2023-24: Growth of Pokémon TCG - Singapore and around the World

 I know you like numbers and stats, and you know I like numbers and stats that may be useless, maybe boring, maybe very interesting to others, that's why we're all here aren't we? And since the 2023-24 season has officially ended this past weekend with the World Championships in Hawai'i, why not look back at the past season with some stats and numbers.

1. Growth of the Game - Singapore
2. Town League Stats
3. Town League Winners - How Did They Do?
4. Growth of the Game - Overseas
5. Major Event Top 4 Point Scorers - How Did They Do?
6. Worlds Top 64 Stats

Growth of the Game - Singapore

I wanted to share some stats from our local Singapore events to show how big the game have gotten over here. The more events I play in, the more new faces I have noticed which is always a good thing for the game! I've been keeping track of results for the last two years and now I can finally put them to some statical use from both the 2023-24 season and the 2022-23 season.

Players who played in all Regional League events:
2023-2024: 132
2022-2023: 78
Increase: 69.23%

Players who played in all major events (Regional League + Championship):
2023-2024: 116
2022-2023: 65
Increase: 78.46%

Players who played in at least 1 major event (Regional League or Championship):
2023-2024: 537
2022-2023: 304
Increase: 76.65%

More players = more numbers! I'm not surprised to see a big increase in players competing in major events here with so much at stake. But I do feel the number could be a lot bigger and there is two simple ways to fix it:

• Announce the Regional/Championship dates early!
• Quite obvious this one. How many players have missed major events because of the late announcements for all the events. I missed the first regional because I had already booked a trip to Japan and a month before the event, they finally announced the dates. Or how about when 6-7 of our players went to Perth for their regional, booked their travels, only to find out weeks later we've got a regional too, so they had to miss it for Perth.
• Whoever is in charge of all this, be it TPC Japan or Maxsoft, it's not that hard. Just give us the dates! I had to worry about missing two events last season and going into this season, I still have to worry about missing this biggest event because of prior commitments. 
• No waitlist
• I think this one is also quite obvious. Why is there a waitlist for a major event? Those of us who are playing want to compete for the chance to go to Worlds, and these major events give out more points than Town Leagues, and byes for the Championship events. Just host them at bigger venues, problem solved.
• Even more so for the Championship, this is the one where the finalists earns the right to compete at the World Championships. So for me, everyone who wants to play in it, should get to play in it. Imagine being in the top 4 running, you don't get picked by the lottery and miss out because you weren't the first few on the waitlist. A whole season's work ruined just like that.

But how many players do we actually have? I shared how many competed in events, but what about the total player base here in Singapore?

Total number of Players this season:
2023-2024: 615 (559 Masters, 30 Seniors, 26 Juniors)
2022-2023: 336 (Shared field)
Increase: 83.04%

Total number of Players (Masters) who scored points once this season:
2023-2024: 274
2022-2023: 152
Increase: 80.26%

Percentage of players scoring points once this season:
2023-2024: 44.55%
2022-2023: 45.23%
Increase: -0.68%

I'm repeating myself but I have to. For me it's quite simple, more players means more chances of people not scoring points so although I'm not surprised this number went down, it's still relatively the same! It's still about 45% of our players scoring points for both seasons so far.

Town League Stats

And now for Town Leagues, aka our version of League Cup/League Challenge combined into one. No top cut, just 6-8 Swiss rounds, and we only get 10 of them a season so far. I wanted to showcase players attending a certain number of Town Leagues because, at the end of the day, it all comes down to the lottery. If we could play every event, we probably would. But that's not how the system works for us here.

So I chose to highlight 3 different sets of numbers. Players who played in 3, 5 and 7 events. I think 3 is good to show how many true active player we have currently in Singapore. Those who got to play in 5 are the ones likely to apply for most events, when they have the time and try to push for bigger results, I'd say they're more active than the average players. And then we have 7 or more. These are likely the most active players we have in Singapore, they will apply for every event, and if given the chance, they will play in all of them, just comes down to the luck of the lottery draw. Most of the top players tend to be in this group as well.

Played in 3 Town League events or more
2023-2024: 105
2022-2023: 92
Increase: 14.13%

Played in 5 Town League events or more
2023-2024: 51
2022-2023: 49
Increase: 4.08%

Played in 7 Town League events or more
2023-2024: 13
2022-2023: 18
Increase: -27.78%

These numbers don't surprise me one bit. More players have played in 3 events, about the same for 5, and less for 7 events or more, which makes sense considering there are more players in the scene now so it's harder for more of us to play in these Town League events.

These town leagues have been getting bigger as well so I wanted to show the increase in numbers from the 2022-23 season and compared to the 2023-24 season. I can't make a true direct comparison from one event to the other because of all the shops that hosted a Town League in the first season, only one shop hosted a Town League in the second season, and it wasn't even in the same venue! As for Regionals/Championships, we'll save that for later.

Town Leagues in 2022/23 Season

• TL #1 @ Toys Terminal - 45
• TL #2 @ Goodness Gracious Gaming - 32
• TL #3 @ Brick's Play - 32
• TL #4 @ Rowell Pte Ltd - 46
• TL #5 @ 1collectibles - 32
• TL #6 @ Sanctuary Gaming - 72
• TL #7 @ Kavdean's Den - 87
• TL #8 @ Rowell Pte Ltd - 68
• TL #9 @ Sanctuary Gaming - 72
• TL #10 @ Kavdean's Den - 96

For this past season, I've been keeping track of not just how many players played, but also how big the waitlist was. I didn't keep track of that last season so I couldn't make the comparison but at least we have some numbers to work with for this one.

Town Leagues in 2023/24 Season

• TL #1 @ Agora Hobby
• Played: 105
• Limit: 80
• Waitlist: 97
• Total number of players applied: 177 (Limit + Waitlist)
• % Players who applied and played: 59.32%
• TL #2 @ Rowell Pte Ltd
• Played: 64
• Limit: 64
• Waitlist: 105
• Total number of players applied: 169
• % Players who applied and played: 37.86%
• TL #3 @ Active Games Collection
• Played: 64
• Limit: 64
• Waitlist: 105
• Total number of players applied: 169
• % Players who applied and played: 37.86%
• TL #4 @ ManaPro
• Played: 64
• Limit: 64
• Waitlist: 80
• Total number of players applied: 144
• % Players who applied and played: 44.44%
• TL #5 @ Games Academia
• Played: 64
• Limit: 64
• Waitlist: 87
• Total number of players applied: 151
• % Players who applied and played: 42.38%
• TL #6 @ OneUp Skates
• Played: 97
• Limit: 96
• Waitlist: 104
• Total number of players applied: 200
• % Players who applied and played: 48.5%
• TL #7 @ Agora Hobby
• Played: 90
• Limit: 104
• Waitlist: 66
• Total number of players applied: 170
• % Players who applied and played: 52.94%
• TL #8 @ Rowell Pte Ltd
• Played: 66
• Limit: 72
• Waitlist: 80
• Total number of players applied: 152
• % Players who applied and played: 43.42%
• TL #9 @ ManaPro
• Played: 64
• Limit: 64
• Waitlist: 99
• Total number of players applied: 163
• % Players who applied and played: 39.26%
• TL #10 @ Agora Hobby
• Played: 105
• Limit: 104
• Waitlist: 79
• Total number of players applied: 183
• % Players who applied and played: 57.38%

Oh yeah we had a few Town Leagues with just 32 players and with the vast amount of players we have now, I cannot see that happening again. The 3 shops that hosted 32 players, they were much smaller so that's all they could hold. SG's 72 is much bigger that the 64 limit many shops have at the moment which is always nice but they didn't host this season. Kavdean's Den's 2nd TL had the biggest numbers, that was the plus. The minus was that we were all crammed into this space they had, we shouldn't have to deal with that so it didn't feel as big as say SG's or Rowell's.

The most interesting number for me was the percentage of players who applied and got to play in the event. Only 3 events were there more than 50% of the players who applied that got in, and all 3 events were held at Agora Hobby. Apart from one event, every Town League has had at least 150 players applying just to play in a Town League. And these numbers will only continue to grow with more players coming into the game.

I personally think the 64 person Town League events just won't cut it anymore, we'll need even more. More people are going to start missing out on these events, especially the ones competing at the very top of the standings. The issue is space, that's really it. Agora, Rowell and OneUp were the only ones to have more than 64 players in their events. I'd like to see these Town Leagues maybe happening in Community Centres or any places that has enough space to host maybe 128 players, that seems like a good amount.

Town League Winners - How Did They Do?

