Kash's Stats and Memories: Best F1 Drivers from races I've seen live (16 before Singapore GP 2022)

 So you know I like to talk about some stats and also some past memories so I thought, why not mix them all up into one thing. And with the Singapore GP back after a 2 year hiatus this weekend, why not do a fun little thing about the races I've seen live in action and which drivers have done the best when I'm there!

#1 F1 Singapore Grand Prix 2011

• Race Winner: #1 Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull (Started 1st)
• Podium: #4 Jenson Button (McLaren) & #2 Mark Webber (Red Bull)
• Pole: Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull - 1:44.381s
• Fastest Lap: Jenson Button - McLaren - 1:48.454s on lap 54
• My Viewing spot for the race: Turn 13 Viewing Platform
• Notes:
• The first race for me!
• Had Jenson Button not finished 2nd, Sebastian Vettel would have clinched his 2nd world championship in Singapore with 5 races still left to go
• Best result of the year for Paul di Resta (6th)
• This was Vettel's 19th win in F1

#2 F1 Australian Grand Prix 2012

• Race Winner: #3 Jenson Button - McLaren (Started 2nd)
• Podium: #1 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) & #4 Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
• Pole: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) - 1:24.922
• Fastest Lap: Jenson Button (McLaren) - 1:29.187 on lap 56
• My Viewing spot for the race: Schumacher Stand at Turns 15 and 16
• Notes:
• F1 debut for Jean-Éric Vergne and Charles Pic
• First F1 race in 39 years not to feature an Italian driver
• First ever F1 race to feature 6 F1 world champions on the starting grid (Schumacher, Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso, Button and Raikkonen)
• This was Button's 13th win in F1

#3 F1 Singapore Grand Prix 2012

• Race Winner: #1 Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull (Started 3rd)
• Podium: #3 Jenson Button (McLaren) & #5 Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
• Pole: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) - 1:46.362
• Fastest Lap: Nico Hülkenberg (Force India) - 1:51.033 on lap 52
• My Viewing spot for the race: Turn 8 Viewing Platform
• Notes:
• Vettel's win meant he had jumped two places in the standings to 2nd, cutting the gap to Alonso to 29 points with 5 races left go go
• Hamilton was leading the race before a gearbox failure
• First race to finish before the full amount of laps were completed due to reaching the 2 hour limit, the first time since 2008 Monaco GP
• Best ever F1 result for Paul di Resta (4th)
• This was Vettel's 23rd win in F1

#4 F1 Malaysian Grand Prix 2013

• Race Winner: #1 Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull (Started 3rd)
• Podium: #2 Mark Webber (Red Bull) & #10 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
• Pole: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) - 1:49.674
• Fastest Lap: Sergio Pérez (McLaren) - 1:39.199 on lap 56
• My Viewing spot for the race: Grandstand F (Turns 5 to 8)
• Notes:
• This race was the one with the infamous multi 2-1 controversy. Vettel was told to stay behind team-mate Webber and not fight him for the win. He ignored team orders to take the win.
• Lewis Hamilton scores his first of (as of writing) 139 podiums for Mercedes
• This was Vettel's 27th win in F1

#5 F1 Singapore Grand Prix 2013

• Race Winner: #1 Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull (Started 1st)
• Podium: #3 Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) & #7 Kimi Räikkönen (Lotus)
• Pole: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) - 1:42.841
• Fastest Lap: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) - 1:48.574 on lap 46
• My Viewing spot for the race: Viewing Platform at Turns 22 & 23
• Notes:
• Vettel scored only his 3rd Grand Slam (Pole, led all laps, fastest lap and win)
• First Singapore GP without the infamous Singapore Sling, now changed to a single corner
• Never thought my final picture of Mark Webber in F1 competition would be on a Ferrari haha! Alonso gave him a ride back after his car failed on him on the last lap
• This was Vettel's 33rd win in F1, and the 3rd of 9 straight wins, a record in F1!

#6 F1 Australian Grand Prix 2014

• Race Winner: #6 Nico Rosberg - Mercedes (Started 3rd)
• Podium: #20 Kevin Magnussen (McLaren) and #22 Jenson Button (McLaren)
• Pole: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - 1:44.231
• Fastest Lap: Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) - 1:32.478 on lap 19
• My Viewing spot for the race: Fangio Grandstand (Start/Finish straight)
• Notes:
• This was the first race of the new turbocharged V6 hybrid era of F1
• Also the first race with the new ruling of drivers running with a fixed number for the rest of their F1 careers and not having numbers based on team's previous finish
• F1 debuts for Kevin Magnussen, Daniil Kvyat and Marcus Ericsson. Magnussen and Kvyat both scored points on debut, with Magnussen scoring his best ever F1 result (2nd), podium on debut, the first since Lewis Hamilton back in 2007
• Jenson Button scored his final podium finish in F1 after Daniel Ricciardo's disqualification 
• This was Rosberg's 4th win in F1

