run at Nationals.  Will his mental strength bring him a great result?

The Smart Money is on…

Dayne O’Meara (Umberrific). I believe that you have got to play slightly differently to win a tournament like Tony, the Japanese national winner using Agility Zapdos or Ray Rizzo using Wigglytuff.  Dayne certainly will offer that in his team building and if he is on song with his battling skills then watch out.

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


About the Author

Boomguy has been playing VGC since 2010 despite not being available in his home country in Australia back then. In 2013 he won the Brisbane Regional VGC and in 2014 he has became Australia's first representative in the Nugget Bridge Invitational.



19 Responses to 2014 Australia Pokémon National Championships Preview

  1. Crow says:

    Australian humor went up 3 points because of the cover image.

    (for anyone who doesn’t get the reference google “dingoes ate my baby”)

  2. Boomguy says:

    Thanks Crow :). We will be wearing it again at nationals and hopefully worlds to

  3. Technoz says:

    Rooting for my man Famousdeaf to dig deep and take the title.

  4. LPFan says:

    Let’s go THE Batman! I feel confident on him winning the event. 

  5. sohaib says:

    I am gonna be rooting for my bro gira goomy you can win this

  6. victin1rox says:

    @Sohaib, GiraGoomy is a senior not a master lol.

  7. ha1cy0n says:

    I shall be there aiming for X-4 or better. Go me!

  8. XxXBase420 says:

    Yay I’m here!

    See you all tomorrow, I expect a top 2 from myself

  9. emforbes says:

    Giragoomy LETS GO! :)

  10. TheBlooFoxx says:

    Great article 🙂 definitely building up hype for what’s gonna be a sick event!

  11. Chiron says:

    Quality write up from Phil. Good luck to everyone attending, make sure to have a great time!  I think a lot of people have the potential to do well and it could very well come down to T8 matchups. 
     

    It’s very cool that some other people have actually got the Dingo reference! I think it still goes over a few Australian’s heads. I’m very tempted to upload the other Delphox photo with a few of us but I will save us all and leave it for now xD

  12. TwiddleDee says:

    I know he’s not Masters, but I’m in it for GiraGoomy in Seniors! Let’s go #TeamScrub

  13. TheJFrenzy says:

    I’m personally rooting for myself :] but in all seriousness good luck to all participating! :]

  14. Xenoblade Hero says:

    Rooting for GiraGoomy and ZzamanN in Seniors! Really hope to see a final with both of them, they’ve contributed a lot to the community and are damn good battlers to boot

  15. GiraGoomy says:

    Sohaib, emforbes, twiddle and xeno thanks for cheering me on 🙂 As for the masters im hoping my boy lejn or CassyTheGastrodon will win!

  16. Lejn says:

    Cheering for the 3peat from MikotoMisaka!

  17. sohaib says:

    @Sohaib, GiraGoomy is a senior not a master lol.

    I never said he is in masters

  18. Chiron says:

    Congrats to Dayne but also to Phil / Boomguy for correctly predicting him to win!

  19. nikkiecole says:

    anyone know where we can buy one of those shirts? Would really like one. x3

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