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Published on May 15th, 2015 | by pookar

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VGC 2015 North American Spring Regional Preview: Week 1 of 3

Here we are again; the final stretch of the North American Regionals season as we approach U.S. Nationals in July. These events will be key for players looking to solidify their Championship Point standings before entering Nationals, where the North American representatives for the World Championships will be determined. This preview will cover the first two out of five regional events for the Spring, the Washington and Massachusetts Regionals.

Washington Regional

Difficulty Rating:

/ 5

(Five Pokemon that really enjoy being in the waters. Look how happy they are!) / 5

Location: Seattle Center Exhibition Hall, 305 Harrison Street, Seattle WA

Registration Time: Saturday 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM

Last Year’s Winner: Tony Cheung (Chinese Dood)

The Washington Regional sees a venue change from last year’s event, moving from the Washington State Convention Center to the Seattle Center. To recap last year’s event, the top cut was dominated by a number of Canadian players, such as Tony Cheung, Randy Kwa, Jason Wynja, and Max Douglas. Tony Cheung (Chinese Dood) returns to defend his title of last year’s winner. Max (starmetroid) has had a very successful season from Canada so far, maximizing his Premier Challenge CP and earning second place at the Oregon Regional in the winter. He currently sits at 18th in North American CP and looks to increase that total with this event. Randy Kwa (R Inanimate), the Canadian player most people are familiar with, earned second at the 2014 Washington Regional and sits just outside the Top 64 in North American CP. Randy is known for sticking with a consistent team for the entire circuit season and adjusting it to what the metagame throws at him. He’s been quiet this season, but it’s hard to sleep on Randy. Resident Nugget Bridge Administrator Rushan Shekar (Firestorm) has been doing a lot more than just feeding in League of Legends this season. Along with his Premiere Challenge CP, he’s got a Top 4 finish and is on pace to qualify for Worlds. Rounding out the familiar Canadians are Nugget Bridge moderator Aryana Welsh (feathers) and long time VGC veteran Jason Wynja (Arti). Relatively new Canadian face Tyson Gernack (Firefly) is just outside the Top 40 and has a third regional available for his best finish limit.

The Canadian regulars will also be joined at the event by the West Coast regulars. Conan Thompson (conan) is fresh off of a regional win in Oregon in the winter. Combined with his maximized Premiere Challenge CP, he holds 6th place in North American CP and still has a third regional empty for his best finish limit. Seattle locals and Team Magma members Gabby Snyder (JTK) and Sam Haarsma (DrFidget) aim to break into the Top 40 with this event, with both of them sitting just outside of the boundary. Another Washington player who recently sneaked into the Top 8 of North American CP is Demitrios Kaguras (kingdjk). With a Top 4 and a Top 8 in earlier Regionals, Demitrios looks to round out his best finish limit in his home state. Not as well known as the others mentioned, but just as successful this season is Chris Stotts (MasterFisk) from Oregon. He’s currently at 26th overall for North American CP with a Top 4 finish from Oregon in the winter.

Just a bit further down the coast comes the NorCal crew. The Northern California community is pretty tight knit, evidence being the stream that Duy hosts for all of their Premier Challenges. Arguably held together by players Huy Ha (Huy), Duy Ha (Duy), Kimo Nishimura (TFC), and Cassie Fordyce (cassie), NorCal also includes other strong individuals like Sam Johnson (RastaCharmander), Mitchell Davies (MissingNoL) and Phillip Wingett (NME THATSaplusone). Not to be outdone by the NorCal players, SoCal looks to send their regards in the form of some of the strongest players in VGC history. Gavin Michaels (kingofmars) is a consistent top competitor, winning the 2013 US Nationals and placing Top 8 in the 2014 Nationals. Gavin has also reached the World Championship the last 3 years in a row and will be looking to extend it further. Veteran VGC player and Nugget Bridge founder Paul Hornak (makiri) is also making the trek up to Washington as he reminisces about his glory days of having a 36-2 record over the first five years of VGC Regionals. One of the longest standing members of the competitive Pokemon community, Paul is looking to have a strong showing at this regional and prove to the community that he is still a force to be reckoned with.

If the local players weren’t enough for this preview, there are plenty of players flying in to this event. Former Washington resident and 4-Time Regional champion Zach Droegkamp (Braverius) will be in attendance. Zach has had recent success, placing second to Aaron Traylor at the St. Louis Regional earlier this year and is 7th place in North American CP with two Top 64 regional finishes as well. Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom) has continued his success off of his 2014 Worlds appearance into the 2015 format and currently holds 5th place in North American CP. In order to solidify that placement, he will need to finish in the Top 8 or better. His compadre Ben Irons (benji) will be joining him in Washington as he works towards a possible second World Championship appearance. The 2013 Worlds competitor has one Top 16 finish this year and has a lot of room to increase his CP total to reach that goal. I would not be surprised if this duo has one of the stronger showings of the field with their consistent success across multiple formats. In the midst of all these veteran players flying in, Jake Muller (MajorBowman) is having somewhat of a breakout season with some consistent regionals performances. With a Top 16 and two Top 32 results already, Jake will need a strong performance to improve his best finish limit. Another Midwest region player coming into Washington is Nico Villalobos (CalmLava). Nico’s just outside the Top 40 in North American CP and still has a third regional finish to fill out. Harrison Saylor (Crow) looks to attend his first event this season, and yes this is confirmed. Harrison is an experienced player who top cuts events at a pretty good pace. Usually the doubt lies in whether or not he shows up, not his results. Priciliano Garcia (Pirate Lion Inferno) is coming from Florida to this event which is definitely the longest distance traveled to attend here. He’s at 32nd in CP with a Top 8 finish from Florida to his name.

