The World of Kash: July 2023

This is a recap of how my 2022-2023 season went, the first full one I've had since the 2018-2019 season since those of us in Asia never got to finish the 2019-2020/2022 season due to the TPCi/Asia split. And as you may have heard (or seen from the title), I am one of the lucky ones to qualify for the Pokemon World Championships in Singapore's circuit.

I am just one of 5 of us making the trip to Yokohama because our invites are now limited (4 from finishing top 4 in the standings and the championship winner who hadn't even scored a point going into the event). Confused? Don't worry I'll try my best to explain it and give a re-cap of how my season went, it was truly and a roller coaster of a ride, lots of ups early on, then downs in the middle and the biggest of ups at the end. This is our first full season under TPC Japan's jurisdiction so going into it, we still had no idea how our new system worked or what we were aiming for.

+Singapore Championships 2023 Recap

The Fourth Quarter - On to Worlds! (Battle Styles - Paldea Evolved)
The Results

The System

Our system is a little different to what most of you are used to under the TPCi system. For the rest of the world, the route to Worlds is quite simple:

Score a certain amount of points to qualify

In the case of Masters:

US/Canada - 350 CP
Europe - 250 CP
Latin America - 200 CP
Oceania - 200 CP
Middle East & South Africa - 200 CP

If you were to finish in the top X spots, you would earn a Day 2 invite to Worlds

US/Canada - Top 16 players
Europe - Top 22 players
Latin America - Top 12 players
Oceania - Top 4 players
Middle East & South Africa - Top 2 players

That's how to qualify in the TPCi format. In the TPC format however, things are a little different and it also depends on where you are.

Japan:

Champions League Top 4 Finishers - Day 1 Invite
Top 40 in CSP Standings - Day 1 Invite
Championships Top 16 Finishers - Day 2 Invite

South Korea

4 Masters earn Day 2 Invite
17 other Masters earn Day 1 Invite
All based on CSP earned in 5 events, likely Korean Leagues

Hong Kong (Traditional Chinese circuit)

Top 16 in CSP Standings - Day 1 Invite
Championships Winner - Day 2 Invite
Top 2 in CSP Standings - Day 2 Invite

Taiwan

Top 2 in CSP Standings - Day 2 Invite
Championships Top 4 - Day 2 Invite
Top 24 after the first two - Day 1 Invite

Hong Kong (English circuit)

Top 2 in CSP Standings - Day 1 Invite
Championships Winner - Day 2 Invite

Indonesia

Top 4 in CSP Standings - Day 1 Invite
Championships Winner - Day 2 Invite

Thailand

Top 4 in CSP Standings - Day 1 Invite
Championships Winner - Day 2 Invite

Singapore

Top 4 in CSP Standings - Day 1 Invite
Championships Winner - Day 2 Invite

Malaysia

Top 4 in CSP Standings - Day 1 Invite
Championships Winner - Day 2 Invite

The Philippines

Top 4 in CSP Standings - Day 1 Invite
Championships Winner - Day 2 Invite

Complicated isn't it? So while the rest of the world have their "chase for Day 2 invites", the rest of us here in Asia are chasing and fighting like crazy the whole year, just for a Day 1 invite and with limited invites available to us, which is why I firmly believe we have the hardest/most difficult qualifying system in all of Pokémon TCG.

And for those wondering, how do we score CSP points in these events? Using the system we use in Singapore (which is the same for the rest of South East Asia - The Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand), we can score points in 3 events, Town Leagues (similar to League Challenges), Regional League (more like League Cups than Regionals), and the Championships (similar to the old Nationals):

For Town Leagues

1st - 250 CSP (1 to 3 players)
2nd - 200 CSP (4 to 8 players)
3rd to 4th - 160 CSP (9 to 16 players)
5th to 8th - 130 CSP (17 to 32 players)
9th to 16th - 100 CSP (33 to 64 players)
17th to 32nd - 75 CSP (65 to 100 players)
33rd to 64th - 50 CSP (101+ players)

For Regional Leagues

1st - 1000 CSP (1 player)
2nd - 800 CSP (2 players)
3rd to 4th - 600 CSP (3 to 4 players)
5th to 8th - 400 CSP (5 to 32 players)
9th to 16th - 200 CSP (33 to 64 players)
17th to 32nd - 150 CSP (65 to 128 players)
33rd to 64th - 100 CSP (129 to 250 players)
65th to 128th - 75 CSP (251 to 500 players)
129th to 256th - 50 CSP (501 to 800 players)

For Championships

1st - 1500 CSP (1 player)
2nd - 1200 CSP (2 players)
3rd to 4th - 1000 CSP (3 to 4 players)
5th to 8th - 800 CSP (5 to 32 players)
9th to 16th - 600 CSP (33 to 64 players)
17th to 32nd - 400 CSP (65 to 128 players)
33rd to 64th - 200 CSP (129 to 250 players)
65th to 128th - 150 CSP (251 to 500 players)
129th to 256th - 100 CSP (501 to 800 players)
257th to 512th - 50 CSP (801+ players)

From looking at the points pay out, my friends and I figured out that anyone with two top cut placements in 2 of the 3 major events this year would likely end up in the top 4 of the standings. And as you'll see later, that was indeed the case for us this year!