But as I've heard before, do these Town Leagues even matter? Let's have some fun and look at how each Town League winner has ended up during the season, and I've got two seasons worth of data to share so why not? (Town League winners earnt 250 CSP just in case)

2022-2023 Town League Winners

• TL #1 @ Toys Terminal - Lim Jit Min (Regigigas Toolbox)
• Season Ranking: 2nd - 2310 CSP
• TL #2 @ Goodness Gracious Gaming - Mickey Chia Wee Keat (Arceus VSTAR/Hisuian Goodra VSTAR)
• Season Ranking: 9th - 1450 CSP
• TL #3 @ Brick's Play - Marcus Tan Yi Shuan (Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR)
• Season Ranking: 29th - 805 CSP
• TL #4 @ Rowell Pte Ltd - Melvin Chan (Regigigas Toolbox)
• Season Ranking: 24th - 985 CSP
• TL #5 @ 1collectibles - Amir Rafie (Mew VMAX)
• Season Ranking: 44th - 575 CSP
• TL #6 @ Sanctuary Gaming - Isogai Toshiyuki (Lugia VSTAR/Archeops)
• Season Ranking: 7th - 1530 CSP
• TL #7 @ Kavdean's Den - Isogai Toshiyuki (Lugia VSTAR/Archeops)
• Season Ranking: 7th - 1530 CSP
• TL #8 @ Rowell Pte Ltd - Tan Yong Siang (Lost Zone Box)
• Season Ranking: 1st - 2610 CSP
• TL #9 @ Sanctuary Gaming - Teo Yuan Shao (Hisuian Arcanine V)
• Season Ranking: 38th - 655 CSP
• TL #10 @ Kavdean's Den - Jason Phua (Miraidon ex)
• Season Ranking: 19th - 1100 CSP

So the top two in standings did get a win but other than that, only Mickey and Iso were in the running for the top 4 spots at any time during the season, meaning that 5 of those wins went to players just playing for fun, for the glory of that one event or just didn't have the results they needed for the rest of the season. So it can matter when you're in the running. What about this season?

2023-2024 Town League Winners

• TL #1 @ Agora Hobby - Devansh Sunil Koppar (Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR)
• Season Ranking: 39th - 725 CSP
• TL #2 @ Rowell Pte Ltd - Dennis Piay (Giratina VSTAR)
• Season Ranking: 4th - 2420 CSP
• TL #3 @ Active Games Collection - Fumiyuki Okunishi (Lost Zone Box)
• Season Ranking: 53rd - 625 CSP
• TL #4 @ ManaPro - Koh Wee Siang (Lost Zone Box)
• Season Ranking: 51st - 650 CSP
• TL #5 @ Games Academia - Fayyadh Salleh (Lost Zone Box)
• Season Ranking: 125th - 250 CSP
• TL #6 @ OneUp Skates - Keenan Jacob Victor (Klawf)
• Season Ranking: 13th - 1375 CSP
• TL #7 @ Agora Hobby - Jackson Tham (Zoroark Toolbox)
• Season Ranking: 44th - 700 CSP
• TL #8 @ Rowell Pte Ltd - Raymond Huynh (Giratina VSTAR)
• Season Ranking: 27th - 950 CSP
• TL #9 @ ManaPro - Bryan Quah (Giratina VSTAR)
• Season Ranking: 1st - 3140 CSP
• TL #10 @ Agora Hobby - Jesse Chow Ching Sheng (Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex)
• Season Ranking: 86th - 425 CSP

Again, only two of our Worlds qualifiers on this list and apart from them, Keenan was the only other one in contention at one point or another. So 7 Town Leagues wins went to players who were not in the running for the top 4 spots! That's 7 out of 10 event winners! And of those 7, Ray is the highest placed at 27th, and he only competed for half the season, his first points scored was his win at TL #8. In fact, our TL #5 winner Fayyadh only played once this season, and won that Town League.

So maybe Jeremy was right, Town Leagues don't matter? Quite clearly anyone can have a good day and that be the only one they have the whole season. Of our top 4 qualifiers, they have a combined finish of 7 top 4 results the whole season, which shows how much more important the Regional League and Championships are, 3 of the 4 players scored the bulk of their points from Regional Leagues, the lone one? Won the championship, although he also had a top 4 finish at a Regional League.

Also, don't ask me why you keep seeing Lost Box here, it's a Singapore thing. Well the game sure is booming here in Singapore, but what about the rest of the world?

Growth of the Game - Overseas

Let's look at the attendance numbers for the TPCi regional, SPE and international events comparing the ones from the 2023-2024 season to that of the previous season (2022-2023). Obviously some events weren't in the 2023-2024 season so I took what was the next closest event to them for comparison sake.

NORTH AMERICA

Pittsburgh
2023-2024: 1778
2022-2023: 1088 (Baltimore)
Increase: 63.41%

Peoria
2023-2024: 1703
2022-2023: 1084
Increase: 57.10%

Sacramento
2023-2024: 1427
2022-2023: 903 (Fresno)
Increase: 58.02%

Toronto
2023-2024: 1543
2022-2023: 1061
Increase: 45.42%

San Antonio
2023-2024: 1985
2022-2023: 1224 (Arlington)
Increase: 62.17%

Portland
2023-2024: 1498
2022-2023: 1088
Increase: 37.68%

Charlotte
2023-2024: 2133
2022-2023: 1170
Increase: 82.31%

Knoxville
2023-2024: 1367
2022-2023: 1139
Increase: 20.02%

Vancouver
2023-2024: 985
2022-2023: 526
Increase: 87.26%

Orlando
2023-2024: 2369
2022-2023: 1485
Increase: 59.53%

Indianapolis
2023-2024: 2342
2022-2023: 1154 (Fort Wayne)
Increase: 102.94%

Puerto Rico SPE
2023-2024: 180
2022-2023: 127
Increase: 41.73%

Los Angeles
2023-2024: 2073
2022-2023: 846 (San Diego)
Increase: 145.03%

NAIC 
2023-2024: 2692 (New Orleans)
2022-2023: 1897 (Columbus)
Increase: 41.91%

Average Increase: 64.61%

Only 4 events were higher than the average but that number might be spiked up from the South Cali event, so realistically, we'd probably be looking at 9 events that increased higher than the average (about 55% I would say). So the game is still growing in the US. They have the 2nd biggest player base outside of Japan, so it's good to see. I will say, I am interested to see if these numbers do keep growing or not with the new ranking system when it comes to qualifying for worlds since everyone has to keep playing on or accept fate and not bother trying so hard.

EUROPE

Barcelona SPE
2023-2024: 577
2022-2023: 292 (Bilbao SPE)
Increase: 97.60%

Lille
2023-2024: 855
2022-2023: 573
Increase: 49.21%

Gdansk
2023-2024: 997
2022-2023: 722 (Warsaw)
Increase: 38.09%

Stuttgart
2023-2024: 982
2022-2023: 745
Increase: 31.81%

Liverpool
2023-2024: 1518
2022-2023: 761
Increase: 99.47%

Dortmund
2023-2024: 1348
2022-2023: 767 (Bochum)
Increase: 75.75%

Utrecht SPE
2023-2024: 860
2022-2023: 694
Increase: 23.92%

EUIC - London
2023-2024: 2605
2022-2023: 1525
Increase: 70.82%

Stockholm
2023-2024: 675
2022-2023: 473 (Malmo)
Increase: 42.71%

Bologna SPE
2023-2024: 1008
2022-2023: 544 (Turin)
Increase: 85.29%

Average Increase: 61.47%

Half the events on here had seen a higher increase compared to the average, but then comes the math part. There's only 10 on here, very likely it'd be half anyway, 5 were higher, 5 were lower. At least the numbers worked out quite well. The thing that helped here is while you had some events having bigger numbers from before (Spanish SPE and Liverpool), you also had some that did increase, but not by much (Stuttgart, Utrecht SPE).

LATIN AMERICA

Curitiba
2023-2024: 379
2022-2023: 253 (Porto Alegre)
Increase: 49.80%

LAIC - Sao Paulo
2023-2024: 1263
2022-2023: 976
Increase: 29.40%

Goiana
2023-2024: 536
2022-2023: 263 (Natal)
Increase: 103.82%

Sao Paulo
2023-2024: 1142
2022-2023: 765
Increase: 49.28%

Buenos Aires SPE
2023-2024: 160
2022-2023: 114
Increase: 40.35%

Bogota SPE
2023-2024: 130
2022-2023: 76
Increase: 71.05%

Santiago
2023-2024: 892
2022-2023: 729
Increase: 22.36%

Lima SPE
2023-2024: 145
2022-2023: 123
Increase: 17.89%

Mexico City SPE
2023-2024: 252
2022-2023: -
Increase: -

Average Increase: 47.99%

Again the numbers worked out nicely, half the events were higher but if we take a look, only two events were higher than 50%, Bogota SPE and the second Brazilian Regional, the latter which is a bit hard to figure out because the numbers are not true to show since we're comparing two different regionals but it's the closest one I could use to compare. So the numbers for Latin America events aren't as big as the previous two. 47.99% average is still a big increase for the game, so that's a positive!

OCEANIA

Brisbane
2023-2024: 388
2022-2023: 182
Increase: 113.17%

Melbourne
2023-2024: 531
2022-2023: 242 (Sydney)
Increase: 119.42%

Perth
2023-2024: 257
2022-2023: 96
Increase: 167.71%

Average Increase: 133.43%

Now we're starting to see big numbers as all 3 Australian Regional events went up by double their previous amount. And you might notice I compared Melbourne Regional to the previous Sydney Regional instead of Melbourne OCIC. IC tends to bring out even more players than regional so it wouldn't be a fair comparison but even then, Melbourne Regional had 3 more players than OCIC 2023, which is freaking impressive I would say.

I do feel bad for my OC friends, even with these big increase in numbers, we're still only talking about 3 major events for them, surely they should get 1 or 2 more. 

