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Published on May 29th, 2015 | by pookar

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

The third and final week of the North American Spring Regionals is finally upon us. These are the last two US Regionals before US Nationals in July. A lot of players will be traveling in order to scramble for last minute crucial points as stipends are decided for Nationals, and of course qualification for the World Championships.

Wisconsin

Difficulty Rating:
/ 5

(Four Pokemon definitely native to Wisconsin and an Untrained Mamoswine out of Five)

Location: Monona Terrace, One John Nolen Drive, Madison, WI 53703

Registration Time: Saturday 8:00 AM

Last Year’s Winner: Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom)

Team Wisconsin

Starting off the preview strong with last year’s Madison champion, Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom) is 7th in North American CP entering this weekend. Collin already has his Day 1 World Championship invite from his Top 4 Worlds placing last season, but is playing for his spot for the Top 8 stipend for Nationals as well as the Day 2 automatic qualifier. He’s got a Top 16 regional that he can replace at Madison. Fellow Wisconsin resident Zach Droegkamp (Braverius) will also be competing on “home territory” this weekend. Zach’s got two Top 64 finishes already and there is a lot of potential for an increase in Championship Points for him. A lot of players will enter this weekend with their best finish limit reached already of course, and some will have an “easier” time improving on some of their less valuable finishes. Just as an example, if Zach and Collin both get Top 8 at this regional, they’ll earn 60 CP. But Collin replaces a finish worth 40 CP and Zach replaces one worth 20 CP. So Zach would gain 40 CP and Collin would only get 20 CP.

Team Ohio

Ohio will be sending quite a few highly competitive players to Madison this weekend, including two players in the Top 8 of Championship Points. David Mancuso (Mancuso) and Ashton Cox (linkyoshimario) are at 2nd and 4th place respectively in the Championship Point rankings. Both of them have had incredibly impressive seasons to date. David received a majority of his CP from the 2014 format in the Fall, but also earned 2nd place at the Florida regional in the winter. Ashton recently placed second at the Massachusetts regional a couple of weeks ago. Funny enough, both of these guys got the opportunity to lose to Wolfe Glick in the finals of their respective tournaments. As if having two of the top 4 players in North America wasn’t enough, Ohio could be sending Alec Rubin (amr97), Andy Himes (Amarillo), Kyle Timbrook (TM Ruby), and Thomas McCready (Tmac). Alec, Andy, and Kyle are all top 32 in Championship Points right now, with Thomas just outside Top 40. Top 32 is the $1000 stipend cutoff for US Nationals so these guys are looking to at least do well enough to stay in their respective positions, with Thomas having the potential to sneak right in there.

Team Michigan

I expect most of the Michigan players who attended Kansas City last weekend to show up to Madison this week as well. Sam Schweitzer (Sam) managed to impress last week with a Top 8 finish at Kansas City. He hasn’t had many other top finishes, but I’m sure he is more pumped than ever after his Top 8 finish and another strong performance could really get his name out there. Other familiar faces include Andrew Burley (Andykins) at 16th in CP, Jonathan McMillan (MrEobo) at 40th, and Kevin Beach (RandomVGC).

Team Minnesota

I can’t say much about Minnesota, but they’ve got some solid players that could really break out with some great play this weekend. Aaron Liebersbach (Arch), Cody Bernheisel (CodeUmbreon), Steven Burton (PikaPastor), and Matthew Peroutka (MittensAnimator) all sit in the range of 40-64 with the potential to get into the mix.

Team Illinois

Kamaal Harris (Kamaal) and Evan Deligiannis (nave) should be heading up to Madison this weekend after traveling south to Kansas City last weekend. Kamaal’s at 27th in CP which is a pretty solid spot to be at heading into Nationals, but getting higher than that couldn’t do any harm. Evan is at 62nd which is a ways off, but does have two Top 16 finishes this season. Both of these guys actually just barely missed cut last week in Kansas City and could easily get in with a little bit more luck via Opponents Win Percentage the dream.

