The World of Kash

Thursday, August 22, 2024

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.

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

Thursday, August 8, 2024

TCG Shops in Akihabara/Ikebukuro, Tokyo (Japan) to go to & price comparisons

While I was in Japan for a short trip, I had this funny idea in my head and wanted to do a little project of mine. Which shop is the best place to go to buy cards? Some sold other cards cheaper than others but who on average had the better prices? I was curious so why not look through some numbers to the few shops I went to.

Using this mainly to add on to Peke's article on shops to go to in Akihabara and Ikebukuro: https://peke.notion.site/Tokyo-Card-Shop-List-Pok-mon-9eb2a76d3d34433191192982e4e594bd

From Peke's article, there's a few shops not covered here:

Fuku Fuku (Number 6) didn't have a lot of the playable Singles I was looking at, only saw 2! They didn't have much standard stuff to be fair
Surugaya (Number 7) had the same issue as Fuku, not many standard playables but more Retro stuff.
I forgot to visit shop number 8
I didn't get to see more of the shops in Ikebukuro but did include 2 on here!

To look up for Pokemon Gyms in Japan, check out the map here: https://map.pokemon-card.com/

I took note of the prices of some of the playable cards and wanted to use cards I'd think people would naturally go for:

Rotom V (Avg Price: 1700) - Staple card in many different decks and very pricey too, hard to find in many shops
Fezandipiti ex (Avg Price: 1640) - New staple card for many different decks, less pricier than Rotom but even harder to find
Dragapult ex (Avg Price: 600) - One of the best attackers in the game right now
Charizard ex (Avg Price: 220) - Also one of the best attackers in the game right now but a promo box did just get released which means prices for it should be lower than usual
Ursaluna ex (Avg Price: 300) - Not sure why I picked this but it's a splashable attacker in any deck
Terapagos ex (Avg Price: 1080) - The new big attacker in the game!
Sableye (Avg Price: 250) - The main attacker for Lost Box
Noctowl (Avg Price: 630) - The new big support Pokemon in the game
Dusknoir (Avg Price: 530) - The biggest new "support" attacker in the game, just released in English
Munkidori (Avg Price: 380) - Another top support mon in the game and sees play in all sorts of decks
Buddy Buddy Poffin (Avg Price: 800) - The on-demand trainer card to get
Unfair Stamp (Avg Price: 1370) - One of the two best Ace Spec in the game
Prime Catcher (Avg Price: 2500) - The other best Ace Spec in the game, but the more expensive one for sure

Trading Card Secret Base
Location: 3-2-11 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Website

Price Average: +340yen (From 10 out of 13 cards)

Notes:

They have a lot of sleeves on sale, and also many mats/box/sleeves from overseas
One plus for me, they have card frames for sale
A lot of older cards on sale too

Card Shop BEAMS
Location: Akiba1131.bldg 3F, 1-13-1 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Website

Price Average: -710yen (From 9 out of 13 cards)

Notes:

They have some sleeves on sale, including Katana sleeves
Quite a lot of older cards on sale here
Many used cards on sale here and they look in good condition
One of the better shops when it comes to card prices, they tend to have sale prices too

Card Rush (Shop #4 in Peke's List)
Location: BiTO AKIBA PLAZA 7F, 1-18-18 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Website

Price Average: -50yen (From 11 out of 13 cards)

Notes:

I've been recommended this shop because of their prices, yup can agree! Lower average prices to many places and it's near the main station of Akihabara
They've got Dragon Shield and Katana sleeves here, and if I remember, their prices were the best
Big playing space, one to go to for events

Dragon Star (Shop #3 in Peke's List)
Location: BiTO AKIBA PLAZA 6F, 1-18-18 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Website

Price Average: +90yen (From 5 out of 13 cards)

Notes:

The price may not look like it, but some of their stuff are quite affordable
A lot of playables sold out, must be a good spot to get cards then
They also have sale prices
Playing space too
More sleeves here if I remember, especially Dragon Shield and Katana

Hobby Station
Location: Radio Kaikan 1F, 1-15-16 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Website

Price Average: +880yen (From 9 out of 13 cards)

Notes:

I wouldn't go here to buy singles, maybe sleeves and boxes

Card Labo (Shop #6 in Peke's List)
Location: Radio Kaikan 9F, 1-15-16 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Website

Price Average: +290yen (From 10 out of 13 cards)

Notes:

Prices are a bit higher here, go next door (Fullcomp)

