WGP Last Chance Qualifier Before Worlds (Premium - Unknown Player Count):
1st) DI (NLK)
2nd) DI (NLK)
3rd) Nubatama (Standard+)
4th) GP (Ezel)
1st Place
2nd Place
3rd Place
4th Place
Odd how the LCQ for Standard was a Team Tournament for an event that was Singles.
1st) DI (NLK)
2nd) DI (NLK)
3rd) Nubatama (Standard+)
4th) GP (Ezel)
1st Place
2nd Place
3rd Place
4th Place
WGP Last Chance Qualifier Before Worlds (Standard - Unknown Teams):
1st) OTT/AF/GN
2nd) OTT/AF/RP
3rd) Narukami/RP/AF
4th) AF/RP/OTT
1st Place
2nd Place
3rd Place
4th Place
Bushiroad World Championship 2018:
Standard (Japan):
1st) Oracle Think Tank
2nd) Royal Paladin
3rd) Great Nature
4th) Kagero
1st Place
2nd Place
1st Place
2nd Place
3rd Place
4th Place
Premium (Japan):
1st) Bermuda Triangle (Ange Trois)
2nd) Nubatama (Standard +)
3rd) Angel Feather
4th) NLK
1st Place
2nd Place
3rd Place
4th Place
Why yes. The Nubatama+ player that got top 4 at the LCQ got 2nd here.
Bushiroad World Championship 2018:
Standard (English):
1st) Great Nature (Leopald/Hammsuke)
2nd) Murakumo
3rd) Neo Nectar
4th) Royal Paladin
Top 8) Great Nature (Leopald/Bison)
Top 8) Great Nature (Leopald/Bison)
1st Place
3rd Place
4th Place
Top 8
Premium (English):
1st) Megacolony (Gredora ft Antlion-Zoa)
2nd) Gold Paladin (Ezel)
3rd) OTT (Gyze)
4th) Gold Paladin (Ezel)
5th-8th) GP (Ezel), GP (Ezel), GP (Ezel), DI (NLK)
1st Place
3rd Place
Credit to the TeamAbsolution Discord for the stats.
Pro Play Games Pro Tour Atlanta
1st Place) Neo Nectar
1st Place
8th Place
Now that I've had some time to get more info and talk with people with a better eye for things that I missed I can finally give a more fair assessment of what happened this weekend. For Japan it was more of the same. They stuck to what they liked and the usual suspects ended up doing well. Then there's the big brain player with Premium Nubatama that is apparently disgustingly good according to the people who watched it in action. Leave it to Premium to come up with the spicy stuff.
On the subject of big braining that is pretty much the best way to described what happened with North America especially with Premium Format. For Standard there was reportedly alot of Great Nature present which combined with Genesis and Murakumo running around meant that Angel Feather was not going to have a good time which is why it failed to top. Shout outs to the Genesis player from the stream representing Canada on the big stage by the way. Unfortunately he lost to Murakumo in top cut and that guy went onto the finals against Hammsuke Great Nature and lost. Observers and WSlasher himself commented on MK choking in the finals but I still have to give both players props. The first finals of the Vanguard Reboot ended up being a match of Accel vs Accel which if you had told me would be the case when we were in Q4-EB02 Formats I'd have balked. This is what happens when Bushiroad actually designs competent Accel decks. That being said the fallout of this will be a spike in play from Great Nature as people pick up the deck thinking it's the BDIF when it's not, it's just a solid Accel deck. Anyone with a good Force deck like Neo Nectar can probably score some wins off them.
That being said while the Standard event was good for what it was I can honestly say the real star of this event was Premium Format. Sure you had the bad apples such as NLK loop (which Bushiroad is addressing in the new Restriction List that I'm certain we'll get) and Ezel but then you had some spicy stuff like Fenrir/Wiseman in 2019 and the deck that won the whole thing: Megacolony. Now admittedly this is the result of the same big braining that I mentioned before as the players were expecting NLK to be the BDIF so they went with the deck that counters it in Ezel which is why there were so many of them in top cut. Our champion decided to do it one better by playing a deck that counters Ezel with Darkface while also having some applications against NLK and Gyze on paper. I can't really say how Darkface fares against them as according to my sources the one time he played NLK in the tournament he flipped 3-4 crits on his first stride and won right there since Swiss was best of 1. Regardless the fact that this stuff happened is a fantastic showcase of what Premium is supposed to be; a wide open format that gives players tons of options in what they can play and rewards you for being smart with your deckbuilding and gameplay. Standard simply doesn't have this level of flexibility or skill required to play at this time.
I have more things to say about this event such as how it was ran, the stream presentation and the choice of commentators but I'll save that for when I publish my Tournament Results Video later this week. Until then.
On the subject of big braining that is pretty much the best way to described what happened with North America especially with Premium Format. For Standard there was reportedly alot of Great Nature present which combined with Genesis and Murakumo running around meant that Angel Feather was not going to have a good time which is why it failed to top. Shout outs to the Genesis player from the stream representing Canada on the big stage by the way. Unfortunately he lost to Murakumo in top cut and that guy went onto the finals against Hammsuke Great Nature and lost. Observers and WSlasher himself commented on MK choking in the finals but I still have to give both players props. The first finals of the Vanguard Reboot ended up being a match of Accel vs Accel which if you had told me would be the case when we were in Q4-EB02 Formats I'd have balked. This is what happens when Bushiroad actually designs competent Accel decks. That being said the fallout of this will be a spike in play from Great Nature as people pick up the deck thinking it's the BDIF when it's not, it's just a solid Accel deck. Anyone with a good Force deck like Neo Nectar can probably score some wins off them.
That being said while the Standard event was good for what it was I can honestly say the real star of this event was Premium Format. Sure you had the bad apples such as NLK loop (which Bushiroad is addressing in the new Restriction List that I'm certain we'll get) and Ezel but then you had some spicy stuff like Fenrir/Wiseman in 2019 and the deck that won the whole thing: Megacolony. Now admittedly this is the result of the same big braining that I mentioned before as the players were expecting NLK to be the BDIF so they went with the deck that counters it in Ezel which is why there were so many of them in top cut. Our champion decided to do it one better by playing a deck that counters Ezel with Darkface while also having some applications against NLK and Gyze on paper. I can't really say how Darkface fares against them as according to my sources the one time he played NLK in the tournament he flipped 3-4 crits on his first stride and won right there since Swiss was best of 1. Regardless the fact that this stuff happened is a fantastic showcase of what Premium is supposed to be; a wide open format that gives players tons of options in what they can play and rewards you for being smart with your deckbuilding and gameplay. Standard simply doesn't have this level of flexibility or skill required to play at this time.
I have more things to say about this event such as how it was ran, the stream presentation and the choice of commentators but I'll save that for when I publish my Tournament Results Video later this week. Until then.
I was top 8 at the ppg event had to drop to make it to work on time if you’d like my list to help with the post just give me a way to send it to you and I will the picture has the mat in it already for proof.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the work you do to keep track of the meta.
~Ean
That would be appreciated. I need to revise this post heavily now that I've found the 1st Place list from that event and the team results from the LCQ popped up recently.
DeleteBest way I can think of off the top of my head would be to send it as a message to my twitter at https://twitter.com/bluestar899.