ASIA

Time to see how much bigger our Asian events have been compared to a year ago. This one will be a bit trickier since Asia events are more limited than the rest of the region, and it's not as if you can simply register and get in, you still need to win a lottery to compete in the event so numbers won't be as big as the other places, especially Japan.

JAPAN

Yokohama
2023-2024: 3102
2022-2023: 3166
Increase: -2.02%

Kyoto
2023-2024: 2800
2022-2023: 2843
Increase: -1.51%

Aichi
2023-2024: 2931
2022-2023: 3140
Increase: -6.66%

Japan Championships
2023-2024: 2078
2022-2023: 1963
Increase: 5.86%

Average Increase: -4.33%

I expected to see a small number here. Japan's events tend to have the same numbers most of the time, the numbers did drop a bit this year. The only one that increase was the Championships itself and it's much harder to get into that event than the usual Champions League events. I've only got numbers to work for Japan so there's that. Now onto my home region, South East Asia (SEA).

SEA

INDONESIA

Regional 1
2023-2024: 420
2022-2023: 221
Increase: 90.05%

Regional 2
2023-2024: 371
2022-2023: 230
Increase: 61.30%

Regional 3
2023-2024: 143
2022-2023: 187
Increase: -23.53%

Championships
2023-2024: 479
2022-2023: 335
Increase: 42.98%

Average Increase: 42.45%

The only nation that got 3 regional leagues last year was Indonesia and their numbers have been increasing which is great to see. Yes you may spot a decrease for Regional 3 but there's a big reason for that. It was held in Bali, a holiday destination, not really one for players is it? That's why there was a big decrease in numbers for that one. 

PHILIPPINES

Regional Q3
2023-2024: 243
2022-2023: 103
Increase: 135.92%

Championships
2023-2024: 366
2022-2023: 133
Increase: 175.19%

Average Increase: 155.55%

I've only got two numbers to work on for the Philippines, but they both look good! The numbers have doubled in both the Regional League and the Championships for our friends in PH. I can see that number going even bigger next season.

THAILAND

Regional Q3
2023-2024: 380
2022-2023: 495
Increase: -23.23%

Championships
2023-2024: 561
2022-2023: 577
Increase: -2.77%

Average Increase: -13%

This one surprised me, the numbers went down for Thailand and I'm not too sure why that happened. They do have a much bigger player base then most of us so it could just be the lottery hitting them hard here but this one puzzles me and I'm not sure why.

MALAYSA

Regional Q1
2023-2024: 367
2022-2023: 124
Increase: 195.97%

Regional Q3
2023-2024: 516
2022-2023: 177
Increase: 191.52%

Championships
2023-2024: 702
2022-2023: 270
Increase: 160%

Average Increase: 182.47%

Maybe the one with the biggest increase in numbers is our neighbours up north in Malaysia. Both the regionals were almost triple of that from the previous year! Triple! That's a huge boost in numbers. And it gets better, the Championships saw 702 players, that's the biggest number I've seen for an SEA event ever! 700+, that is amazing to even just say it. Can you imagine if we had an SEA-circuit? An SEA international event could easily get 2000+ players from the first four numbers I showed and I haven't even added Singapore into the mix yet!

I wonder if Malaysia will be the first one to get a thousand players in any major event in SEA? I can see it happening soon.

SINGAPORE

Regional Q1
2023-2024: 235
2022-2023: 130
Increase: 80.77%

Regional Q3
2023-2024: 342
2022-2023: 189
Increase: 80.95%

Championships
2023-2024: 343
2022-2023: 212
Increase: 61.79%

Average Increase: 74.50%

And finally, home sweet home Singapore. We may not have big increase in numbers like Malaysia or Philippines, but they are getting bigger! Consistently increasing by 60%+, which is good to see. My one issue is the fact that from Regional 3 to Championship this year, the number of players went up to just 1, from 342 to 343. As I said before, I didn't think the venue was big enough to host a championship event and I sure hope we get something bigger, get more players in. I can honestly see a Singapore championships with 500+ players in it. We just need a space for it, and we got a few options, so I hope the people in charge would consider it. 

If we had a bigger venue for the championship, I can easily see the increased number being the same as the regionals, aka 80%. That would have meant the championships would have had at least 381 players, still a decent number I'd say! 

Major Event Top 4 Point Scorers - How Did They Do?

And for the final numbers, we know that Town Leagues don't matter that much, how about the Regional League? Well yes, I don't even need the show the numbers to know the answers but I will still do so. Obviously the championships matter, but do they impact the standings too?

2022-2023 Major Event Top 4 Finishers

• RL #1 @ Yishun
• Winner: Tan Yong Siang (Lost Zone Box)
• Season Ranking: 1st - 2610 CSP
• 2nd: Wong Wei Kit (Mew VMAX)
• Season Ranking: 26th - 875 CSP
• 3rd: Isogai Toshiyuki (Kyurem VMAX/Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR)
• Season Ranking: 7th - 1530 CSP
• 4th: Kang Yu Xian
• Season Ranking: 4th - 1840 CSP
• RL #2 @ one-North and Pokemon Center Changi Airport
• Winner: Kashvinder Singh Mann (Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR)
• Season Ranking: 3rd - 2155 CSP
• 2nd: Lim Jit Min (Gardevoir ex)
• Season Ranking: 2nd - 2310 CSP
• 3rd: Lee Hwee Liang (Lugia VSTAR/Archeops)
• Season Ranking: 11th - 1375 CSP
• 4th: Eujun Gan (Hisuian Goodra VSTAR Lost Zone)
• Season Ranking: 21st - 1000 CSP
• Championships @ Dhoby Ghaut
• Winner: Dionsius Lee (Mew VMAX)
• Season Ranking: 8th - 1500 CSP
• 2nd: Ryan Tan Ye Kai (Gardevoir ex)
• Season Ranking: 6th - 1535 CSP
• 3rd: Choy Kwok Hoe (Mew VMAX)
• Season Ranking: 5th - 1660 CSP
• 4th: Bjorn Soh Cai Wei (Lugia VSTAR/Archeops)
• Season Ranking: 14th - 1275 CSP

All 4 guys who finished in the top 4 had at least one top 4 finish at either of the regional league events. Kwok Hoe did almost change everything, had he gotten into the finals, he would have replaced Yu Xian for 4th in the standings. And of course, Dion, who didn't score any points all season, won the whole thing and jumped to 8th. Not that it mattered, he got his Worlds invite! The two lowest finishers in the standings (Wei Kit and Eujun) didn't play much during that season.

2023-2024 Major Event Top 4 Finishers

• RL #1 @ Toa Payoh
• Winner: Joey Ho (Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur)
• Season Ranking: 9th - 1605 CSP
• 2nd: Bryan Quah (Giratina VSTAR)
• Season Ranking: 1st - 3140 CSP
• 3rd: Leong Jun Hao (Giratina VSTAR)
• Season Ranking: 3rd - 2510 CSP
• 4th: Ao Yichen (Giratina VSTAR)
• Season Ranking: 2nd - 2605 CSP
• RL #2 @ Suntec
• Winner: Aaron Tan (Giratina VSTAR)
• Season Ranking: 5th - 1760 CSP
• 2nd: Dennis Piay (Giratina VSTAR)
• Season Ranking: 4th - 2420 CSP
• 3rd: Dionsius Lee (Giratina VSTAR)
• Season Ranking: 17th - 1150 CSP
• 4th: Evan Chiang (Miraidon ex)
• Season Ranking: 10th - 1560 CSP
• RL #3 @ Suntec
• Winner: Bryan Quah (Giratina VSTAR)
• Season Ranking: 1st - 3140 CSP
• 2nd: Lok Wei Ye (Charizard ex/Bibarel)
• Season Ranking: 14th - 1375 CSP
• 3rd: Farrell Lee Jia Sheng (Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR)
• Season Ranking: 24th - 975 CSP
• 4th: Loh Win Soon (Ancient Box)
• Season Ranking: 7th - 1705 CSP
• Championships @ one-North
• Winner: Ao Yichen (Giratina VSTAR)
• Season Ranking: 2nd - 2605 CSP
• 2nd: Bjorn Soh Cai Wei (Lugia VSTAR/Archeops)
• Season Ranking: 6th - 1725 CSP
• 3rd: Benjamin Isa Roberts (Lost Zone Box)
• Season Ranking: 12th - 1400 CSP
• 4th: Gerald Ong Wei Kai (Roaring Moon ex)
• Season Ranking: 16th - 1205 CSP

Apart from Farrell, everyone who got a top 4 finish at a major event this past season finished inside the top 20 in the points standings. So yup, these major events are the most important events for us players here in South East Asia.

Thanks for reading and one last stats to share, and that is the yearly Worlds Top 64 finisher stats!

Worlds Top 64 Stats

2023-24 Season Review + 2024 Singapore Championships - 49th/343 - Consistently mediocre

 I'll be honest, I wasn't sure if I wanted to finish this. I had been working on this for a few months, in preparation for the Championships this past weekend to look back at the season but it also reminded me of how this season went. But as much as I hate talking about my bad results, it's good to reflect on them and see what went wrong and try to do better and be better next time out. I'll re-cap the Championships event on here as well, which pretty much summed up my season in all fairness.