Fullcomp (Shop #6 in Peke's List)
Location: Radio Kaikan 9F, 1-15-16 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Website

Price Average: -190yen (From 6 out of 13 cards)

Notes:

Prices seem good, maybe that's why a lot of playable cards here were sold out when I was there
They have mats, sleeves and card frames on sale here too, also some overseas stuff
They had a few English trainer cards which is a big plus

Hareruya 2 (Shop #2 in Peke's List)
Location: 1-2-5 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Website

Price Average: 0yen (From 13 out of 13 cards)

Notes:

Prices here seem to be spot on, no wonder it's a popular place for people to get cards here
Not as many sleeves as other places (they do have Dragon Shield and Katana), but they have more special boxes for sure
Probably the easiest place I've been to to sort through singles
Daily tournaments with their own system which is always nice, more easier for overseas players to join in on the fun

PlayGym Tokyo
Location: gran+AKIHABARA 2F, 2-9-9 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Website

Price Average: +930yen (From 11 out of 13 cards)

Notes:

A bit further out from the other shops
Prices here seem a little higher than others

Cherumo Akihabara (Shop #1 in Peke's List)
Location: Nikko Building 4F, 6-14-1 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Website

Price Average: +130yen (From 6 out of 13 cards)

Notes:

Loads of singles on display here, so much I got lost as to what was where
Singles might be a bit higher than other shops but boxes seems lower than other places
Some overseas mats and sleeves on sale here too
Good spot to play from what I've heard!

Volks Akihabara Hobby Heaven 2
Location: 4-2-10 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Website

Price Average: +85yen (From 5 out of 13 cards)

Notes:

Not many singles here, don't bother
Not many other stuff as well

Card Shop Pompoko
Location: Kinokuniya Building 1F, 1-2-14 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Must be a new shop, couldn't find a website for them

Price Average: -940yen (From 11 out of 13 cards)

Notes:

Randomly ran into this shop, their prices are really good! Cheapest of any shop I went to so far!
Didn't see many sleeves or boxes here

Card Labo Ikebukuro
Location: Plaza Inn Ikebukuro 4th floor, 1-20-6 Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo

Website

Price Average: -170yen (From 12 out of 13 cards)

Notes:

Loads of singles here but not many older cards, didn't see much
Some sleeves on sale
Sale prices too, their prices are better than most shops

Card Secret Ikebukuro
Location: 5F THE KINDAI 10 IKEBUKURO, 1-23-9 Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo

Website

Price Average: -830yen (From 9 out of 13 cards)

Notes:

They have English cards, and not just on display, but singles too! Big win for me.
Their prices for Japanese cards seems really good too, second best behind Pompoko on my list
A lot of sleeves here (Dragon Shield, Katana, Eclipse, you name it), loads of overseas mats, sleeves, boxes and special cards
Big playing space, another good spot for overseas players to play

There were a few other shops I went to but they either didn't have many singles, no singles or I would just avoid them. Big Magic is on the same floor as Card Labo and Fullcomp but it's not the place for singles. Sleeves however, I found their price for Dragon Shield sleeves to be the cheapest. So not all lost.

For those interested in the prices and how everything worked out:

As you can see, some cards were just not on sale at some places so it was hard to get the best numbers for this little idea I had. I tried my best!

For me, the best places to get singles are probably Card Secret, Card Rush/Dragon Star (they're in the same building), Pompoko, Fullcomp and Beams. The others are still fine, just personal preference I guess. And as for tax, I didn't keep track of that, it'll make this even for a mess anyway. I did all of this just for fun anyway and to cure my boredom in the time being. Thanks for reading!

Saturday, May 25, 2024

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?)

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!

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Kash Top 24 List: Decks to play for new 2024 Rotation (BRS to TEF)

It's ~~April 5th~~ May 7th 2024 (yes I am a month later than I had originally planned to do this), which means the 2024 Rotation is now in place. Cards from the E-Block sets are now rotated, they can't be used for any tournament play.

So what does the game look like in these new regulations? No idea of what to get for your current decks or looking to get something new to replace your older decks? I hope this will be of some help for those playing in the next events such as ~~Orlando, Perth, Singapore or São Paulo~~ Los Angeles, Stockholm or the Asian Championships or any other events from the weeks after these.

Since it's 2024, I thought I should put 24 lists I could find for 24 decks that have done well either in IRL events and some online events. I won't talk much about the decks, everyone has their own taste in what they like so here you go!