Also I won't do a recap for many events apart from the major events, especially the Singapore Championship as I meant to write about that event separately but thought I might as well just combine it with this.

The First Quarter - Starting Strong (Sword & Shield - Lost Origin)

We started our season in September but unlike the others, we didn't play in the Sword & Shield to Astral Radiance format, we were the first outside of Japan to play Sword & Shield to Lost Origin format in official events. I actually hadn't tested that format much myself and I had already settled of playing an Arceus/Flying Pikachu/Bibarel deck for the first Regional event because I knew I would have a hard time getting any of the new cards in time for the event (and that was proven right).

Singapore Regional League (1)

Deck: Arceus VSTAR/Flying Pikachu VMAX/Bibarel
Record: 5-3
Finish: 29th/131 -> 150 CSP
Total CSP after event: 150 CSP
List:

This was part meta-call on my part and part-not having the new Lost Origin cards to play since it was a week after the set release. The Zamazenta idea came from my good friend Luke Morsa (Celio's Network) and it was meant to help out vs Kyurem but it helped in other cases. 5-3, top 32, good start to the year thanks to trusty old Arceus!

Town League September (1)

Deck: Arceus VSTAR/Aggron VMAX
Record: 4-2
Finish: 8th/45 -> 130 CSP
Total CSP after event: 280 CSP
List:

I just wanted to have some fun after the Regional so I brought my "fun deck" Arceus/Aggron which had been doing well in a few events, Worlds included. And it was really decent, only loses were to an auto-loss (back to back Regis) and it smashed everything else thanks to Aggron.

Town League October (1)

Deck: Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR
Record: 6-1
Finish: 2nd/32 -> 200 CSP
Total CSP after event: 480 CSP
List:

I had been playing ArcTina a lot during the run up to this event and it felt right. Even my one loss could have been a win had I not been stupid and took the wrong cards out of Starbirth thinking I had some other stuff in hand. First real good result of the season with a deck I really liked! Too bad I didn't get to play it much since I didn't win the lottery for the next event.

Town League October (2)

Deck: -
Record: Not Elected
Finish: Not Elected
Total CSP after event: 480 CSP

So the first thing you may notice is the last event, yes all of our events now are lottery based so if you win the lottery, you get to play in the event. The sad part is the event I missed was the closest venue to me, it was literally 5 minutes away from my house yet that's the one I didn't get to play in!

The season started off really well. Top 32 finish in the Regional event gave me confidence that yes, I'm still decent at the game after 2 years of not playing it. And to back that up with a Top 8 finish with a rouge deck (Arceus/Aggron) and then finishing 2nd with Arceus/Giratina, that gave me hope that maybe, this could be the year I get my invite.

I had a 100% points conversion rate after the first four events of the year and was sitting sixth in the standings, behind the 4 guys who finished top 4 in the Regional and Jit Min who won the first Town League. All 3 event I scored points at where with Arceus VSTAR decks too which was cool, I had only really been playing that up till that point of the season.

The Second Quarter - Sliding Away (Sword & Shield - Silver Tempest)

Well this is the point where my season took a downhill dive. I was hopeful after the first three events of the season but this part of the season almost broke me. Nothing I tried worked.

Town League November (1)

Deck: Giratina VSTAR
Record: 2-4
Finish: 34th/46
Total CSP after event: 480 CSP
List:

First event playing Lost Zone decks and I had been playing Tina at locals quite a lot. Too bad the result was just piss poor. Started off 2-0, lost to a first time player using Kyogre because my last gusting option was prized while they top drew their boss for game, that was in Table 1 too so the curse is real. Lost the next 3 games as well due to bad draws or going 2nd in the mirror.

Town League November (2)

Deck: -
Record: Not Elected
Finish: Not Elected
Total CSP after event: 480 CSP

Town League November (3)

Deck: Giratina VSTAR
Record: 4-3
Finish: 20th/72 -> 75 CSP
Total CSP after event: 555 CSP
List:

Tried again with Tina and this time I did score some CSP points but it was still an annoying deck as I was one win away from a top 8 finish. My last round was against Lugia (a really bad matchup and my two previous losses were to two other Lugias) but this game went way better for me and I managed to get a Roxanne on him to put myself just one prize away from winning and thinking he'd have no chance of winning since he'd already use 2 gust.