#7 F1 Singapore Grand Prix 2014

• Race Winner: #44 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes (Started 1st)
• Podium: #1 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) & #3 Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull)
• Pole: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - 1.45.681
• Fastest Lap: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - 1:50.417 on lap 39
• My Viewing spot for the race: Viewing Platform at Turns 22 & 23
• Notes:
• This was to be the last race Jules Bianchi would finish before his tragic accident at the next race in Suzuka, Japan. He succumbed to his injuries from that race 9 months later
• Best results of the season for Vettel (2nd) and Vergne (6th)
• This was Hamilton's 29th win in F1

#8 F1 Malaysian Grand Prix 2015

• Race Winner: #5 Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari (Started 2nd)
• Podium: #44 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) & #6 Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
• Pole: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - 1:49.834
• Fastest Lap: Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) - 1:42.062 on lap 43
• My Viewing spot for the race: K1 Grandstand (Main Straight, Turns 1 to 3)
• Notes:
• Vettel took his first of 14 wins for Ferrari in Malaysia
• Three drivers all scored their best F1 results at that point in this race, Bottas (5th), Verstappen (7th) and Sainz (8th)
• Max Verstappen became the youngest ever F1 point scorer with his 7th place finish at 17 years 180 days
• This was Vettel's 40th win in F1, his first since his 9 race win streak at the end of 2013

#9 F1 Singapore Grand Prix 2015

• Race Winner: #5 Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari (Started 1st)
• Podium: #3 Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) & #7 Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari)
• Pole: Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) - 1:43.885
• Fastest Lap: Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) - 1:50.041 on lap 52
• My Viewing spot for the race: Bay Grandstand (Turn 18)
• Notes:
• Alexander Rossi made his F1 debut in Singapore in place of Roberto Mehri, the first American to race in F1 since Scott Speed back in 2006
• Ricciardo scored his best result of the season at this race (2nd)
• The only race all season that neither Mercedes were on the front row and the only non-Mercedes pole position in all of 2015
• A drunk man walked on track to bring out a safety car. Don't do that people.
• This was Vettel's 42nd win in F1, moving past the legendary Ayrton Senna's total of 41 to put him 3rd on his own on the all time wins list at that time

#10 F1 Japanese Grand Prix 2015

• Race Winner: #44 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes (Started 2nd)
• Podium: #6 Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) & #5 Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
• Pole: Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) - 1:32.584
• Fastest Lap: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - 1:36.145 on lap 33
• My Viewing spot for the race: Grandstand I (Turns 10 & 11)
• Notes:
• My 10th race and the first that isn't in Singapore, Australia or Malaysia which I thought was pretty cool. Hoping to go back to Suzuka sometime in the near future
• Max Verstappen stopped his car in front of me during practice and Daniil Kvyat's Red Bull crashed and did a barrel roll in front of me at Turn 10 during qualifying as well
• The first race since the 2011 European Grand Prix where all cars that started the race finished the race
• This was the race featuring the famous "GP2 engine" radio comment by Fernando Alonso
• This was Hamilton's 41st win in F1, tying the number of his idol Ayrton Senna of 41 wins (at that time to be joint 4th most) as well at the track he won all 3 of his world championships

#11 F1 Singapore Grand Prix 2016

• Race Winner: #6 Nico Rosberg - Mercedes (Started 1st)
• Podium: #3 Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) & #44 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
• Pole: Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) - 1:42.584
• Fastest Lap: Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) - 1:47.187 on lap 49
• My Viewing spot for the race: Viewing Platform at Turns 22 & 23
• Notes:
• Fernando Alonso did a few laps in practice with the halo, one of the first times it was trailed in an actual F1 running before it's introduction in 2018
• In a weird case of luck, I stood at a place where usually I can see the 19th and 20th qualifiers on the starting grid and somehow Sebastian Vettel had a penalty that weekend which meant he was directly in front of me as the race started. Lucky break I guess.
• This was Rosberg's 22nd win in F1, which was also his 200th F1 start. It were to be his second to last win in F1 before retiring at the end of the season

#12 F1 Singapore Grand Prix 2017

• Race Winner: #44 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes (Started 5th)
• Podium: #3 Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) & #77 Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)
• Pole: Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) - 1:39.491
• Fastest Lap: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - 1:45.008 on lap 55
• My Viewing spot for the race: Esplanade Waterfront Grandstand (Turns 16, 17 & 18)
• Notes:
• You know this race. One of my favourite moments in all of F1. The two Ferrari cars starting at the front actually crashing into each other at the start! I loved it, since I'm not a fan of that lot.
• This was the first ever wet night race in F1 history, rain hit the track 20 minutes before race started and caused all sorts of chaos in the race
• Best F1 finishes for 3 drivers in this race, Carlos Sainz (4th), Joylon Palmer (6th) and Stoffel Vandoorne (7th). It would turn out to be the best F1 finish for both Palmer and Vandoorne in their short F1 careers.
• This was Hamilton's 60th win in F1

#13 F1 Malaysian Grand Prix 2017

• Race Winner: #33 Max Verstappen - Red Bull (Started 3rd)
• Podium: #44 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) & #3 Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull)
• Pole: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - 1:30.076
• Fastest Lap: Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) - 1:34.080 on lap 41
• My Viewing spot for the race: K1 Grandstand (Main Straight, Turns 1 to 3)
• Notes:
• This was to be the last Malaysian Grand Prix for F1
• Pierre Gasly made his F1 debut in place of Daniil Kvyat
• Kimi Räikkönen was due to start 2nd in the race but his car had a battery failure that ended his race even before the start
• This was Verstappen's 2nd F1 win, a day after his 20th birthday