Season Recap

• Town League 1
• Town League 2 
• Town League 4
• Town League 5
• Regional League 2
• Town League 7
• Town League 8
• Regional League 3
• Town League 10

Championships Deck List

Championships 2024

Thoughts on the events

2024-2025 Hopes

Season Recap

If I was playing in a TPCi circuit, maybe I could have gotten another Worlds invite because I kept scoring points (see here for my friend Jake Gearhart's topic on something similar). He felt as if he got his Worlds invite with mediocre results. That can work there. The problem is, that just doesn't cut it in our system. Even if you're consistently scoring points, that just won't do.

I honestly do feel a bit down on how my season went. I felt like my results, as consistent as they may be, have been quite rubbish. Very mediocre. Nothing to be happy about. I've only got one top 8 result this season and even then, that was because I was the lucky bugger that bubbled in. And the worst part is, I feel like I've played my best this season, even better than last season when I did get my Worlds invite so it's really confusing. 

One thing you will notice is, for the most part of the season, I just played Charizard ex decks apart from two events, both with reasons for the change. 

Town League 1 (23rd September 2023)

Deck: Lost Zone Box

Result: 23rd/105 (+75 CSP - not counted after hitting BFL)

Score: 5-2

• R1 (W) vs Matthew Lee [3/4/0] - Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone)
• R2 (L) vs Lee Jia Sheng Farrell [3/4/0] - Gardevoir ex
• Dead drew this game, too slow to comeback into it
• R3 (W) vs Nuttawat Pipithsuksunt [1/6/0] - Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR
• R4 (L) vs Benjamin Isa Roberts [4/3/0] - Lost Zone Box
• I whiffed a switch out that cost me the game
• R5 (W) vs JohnKRIA [3/4/0] - Lugia VSTAR (Single Strike)
• R6 (W) vs Brandon Yap [3/4/0] - Mew VMAX (DTE)
• R7 (W) vs Edmund Khoo [4/3/0] - Gardevoir ex

Main reason why I played Lost box in this event was because I was on the waitlist, and at #61, I wasn't expecting to get in to play so I just brought whatever deck I had with me just in case. If I had known I had a chance to play, I would have asked my friends to lend me the pieces to play Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex easily. 

Town League 2 (8th October 2023)

Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

Result: 13th/64 (+100 CSP)

Score: 4-2

• R1 (W) vs Hizaruddin Bin Zainal Abidin [2/4/0] - Gengar VMAX
• R2 (W) vs Desmond Ong Shi Jie [3/3/0] - Miraidon ex
• R3 (W) vs Alvin Lim [2/4/0] - Gardevoir ex
• R4 (L) vs Dionsius Lee [5/1/0] - Arceus VSTAR/Alolan Vulpix VSTAR
• Horrible matchup for me since Vulpix walls everything out and having a Charmander prized hurt my plan for that matchup
• R5 (W) vs Bryan Quah [4/2/0] - Lugia VSTAR/Archeops
• I didn't even realise this, I got a win against Singapore's #1 player this season haha!
• R6 (L) vs Kai Wen Ronald Seet [5/1/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Prizing two Charmanders killed the game for me, I had no real outs since I had a slow start and the first Charmander got KO after Turn 2. Could have still made a comeback if I had taken any of the Charmanders out of the prizes (2 Rods is the way to avoid this)

Town League 3

(Wasn't elected to play in this event)

Deck: -

Regional League 1 

(Wasn't elected to play in this event but also because this was the one weekend the whole season I was overseas and it had to happen during this weekend. And I live 10 minutes away from the venue.)

Deck: -

Town League 4 (25th November 2023)

Deck: Charizard ex/Bibarel

Result: 8th/64 (+130 CSP)

Score: 4-2

• R1 (W) vs Chan Yu Yang [3/3/0] - Gholdengo ex
• R2 (W) vs ? - Gardevoir ex
• R3 (W) vs ? - Miraidon ex
• R4 (W) vs Jin Xuan [5/1/0] - Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur
• R5 (L) vs Koh Wee Siang [6/0/0] - Lost Zone Box
• Dead draw
• R6 (L) vs Jason Let [5/1/0] - Lost Zone Box
• Another dead draw, had to do a risky play which didn't work

Town League 5 (9th December 2023)

Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

Result: 14th/64 (+100 CSP)

Score: 4-2

• R1 (W) vs Cui Hongjian [3/3/0] - Gardevoir ex
• R2 (W) vs Zhou Jingsong [2/4/0] - Entei V/Moltres
• R3 (W) vs Lok Wei Ye [2/4/0] - Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone)
• R4 (L) vs Fayyadh Salleh [6/0/0] - Lost Zone Box
• Big misplay, didn't bench my Manaphy down early and got punished
• R5 (L) vs Kang Yu Xian [4/2/0] - Lost Zone Box (Radiant Charizard)
• Whiffed a Rare Candy to take the win
• R6 (W) vs Jason Song [3/3/0] - Gardevoir ex

Town League 6

(Wasn't elected to play in this event)

Deck: -

Regional League 2 (3rd February 2024)

Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

Result: 54th/308 (+100 CSP)

Score: 5-3

• R1 (W) vs Jen [1/7/0] - Wugtrio Mill
• R2 (W) vs Goh Wee Siang Zachary [4/4/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• R3 (W) vs Jin Xuan [4/4/0] - Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur
• R4 (W) vs Jordan Lau [5/3/0] - Lost Zone Box (Radiant Charizard)
• R5 (L) vs Jason Song [6/2/0] - Gardevoir ex
• Game went to time, I was convinced I could win first, he said the same, we couldn't figure out who would win and I didn't want to risk a DGL so I just scooped to him on board state
• R6 (L) vs Jefferson Lim [6/2/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Had a much slower start, TM Devo was my route to comeback but it was still prized when I needed it
• R7 (L) vs Ikuma Ueno [6/2/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Similar story to last game, couldn't set-up properly. We went to time, he was leading on board state so I gave him the win
• R8 (W) vs Jason Let [4/4/0] - Lost Zone Box (Radiant Charizard)
• Also went to time, I was sure I had win, he showed me he also had the win but he gave me the win instead

Town League 7 (23rd March 2024)

Deck: Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone)

Result: 33rd/90

Score: 4-3

• R1 (L) vs Jason Song [5/2/0] - Gardevoir ex
• Another slow start vs another Garde at Agora haha
• R2 (W) vs Gan Kwok Chuan [3/4/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• R3 (W) vs Ong Wen Hui [1/4/0 Drop] - Miraidon ex
• R4 (L) vs Troy Lam [2/2/0 Drop] - Gholdengo ex
• Slow start again
• R5 (W) vs Keith Ting [3/4/0] - Lost Zone Box (Radiant Charizard)
• R6 (W) vs Terry Tai [3/4/0] - Gholdengo ex
• R7 (L) vs Kelvin Ching Kay Feng [5/2/0] - Gardevoir ex
• Could not set-up at all

Let's be honest, I should have just played Zard. This event ended my 100% points scoring run for the season, and I did have a Zard list with me which would have probably done better but at this weekend, Zard felt like the worst possible play and I wanted to see if I could do well with Tina for once. That failed. This was the Zard list I had prepared:

Also why did 3 of my opponent drop in this event? Especially my R4 opponent, he beat me and dropped. All of that was the difference between scoring points and not. And yes this was the only event I didn't score points in the whole season and it was only because I bubbled out. What a horrid way to lose a 100% record streak.

Town League 8 (24th March 2024)

Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

Result: 20th/66 (+75 CSP)

Score: 4-3

• R1 (W) vs Lok Wei Ye [3/4/0] - Lost Zone Box
• Pretty much a donk, evolved into Zard, KOed his lone Sableye
• R2 (W) vs Tang Jia Tat [4/3/0] - Mew VMAX (DTE)
• R3 (L) vs Samuel Tong [5/2/0] - Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone)
• His Roxanne late on got me good, drew into nothing when I was in a winning position, we went to time and I ran out of time to recover the pieces I needed to win
• R4 (W) vs Ng Cheng Wee [3/4/0] - Roaring Moon ex
• R5 (W) vs Ao Yichen [3/4/0] - Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone)
• R6 (L) vs Raymond Huynh [6/1/0] - Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone)
• Same story as my R3 loss, Roxanne cost me game. All I needed was to find Super Rod to get my energies into the deck to retreat for game but it never showed up
• R7 (L) vs Haruki Okunishi [5/2/0] - Roaring Moon ex
• Dead drew, had both my Charmanders sniped by his Radiant Greninja even with a Manaphy on board, no coming back from that especially after a slow start

Town League 9

(Wasn't elected to play in this event)

Deck: -

Regional League 3 (14th April 2024)

Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

Result: 35th/342 (+100 CSP)

Score: 6-2

• R1 (W) vs Chole Tan [2/6/0] - Hisuian Goodra VSTAR (Lost Zone)
• R2 (W) vs Keith Ting [6/2/0] - Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone)
• R3 (L) vs Edmund Khoo [6/2/0] - Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone)
• Dead drew, had to set Pidgeot up just to stay in the game and he KOed it in the next turn
• R4 (L) vs Dave Wong Wei Jie [5/3/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Dead hand at the start, only had Rad Zard and Zard ex to work with
• R5 (W) vs Tan Yuan Jun Darwin [2/3/0 Drop] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• R6 (W) vs Charmaine Han Huiyi [3/5/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• R7 (W) vs Norman Chan Yu Da [5/3/0] - Lost Zone Box
• R8 (W) vs Jackson Tham [5/3/0] - Gholdengo ex
• Somehow cameback from only having Lumineon V and Rotom V on board and having both Charmanders sniped T3 with Manaphy on board!

