San Antonio Regionals turned out to be the biggest Pokemon Regionals ever with over 2000 players in the TCG category. Conveniently located in the middle of US, this regional attracted players from across the country and beyond.
The San Antonio river runs through the city making it a very unique setting with hotels and restaurants built on and around the river. There's even a boat cruise you can take that transverse through the city on the river. We spent most of Friday before check-in doing plenty of sightseeing, eating and shopping.
Day1 Competition:
Having just missed out on championship points at Sacramento regionals finishing at T33, Ashely was really hoping to capture a good result, while Aaron is still chasing that elusive first day 2. Both of them settled on DTE Mew simply for its powerful draw engine in Fusion Strike Systems and also disruption with a combination of Judge/Path to the Peak. Aaron has played DTE Mew before and was comfortable with the deck despite the looming large population of Charizard ex in the field, and got off to a great 3-1 start by lunch break. Unfortunately for Ashley she never got comfortable with the deck and had a rough start at 1-2-1 come lunch time.
After the lunch break it was when all the Charizard decided to line up for Aaron. He proceeded to hit 4 Charizard ex and one Lost Tina in his last 5 rds. While he was able to edge out a win against one of the Charizards and the Lost Tina (piloted by accomplished player Mark Dizon) the bad matchups were just a bit too much at the end and Aaron finished 5-4.
Ashley only started to turn things around toward the end of the day and made a comeback to a 3-4-1 finish which was extremely heartbreaking as she had high hopes going into the event, however that's just how Pokemon goes sometimes...
Day 2
The great thing about these Pokemon regionals is that even if you don't make day 2 of the competition, there's still plenty to do the next day at the venue. And Day2 Events had plenty of side events to entertain and a league cup for you to try and make the most of the weekend by capturing some valuable championship points. Ashley decided to take it easy and enjoy side events of pack battle (which we pulled a gold Roaring Moon) and the ring toss nearly getting the big prize.
Aaron jumped into the 200+ player league cup, this time playing Snorlax Stall, and finished the 8 round cup with a record of 5-2-1 netting him top 32 points. The cup finished right when we had to rush to the airport.
While the result of the regional wasn't what we had hoped for, it was always great to meet up with old friends and make new ones. It was also encouraging as I walked up and down the tables I see our products on the playmats of players more and more. Here are a few more pics from the weekend:
(Azul just before he was about to start in top 8, not aware that he was eventually going to be the champion)
(The Hegster and Ashley. The sweater looks great on you Hegyi)
(Great local friends, Fausto from IGG and GF Darlene joined in on the family photo)
(Had a nice chat with Regan Retzloff at the airport about how bad Miraidon is lol)
Goodbye San Antonio. Thank you for your hospitality and we hope to be back again in the future.