#14 F1 Australian Grand Prix 2018

• Race Winner: #5 Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari (Started 3rd)
• Podium: #44 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) & #7 Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari)
• Pole: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - 1:21.164
• Fastest Lap: Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) -1:25.945 on lap 54
• My Viewing spot for the race: Brabham Grandstand (Turns 1 & 2)
• Notes:
• Fun little not here but this was the first time I watched back to back F1 races with neither being the Singapore Grand Prix
• This was the first F1 race to feature the new halo system
• Charles Leclerc and Sergey Sirotkin made their F1 debuts
• Best result of the season for Alonso (5th)
• This was Vettel's 48th win in F1. Vettel also scored his 100th podium finish in F1 in this race.

#15 F1 Singapore Grand Prix 2018

• Race Winner: #44 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes (Started 1st)
• Podium: #33 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) & #5 Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
• Pole: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - 1:36.015
• Fastest Lap: Kevin Magnussen (Haas) - 1:41.905 on lap 50
• My Viewing spot for the race: Stamford Grandstand (Turns 7 & 8)
• Notes:
• First fastest lap recorded by Kevin Magnussen, which was also the first fastest lap for his team Haas
• Liam Gallagher had a concert here! He's my favourite singer so that was awesome to catch
• This was Hamilton's 69th win in F1 (nice)

#16 F1 Singapore Grand Prix 2019

• Race Winner: #5 Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari (Started 3rd)
• Podium: #16 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) & #33 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
• Pole: Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) - 1:36.217
• Fastest Lap: Kevin Magnussen (Haas) - 1:42.301 on lap 58
• My Viewing spot for the race: Stamford Grandstand (Turns 7 & 8)
• Notes:
• For only the second time ever, Kevin Magnussen and Haas both got a fastest lap to their names, both happening in Singapore in back to back years
• Antonio Giovinazzi briefly lead the race, making him the first driver not driving a Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull to lead a race since Bottas did for Williams at the 2015 British Grand Prix. Also the first time Alfa Romeo lead an F1 race since 1983
• This was sadly my last time using my favourite Nikon camera which I used to take all the pictures you see on this entry. My camera was damaged months after this race by renovation workers
• This was Vettel's 53rd win in F1, and likely his last F1 race win having announced his retirement at the end of this year. He sits 3rd in the all time winner's list, behind Michael Schumacher (91) and Lewis Hamilton (103).

I'm excited to get back to Marina Bay street circuit to catch my 17th Formula One race live this weekend. And I wonder which race will be the 18th. I have applied tickets for a familiar place I've not been to in a while (not true, I was there for reasons not named F1 last time out, it was for Pokemon). And then after that, where's the next new races I might go to? 

My cousin and I were talking about possibly going to Barcelona if I do decide to visit her in Edinburgh next year. And there's still races I have yet to visit like Montreal, A1-Ring, Silverstone, Spa, one of the 3 US races possibly, maybe a return to Suzuka. Most likely another go in Singapore. We'll see what the future holds.

And now for the fun stats:

Most wins by a driver at races I watched live

1. Sebastian Vettel - 8 wins
2. Lewis Hamilton - 4 wins
3. Nico Rosberg - 2 wins
4. Jenson Button - 1 win
5. Max Verstappen - 1 win

Yeah I've only seen 5 drivers win in the 16 races I've been to. If Max doesn't win this weekend which we all expect him to, there could be a 6th on the way if it's not Hamilton. Vettel has won the half the races I've been to which is kinda crazy. Sure the first half was him during his dominant Red Bull era but the other half were with Ferrari! Maybe it's also appropriate I got to see his last F1 win as well. I'm still happy I got to see a Jenson Button win live in person for only my 2nd ever race.

Most wins by a team at races I watched live

1. Mercedes - 6 wins
2. Red Bull - 5 wins
3. Ferrari - 4 wins
4. McLaren - 1 win

Not a surprise, Mercedes and Red Bull have been dominating the era where I got to go watch a few F1 races live. All 4 of Ferrari wins were thanks to the most winningest driver I've seen, Vettel. And hey at least I got to see my favourite team win once before, my first overseas race in Melbourne, which my favourite at that time, Jenson Button, won the damn thing!

Most podiums by a driver at races I watched live

1. Sebastian Vettel - 12 podiums
2. Lewis Hamilton - 10 podiums
3. Daniel Ricciardo - 5 podiums
4. Jenson Button - 4 podiums
5. Nico Rosberg - 4 podiums
6. Kimi Räikkönen - 3 podiums
7. Max Verstappen - 3 podiums
8. Fernando Alonso - 2 podiums
9. Valtteri Bottas - 1 podium
10. Charles Leclerc - 1 podium
11. Kevin Magnussen - 1 podium

Apart from Magnussen, no real surprise podiums here. Maybe the biggest would be Alonso with only 2 podiums since he was still doing well with Ferrari during that time. I got to see my guys Ricciardo and Button do well a few times so that was nice. And hey I was there to see Magnussen get his one and only F1 podium so far, on his F1 debut no less. But yeah it shows that apart from the 2014 Australian GP, I've not really seen that many crazy results live. Sad.