24. Arceus VSTAR/Alolan Vulpix VSTAR

Deck: 3rd Place - Indonesian Regional League Vol. 3 - Kurniawan Suganda

Best Result Online: 1st/200

City League Wins: 7

Limitless IRL Entries: 7

Total Price: $54.86

23. Raging Bolt ex/Sandy Shocks ex

Deck: 37th Place - Indianapolis Regional - Adam Reinhardt

Best Result Online: 3rd/326

City League Wins: 2

Limitless IRL Entries: 4

Total Price: $77.36

22. Hisuian Zoroark VSTAR

Deck: 16th Place - Thailand Regional League Vol. 3 - Pramote Koowatanasuchat

Best Result Online: 8th/126

City League Wins: 0

Limitless IRL Entries: 1

Total Price: $24.35

21. Arceus VSTAR/Armarouge

Deck: 17th Place - European Internationals - Julian Gort-Barry

Best Result Online: 1st/106

City League Wins: 8

Limitless IRL Entries: 15

Total Price: $48.56

20. Gouging Fire ex

Deck: 1st Place - Tournament of Doom! (Online) - Nelson Guillen

Best Result Online: 1st/136

City League Wins: 0

Limitless IRL Entries: 1

Total Price: $70.01

19. Arceus VSTAR/Bibarel/Radiant Charizard

Deck: 11th Place - São Paulo Regional - Marco Cifuentes

Best Result Online: 3rd/146

City League Wins: 0

Limitless IRL Entries: 6

Total Price: $63.05

18. Lost Zone Box (Radiant Charizard)

Deck: 1st Place - Late Night 180 (Online) - kasazizooka

Best Result Online: 1st/326

City League Wins: 4

Limitless IRL Entries: 10

Total Price: $78.70

17. Espathra ex/Xatu

Deck: 25th Place - Indianapolis Regional - Braiden Elfert

Best Result Online: 1st/226

City League Wins: 0

Limitless IRL Entries: 15

Total Price: $31.74

16. Charizard ex/Bibarel

Deck: 2nd Place - Standard Pumpka Weekly (Online) - Sbeve

Best Result Online: 2nd/231

City League Wins: 55

Limitless IRL Entries: 15

Total Price: $52.77

15. Great Tusk Mill

Deck: 1st Place - Sunny's Weekly #148 (Online) - SwissFiaro

Best Result Online: 1st/115

City League Wins: 8

Limitless IRL Entries: 3

Total Price: $50.30

14. Snorlax Control

Deck: 27th Place - São Paulo Regional - Patricia Gonzalez Walsh

Best Result Online: 1st/230

City League Wins: 26

Limitless IRL Entries: 23

Total Price: $44.54

13. Gholdengo ex/Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR

Deck: 67th Place - Orlando Regional - Thomas Seward

Best Result Online: 2nd/241

City League Wins: 13

Limitless IRL Entries: 14

Total Price: $73.85

12. Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR/Metang

Deck: 1st Place - Indianapolis Regional - Andrew Hedrick

Best Result Online: 3rd/233

City League Wins: 2

Limitless IRL Entries: 27

Total Price: $117.44

11. Pidgeot ex Control

Deck: 4th Place - Indianapolis Regional - Grant Manley

Best Result Online: 1st/217

City League Wins: 1

Limitless IRL Entries: 26

Total Price: $71.76

10. Roaring Moon ex/Dudunsparce

Deck: 6th Place - Perth Regional - Tim Franklin

Best Result Online: 1st/195

City League Wins: 0

Limitless IRL Entries: 28

Total Price: $70.22

9. Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR

Deck: 9th Place - São Paulo Regional - João Requena

Best Result Online: 1st/202

City League Wins: 24

Limitless IRL Entries: 58

Total Price: $88.70

8. Lost Zone Box (Radiant Greninja)

Deck: 3rd Place - Indianapolis Regional - Dean Nezam

Best Result Online: 1st/221

City League Wins: 44

Limitless IRL Entries: 58

Total Price: $83.29

7. Ancient Box

Deck: 4th Place - Singapore Regional League Vol. 3 - Loh Win Soon

Best Result Online: 1st/236

City League Wins: 15

Limitless IRL Entries: 45

Total Price: $35.48

6. Gardevoir ex

Deck: 3rd Place - Orlando Regional - Joshua Frink

Best Result Online: 1st/204

City League Wins: 7

Limitless IRL Entries: 40

Total Price: $48.59

5. Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone)