But of course my Roxanne gave him the last gust to put him into top 8 and me down to 20th. Roxanne is a lie. The Unown V was my own funny tech to combat Duraludon and did win me two games to be fair! Looking back, I probably should have just stuck with ArcTina and not try Tina especially after the first failed attempt. I knew how to play ArcTina well, Tina was just completely different and didn't work well for me.

Asia Open Singapore (No CSP awarded in this event, we were fighting to win an automatic top cut spot in our Championship event)

Deck: Arceus VSTAR/Duraludon VMAX
Record: 2-3 Drop
Finish: Drop/193
Total CSP after event: 555 CSP
List:

I hated this one. Just had too many bad hands early on for me to do the ol 2-3 drop since there was no points at stake and I wasn't enjoying myself.

Town League February (1)

Deck: Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Greninja
Record: 3-4
Finish: 59th/87
Total CSP after event: 555 CSP
List:

My first and only official event playing Lost Box and there's a good reason why. God this deck sucks. The outcomes are truly dependent on whether you go first or second or if you prize Colress. I played 5 mirrors, went first in one, and out of 7 games, I prized Colress twice in 5 of them. Unplayable games.

Town League February (2)

Deck: Lugia VSTAR/Archeops
Record: 3-4
Finish: 47th/68
Total CSP after event: 555 CSP
List:

I finally caved in and decided to play the BDIF for a tourney for the first time (and last time) of this season. I generally don't play a deck that is considered the BDIF, I tend to prefer playing the stuff that can counter all the good decks or my comfort choices, which are never the BDIF either. For this past few years it's been Arceus for me and before that in the online days, it was Centiskorch. Lugia didn't treat me well, so many losses were to bad first hand, getting donked by Raikou or drawing into 6 energies after a research.

Town League February (3) - Didn't even apply to join, I was in California during that time

Town League March

Deck: Mew VMAX/Meloetta
Record: 3-4
Finish: 51st/96
Total CSP after event: 555 CSP
List:

Decided to play Mew Meloetta for the first Scarlet and Violet event for a simple reason, I didn't have any of the new cards. If not I would have played Arceus/Giratina easily so I had to go for Mew. Once again it didn't treat me well. 3 games I started a lone Mew and passed. It was not fun.

Out of the six points scoring events we had, I only scored points in one of them. I went 5 months without scoring any CSP! I went from being one of the guys who had the best shot of overtaking the initial top 4 guys to....nothing. I just wasn't comfortable with any deck in this format which is why I kept jumping from one deck to the next, just looking for anything that worked for me and nothing did. I couldn't play my trusty old Arceus decks because of the new Lugia deck so I had to look elsewhere.

I was down to 16th in the standings, being overtaken by guys who hadn't scored much during the first three events and it made me question myself, especially after a 3rd straight event of having a 3-4 score and no points to show for my efforts. Am I actually ready to push for a Worlds invite? Am I really as good as people say I am? I was having doubts after this format and I knew I had to work doubly hard to get back into the fight.

The Third Quarter - The Comeback (Battle Styles - Scarlet & Violet)

After a painful 5 months of playing in a format I really did not like, I was looking forward to the release of the new Scarlet & Violet set, which also meant the new rotation would come into effect. Hopefully new cards meant a renewed chance to keep the hopes up of making it to Worlds but the road was tricky now that I had dropped down to 20th in the standings and needing a big result in the last two major events.

Singapore Regional League (2)

Deck: Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR
Record: 9-2
Finish: 1st/189 -> 1000 CSP
Total CSP after event: 1555 CSP
List:

Singapore Championships 2023

Deck: Mew VMAX
Record: 7-2
Finish: 12th/212 -> 600 CSP
Total CSP after event: 2155 CSP
List:

If you'd like to read what happened at the Singapore Regional League, you can read it here. Still couldn't believe I won a Regional, my first big win in Pokémon TCG! That win jumped me up from 20th to 2nd in the CSP standings. The job wasn't done though, I knew I still had to do well in the Championship to get that Day 1 invite by finishing in the top 4 of the standings. The guys behind me in the standings could still jump me but from what I heard from many friends my situation was clearer than most, a top 16 finish would get me over 2000 CSP and that should be enough to keep me in the top 4 of the standings.