Most podiums by a team at races I watched live

1. Red Bull - 16 podiums
2. Mercedes - 14 podiums
3. Ferrari - 11 podiums
4. McLaren - 6 podiums
5. Lotus - 1 podium

Again, no real surprise results here. Red Bull and Mercedes have dominated the era I got to watch racing live.

Most poles by a driver at races I watched live

1. Lewis Hamilton - 8 poles
2. Sebastian Vettel - 5 poles
3. Nico Rosberg - 2 poles
4. Charles Leclerc - 1 pole

Most poles by a team at races I watched live

1. Mercedes - 8 poles
2. Red Bull - 3 poles
3. Ferrari - 3 poles
4. McLaren - 2 poles

This portion of the stats have been dominated by two guys, Hamilton and Vettel. It's usually them. That might change soon.

Most fastest lap by a driver at races I watched live

1. Daniel Ricciardo - 3 FLs
2. Lewis Hamilton - 3 FLs
3. Jenson Button - 2 FLs
4. Nico Rosberg - 2 FLs
5. Kevin Magnussen - 2 FLs
6. Nico Hülkenberg - 1 FL
7. Sergio Pérez - 1 FL

Most fastest lap by a team at races I watched live

1. Mercedes - 5 FLs
2. Red Bull - 4 FLs
3. McLaren - 3 FLs
4. Haas - 2 FLs
5. Force India - 1 FL
6. Ferrari - 1 FL

Ok the fastest lap ones are a bit funky. I mean, Magnussen and Haas only has ever had 2 FLs, both happened when I was there haha! Ricciardo was always quick so nice to see him pick up a number of these. Anyone could really get an FL these days.

Most top 10 finishes by a driver at races I watched live

1. Sebastian Vettel - 14 finishes
2. Lewis Hamilton - 13 finishes
3. Kimi Räikkönen - 12 finishes
4. Sergio Pérez - 12 finishes
5. Daniel Ricciardo - 10 finishes
6. Nico Rosberg - 9 finishes
7. Fernando Alonso - 9 finishes
8. Valtteri Bottas - 9 finishes
9. Nico Hülkenberg - 8 finishes
10. Max Verstappen - 7 finishes

Ok this one is a bit skewed to those who have been around longer but hey, the Hulk is still up there. And even with just 8 races out of the 16 I've been to, Verstappen is already in the top 10.

Most top 10 finishes by a team at races I watched live

1. Ferrari - 27 finishes
2. Red Bull - 25 finishes
3. Mercedes - 25 finishes
4. McLaren - 18 finishes
5. Force India - 16 finishes
6. Lotus/Renault - 15 finishes
7. Toro Rosso - 15 finishes
8. Sauber/Alfa Romeo - 9 finishes
9. Williams - 9 finishes
10. Haas - 1 finish

Damn it, why is it always Ferrari in the points at any races I'm at. Force India/Aston Martin,  Lotus/Renault/Alpine and Toro Rosso/Alpha Tauri have done better at the races I've been to.

Most DNFs finishes by a driver at races I watched live

1. Romain Grosjean - 5 DNFs
2. Pastor Maldonado - 4 DNFs
3. Fernando Alonso - 4 DNFs
4. Nico Hülkenberg - 4 DNFs
5. Jenson Button - 4 DNFs
6. Kimi Räikkönen - 3 DNFs
7. Lewis Hamilton - 3 DNFs
8. Felipe Massa - 3 DNFs
9. Sebastian Vettel - 2 DNFs
10. Adrian Sutil - 2 DNFs

Was hoping to prove a point here but it's not Maldonado on top. Damn it.

Most points by a driver at races I watched live

1. Sebastian Vettel - 288 points
2. Lewis Hamilton - 231 points
3. Nico Rosberg - 135 points
4. Kimi Räikkönen - 121 points
5. Daniel Ricciardo - 109 points
6. Fernando Alonso - 101 points
7. Valtteri Bottas - 91 points
8. Max Verstappen - 86 points
9. Jenson Button - 82 points
10. Sergio Pérez - 47 points

Most points by a team at races I watched live

1. Mercedes - 392 points
2. Red Bull - 378 points
3. Ferrari - 359 points
4. McLaren 174 points
5. Lotus/Renault - 82 points
6. Force India - 79 points
7. Williams - 68 points
8. Toro Rosso - 56 points
9. Sauber/Alfa Romeo - 24 points
10. Haas - 2 points

Well it's the same story, the ones who dominated leads the chart. For drivers it's the ones with more wins, Vettel, Hamilton and even Rosberg. For teams it's the big 3 lately, Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari, and they were closely fought here.

Best average points per race by a driver at races I watched live (not counting those with 3 or less starts)

1. Sebastian Vettel - 18 pts/race
2. Lewis Hamilton - 14.44 pts/race
3. Nico Rosberg - 12.27 pts/race
4. Max Verstappen - 10.75 pts/race
5. Mark Webber - 9 pts/race
6. Kimi Räikkönen - 8.07 pts/race
7. Jenson Button - 7.45 pts/race
8. Valtteri Bottas - 7 pts/race
9. Daniel Ricciardo - 6.81 pts/race
10. Fernando Alonso - 6.73 pts/race

Had I included those with 3 or less races, Alex Albon would have been 7th on 8 points per race. But that's just from one race haha!