The Smart Money is on: Zach Droegkamp (Braverius)

It wouldn’t be a VGC season without a Zach regional win, in my opinion. He’s won four in total but at least one in every season since Swiss events started. This regional is really top heavy, with a lot of top players in attendance.

Massachusetts Regional

Difficulty Rating:

/ 5

(Four Clefairy things and a Kangaskhan because let’s be real here.) / 5

Location: Venue: Sturbridge Host Hotel & Conference Center 366 Main Street, Sturbridge, MA 01566 United States

Registration Time: Sunday

Last Year’s Winner: Ray Rizzo (Ray)

Last year’s champion of Massachusetts is coming off of a Top 32 (21st place) finish at the Virginia Regional. This event is especially important for Ray Rizzo (Ray) if he wants a shot at another World Championship run. After missing the cut at Virginia, Ray has motivated himself by producing content on YouTube in addition to streaming his International Challenge competition. As anyone from 2009-2012 can tell you, there is no player more feared than a motivated Ray. For the third time this season we are going to get some double Aaron action at a regional event. Both Aaron Traylor (Unreality) and Aaron Zheng (Cybertron) are having fantastic seasons so far with each taking home a regional Championship. Zheng’s came in Philadelphia in the 2014 format, while Traylor’s came at St. Louis, streamed by TPCi. Despite Aaron Zheng’s humongous point total, he can still easily improve his CP with a Top 16 finish or higher at Massachusetts. Aaron Traylor’s CP total will be even easier to improve as he has not reached the best finish limit for the season. Wolfe Glick (Wolfe) is one of the two players that actually has more CP than Aaron Zheng, eclipsing him by about 40 CP. The reason for this is because of Wolfe’s incredibly high regional placings already. In order to gain CP at this event, Wolfe will need to get Top 4 or better because his best finishes are already very solid. Wolfe has already seen success in 2015, however, so its really not out of his boundaries to improve his CP by even more from this event.

There are a couple of players in the 8-16 CP standings range that can really propel themselves into Top 8 consideration. At 9th place, Ashton Cox (linkyoshimario) can improve his Top 128 finish. A master of using the unorthodox, Ashton saw success in Florida using Eruption Typhlosion in the Sun. Alec Rubin (amr97) has two Top 64 finishes he can boost up with a solid showing in Massachusetts. Third, Pat Ball (pball0100) is at 16th in CP and has not reached his best finish limit yet. It will be important for all of these players to be prepared for this regional in order to avoid their National Championship results being relied upon for their overall circuit performance.

There’s going to be a bunch of players coming from the mythical area also known as “New York Area Premier Challenges” that are apparently legendary and of unfathomable difficulty. Trista Medine (ryuzaki) and Joe Pulkowski (sandman) have qualified for Worlds in the past and are regulars among these events. Angel Miranda (CT Mikoto Misaka) got Top 4 at the Virginia Regional and Arbin Tumaneng (.Cypher) got Top 8. Nicholas Borghi (Lightcore) and Paul Chua (pwny person) both got Top 8 in Philadelphia and are young Masters Division players creating tough competition for the veteran players. Patrick Donegan (Pd0nz) is currently Top 8 in the Nugget Bridge Major and looks to continue his success this weekend. A quick rundown of some of the rest of the notables: Chuppa Cross IV (Chuppa), Matthew Terriberry (crazysnorlax), Jonathan Evans (Ezrael), Tommy Cooleen (Tman), James Baek (jamesspeed1), Dorian Nousias (crazyblissey), Danny Hemchand (Jabberwocky), Daniel Stein (BlazikenBurnerVGC). Chuppa, Danny, Tommy and Matthew actually cut Massachusetts last year, so it will be interesting to see if they can repeat their success this season.

Matt Coyle (PrettyLittleLiar) is another former Worlds Competitor attending this event. He’s sitting at a pretty decent spot in the CP standings, just inside Top 64. With a strong finish at this event he can pave his path to another World Championship appearance. Fellow NGR associate Junghun Yeom (ANGDE) is in his first year as a Master and managed to Top Cut the Virginia Regional in the winter. Mike Suleski (OmegaDonut) hasn’t had too many events to go to, but he did finish second at the Apex tournament that Aaron Zheng won and is also a former Worlds Competitor. Ben Hickey (darkpenguin67) may be in attendance as well. The 2013 Senior World Championship Finalist is 30th in CP and Top Cut the Virginia Regional in the winter. Caleb Ryor (BlitznBurst) Top Cut Massachusets last year and has racked up most of his CP from Premier Challenges this season, but does have a Top 64 finish and a solid group of team-builders behind him.

The Smart Money is on: Trista Medine (ryuzaki)

It seems obvious to go with Aaron or Wolfe at this event, but the stakes for them at this event just aren’t high at all. This doesn’t mean they won’t play to win, but I want to choose a player who is determined to win and make a statement. Trista has made Worlds twice before and plays in every event that is physically possible for her. There aren’t many more players trying to get to events and she has a good track record of results.

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