Town League 10 (1st May 2024)

Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

Result: 26th/105 (+75 CSP)

Score: 4-3

• R1 (W) vs Samuel Tong [4/3/0] - Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone)
• We went to time again but this time I had the pieces to win the game so he scooped to me
• R2 (W) vs Wayne Tan Wei Peng [4/3/0] - Ancient Box
• R3 (L) vs Daniel Nazri [5/2/0] - Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR/Metang
• Slight misplay but I thought I got the comeback, Iono to 1. He draws Nest Ball to get Mew to get Research to draw more with Ninja to get Prime Catcher for game.
• R4 (W) vs Foo Ming Wei [4/3/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• R5 (L) vs Low Wei Hao [5/2/0] - Lost Zone Box
• Dead drew. Had pieces to get Zard ex up Turn 2 but kept whiffing my Arven/Rare Candy/Iono just to get anything going, even after 3 uses of Rotom V!
• R6 (W) vs Lok Wei Ye [4/3/0] - Charizard ex/Bibarel
• R7 (L) vs Edgardo Phee [5/2/0] - Roaring Moon ex/Dudunsparce
• Same story as R3, was choosing over Roxanne or Iono. Iono failed me the first time so went with Roxanne. I whiffed my Collapsed Stadium to get rid of my Lumineon V that was stuck the whole game. He draws into Boss + Energy for game the next turn.

So really apart from 2 to 3 games, most of my losses were just down to bad variance or bad luck. I felt like I cut my amount of misplays a lot this season, rarely lost a game to it (I still do it from time to time) so it feels frustrating to lose to reasons out of your control a lot of time. Bo1 games am I right?

So just a recap on my season so far:

• Town League 1 - 23rd/105 - 5/2/0 - 75 CSP (not counted)
• Town League 2 - 13th/64 - 4/2/0 - 100 CSP
• Town League 4 - 8th/64 - 4/2/0 - 130 CSP
• Town League 5 - 14th/64 - 4/2/0 - 100 CSP
• Regional League 2 - 54th/308 - 5/3/0 - 100 CSP
• Town League 7 - 33rd/90 - 4/3/0
• Town League 8 - 20th/66 - 4/3/0 - 75 CSP
• Regional League 3 - 35th/342 - 6/2/0 - 100 CSP
• Town League 10 - 26th/105 - 4/3/0 - 75 CSP

My results were consistent, but consistency sadly isn't the key in our circuit. You need to be doing well in the events that actually matter, aka the Regional Leagues and Championships and spoiler alert, I didn't get a top 32 finish in any of the 3 of 4 major events I played in. I was always either 1 win short or bubbled out of top 32 despite having the results to get there. Close is not enough.

Sure, missing the first regional league put me at a real disadvantage against everyone else but still I needed to do well to give myself any shot of getting top 4 but it wasn't to be. So now I had to hope to get 1st or 2nd in the Championships.

Championship Deck List

I did a lot of prep for this one and ended up testing 20 different lists for Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex. I had already settled on the deck during the 3rd Regional and since I had played it pretty much the whole season, why change? My other considerations were Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR, Lost Box with Rad Zard and Arceus VSTAR/Armarouge.

From my own research, these 54 cards were always going to be in my list no matter what happened. The core 54 if you will:

POKEMON: (21)

• 3 Charmander OBF + (Last one is either 4th Charmander OBF or 1 Charmander PR)
• 2 Charmeleon PAF (Counter to devo stuff)
• 3 Charizard ex
• 2 Pidgey 
• 2 Pidgeot ex
• 1 Bidoof
• 1 Bibarel
• 1 Lumineon V
• 1 Rotom V
• 1 Cleffa
• 1 Manaphy
• 1 Radiant Charizard
• 1 Jirachi (Added for Lost Box)

SUPPORTER: (8) -> Should be 10 or 11

• 3 Arven
• 2 Iono
• 2 Boss
• 1 Prof Turo Scenario

ITEMS: (17) -> + Ace Spec Option + another utility card

• 4 Rare Candy
• 4 Ultra Ball
• 4 Buddy Buddy Poffin
• 2 Super Rod
• 1 Lost Vacuum
• 1 Nest Ball
• 1 Counter Catcher

TOOLS (1) -> Ace Spec Option + Extra Tool

• 1 Forest Seal Stone

STADIUM (1)

• 1 Collapsed Stadium

ENERGY (6)

• 6 Fire Energy

TOTAL (54)

As for the remaining 6, I had a few options:

ACE SPEC Options: (2)

• If Prime Catcher, + Defiance Band
• If Max Belt, + 2nd Counter Catcher

Extra Supporters (1-2)

• 3rd Iono -> More draws + helps consistency
• Eri -> Helps adds % into Chien Pao, Lost Zone and possibly Mirror
• Judge -> Extra disruption, possible replacement for the 3rd Iono spot
• Roxanne -> Late game disruption + gives you more draws but early game useless
• 2nd Turo -> More recovery options and also switching options for stuff getting gusted up
• 3rd Boss -> More gusts but with one less Pal Pad typically

Extra Items (1-2)

• Pal Pad -> Extra options of Boss, Iono, Arven, Eri, Turo mostly
• Hisuian Heavy Ball -> Helps gets stuff like Rotom, Bidoof, Lumineon out of prizes

Tool (1)

• Choice Belt (+30 to Vs)
• Can put on Rad Zard to KO Tina, Arceus and Lugia VSTAR
• Helpful to reach numbers vs mentioned above, Rotom, Dialga, Giratina VSTAR
• Vitality Band (+10 in general)
• +10 good into Chien Pao, helps KO Tina but only with Zard
• +10 to KO Greninja with Pidgeot. And also help Charmander take cheeky KOs or set numbers up

So with those options in mind, I turned to the numbers to decide my final 6 cards:

Extra Supporters:

• 3rd Iono
• Used in 16/20 Lists -> 80% (Tord says 3 is the staple, should just follow right?)
• Eri
• Used in 5/20 Lists -> 25% (Well I wasn’t convinced, seems like most aren’t either)
• Judge
• Used in 0/20 Lists -> 0% (Would be a spicy replacement for the norm of 3 Ionos)
• Roxanne
• Used in 14/20 Lists -> 70% (Comeback potential still popular with many others)
• 2nd Turo
• Used in 6/20 Lists -> 30% (Likely the way to go if you cut Pal Pad from the list)
• 3rd Boss
• Used in 3/20 Lists -> 15% (Seems like Pal Pad is the way to go)

ACE SPEC Options:

• Prime Catcher (65%) vs Max Belt (30%) vs Hero’s Cape (5%)
• Prime Catcher is paired with Defiance Band
• Max Belt is paired with 2nd Counter Catcher

Extra Items:

• Pal Pad
• Used in 15/20 Lists -> 75% (A popular choice amongst people)
• Hisuian Heavy Ball
• Used in 1/20 Lists -> 5% (Only 1 but he did well in Stockhlom, the latest event)

Tool:

• Choice Belt
• Used in 15/20 Lists -> 75% (The numbers don’t lie)
• Vitality Band
• Used in 2/20 Lists -> 10% (If only 2, probably not the best option)

So with that in mind, the remaining 6 slots were filled from the numbers above:

• 3rd Iono
• Roxanne
• Prime Catcher
• Defiance Band
• Pal Pad
• Choice Belt

This is also the first time I tried to make my deck look a bit fancy than usual. I've got the 3 Gym promos in there from the first two sets I pulled (Radiant Charizard from #2, Forest Seal Stone and Nest Ball from #1). I also used the Iono Promo and the Boss's Orders Promo for once. There's also a cheeky Rare Candy promo from League Cups we used to get back in the day. And also for once, yes, there is a gold card in there. I dug up my old Counter Catcher I pulled back in 2017 and used it for the first time. I had the idea that since Prime Catcher is already in Pink, it would make sense to have my other gust card also be a different colour to make prize checking easier.

Fun but sad fact, I never once used Counter Catcher the whole event.

Singapore Championships 2024

And now for the main event. Nationals! Or Championships, whatever you wanna call it. The big one!