Best points conversion by a driver at races I watched live (not counting those with 3 or less starts)

1. Sebastian Vettel - 88%
2. Max Verstappen - 88%
3. Nico Rosberg - 82%
4. Lewis Hamilton - 81%
5. Kimi Räikkönen - 80%
6. Stoffel Vandoorne - 75%
7. Sergio Pérez - 75%
8. Valtteri Bottas - 69%
9. Carlos Sainz - 67%
10. Daniel Ricciardo - 63%

Same as above, had I included less than 3, the top 3 would have been Albon, Norris and Giovinazzi at 100% for their point scoring finish at the 2019 Singapore GP. Also Leclerc was at 67% but he's only done 3 races.

Thanks for reading and checking this out! Enjoy the race weekend!

The first big TPC events in Singapore: Regional League (Q1) and Town League for September 2022 - My deck choices, the event itself and some stats from the event

 It's been 3 long years since we had actual big events in Singapore (the silly qualifiers during May-June do not count), but it's nice to finally play in one where it actually matters. We've all been waiting longer than the rest of the world to get our events back and while NA, LA, OC, EU, Japan and a few other parts of Asia were having their own events, we were left to sit by and just wait. But thankfully the wait is over, with the first Regional League event this past weekend.

1. Deck Choices for Event
2. Regional League (Day 1)
3. Town League (Day 2)
4. Stats from both events

I can't say I had the best preparation going into this one. Be it the fact that we only had 9 days to get new cards or some personal stuff going on. I knew I wasn't going to get many of the new stuff in time so I decided early on just to stick to what I had and run with it. Then came the other issue, that being that I didn't really have much to work with. I've had friends telling me in the lead up to the tourney to play the old BDIFs like Palkia, Mew or try to get Giratina, Kyurem or Zoroark VSTAR. Didn't have either Palkia or Mew so my options were limited to these:

Deck Choices

Top row were decks that I wanted to believe were good but in my heart I knew probably weren't:

• Dragapult VMAX seemed like a good idea into the new Lost Zone stuff since you can pick them off one by one.
• Centiskorch VMAX, you all know the story. We're living in Palkia's world now so it'll never happen again. I sadly will never ever get to play Centiskorch VMAX in a real big event.
• Malamar was one I thought could be decent if I drew well but then I realised, Lost City could be seen in some decks and Malamar doesn't naturally play stadiums so that could be a real pain to deal with so I didn't think about it.

And then we had the two decks on the side that I thought, maybe if I had the time, I could make them work:

• Gengar VMAX still seems good, you can get cheeky big KOs right off the bat. Really liked the Turbo Mew build with it. But the single prizer decks can be a problem.  Going back to Houndoom wouldn't help much since it won't kill off Regis either.
• Ice Rider VMAX was the next thing I gravitated towards to after the demise of our dear beloved friend Centiskorch VMAX. As you can see from the picture, I only had proxies Palkia with me and Ice Riders lately do need it. My other option was to use the Froslass line for a similar reason.

So that left me with two decks. Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX and Arceus VSTAR. I had been building Urshifu as my deck of choice for the Town League at one point after I settled on Arceus but I then realised I was missing Snorlax, Drapion V and 4 Irida to get the best version of the deck. (Yup I don't own Irida)

So we're left with Arceus but which version of Arceus would I go with? 

There were so many ways to build the deck as we all know and so I had to look through every options just to be sure.

• Inteleon build was the most common at one point but the last two times I played an Arceus deck with the Inteleon engine, it didn't go so well. A combined total of 3 of my games from the last two events with it went to time. So I was not prepared for that for the Regional.
• Jolteon with Memory Capsule was one I was strongly considering. Palkia was still going to be one of the best decks around and that has given it a lot of trouble. It also blocks out the likes of Greninja and the new Cramorant which I was expecting a lot of them to show up. One of my European friends was helping me out during the week and was a strong advocator for using Jolteon. But we've seen before that the Jolteon version can get stuck, not for me.
• I even though of a V-Toolbox style deck where I'd try to fit in all sorts of attackers to have an answer for each of the main big decks and a combo move of Wydeer V to take some of those energies, come into the active, swap with Thorton into any attacker in the discard, V or non V. The main engine was Melony and whoever could use it, be it Galarian Moltres, Entei, Zamazenta, Empoleon, Starmie and Dragonite to name the ones I had. But I came up with the idea very late on and I didn't want to bring something that wasn't refined enough to a regional event. 
• So I was left with good ol' Bibarel. World championship winning deck. That's the one.

And I had played the Arceus/Flying Pikachu/Bibarel/Crobat deck for months, before the Worlds championship or NAIC. I took it to my locals just to give it a test run and managed to beat a Worlds player (Xaiver) who used one of the new Lost Zone decks which gave me confidence that the deck could still do well. My only loss that day was to a Goodra and I accepted was a horrid matchup.

