Thursday was a pretty amazing experience. When we got to the Convention Centre, we saw Japanese players selling sleeves and deckboxes out of their suitcases! It was definitely something I had never seen before. Essentially all the Japanese players had stocked up on merchandise before coming here and are taking advantage of the high demand for Japanese product. My friends and I spent all day at the Convention Centre playtesting and purchasing products from the Japs. Prices varied as some people had sleeves for $15 to $20, but the next vendor were selling for $50 :/
I met up with a few international players I had only talked to online before. Some of it was quite awkward to be honest, but I guess it happens when meeting so many different new people at the same time.
In terms of the meta game, there were a lot more players playing Darkrai and Plasma today. Gothitelle was still around, but definitely not in huge numbers like the day before. Most of the "big named" players didn't seem to be playing much in public. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the decks they may be running for the event.
The open gaming room opened up at 6pm and it was packed out. It was the largest amount of Pokemon players I had ever seen together in one room. That was a great experience itself, walking around talking to people, making trades and purchases.
I woke up at 5am this morning and couldn't sleep. The LCQ is happening today, and I'm really hoping Shaun makes it through.
Friday, August 9, 2013
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Pokemon Worlds 2013 Day 1
Hi my name's Louis and I'm a competitive Pokemon Trading Card Game player from New Zealand. This weekend is the 2013 World Championships held in Vancouver, Canada. Today is August the 7th 2013 and I've travelled all the way from Auckland with five other players from the Masters division to compete this year.
My flight was at 8pm, and at the airport I managed to catch up with Aussie player Anthony Smith who was waiting for a transfer and had a chat about the expected metagame and decklists. We both believe Gothitelle Accelgor is the deck to beat this weekend, so we also expected quite a few players to play decks such as Blastoise Keldeo and also Darkrai to counter them.
The plane ride was pretty bad for me personally. I got up at 6am today for a morning lecture at university, and struggled to sleep for more than 30 minute intervals at a time during the 13 hour flight. I've always hated long plane rides due to my inability to sleep well on them, not to mention I often found myself trying to stretch my long legs out due to the lack of leg room allocated to the economy class seats. Touching down in Canada was a great relief for me, and I wanted to get off that plane as soon as possible.
At the Vancouver airport, I met Aussie/New Zealand's Kan family and said hello. Canada is one hot place. As soon as I got off the plane, I realised that all the warm clothing I had packed were pointless. The weather is a lot warmer than New Zealand at the moment (summer in the Northern Hemisphere, winter in the Souther Hemisphere). After going through security, I forgot how to catch the Skytrain to downtown Vancouver. After an hour of walking up and down, I managed to use the free WIFI at the airport to track down a post on Facebook about how to travel from the airport to our accommodation.
Upon arriving in downtown Vancouver, we were greeted by multiple beggars. It was quite unusual to say the least. Beggars in Vancouver come up to you and do everything they can to get some money from you. They were everywhere. Imagine walking and at every block, having 2 beggars come up to you and asking for money. The situation is pretty bad. It felt threatening at first, but I got used to it after a while.
I checked into my hotel, and went down to the Vancouver Convention Centre to check out the venue of the tournament. The venue is linked to the Pan Pacific Hotel, which looked amazing. I would've loved to stay there if I had the money/if TPCi awarded a travel reward for New Zealand. I looked around for the big name players, and saw Kyle Sucevich and players/commentators from The Top Cut. There were a lot of players play testing on every level, and even more in the food court. My predictions were correct as I saw multiple players testing Gothitelle Accelgor. I grabbed some dinner, headed out to catch up with a New Zealand mate currently living in Canada, and now I'm probably off to bed. Hopefully I get up in the morning for free breakfast :)
My flight was at 8pm, and at the airport I managed to catch up with Aussie player Anthony Smith who was waiting for a transfer and had a chat about the expected metagame and decklists. We both believe Gothitelle Accelgor is the deck to beat this weekend, so we also expected quite a few players to play decks such as Blastoise Keldeo and also Darkrai to counter them.
The plane ride was pretty bad for me personally. I got up at 6am today for a morning lecture at university, and struggled to sleep for more than 30 minute intervals at a time during the 13 hour flight. I've always hated long plane rides due to my inability to sleep well on them, not to mention I often found myself trying to stretch my long legs out due to the lack of leg room allocated to the economy class seats. Touching down in Canada was a great relief for me, and I wanted to get off that plane as soon as possible.
At the Vancouver airport, I met Aussie/New Zealand's Kan family and said hello. Canada is one hot place. As soon as I got off the plane, I realised that all the warm clothing I had packed were pointless. The weather is a lot warmer than New Zealand at the moment (summer in the Northern Hemisphere, winter in the Souther Hemisphere). After going through security, I forgot how to catch the Skytrain to downtown Vancouver. After an hour of walking up and down, I managed to use the free WIFI at the airport to track down a post on Facebook about how to travel from the airport to our accommodation.
Upon arriving in downtown Vancouver, we were greeted by multiple beggars. It was quite unusual to say the least. Beggars in Vancouver come up to you and do everything they can to get some money from you. They were everywhere. Imagine walking and at every block, having 2 beggars come up to you and asking for money. The situation is pretty bad. It felt threatening at first, but I got used to it after a while.
I checked into my hotel, and went down to the Vancouver Convention Centre to check out the venue of the tournament. The venue is linked to the Pan Pacific Hotel, which looked amazing. I would've loved to stay there if I had the money/if TPCi awarded a travel reward for New Zealand. I looked around for the big name players, and saw Kyle Sucevich and players/commentators from The Top Cut. There were a lot of players play testing on every level, and even more in the food court. My predictions were correct as I saw multiple players testing Gothitelle Accelgor. I grabbed some dinner, headed out to catch up with a New Zealand mate currently living in Canada, and now I'm probably off to bed. Hopefully I get up in the morning for free breakfast :)
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