Deck: 1st Place - Singapore Regional League Vol. 3 - Bryan Quah

Best Result Online: 2nd/268

City League Wins: 30

Limitless IRL Entries: 80

Total Price: $106.34

4. Lugia VSTAR/Archeops

Deck: 8th Place - São Paulo Regional - Leonardo Danna

Best Result Online: 1st/246

City League Wins: 38

Limitless IRL Entries: 74

Total Price: $57.49

3. Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur

Deck: 2nd Place - Indianapolis Regional - Grant Shen

Best Result Online: 1st/228

City League Wins: 40

Limitless IRL Entries: 109

Total Price:$100.76

2. Iron Hands ex/Iron Crown ex

Deck: 6th Place - Singapore Regional League Vol.3 - Evan Chiang

Best Result Online: 1st/196

City League Wins: 24

Limitless IRL Entries: 69

Total Price: $74.90

1. Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex

Deck: 1st Place - European Internationals - Tord Reklev

Best Result Online: 1st/283

City League Wins: 56

Limitless IRL Entries: 219

Total Price: $94.56

So out of these 24 decks, which ones is the most expensive ones or the cheapest ones? Prices are in USD just in case.

Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR/Metang - $117.44
Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) - $106.34
Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur - $100.76
Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - $94.56
Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR - $88.70
Lost Zone Box (Radiant Greninja) - $83.29
Lost Zone Box (Radiant Charizard) - $78.70
Raging Bolt ex/Sandy Shocks ex - $77.36
Iron Hands ex/Iron Crown ex - $74.90
Gholdengo ex - $73.85
Pidgeot ex Control - $71.76
Roaring Moon ex/Dudunsparce - $70.22
Gouging Fire ex - $70.01
Arceus VSTAR/Bibarel/Radiant Charizard - $63.05
Lugia VSTAR/Archeops - $57.49
Arceus VSTAR/Alolan Vulpix VSTAR - $54.86
Charizard ex/Bibarel - $52.77
Great Tusk Mill - $50.30
Gardevoir ex - $48.59
Arceus VSTAR/Armarouge - $48.56
Snorlax Control - $44.54
Ancient Box - $35.48
Espathra ex/Xatu - $31.74
Hisuian Zoroark VSTAR - $24.35

If you're wondering why Dialga is the most expensive, well winning the latest regional might have caused that but even before, it was one more the more expensive decks to build just due to Dialga VSTAR anyway! LZ Tina and Chien-Pao are the other two to go past $100 USD. The BDIF Zard/Pidgeot in the next one at under $95. As for good cheap options? Ancient Box and Gardevoir are probably the two best and they are both under $50!

A friend of mine had a great suggestion which was to show the prices of the decks without the Ace Spec cards, which is the new one-off card played in every deck. Prime Catcher alone costs around $35 and something like Reboot Pod can be as low as $1! So with that in mind, I wanted to include this:

Dialga is still the most expensive deck but no deck will go past $100 without Ace Spec cards. 11 of the 24 decks on here all play Prime Catcher. Turbo Hands goes from being the 9th most expensive deck to the 3rd most as it's playing the cheapest Ace Spec card, now imagine how much it would cost to play with Prime Catcher (aka almost $100)! Lugia is another deck that jumps up because of it's usage of Master Ball.

Which decks have done well IRL? I kept track of the amount of Limitless entries they had so far in this format:

Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - 219
Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur - 109
Giratina VSTAR (Lost Zone) - 80
Lugia VSTAR/Archeops - 74
Iron Hands ex/Iron Crown ex - 69
Arceus VSTAR/Giratina - 58
Ancient Box - 45
Lost Zone Box (Radiant Greninja) - 44
Gardevoir ex - 40
Roaring Moon ex/Dudunsparce - 28

Speaks for itself really, the better decks have been doing well this format anyway! I hope this helps for those of you attending LA Regional, Stockholm Regional, SPEs around LA and MESA and especially those of us in Asia where the Championships will be held soon, with Thailand up first (May 12th), then Singapore (May 19th) and the Philippines (May 26th). Thanks for reading!

Pages

Thursday, August 22, 2024

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

Thursday, August 8, 2024

TCG Shops in Akihabara/Ikebukuro, Tokyo (Japan) to go to & price comparisons

Saturday, May 25, 2024

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

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Kash Top 24 List: Decks to play for new 2024 Rotation (BRS to TEF)