I had most of my deck set and ready with the last pieces to fix, being a few energy choices, choice o tool, and the last tech attacker. At one point I had 2 Powerful energies, 2 Choice Belts and a Slaking V to make it a bit more aggressive and help me take down stuff like Giratina V, Palkia V, Kyurem V or whatever in the second turn. My good friend Luke Morsa (Celio's Network) talked me out of doing that and just go for a safer route with capture energies and Big Charms. 

Now for the tech attacker and I just wasn't sure if Hisuian Decidueye was helpful at all. I didn't expect to see that many Arceus VSTARs around and I knew Mew would come in spades so Crobat VMAX was staying in. One of my biggest worries was Kyurem VMAX. Leading up to the week, it kept doing well online and I was worried people might jump onto it. Luke's suggestion was to go with Zamazenta V, something I had in my initial V-Toolbox deck. So that with two Metal energies was the last things added into the deck at 11pm the night before. 

Deck is sorted, my limited amounts of testing was done, time for the regional. While I was sorting through my bulk to see what other tech attackers I could use, I found out I had a 1-1 Aggron VMAX line, and I had played the deck online and was a big fan of it so I got the other Aggron V to possibly play it for the Town League. I didn't think I was ready to go into the Regional with it since I hadn't played it much.

Also for anyone wondering how our invite structure is like this time around, it's the top 4 in the CSP standings who gets the Day 1 Worlds invite while the Championship winner gets a Day 2 invite. And with the way the CSP is payed out, you'd need to be winning these regionals and top 4 a few other regionals to have a realistic shot of making top 4.

Regional League (Day 1)

I wasn't feeling all that confident since I didn't get to test/practice all that much. The deck I played the most was Arceus but not the exact 60 since I kept swapping things around and changing stuff to see what worked and what didn't. I still haven't played against some of the newer decks enough to know what was the best route to take against them. Just had to try my best, wing it and see how it went. After deck checks are done, the wait begins. 

And we waited. And we waited some more. Registration started at 10.30pm but Round 1 only starts at 1pm, I don't quite get why that is the case. Do we really need to manually check everyone and not just do random deck checks like what they do over in the TPCi events? That really felt needless. A whole host of us came down early just so we didn't have any issues with registrations and while the deck checks were done quickly, it didn't help that we were told Round 1/Player breifing would start at 1pm. And of course it started at 2pm. I'll skip events a bit here but the wait for rounds also didn't make sense to me.

Round 1 to Round 2 = 1 hour 9 minutes

Round 2 to Round 3 = 1 hour 2 minutes

Round 3 to Round 4 = 52 minutes

Round 4 to Round 5 = 1 hour

Round 5 to Round 6 = 1 hour 1 minute

Round 6 to Round 7 = 50 minutes

Round 7 to Round 8 = 47 minutes

It's a best of 1 event where matches take only 25 minutes, why were we waiting for double that amount for all but the last round? That is something I just could not understand. And many of us were annoyed at the lack of updates. Some of us wanted to get snacks or food in between rounds but wasn't sure how long it would take. By round 5, we all knew so everyone just did their own thing. I still don't know why it took so long for rounds to get paired, hopefully the people running the event fixes this because taking 50 minutes in between a bo1 tourney is not right. I was already feeling tired at the start of Round 2 from waiting around.

Round 1 - 0-0 - Table 59 W vs Ian Quah (Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR)

First up was Ian who was nice enough to give me some pieces of the new Lost Zone deck so thank you so much for that! I wasn't feeling so good when I saw he had Giratina, knowing that could be quite problematic for me but he made a mistake of using Capture Energy and taking a Crobat V. These things can happen to newer players in their first big events. That mistake turned the tide to my favour and he couldn't come back after that.

Round 2 - 1-0 - Table 19 L vs Klive Aw (Arceus VSTAR/Flying Pikachu VMAX/Giratina VSTAR)

Talk about mistakes, this time it was my turn. Even though it's only Round 2, we had been at the venue for close to 5 hours! It's supposed to be just a bo1 event yet after 5 hours, we're only at Round 2. So I was already tired going into this round, head hurting a bit and of course I messed up. I had the perfect turn 1 of Arceus and DTE, but with a Zamazenta stuck in the active. Turn 2, I top drew another DTE and for whatever reason, I attached a Metal energy onto my Arceus. I knew right away I messed up. And Klive being the pro he is, he took advantage and bossed up my Arceus and it was all downhill from there. 

 

Round 3 - 1-1 - Table 28 W vs Awyong Liang Jun (No idea, he no-showed so free win for me)

They made me wait 10 minutes to get that win so I lost precious time to do my reporting work for my Pokestats crew or even take photos for the rest of the guys!

Round 4 - 2-1 - Table 8 W vs Wu Zheng Wei (Arceus VSTAR/Sylveon VMAX/Flying Pikachu VMAX)

This was almost a lost for me since I didn't get Arceus VSTAR turn 2 so I had to set up Flying Pika but never evolving it while he evolved his. I took his down and knowing he had no way to KO my Flying Pika, took out his Galarian Meowth. Now was the hope and wait bit, if he had boss he won the game but he didn't and I still had Lumineon to take down his own Lumineon on the bench. 

