The Road to Worlds: Winter Regionals 2014

A season come and gone and it is now a week before the VA regionals. Here I am, half asleep, sitting with my back leaning against the heater, with papers everywhere and a bunch of windows up doing calculations and team building.

Unlike what most people think, it is difficult, even for experienced players, to do well in a Regional. It takes lots of math, lots of practice, lots of luck, in order to place in the top 100, much less the top 16. Well, it is for the Northeast, anyway. But you know? It's worth going because you meet all sorts of people there, and everyone there loves Pokemon. Well, almost everyone. I'm pretty sure only about a quarter of the chaperones there are actually into it.

Well, me and a bunch of people from PC will be meeting up at Virginia and competing together. There's Wiilio, Ooka, and Tman (poor TheGr8 ain't coming this time but then again, he doesn't need to go to another regionals, lucky bum). Someone will be representing PC at Orlando, but I forget who. Sorry! I wish everyone luck and lots of fun! Going to regionals is totally worth it for any competitive Pokemon battler. There's so many things to see, lots of people to hang out with, plenty of folks to gripe together with. Last Philly regional, I swear at least half of the Masters had a Nugget Bridge account.

Anyhow, the stakes are up for me. For all of us from PC who's going, anyway. I need to place high enough to earn 10 championship points. 10 championship points are the key, because that's the minimum a person needs in order to qualify to battle at Last Chance Qualifiers at the World Championships. Yep, the pressure is on.

So here I am, practicing and tweaking my team. It's difficult, because I'm getting used to 2014 VGC playstyle very late. Just last night did I finally finish my team. And what a train wreck it is! Three wins, eight losses. I have to narrow down my weaknesses and do some major patchwork, and I have five days left to do it.

Well. This regional shouldn't go to badly. I'll need to place above 40th in order to get some points. Nothin' to it!

... Let's hope I don't get matched against Aaron Zheng again. Ugh.

That's a huge regional if you need to place 40th to get points!

The Northeast is traditionally a very large regional. I placed 80th last time and Wiilio placed 60th and neither of us scored anything. 40th isn't unreasonable for getting points, except that it probably gives a person something like 3 points, which is too low for the absolute minimum. Last year I placed 20th and got 20 points. I should actually be aiming for at least 30th.

But with the way this team is turning out... Eh, I think I just need more practice. I'm out of shape.

I'm not expecting nearly as many people at Virginia as at Philly. Doswell is many miles away from any HUGE metro area while Philly is surrounded by Delaware, Jersey, and New York not far away. The significant population change as well as the difficulty getting to the area I'll bet means the number of competitors at Virginia will probably be 2/3 the size of Philly's. Maybe even as small as a third. Of course, this means the number of points Doswell will reward will be less than the number awarded at Philly... They award points depending on the number of participants. Only the top 16 is static.

Seems it's a bit differently structured than the TCG side. Or maybe TCG tournaments just don't get that big.