Deck: Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

Result: 49th/343 (+150 CSP)

Score: 5-3

• R1 (W) vs Jackson Lee [0/3/0 Drop] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Jackson had told me he was just here for the promo and intended to drop and my heart sank hearing that. Sure I got technically a free win but that means my resistance will go down no matter what I do the whole event so in my head I already knew I had to go for a 7-1 score.
• We did play it out and I did win the set
• R2 (W) vs Jaron Wong [5/3/0] - Miraidon ex
• He had a mulligan and all I saw was lighting energies so I got excited, whether it's Hands or Miraidon, it's a good matchup either way
• I did win but he made it a lot closer than it should have been. His generators hit 2 energies everytime. He told me had had win had he drawn a Cobalion or 5th energy on his Raichu V.
• R3 (W) vs Hannah Koh Shu En [4/4/0] - Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR/Metang
• I was a bit worried about this matchup, in my testing I kept losing to Dialga even though I knew what I needed to do against it
• She did get the Chornos turn but all I had were Charmanders, so I was able to set-up for the comeback win, another close game
• R4 (L) vs Bjorn Soh Cai Wei [11/1/0] - Lugia VSTAR/Archeops
• I knew I was in trouble when I saw Bjorn's name as my next opponent
• And I damn sure knew it when I saw my starting hand, completely nothing
• To make matters worse, I had 2 Arven and 2 Candy prized so I was forced into attacking right away which wasn't ideal but I felt that was my only way to stay in the game but he had his board built up perfectly so I couldn't do much
• R5 (L) vs Loh Ziyin [5/2/0 Drop] - Lost Zone Box (Radiant Charizard)
• Another bad starting hand
• This time I really couldn't do anything, drew pass for 2-3 turns.
• Got a Zard up at one point but it was just too late to do any sort of comeback
• R6 (W) vs peekachun [3/5/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• I kinda misplayed trying to be greedy but luckily I built my board to a state that my opponent couldn't come back in time to win the game
• R7 (W) vs Poh Wei Jie [5/3/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• Opponent had a dead hand, T2 I got my Zard ex + Choice Band to KO his Rotom
• R8 (L) vs Choy Kwok Hoe [6/2/0] - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
• I messed up this game. I should have evolved into a second Pidgeot ex to keep my board as safe as possible. My heart was saying that is the right play.
• Then my head was saying...he could be playing TM Devo so I chose not to go for that and got punished. Even if I had evolved and he did Devo, I still would have had my board turn into a single prize board state which was great for me. So me overthinking cost me there as well. I should have taken some time to reasses everything to realise I was in a good spot either way.

5-3 was just not good enough. Even with a 6-2 score, I might not have bubbled into cut. Sure Bjorn would be pushing my resistance up as the first seed but with two opponents dropping, they would have undone the positives so the only real option to make cut was to finish 7-1, which I didn't do.

Simply put, I just wasn't good enough this season. Sure my results were always only 1 or 2 wins short shy of getting what I needed but that just won't do it. I cannot always be 1 or 2 wins short, I need to convert those results so I need to have a real relook into what I'm doing wrong and why I keep putting myself just 1 or 2 wins short. Sure, at least I've improved my game to the point where I can put myself in contention at any event, but that still isn't enough. Only big results matter in our region, nobody cares if you are consistently scoring points. People only care if you are consistently doing well in the big events, that's what gives you a chance to make it to Worlds.

Thoughts on the events

I do have some thoughts I want to share about the Championship event last weekend because a lot of stuff happened that many people might not know about:

• "Deals"
• Really? This is still a thing? I've heard of deals being done even during the last swiss round where people were trying to buy their way into top cut. Me and Kwok Hoe were listening to all of it, looked at each other "we just playing it out". Like I mentioned previously, I could have done the smart thing and done the same but that's not how I play the game. Even if my resistance is better, if I didn't earn it, I shouldn't be there.
• Top cut was full of it. I should know, because one of the guys asked me if I had $800 with me to help settle a deal. Do I look like someone who has that kind of money just lying around there? 
• Last season, we had none of this. Everyone was there fighting for the win, fighting to earn their Worlds invite. This year? It was full of it. It was disappointing to see. I wanted to leave at one point, I couldn't take what I was seeing. 
• Judges
• I've seen a few really bad judge calls this past weekend which the top people really need to review. The biggest one being OG's game where he asked if his Pokemon was benched, and neither his opponent nor the judges gave him the correct answer and that's why there was that delay during their streamed game. Surely the judges should be keeping track of these things?
• Also, surely they shouldn't be interfering in the matches when they weren't asked to. I saw two such occasions of people playing out their turn, they knew what they were doing, their opponent did too but the judge interfered. Let them play it out first?
• It is just me or are the judges too insistent on Double Game Losses (DGLs)? Every chance they get, they seem to want to implement DGLs to the players. Sometimes I do wonder if they actually know if DGLs hurt both players and nobody wants it. We are all trying out best to avoid it, stop forcing us to take it.
• Rules
• Speaking of DGLs, this has to be easily THE WORST ruling I have ever seen in Pokemon. In these games, there is a winner, or a loser, and if neither wins, neither are technically losers, that means a tie. Everyone else does it. We used to do it. Why are we still doing DGLs when we score 3 points for a win. I still cannot understand why we are using it. As I said, it hurts both players, why not have ties? We could avoid the huge bubbles we see at EVERY MAJOR EVENT. I wasn't a fan of it when I first heard about it, two years later, I still think this rule sucks ass. It's god awful and nobody likes it. You know that rule must be so bad when there is not a single player who likes it, everyone I've spoken to hates it. Get rid of it.
• There's a new rule that caught many people off this past weekend. Apparently we can't concede now when the last turn is played. This just makes things even more confusing to a ruling everyone is trying to avoid. This rule just means we have lesser time to decide a winner since we now cannot play out the last turn. My friend Bryan was the main one hit by it and when I heard what was happening, even I got angry because it's just a silly way to decide who wins and loses
• Again, this is just stupid. So stupid that I completely ignored this ruling to play out one of my final turns in one of my games because I knew I could win and I did. If we had to follow it, me and my opponent would have looked at our hand and had to play a guessing game of who would win or not. That one game proved to me why a +3 turn rule is far superior to settling the result of games over the incredibly stupid Asian ruling of whoever goes 2nd gets the final turn + now you cannot play out the final turn if someone is to scoop. FIX YOUR DAMN RULES.
• For all the bad, the positive is that they now have a counter to show who went 2nd. But again, with the rules as such, the player going 2nd has too much advantage in Asia especially with the time rules.
• That also reminds me, why is top cut games now 55 minutes and not 75 minutes like we had last year? 55 minute doesn't work for top cut, we've seen people get robbed of wins time and time again. CHANGE IT.
• Invites
• Quite simple, can we have more invites? 4-6 is quite small for the amount of great players we have here that should be allowed the chance to prove themselves against the best in the world. There are so many guys I can name of the top of my head who deserves that chance but can't because well bo1 is too luck based. I still think our top SG players can give anyone a run for their money if given the chance to do so.
• Structure of event
• Since we're doing bo1, surely we can change the structure to make things more fair? If timing is the reason we're doing bo1, why can't we just start early and go back to doing bo3 like we used to do. I've gone to events when it started at 9 or 10, it was no issue. 
• Also, why not do a top 32 for cut? There's too many bubbles in top 16 at 6-2 for a 300+ person event. We easily have time to top 32 bo3 games, I don't see why we can't do that. Or a better idea:
• Everyone at 6-2 or better goes to Day 2
• 3 to 4 more Swiss Rounds and then we cut to Top 8, 
• this seems like a better idea to me, this way we shouldn't have the usual giant bubble we keep getting at our events

I just had to get that all out of my chest. I love this game, I just want to see the game grow and see our players get featured more. I want to keep sharing the love of the game, be it my stats or helping to share my friend's results whatever it may be, but lately the rules and the way things are ran here makes it hard to enjoy the game I love. It hurts. I just want to see things be better for us. It's looks amazing for everyone else, why not us?

But yeah, I'm still hoping we can see some rule changes because some of it just makes no sense and it makes playing the game here even less enjoyable. I mean we're already playing Bo1, it's already so luck based, why make it even worse with all these DGL nonsense?

2024-2025 Hopes

Quite simple, I have to do better. My results this season were unacceptable. No top 32 finishes in any of the 3 major events to me is a failure, no matter if it's two 5-3s and one 6-2 finishes, none of them being at least a top 32 finish is not good enough for me. I have to do better next time out. Thanks for reading!

Singapore Regional League Vol 3 - 37th/342 - Good but not good enough

 I wasn't sure if I wanted to do this but I thought maybe I should continue on with it. I had been writing on why I would choose to play certain decks in the lead-up to the regional on here and it became a bit too much so I made a shorter version. And of course this will also be a review of the 3rd Regional League event of the season which didn't go as I hoped it would but there is nothing I can do about it.

• Deck Choices
• Choosing between top choices
• Deck List
• Singapore Regional League Vol. 3
• What's Next?

Deck Choices

I tried a bunch of decks in the lead up to the event to see which one I should go with and had some comments for them so why not share it:

Decks I was strongly considering:

1) Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex (Testing Win Rate: 52.77%)

• Comfort choice, been playing Zard/Pidgeot for the longest time
• Felt like the strongest deck and had answers to pretty much anything
• Won EUIC thanks to Tord so it's proven to be the best deck
• - Can struggle a bit to set-up so that's one worry

2) Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR (Testing Win Rate: 62.22%)

• Quite possibly the most consistent deck I tested
• Has answers to most decks even against unfavoured matchup
• A lot of decks will struggle to Judge/Iono pressure
• Won 4 of my 7 self-testing tourney, thus the high win rate and proves it can win in bo1 and bo3
• - Not having EA Sports (Energy + Arceus) in Turn 1 is a big killer and it has happened a few times

3) Lost Zone Box (Radiant Charizard) (Testing Win Rate: 80.00%)

• This deck surprised me the most, didn't think it would be good with Klara gone
• Has answers to most things! A lot of people will say Iron Hands will destroy it but Radiant Charizard + Mirage Gate should fix that
• The Lighting package gives the decks all sorts of options to surprise people and Hands can turn the prize race around
• - I just didn't test it enough sadly
• - It's still a lost zone deck so it can struggle at times, as it did during GSP #7

4) Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) (Testing Win Rate: 53.85%)

• Early impression from testing is that it's still good!
• A lot of decks cannot deal with Giratina swinging for 280 or the instant KO
• The new Singapore variant gave the deck a lot more options with Raikou and Hands, it impressed me when I played it for Doom's tourney and went 6-0 to win the event
• - It's still a lost zone deck, it can have one of those bad hands and you just struggle to survive
• - New Mist energy could be a problem (Sinnoh to fix it?)