Round 5 - 3-1 - Table 18 L vs Wong Wei Kit (Mew VMAX)

Painful and short game. Why do I keep meeting bossman in all of these big events. The SPE where I finished top 8, OCIC over in Australia and now this! I went first, had Flying Pika, attach metal energy and big charm. Pass. I top drew a Quick Ball and had the choice of either going for the gurantee Arceus but leave my dead hand dead or go for the Crobat in the hopes to draw something out of it. I went for the later and drew nothing out of it. Game over.

Round 6 - 3-2 - Table 20 W vs Ma Kian Wei (Lost Zone Toolbox)

Flying Pika VMAX doing Flying Pika VMAX stuff, he just couldn't handle Max Balloon. I still played as if he had something up his sleeve but apparently he didn't.

Round 7 - 4-2 - Table 19 L vs Kenny Lim (Arceus VSTAR/Flying Pikachu VMAX/Giratina VSTAR)

This one was quite upsetting. I was talking to Kenny before the round started along with a few other friends and we all found out we were 4-2, so we kept trying to cheer each other up, saying we will win out and try to make top cut. Sure enough I had to play one of my friends and I had a slow start so that sucked. Top cut hopes over.

Round 8 - 4-3 - Table 22 W vs Jervis Yeo (Arceus VSTAR/Inteleon)

Was feeling down after losing R7 so went into the last round just blank and hoping to get that win to guarantee a top 32 finish. Opponent had a slow start and I took out the Sobble he had just re-benched after using Drizzle and he got stuck after that. Got that win at least.

Final Result - 28th - 5/3/0 - 150 CSP

Top 32 in the end, pretty happy with that to in all honesty. Came into this with one simple aim, don't get more losses than wins. That's it. I wasn't feeling confident going into the regional so I surprised myself with a result like this one, a top 32 even! Was not expecting it. Still, 3 of my losses could have been easily avoided by misplays so I was still a bit irritated at myself for that. 

Could have been top 16 or even better if I had just played perfectly and not messed up many times but that's me. Still need to work on that if I want to make it to Worlds since only top cut finishes at Regionals truly matter along with a Championship win. Still had fun, as it should be. I was just happy I got to see my friends again, some that I hadn't seen since 2019 or even longer!

Town League (Day 2)

For Day 2, I decided to have some fun and go with Arceus/Aggron. I didn't realise top 16 would score points in this one so I was thinking...did I make a mistake playing a deck I've never played IRL and only played online once (even though I did finish 2nd with it). No matter, still here to have fun and practice this new deck at a CSP paying event haha! 

I was a big fan of the deck after just playing a few games with it online and I had seen it still doing well online so I had to give it a try since I didn't get the pieces to play Rapid Strike Urshifu as I had planned initially. I was dealing with a headache going into this event after such a long day so I was a bit worried about how my day would go with a new deck for me.

Round 1 - 0-0 - Table 17 W vs Leong Jun Hao (Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR/Inteleon)

My opponent wasn't sure how to tackle the Aggron problem so I was able to win that one with little issue. Aggron had a decent matchup vs Palkia thankfully. 

Round 2 - 1-0 - Table 17 W vs Ma Kian Wei (Giratina VSTAR)

Met Kian Wei again and he was still on a Lost Zone deck. Aggron came to the rescue again taking out his Tina. Managed to set up Rock Slide to help me take an extra prize too.

Round 3 - 2-0 - Table 5 W vs Wayne Tan Wei Ping (Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX/Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR)

I'm sorry Wayne, champion of Singapore. He had no idea what I was playing and benched down two Ice Rider Vs right away and the moment I benched an Aggron I could tell he wasn't happy.

Round 4 - 3-0 - Table 3 L vs Lim Jit Min (Regigigas Toolbox)

Well I knew I was going to lose this one because Regi is an auto-lose for Aggron and I had such a slow start it didn't even matter. I never saw my Arceus VSTAR. My game plan was to charge up two Aggrons and try to Rock Slide my way into a few prizes but Regi just always has an answer. 

Round 5 - 3-1 - Table 8 L vs Koh Wei Siang (Regigigas Toolbox)

Regi again. This time I started Aggron and I had no ball search so I had to charge it up right away with DTE, making Rock Slide a little bit  less effective. Didn't matter, still an auto-loss.

Round 6 - 3-2 - Table 8 W vs Zamir Rosli (Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR)

I went into this game feeling very down. I worked so hard to get a 3-0 start (which rarely happens to me) just to hit two auto-losses. I felt a bit better when I saw my opponent was playing Arceus so I knew this was a good matchup. Think I even managed to take a KO with the help of 3 Goon pings at one point.

Final Result - 8th - 4/2/0 - 130 CSP

When the results came out initially, I was in 9th so I was even more upset after having a 3-0 start to end up outside of top 8. When I went to collect my prize, that's when we saw the actual result and I was 8th! I mean it's just 30 more points but still top 8 feels much nicer. Still not enough points to be anywhere close to the guys who finished in top cut of the Regionals as you will see soon. I was happy to get top 8 with a deck I had never played in real events before so that felt good, was a good "practice run" after all!