My preparation for the Championships was more or less the same as the Regional, but with more playing time IRL and my own self testing than online on PTCGL due to the release of Paldea Evolved so I couldn't really play online to practice for the event.

But my approach was different, I wasn't planning to go all out to win the event like I did for the Regional. I knew I just needed to play it safe to get the 8-0, 7-1 or 6-2 score I needed to get into the top 15 cut. So I had decided quite early on I would play Mew DTE because it was the most consistent deck.

Yup I even named my deck “Path to Japan because of Path to the Peak, the most important card in my last two decks. Sure testing didn't go so well and I did keep thinking if I should go with another deck or go back to my comfort deck with Arceus VSTAR but chose to play it safe just to get the safe score I needed for top 16, since that should get me that Worlds Day 1 spot. My job got made easier since I started with a 2 round bye thanks to my Regional win.

Round 1 - W Bye
Round 2 - W Bye
Round 3 - W Gardevoir
Round 4 - L Mew DTE (59 card mirror vs Anselm who helped me the most with the list)
Round 5 - W ArcTina
Round 6 - W ArcTina
Round 7 - W Mew Meloetta (Round was repaired, initially got Gerrard with SableZard, a horrid matchup. Ended up beating the new Singapore Championship winner Dion in this round)
Round 8 - W Mew DTE (Same opponent from my Top 16 game at the Regional)
Top 16 - WLL Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Greninja (Lost City went...lost in Games 2 and 3 and cost me a shot to make it to Top 8)

Making the top 15 cut with a 7-1 score was just amazing, finishing up 6th before Top 16 cut, the dream of making Worlds was very alive. And I did that with Mew VMAX, a deck I hadn't really played much of so it made it even more sweeter because now I had proved that I could do well with different deck. Making back to back top cut appearances with two different decks showed I was no one trick pony like some people might have thought.

Me being the stats and numbers guy that I was, I calculated every possible scenario that could happen in Top Cut to see what could stop me from getting the Worlds invite and as it turns out, only one specific scenario had to happen. Kwok Hoe had to win the whole thing with Yu Xian making Top 4 and Jit Min advancing into Top 8 meant I would miss out.

During Game 3, I was getting a bit nervous, looked around and saw Kwok Hoe winning his match. 5 minutes later, I looked back at the top cut standings and saw Yu Xian lost which meant that I had clinched my first World Championship invite!!! I was getting a bit too excited but I still had a game to play so I had to re-focus. Game 1 went perfectly but Games 2 and 3 were decided by the fact that my Lost City just never showed up. I was disappointed to make it through, of course I'd like to go on and win the whole event but after sitting by myself trying to avoid everyone after my loss, it hit me. I am going to Worlds! I finally made it after 7 years of trying. Dream come true!

The Fourth Quarter - On to Worlds! (Battle Styles - Paldea Evolved)

Now that the hard part is done, time to look forward to my first World Championships event in Yokohama! But before getting there I still had two events to look forward to in the lead up to Worlds 2023 and the first one had already finished.

I played in the GSP Invitational #3, a local circuit made by the legend Jeremy Leong to give us something to look forward to when playing at local events. This was only my third event in the PAL format, the first two being locals days before and even though I had played in PAL events online, I never took them seriously since I was focused on the Championship event.

I had been testing Gardevoir a lot going into that event but didn't feel fully confident with the deck so went back to ArcTina for this event and just bubbled out of top cut in 9th:

R1 L Lost Box Ninja (match was recorded, my Iono + Judge still weren't enough)
R2 W ArcTina (I had the slow start, decided to use my Arc V to power up two Tinas and it worked)
R3 W Giratina
R4 W Gardevoir
R5 L Chein-Pao (terrible setup and I prized 5 energies)

And now all there's left are the last two big events of this season. Firstly the Summer Asia Open in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and I'll be there! I mean it's the same format as Worlds so it sounds like the perfect practice for those of us going so I had to go plus it'll be my first time travelling for a Pokémon event since OCIC in Melbourne back in 2020.

And after that, a second travel but this time to Japan for the World Championships! I'm truly looking forward to it as it'll be my first Worlds and also the first event since previously mentioned OCIC event that I will get to play against players from outside of Asia since all of our events are country locked and region locked for Asia Open.

I've missed having the chance to play against the peeps from North America, Latin America, Europe, Oceania and elsewhere because we simply don't have any opportunities to do so. There's no incentive for us to go to an IC now anyway since we wouldn't score points from it. But I did enjoy going to OCIC for that reason, because I got to play against so many different players from many different regions, including the defending World Champion (2019) himself!