Team Other Guys

Got a couple stragglers that couldn’t be lopped into the confines of a state group. Chuppa Cross (Chuppa) comes in from New York. He’s finally conquered being able to top cut premiere challenges, but he hasn’t been able to crack regionals this season yet. Whitney Johnson (brokestupidlonely) was able to earn Top 4 at Kansas City last week, playing in home territory. He’s at 55th for CP this year. Matt Coyle (PrettyLittleLiar) and Trista Medine (ryuzaki) made a surprise appearance last week at the Utah regional and also went to Madison last year, so it is definitely in the realm of possibility for both of them to come to Madison again this year. Oliver Valenti (Smith) has got two Top 32s this year but as always is not a player to sleep on.

The Smart Money is On: I know it kind of bit me in the rear last time I did it, but I have to pick Zach Droegkamp (Braverius). He’s at home, which has to count for something at least. He also got second at the last event that TPCI streamed (St. Louis) which doesn’t hurt.

Georgia

Difficulty Rating:
/5

(One T.I. and one Andre 3000 out of Five)

Location: Classic Center Grand Hall 7 300 N. Thomas St Athens, GA. 30601

Registration Time: Sunday 8:30 AM

Last Year’s Winner: Michael Lanzano (Jivetime)

The Georgia regional has always been one of the weird ones. The attendance last year was able to grant them a Top 16 cut (better than last week’s regionals), but the area doesn’t lend itself to the traditional top players of the country.

Absent from Class

Toler Webb (Dimsun) has been pretty quiet this season with some low attendance in comparison with the other top players. He was able to get into the Top 8 in the Fall at Ft. Wayne and also has a Top 32 finish. Toler has been one of the top VGC players since he was in the Senior division and has carried his success into the Masters division as well. DeVon Ingram (dingram) is another player with some attendance issues. He was able to earn second place at Athens last year which helped him qualify for Worlds. With how much Nationals is worth, it is still not out of reach for him, but a good showing at Athens could really help him earn a repeat appearance there. Adib Alam (Adib) earned a 2014 Worlds invite from a strong Nationals performance but has yet to earn any CP this year. It seems we have a pattern of players with attendance issues at Georgia, but jokes aside Adib has had a pretty good track record of doing well at the Midwest tournaments he’s gone to in the past. Rounding out Team Attendance is none other than Harrison Saylor (Crow). The butt of all attendance jokes since Mike Sankey, Harrison really showed up to Seattle with a Top 4 finish. He’s clearly still got it and could scoop up some solid Championship Points from Georgia.

Jackson Hambrick (Hambrick) has really done well at Premiere Challenges this season and also has a Top 64 regional finish. He’s at a total of 182 CP and could really add to that with this regional. William Collins (wiretap) was able to earn 3rd place at the Florida regionals during the winter and has a couple of Premiere Challenge points under his belt too. Nicholas Borghi (LightCore) earned a Top 8 back in the Fall and has just about maximized his Premiere Challenge CP. At a tie for 55th place in CP, this regional is crucial for securing a Worlds invite for Nick. Michael Groshans (Mikewando) comes from California to Georgia and he’s just below Nick in CP. Unlike most players, Mike has gotten most of his CP from regionals and not Premiere Challenges. He has three Top 16 regional finishes so he would really have to step up for Georgia. Kolby Golliher (KolbyJayke) has been solid at his Premiere Challenges as well and looks to add a solid regional finish to give himself a fighting chance at Nationals. I’ve also heard rumblings that veteran Joe Pulkowski (sandman) might make an appearance here and he could really shake things up for the competition. With somehwat of a hiatus, Joe has been doing great recently at Premiere Challenges this season. Angel Miranda (CT MikotoMisaka) has made a full transition into the video game this season and as expected has been a strong force all season long. He’s got consistent PC finishes and a Top 8 regional placing too. A few other Northeastern players might show up too, including Patrick Donegan (Pd0nz), Daniel Stein (Blazikenburner), Justin Carris (Azazel), and Stephen Brown III (pyromaniac720). Daniel finished 11th in Utah last weekend and looks to put his money where his mouth is with the next event.

The Smart Money is On: Angel Miranda (CT MikotoMisaka). Angel puts a lot of work in practicing with his group of friends and thinking about the game in general a ton. Some of the players in the attendance section have great histories, but Angel is showing up this season and this is an event he can take advantage of. It’s a really shallow group of players in comparison to the other 5 regionals this Spring and can definitely make some lesser known players shine.

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