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Published on February 27th, 2015 | by Chalkey

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VGC 2015 North American Winter Regionals Preview, Part II: Florida

Location: Park Inn by Radisson, 3011 Maingate Lane Kissimmee, Florida 34747
Registration: Masters: 8:00-9:00am, Juniors and Seniors 9:00-10:00am
Last Year’s Winner: Zach Droegkamp (Zach)

Difficulty:

thundurusraichulandorusarcaninelopunny-mega/5

(A genie, an electric street rat, an evil genie, a Raja, and a Mega Jasmine out of five, because if you’re not doing Disney World while you’re at Florida Regionals you’re doing it wrong.)

For the second year in a row, Florida the only Winter Regional for its particular weekend. This means that, while many of the players will be from the Florida area, this one could potentially get players from anywhere. Between all the people that haven’t had a Winter Regional yet and all the people wanting that second chance, expect a huge turnout; last year we had 351 in the Masters Division, if that’s any indication of what is to come.

Our returning champion for this regional will be Zach Drogenkamp Drogkamp DrKamz Droegkamp (Braverius). Zach brings a very analytical side to the game, known for his love of spreadsheets and whiteboards to break the game down – and this hard work pays off, considering he’s probably won more Regional Championships than anyone at this point. Not to mention he scored a 2nd place finish in St. Louis this past set of Winter Regionals just two weeks ago. Having played him before, I can personally say the only thing more difficult than beating him is spelling his last name.

Among the other players that top cut last year and plan on returning include Devon Ingram (dingram) and Ashton Cox (linkyoshimario). While Devon has been quiet this season, Ashton has been tearing up the Premiere Challenge world, having accomplished the feat of five first place finishes. Sitting comfortably at 21st in the Championship Points rankings, all he needs is another strong Regional finish to wrap things up – and considering how well he did last year, I am interested to see how he will fare this year.

Given that Florida is, for the second year in a row, a regional after all the other ones for that segment of the VGC cycle, we can also infer a lot of predictions based on who scored well in Winter Regionals so far. Wolfe Glick is high on the list here, considering he’s 6th in Championship Points rankings, including but not limited to a 2nd place and a top 8 for Regional finishes so far. For those who have been living under a rock, he’s also been National Champion twice in a row and he’s played in worlds for 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. Not many people have a higher track record than that, so you can expect some strong finishes this weekend from Wolfe.

On the note of other players who top cut two weeks ago, Cameron Swan (DrizzleBoy) entered top cut at 15th place in Virginia, Jake Muller (majorbowman) got 9th in St. Louis, and Ben Hickey (Darkpenguin67) got 9th in Virginia. Others who did not make cut but still are reasonable threats for this tournament include Patrick Donegan (Pd0nZ), Gabby Snyder (JTK), Daniel Stein (BlazikenBurner), and Tommy Cooleen (Tman). All of these players have been doing pretty well this season, and we can expect all of them to get some sort of CP from this event.

I should also mention that one infamous team The Boiler Room, specifically Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom) and Logan Castro (Yellowbox). Both of these players have played at the World Championships last year, and have considerable experience by this point in their Pokemon careers. Collin got 5th in Virginia two weeks ago, and Logan got top four at Nationals last year, demonstrating their ability to win consistently and stand out in high pressure tournaments. These players, when not updating their team’s personal website, are always training – and given how pathetically seldom they write an article, they have probably been training a lot. David Mancuso (Mancuso) is also part of this group, and will be attending as well. This guy needs no introduction, but for those living under a rock the last fall: he is currently first in Championship Points for North America, having won a regional and reached semis of another, with a handful of successful Premiere Challenges as well. Expect a strong finish from each of these three gentleman.

Last but certainly not least, I’d also watch out for Tom Hull (TheGr8), Garrett Cresenzi (araluen7), Jeremy Rodrigues (serapis), and Nicolas Borghi (LightCore) – all of whom, while not as visible from this most recent past set of regionals, have all proven themselves at some point or another in this community. Speaking of people who have been lurking in the shadows lately, Ray Rizzo (does he have a username besides bluecookies anymore?) will also be attending, if rumors are correct. While Ray is currently 568th in Championship Point Rankings, his reputation tells us this is more a result of him focusing on his job or something than any real fall from grace. As a three time World Champion, someone who won two regionals last year, and someone who has played in worlds for 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014, Ray is someone you can never really assume is over the hill. That kind of experience never really goes away, and I have no doubt he’ll do well if he chooses to do so.

The Smart Money Is On: Wolfe Glick looks the best on paper, followed by Zach Droegkamp, then Logan Castro. This is gonna be a big crowd, and these three have great track records for high pressure and consistent win records. Not only that, but these three have demonstrated highly active seasons thus far, benefiting both from past experience and knowledge of the here and now.


About the Author

is a Part-Time Editor for Nugget Bridge. Outside of Pokemon, Chalkey makes his living through running a small homeless shelter in Boston, focusing largely on helping clients search for jobs, apartments, and other charities for various resources. As a writer, he also works for Retroware.



15 Responses to VGC 2015 North American Winter Regionals Preview, Part II: Florida

  1. LightCore says:

    Life has been a blissey lately and unfortunately, I can’t attend. It starts getting really annoying when circumstances out of my control make it so I can’t attend. Last time I had to watch from the sidelines and het updates from text, which annoys me so much. Kansas is the next regional I (should) be attending. I’m trying to go so much, if not, then I need to have an extremely strong Nationals run for even a hope at my worlds invite

  2. iMagikarp says:

    one request – add the date the post 🙂

  3. Sir Chicken says:

    Excited to compete here this weekend- good luck to everyone else who’s attending!

  4. WackaboomVGC says:

    “Airplane cost 480 each” Aight…

  5. Pd0nZ says:

    Ready to go. Going to have to find a way to pull CP from this. Also, Disney’s lovely, of course. Cya all there.

  6. Brady1225 says:

    You can not for get that THE brady1225 is attending.

  7. IceKingz says:

    Props to tying in one of the best Disney movies out there. Wish I could go for Disney World with Pokemon as the cherry on top T_T

  8. Drizzleboy says:

    I sadly won’t be going anymore due to bad timing for me ,it is quite a drive, and I have already missed too much school to miss more days. But good luck to everyone else attending.

  9. LPFan says:

    Seriously wish I could be at this regional, good luck to all attending!

  10. jrtrjusty says:

    Really excited to compete tomorrow. Good Luck to everyone else. Should be fun.

  11. duffy says:

    Will it be streamed? :o

  12. Brady1225 says:

    @Sir Chicken Hope to fight you in swiss, lol.

  13. lavaburst14 says:

    So excited! Heading to the hotel in a couple hours yay~ See ya’ll there~ ;3 Good luck to everyone!

  14. YummyKittys says:

    In hotel super exited to battle some of the seniors here tomorrow and meet new people

  15. Relados says:

    Hey I’m here too. Hoping to make top cut again.

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