The Town League was much smoother, we didn't have to wait around long thankfully. Maybe it's because there were just 40+ of us while the Regional had 130+ but I felt it was much better this time around. No time wasted when necessary. The shortest wait time was the last round but at best, we were usually just waiting for 16 minutes after round ends and the pairings for the next round to go up which was much better than the previous day.

Round 1 to Round 2: 44 minutes

Round 2 to Round 3: 40 minutes

Round 3 to Round 4: 41 minutes

Round 4 to Round 5: 41 minutes

Round 5 to Round 6: 38 minutes

Overall, it was fun to be back playing in big events again. Sadly we're in this new reality of playing in a bo1 format and no matter what anyone can say to me or tell me, I'll never enjoy it. I won't ever understand why we had to switch from a perfectly fine bo3 to a horrible luck based bo1. Always good to see my friends and nice to meet many new faces too, some whom I've met through online. 

Playing wise, I thought I should have done better, but I did the best I could at times. A few silly mistakes were made and I need to stop doing that. Deck choices were alright but if I had swapped the two, would my day have gotten better since my day 1 matchups where more suited for Aggron and day 2 more suited to Flying Pikachu? Tech choices also didn't pay off, I should have stuck with Hisuian Decidueye not realising how many Arceus decks I would end up hitting. We live and we learn.

Just to sum things up:

• The new lost zone deck is legit, with or without Giratina. The single prizer version feels like ZapBeast. Comfey takes the place of Jirachi, Cram takes the place of Zapdos, you've got a whole host of other tech attackers, and we still have Beast Ring in the form of Mirage Gate
• Giratina is good no matter who it's paired with, be it Arceus or Lost Zone engine. Be prepared to see more of it
• Honestly, Palkia should still be the BDIF. Mew will have it's phases while Arceus will stick around somehow. 
• Regis sadly got better which can be a bit of a problem. Regi along with the new Lost Zone deck will bring back stuff like Empoleon, Weezing and other things to lock out abilities and possibly also items like Vikavolt V's first attack to slow the game down
• Of the other new decks, Kyurem did do well but I'm still not sold on it after testing it myself online. Hisuian Zoroark VSTAR, jury is still out on that one. Goodra seems like a good tank but I feel it can be beaten if played correctly
• If Regi wasn't a thing, I honestly think Arceus/Aggron could be a top contender
• I still hate bo1
• Playing pokemon is fun, you get to meet lots of cool people which I did for the most part. I sure missed seeing some of my friends, some I haven't seen since the last big event we had back in November 2019.
• While the playing is fun, the stuff around it was sometimes not so fun. Timings need to be set so us players know when we can do whatever we need to do and not worry about missing rounds. I mean surely we didn't need to wait 25 minutes after the end of the round and the start of another bo1 round
• Not having a stream this weekend was the biggest missed opportunity for the people running the regional. We were the first English Lost Origin legal tourney, I had friends from overseas asking if there would be a stream. Clearly people outside of Singapore were interested in our games for once. Yet we missed the boat on that one. Big fail.
• The match slip was confusing as hell. Why was the signature at the bottom and not next to our names, it'll make things so much easier. Not having the records show anywhere before rounds also meant any mistake made from reporting can easily be missed, which did happen!
• I don't know about the rest but I didn't like the setting in the middle of a crowded shopping mall where the games can be interrupted for no reason.
• If you have a decent enough draws throughout the day and meet the right matchups, anyone can make top cut in these regionals. There were a good 2-3 players who I've never heard of made top cut. 2-3 of them were junior or senior players as well, so you're never too young or too old to do well

Stats from both events

You know me, I have to work on some stats. So first up are the top 64 results from the Regional League. Why top 64? These are the ones who earned CSP.

If you want to see a bigger version of it, open a new tab for it. Should fix it.

And it wasn't just the Regional League going on, here's the top 16 who score points for the Town League the day after:

And here's one for which was the best performing decks, the total CSP scored from both days and also an average score for each deck along with how many players played it:

I know what you're thinking, why is Mew VMAX still right up there? You do have to remember that this was mostly in a bo1 format and Mew does tend to be the best deck in a bo1 setting since it can steal games off very quickly. Average wise Lost Zone did the best but that's because of it's Regional win giving it loads of points (which makes sense since it won). 

Mew and Palkia having the most players scoring points doesn't surprise me since they were two of the best decks from the last format so you'd expect to see that. Giratina being the next one, somewhat surprises me since it's new but then again it is a good deck and the people with money will be able to build it in time. Speak of the distorted devil, both versions of Giratina decks are in the top 5 along with the Lost Zone decks so clearly the new stuff have done well, which might be a worry for me since I'm stuck with the same old decks for the time being. 

All this talk about points but since the TPC people have posted the leaderboard, I'll post one:

The ones not shown are the ones who scored 150 CSP or below to save space. But you can tell that having a top 4 finish in a regional gets you closer to that Worlds invite since only the top 4 guys who have scored 200 CSP or more will get in. Yong Siang is already half way there with his win. Jit Min got top 16 in the Regional and won the Town League but the points gap is so big he's only 5th after that but there is still lots more Town Leagues, 2 more Regionals and the Championship (that's the one with the day 2 invite) to come. Still a long way to go, the road to Yokohama doesn't get any easier.

Thanks for stopping by to read this!