5) Arceus VSTAR/Armarouge (Testing Win Rate: 66.67%)

• Maybe the best rouge deck in the game right now
• Lots of attacking options to choose from unlike ArcTina, spread with Delphox, big hit with Gouging Fire, copy attacks with Mew
• Endgame with Armarouge ex with loads of energy on it can be scary for most decks to deal with
• - Not very consistent sadly, main sources of draws are draw supporters and the 1-1 Bibarel line
• - Can struggle if the Armarouge keeps getting picked off or Arceus gets taken out quickly

6) Charizard ex/Bibarel (Testing Win Rate: 57.89%)

• Initially I thought this would be the BDIF with Poffin making it more consistent than the other builds
• Skowvet and Bibarel to help keep drawing cards is never a bad thing
• - But missing key pieces can and will happen, which is why Pidgeot did end up feeling better as the weeks went on

My choices

Decks I tested, but didn't bother with much after testing:

7) Lugia VSTAR/Archeops (Testing Win Rate: 49.02%)

• It's a very strong deck IF it sets up
• Big IF because it doesn't always happen
• Won 2 of my 7 self test tourney, yet has less wins than losses, that is quite telling of the deck's inconsistency

8) Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur (Testing Win Rate: 47.62%)

• Probably the best one-hit KO deck out there
• Should be more consistent thanks to Poffin, so it has easier time to set up compared to many other decks
• Still is a deck heavily reliant on Stage 2s, one missing piece is enough to bring the deck down, along with a well timed Eri/Devo

9) Lost Zone Box (Testing Win Rate: 40.00%)

• Lot more options than the other two Lost Zone decks
• Ninja makes it more consistent than Rad Zard
• Maybe it's just me but I've struggled more with this build than the other two, lots more chances to get a bad start too with all the one-off attackers

10) Gholdengo ex (Testing Win Rate: 35.71%)

• Decent deck that can knock things out very easily
• But surely Chien-Pao is just better

11) Ancient Box (Testing Win Rate: 33.33%)

• Single prize deck with potential to up trade with any deck, and lots of options to attack or even disrupt with Mane and Tusk
• But very inconsistent so far, if you struggle to set-up, you will be in trouble
• Loses to a badly timed Iono/Roxanne

12) Gardevoir ex (Testing Win Rate: 27.27%)

• Garde can still be good?
• Not as consistent as before, deck is now heavily reliant on going 2nd with TM Evo to get Kirlias up
• Also very reliant on Tools so Lost Vacuum kills the deck, often giving opponents 2 prizes in one turn

13) Raging Bolt ex/Sandy Shocks ex (Testing Win Rate: 23.07%)

• Decent deck that can knock things out very easily
• But surely Chien-Pao and Gholdengo are just better
• Horrible win rate told me all I needed to know about this deck, it was super inconsistent

Didn't test these decks, wasn't considering it at at all:

0) Roaring Moon ex/Dudunsparce

• I can build this deck, I am now testing for it for Nats, but I was just a bit too late to try it out so I couldn't consider it

0) Gouging Fire ex

• I only found out about the deck very late on for me to even consider trying it

0) Iron Hands ex/Iron Crown ex

• Pieces of the deck were going to be expensive for me to get so not considering

0) Future Box

• Same as above

0) Snorlax Control

• I can't afford to play very slow games in a bo1 Regional and no ties

0) Pidgeot ex Control

• Same as above

0) Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR/Metang

• Don't actually own Dialga and it got stupidly expensive after the Thailand result so didn't bother with it

0) Great Tusk Mill

• Didn't get to test it out and was worried at how slow the games might end up going

0) Espathra ex

• Don't own Espathras so wasn't considering it, deck didn't appeal to me whatsoever

Choosing between top choices

Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex was always my number one choice and going into the week, it still was and I locked it in on Wednesday after testing with my friend Bryan, Ray and Nicholas even thought I had just went 6-0 with Lost Tina, it still didn't feel comfortable enough for me as I would say playing Zard or even ArcTina. I even tested Arceus/Armarouge a lot at one point as a backup choice but gave up on it after some bad test games.

I was in the lucky spot that two of my all time favourite decks were really good right now, Charizard/Pidgeot decks and Arceus decks! I've been an Arceus main since it first showed up and only dropped it to play Zard when it showed up. 

ArcTina was on my radar up till the previous Friday when I went to a local event and in all 3 games, I didn't get an Arceus with Energy on board, resulting in 1 win and 2 losses. That was not a good sign for the next weekend so I jumped ship back into Zard/Pidgeot. I did feel as though ArcTina could beat anything, but since it's bo1, I can't afford a missed EA to ruin my chances. 

My other option, maybe the one no-one was expecting, was the SableZard lost zone deck with the lighting stuff. It felt very strong and after looking at the win rates of all my decks, I decided to give it a trail run at the GSP #7 Invitational event (one week before Regionals) just to see if it is as good as I've been testing it, IRL and online. 

Funniest moment in self testing

I lost my first two games due to it doing lost zone things so that was probably the moment I decided on Zard/Pidgeot for my deck for the regional. I did win the next 2 rounds thanks to the element of surprise but I bubbled out of top cut at 9th, meaning I bubbled out of a chance to earn some money which always hurts, especially since this is the 2nd time in 4 GSP events that has happened. 

Deck List

Thursday was the day to submit deck lists and on Thursday morning, I had a rough idea of what I wanted my deck to be and I had just finished up my research on 7 different Zard/Pidgeot decks to see what worked for them and what didn't and the first thing I wanted to do was to find the common cards they all used because that had to be a sign that those inclusions were a must. From my research, I found that all 7 lists I had highlighted used the same 40 cards so those were my first inclusions and things I wouldn't cut: 

Pokemon

x4 Charmander (Mostly 4 OBF, some have 3-1)

x1 Charmeleon (PAF)

x3 Charizard ex (PAF)

x2 Pidgey (MEW)

x2 Pidgeot ex (OBF)

x1 Radiant Charizard (CRZ)

x1 Rotom V (CRZ)

x1 Manaphy (BRS)

Supporters

x3 Iono

x2 Boss's Orders

x1 Professor Turo's Scenario

Items

x4 Rare Candy

x4 Ultra Ball

x2 Super Rod

x1 Lost Vacuum

Tools

x1 Forest Seal Stone

Stadium

x1 Collapsed Stadium

Energy

x6 Fire Energy

That's the 40 template, which means I had 20 more spots to fill:

The first one was probably the difficult choice, which Ace Spec do I go with. I had two choices:

• Max Package: Maximum Belt + Counter Catcher (aka 2 catchers in the list)
• Prime Package: Prime Catcher + Defiance Band

Tord and my friend Joshua both went for the Prime package and I was tempted to go with that as well, but I made a last minute switch to go with Max package in the hopes that Belt can help me get some surprise KOs in the mirror and vs Chien-Pao and maybe Espathra and Gholdengo. (SPOILER ALERT: It was the wrong choice so that was my biggest regret in the list). 

For Pokemon, these were my options:

• Lumineon V (I mean why would you not play this, helps with consistency)
• Cleffa (Was meant to be a counter to Spiritomb last format, I was hoping that was my secret tech last format but friends told me stick with Rotom. It's now known thanks to Tord)
• 1-1 Bibarel (I was testing it last format too, always felt Zard Pidgeot was lacking draws and was testing it out. Again Tord revealed it in his crazy Zard list. We seem to have similar ideas somehow. It would take over the spots of 2 Nest Ball which I didn't care much for.)
• 2nd Charmeleon (This was my answer to the mirror match and potential threat of TM Devo)
• Gouging Fire ex (Helps to get big KOs on unsuspecting Tina, Lugia and Chien Pao players).
• Jirachi (I'm putting this in my deck, Singaporeans love their Lost Zone decks)

For Supporters: 

• 3-4 Arven (Helps with the set-up, 3 probably more than enough)
• 1 Roxanne (Only good late game)
• 1 Eri and if so also +1 TM Devolution (Disruption, should help vs CP, Mirror and LZ)
• 1 Thorton (Cheap way to get rid of bench sitting Vs or if you start Manaphy/Jirachi in a matchup they're not needed)
• 1 Research (drawing cards is fun)

For Items:

• 1 Pal Pad (Or Team Yell's Cheer but that takes a supporter slot) to recover Turo and Boss mainly
• 1-3 Nest Ball (Likely just 1, only really needed for Rotom or Rad Zard)
• 1-2 Counter Catcher (2 if Max Belt is being played)
• 3-4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin (The better VIP, helps to set basic mons up even after Turn 1)
• 1 Switch (likely to be used if Prime Catcher isn't being used but Turo might take that spot)

Tools:

• 1 Choice Belt (very useful is certain matchups, mostly used for Rad Zard)
• 1 TM Devo (if Eri is being used)
• 1 Panic Mask (was a idea to help vs Tina and Mirror, just didn't try it enough)

Energy: 

• 1 Mist Energy (To counter Devo plays or protect Zard from Tina and Moon instant KOs)

Card list choices

After all of that, I had the next 10 cards in:

x1 Lumineon V

x3 Arven

x3 Buddy-Buddy Poffin

x1 Counter Catcher

x1 Nest Ball

x1 Choice Belt

And after much thinking, I went with these for the remaining 10 spots to fill were these:

• x1 Maximum Belt + x1 Counter Catcher (I went against what my friend and Tord played, thought the risk was worth it, didn't pay off sadly, so it should have been Prime Catcher + Defiance Band)
• x1 Bidoof and x1 Bibarel (I wanted the draw power) over 2 more Nest Ball
• x1 Roxanne over Research
• x1 Pal Pad over Yell's Cheer
• x1 Mist Energy (meta call)
• x1 Jirachi (meta call)
• x1 Buddy-Buddy Poffin over the 2nd Nest Ball
• 2nd Charmeleon over the Cleffa, which was the hardest cut but felt the most necessary for this weekend's meta

Final list

Singapore Regional League Vol. 3

Now onto the event! I've got my Charizard/Pidgeot deck ready in my brand new Pink Diamond sleeves from Dragon Shield that was voted by the Twitter folks, and I must say, these sleeves are awesome. I might get more.

Round 1 [W] vs Axel - Hisuian Goodra VSTAR (Lost Zone) - Table 114 - 0/0

First game of the tournament. It was my opponent's first time at a big tourney so I was trying to let her know not to be nervous and just enjoy the moment and enjoy the event. Pokémon should be fun to play right!

I didn't realise they were playing Goodra until late on but they were struggling to set it up so a I took advantage. Match went almost to time so that was a bit scary but we got there! The Goodra just never got going.

Round 2 [W] vs  Keith Ting - Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) - Table 38 - 1/0

And we hit our first friendly fire of the tournament in just round 2! I had a feeling Keith was playing a Lost Zone deck so I went first, and I was glad to see Comfey. I had been testing against Giratina for the last 3 days with Bryan so I knew exactly how the matchup would go and luckily for me it went as I hoped.

Keith had a play where he could have taken KO with his Giratina but went with Raikou V instead, which meant by Radiant Charizard didn't need to use Choice Belt to take KO. Apart from that, close game!

Round 3 [L] vs Edmund Khoo - Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) - Table 32 - 2/0

Another friendly fire, another Tina player but this time I was in trouble. I had no set-up going vs Edmund and after looking through my deck, I noticed some things were missing. 

2 Iono and Bidoof being prized was quite painful against this deck so I went for KO and got punished right away when he got a KO on my Pidgeot. Nothing I can do after that. 

Round 4 [L] vs Dave Wong - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - Table 83 - 2/1

This game sucked. My opponent made me go first, I attach energy to Charmander, pass. He gets the perfect set-up, passes over to me. All I can do here is Rare Candy to get Zard up, bench Radiant Charizard, put 3 energies onto it, one more to Zard ex, attack, take the first prize, it was Super Rod.

Opponent straight away goes to Eri me, and my Rod is gone. I have nothing else in hand. Takes KO on my Zard after a few exchanges and I'm still left with only Rad Zard and that was it. Such an annoying way to lose the mirror when I just couldn't play or set anything up while the other side had everything.

Round 5 [W] vs Darwin Tan - Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - Table 77 - 2/2

Complete role reversal of the last game. I went to Iono him after his Rotom draw and apparently he drew into a dead hand and I got Candy Zard to start attacking, and he just drew nothing. It happened to me so I knew the feeling. Finally I had some good luck in the mirror at a Regional!

Round 6 [W] vs Charmaine Han - Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur - Table 75 - 3/2

Yet another friendly fire. Charmaine is one of the few people who I would keep talking to after each round so of course imagine our sadness seeing each other at the table. Even 3 of our judges went to our tables just to say "whoops friendly fire". Yes, we know haha!

This was a bit of a tricky matchup since I know what Chien-Pao is capable of. I got a bit lucky when she missed a turn to KO my Zard and it turned the game to my favour. Was a long match too, we finished with like 2 minutes to go.

Round 7 [W] vs Norman Chan - Lost Zone Box - Table 30 - 4/2

I knew Norman so I had a feeling it was a Lost Box deck with Moon ex likely in it. Things were going ok, I took KO, he set up KO, rinse and repeat. He got the Moon KO on my Zard, I got the Charmander KO on it but the biggest issue was, I still hadn't gotten my Jirachi out of the prizes so I'm in trouble.

And then some good fortune for me, he forgot to Super Rod his 1 psychic energy back into the deck! He used Mirage Gate and then realised something was up. I thought the 2nd one was prized. That pretty much sealed the game for me as he missed the attack and gave me a 2 prize lead again with no possible way a Moon can show up. We take those!

Round 8 [W] vs Jackson Tham - Gholdengo ex - Table 33 - 5/2

Final round and I had seen Jackson playing Gholdengo the previous round. I had a good feeling about this matchup but not so when I saw my opening hand. I had to start Lumineon V and with nothing else in my hand, used Ultra Ball to get Rotom V just to draw cards. I got two Charmanders and Manaphy down the next turn but he got the Cologne + Gust onto Manaphy on my 2 Charmanders, game over surely right?

I still fought on, hoping there might be some way and it actually happened. I got one Zard up to KO his first Gholdengo with Max Belt. He then whiffs KO on my Zard, which meant I had the KO again! Some really good fortune for me in these last 3 games! I benched Radiant Charizard down and attach energy to it to have it ready for the last KO as there was one more Gholdengo on board. He then plays his last turn, and I kept looking at the clock. It went from 8 minutes down to 2 minutes, that took a long while! I was getting a little nervous that we might run out of time, I just needed one last turn. Luckily he did give me the last turn to take that last KO.

Final Result: 6/2 - 37th/342

I did get to 6-2, but bubbled out of not just Top 16 cut but also out of Top 32! Whoops. It was a huge bubble too. The highest placing 6-2 was 13th and the lowest was 45th. There's nothing you can do about resistance. But hey, going 6-2 meant I got the Boss promo!

Promo cards!

My opponents went 2-6, 6-2, 6-2, 5-3, 2-4 Drop, 3-5, 5-3 and 5-3. Losing in Rounds 3 and 4 hurts my resistance quite badly despite both of them going 6-2 or 5-3. And having someone dropping and having a low score also hurts my resistance so there was nothing I can do about it. Other than not lose twice I suppose, but when you brick both games, what can you really do about it? It's just the way it is.

Zard felt like the right call, I did everything I could but sometimes when you can't play the game, you just have to take it. Only thing I regret from the list was the Ace Spec choice, I only used Max Belt effectively in my last game. ArcTina could have been a good call but I didn't want to take the risk having not played in in a while.

Major congrats to my friend Bryan for winning the whole thing! He has been killing it this season and I’m so glad he will get to go to Worlds as a competitor this time. He also asked me to help test out the Tina-Zard matchup and a few others for 3 days it was a good testing session! Ray also joined us and he got top 16 as well so I’m happy to see my friends do well even if I can’t join them up there!

My friend Mickey made a vlog about the event, give it a watch. I might have shown up once or twice. 

What's Next?

This season has been painful but it's almost ending. Last season I had three top 32 finishes in 3 major events. This season? Not the same, not even a top 32 at any of the 3 major events so far. It's been a non-finish (I didn't get to play the first regional), 54th and 37th. I went 5-3 last time out, did better this time with 6-2 but still got the same amount of points. That feels bad.

All there's left is the Singapore Championships. Or Nationals as some of us call it. The winner AND finalists earns a spot at the World Championships in August. The other way is to finish top 4 in standings which is what I did last year. How's the situations this time around?

Yeah nah, I've only got 680 points. The one good improvement this season is that I have been scoring points regularly. Just not big finishes. I only have one top 8 finish out of those 7 finishes. I have no real hope of finishing in the top 4, I'm a thousand points behind the 4th placed fella. The only aim is simple, make it to finals. 

I've got a month left to go and yes I'm already back to self-testing and playing online and whenever I get the chance, playing locals too. As for what deck will I be playing? Safe bet is Charizard/Pidgeot, it's the best deck but that's not why I play it, it's my comfort deck. But I also have to be ready to make changes, we know there might be more Zards on the way. I hate playing the mirror because I know I my luck in it. I could go with an Arceus deck, it's what got me to Worlds anyway! Or I could surprise everyone and play something different. 

Still plenty of time to figure out the play, whatever that may be. Whatever you guys decide to do in May, just please don't play the Charizard mirror with me. The idea of having to KO Charmanders makes me really sad because it's my favourite Pokémon. Please don't make me do that. PLEASEEEEE!

Please don't hurt me!