This was from the league challenge the Sunday of that OCIC. I looked around all those names and thought, "oh wow, these are all great players, what the heck am I doing here?". We had:

the reigning World Champion himself Henry,
former OCIC winner Pedro,
the Kamerman brothers (Owyn and Brennan) who both have been killing it this year,
Isaiah, one of the best in the game right now and he's had many big results since the return of regionals/ICs,
Yoshiyuki, one of Japan's best and he won the most recent Champions League event after a 0-2 start,
Francesco, I actually played him in the OCIC event itself on Friday and he's had many top finished, even a 5th place finish at a Players Cup
Kaiwen, top 8 Worlds finisher in 2019 and 2022, need I say more,
and so many more, lots of well known Australian players in there too like Ying, Michael and Jake

At least now if I see my name mixed in with great players, I know I have earned the right to be there. I did finish 9th in that league challenge, one place off from points in Australia so that would have been cool. That's probably the thing I looking forward to the most, having the opportunity to test myself against the best around the World. The even sweeter part? I can finally meet my overseas friends in Japan as well, that's the bonus of making it to Worlds!

I always wondered if I'd ever add another good result to go with my Singapore SPE top 8 finish back in 2019 and in the space of 2 months, there's two more entries on here, with 3 different decks as well!

What's the play? I truly do not know yet. There's still a month to practice and that is what I'll be doing, also for the Asia Open! I plan to take that seriously to get me into the mindset of Worlds. Got no real expectation going into Worlds, it's my first one and honestly, I don't care what the result will be, to me it's already a huge privilege that I get to play in it since only 4 or 5 of us get to do so due to how the system works. I just want to enjoy the whole atmosphere since I may never get to do so again (it's difficult trying to make it to Worlds when you have to beat 300+ others with only 4-5 spots available anyway) so I might as well take it all in. I'm just excited that after 7 years of trying, I finally made it!

See you in Yokohama! 横浜でお会いしましょう!

The Results

Standings after the 2023 Singapore Championships:

So the five of us going to Worlds are:

Yong Siang (grinded through Day 1 last year to make Day 2 in his first Worlds event),
Jit Min (multi-time Worlds competitor, you all know him),
Yu Xian (first time Worlds invitee, one of our best players in the last few years, finished 5th in last year's Championship event so he bubbled out of an invite),
myself (first time Worlds invitee)
and Dionsius (won the championship event in only his second ever PTCG event). Dion is the one with the Day 2 invite.

Sure I'm happy I got my first big win in Pokémon TCG and made the World Championships but as you can see, there is still room for improvement. I'm the guy with the worst Win % record of anyone in the top 12 not named Dion so clearly I need to work on that. I just had one too many bad results, including that run of 3 straight 3-4 results which did not help. The win sure helped, it catapulted me from down in 20th to straight up in 2nd in the standings!

Decks I used:

Arceus VSTAR/Flying Pikachu VMAX -> 5-3 (1 event, 150 CSP) 6.96% of points

Arceus VSTAR/Aggron VMAX -> 4-2 (1 event, 130 CSP) 6.03% of points

Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR -> 15-3 (2 event, 1200 CSP) 55.68% of points

Giratina VSTAR -> 6-7 (2 events, 75 CSP) 3.49% of points

Arceus VSTAR/Duraludon VMAX -> 2-3 (1 event, 0 CSP)

Lost Zone Toolbox/Radiant Greninja -> 3-4 (1 event, 0 CSP)

Lugia VSTAR -> 3-4 (1 event, 0 CSP)

Mew VMAX -> 10-6 (2 events, 600 CSP) 27.84% of points

This was my other problem, that is 8 different decks used in 11 events on record here. Clearly the deck I was most comfortable with was Arceus decks and I probably should have just stuck with that. I just didn't find a deck I liked in the middle part of the season when Lugia showed up and made Arceus near unplayable. I need to find something that's just comfortable for me to play the whole way, like how I played ReshiZard for almost a year and how I would only play Centiskorch online for a good full year.

The moment I started trying out other stuff was when my season started to take a downfall. Mew was the only other deck that did well for me this season but my best deck was clearly Arceus/Giratina, I only played it twice, got 2nd at a Town League and 1st at a Regional League, the 2nd biggest event in Singapore so far, and both were played in two very different formats (and rotation) too! Now it's time to start training for the World Championships, never thought I'd say that!

Thanks for reading and to everyone who's helped me through this journey, thank you for your friendship, your support and your help, you lot have helped me become a player good enough to make it to the World Championship and I am eternally grateful for it, be it playing the game or just hanging out at the events. All of it!

The World of Kash

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Tuesday, July 4, 2023

My Road to Worlds 2023 - How I Survived the Toughest System (Season Recap)