Hi guys, this is Jesper coming back with another one of my ‘’quarterly write-ups’’.
As always, I played several different tournaments across the past few months and want to shed some light on what I’ve enjoyed as well as what I think could have been better.
As of writing this article, I have 357CP. I can say that I finally earned my invite and I now have to work extra hard on the grind towards a potential day 2 invite.
This quarter, I performed horribly with Tord’s ‘’Granbull Mill’’ deck at the Harrogate Regionals, yet managed to maintain consistently good placings at cups. I won a cup and Top 8’d another this quarter, a trend I hope to continue.
LAIC
This episode, I want to discuss the run I had in Brazil at the LAIC. In the tournament I played Blacephalon and had enjoyed a good day of good matchups and clutch Plumeria plays. I’ll refrain from talking much about my experience in Round Two, where I scooped on stream despite having game on board. However, I managed to recover well in the following rounds, and finished with a respectable 6-2 record. I’d almost sealed up for a day 2 at the tournament and a top 16 stipend in Europe and was feeling great.
Headed into Round 9, I’m thinking that I’m sure to meeting a fellow 6-2 player and ID’ing into day 2. If you hadn’t already anticipated where I was going with this, I was gifted the dreaded downpair. I was paired against a player with a 5-1-2 record who wanted nothing but a win.
I was playing a Decidueye / Ninetales / Zoroark player. I lose a game 1 that was very drawn out. I never manage to get a solid footing vs a daggering 4 prize swing turn on his end. Missed Energy Switch opportunities and energy drops sealed my fate.
In Game Two, I bricked. I felt that I would never be able to pull this game out. Fortunately, my opponent ended up making a crucial misplay. While I had been dead drawing several times throughout the game, he got excited and decided to swing into a Beast Ring turn. I sat there calmly with triple Beast Ring in my hand and I manage to swing the game back in my favor. I believe my opponent should have noted my dead draw and remained patient, playing around the Beast Ring with a multiple price card turn. The game ended with us both being at Two prizes a piece. He had one turn left to get his last DCE in a 20 card deck and unfortunately for me, he hit it of his last trade ability to see me lose, where I otherwise had game in hand coming into my turn.
Of course me running out of the venue shouting words that shouldn’t be included in this article, was not a good call after losing.
I finished in the top 128, being 30 CP short of a top 16 stipend, which I would have had if I had gotten the tie in that 9th swiss round. There is no point in reflecting on the situation in hindsight, and I am proud of my play. On any given day, the cards don’t fall the way we want.
OCIC
The next thing I wanted to talk about was my performance at the 2019 OCIC. I played an aggressive version of the Pikazek Tag Team deck, and finished with with a 5-4 score and a 99th placement, once again missing my top 16 stipend because of a loss in the final round. This was especially heartbreaking as I managed to win the first game of Round Nine, only to brick the following two games. I ended up playing vs all three of the playing Schemanskes in the same tournament, making me the second player ever to accomplish such a feat.
Nevertheless, I unfortunately again missed my top 16 stipend because of this result.
Looking Forward
To round out this writeup, I want to acknowledge that I have a lot to work on in terms of gameplay. I hope I can continue to learn how to play more consistently and that my luck hopefully swings in the other direction next time around.
I’ll be continuing to write these articles as often as possible. I enjoy that everyone is able to follow my journey in the Pokemon TCG, and being able to give newer and veteran players alike more information. Please leave a comment if you have any question or write a question to my Facebook page: ‘’Jesper ‘’K’’ Eriksen’’ and also follow me on Twitter @JesperKEriksen.
Good luck to everyone!