The Salt Lake City Regional Championships take place in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA this weekend, May 5-6.
The strongest decks entering the event are considered to be straight Zoroark, Garbodor variants, and Fighting Toolbox variants. Greninja BREAK, Durant, Wailord-EX, and the new Lucario-GX are also predicted to see play.
This post contains event information and live updates on stream matches, top players' decks, the tournament experience, and the general metagame. For more, including updates on notable players' records, follow us on Twitter.
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/playatgamegrid
Live updates
Times shown are EST.
10:18 PM: Entering Round 9, players advancing to Day 2:
9:29 PM: Some names we know are currently guaranteed Day 2 (or can make Day 2 with a Round 9 ID): Azul Garcia Griego, Michael Pramawat, Rahul Reddy.
9:16 PM: John Collins started 4-0-0 with Trevenant BREAK, including beating a Zoroark deck that ran Giratina XY84, but has now fallen to 4-2-1. Pablo Meza (Tablemon) also played Trevenant, dropping at 3-3-1.
6:07 PM: Prior to the event, Kyle "Pooka" Sucevich had hinted at a possible Draft format being tested at this Regional. Christopher Schemanske reports that this is in fact the case; as demonstrated, the format involves constructing a deck from 4 booster packs plus a prerelease-style Evolution Pack. We'll have more information as this develops.
2:15 PM: The stream situation has improved somewhat, with the FPS rate now much closer to what we expect from official streams. (Chat is still in 3-month-followers mode.)
8:57 AM: There are many complaints about the quality of the stream. The framerate is extremely slow (nearly unwatchable) and there is no commentary. While there are markers for Prize Cards taken and player records, there is no indication of a series score.
7:33 AM: Christopher Schemanske notes that this event is now the first US Regional of the 2017-18 season to see a drop in attendance from the previous season. With just 280 Masters present, a 5-0-4 record will make Day 2, as well as almost all players at 6-3-0.
Top players' decks
Jon Eng Drampa-GX/Garbodor
Caleb Gedemer Zoroark
Zach Lesage Donphan/Wobbuffet
Jose Marrero Lucario-GX
Frank Percic Sylveon-GX
Sorina Radu Gardevoir-GX
Rahul Reddy FightingBox/Octillery
The strongest decks entering the event are considered to be straight Zoroark, Garbodor variants, and Fighting Toolbox variants. Greninja BREAK, Durant, Wailord-EX, and the new Lucario-GX are also predicted to see play.
This post contains event information and live updates on stream matches, top players' decks, the tournament experience, and the general metagame. For more, including updates on notable players' records, follow us on Twitter.
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/playatgamegrid
Live updates
Times shown are EST.
10:18 PM: Entering Round 9, players advancing to Day 2:
- Ryan Allred (6-2-0)
- Nathian Beck (6-1-1)
- Michael Catron (6-2-0)
- Mark Garcia (6-1-1, Zoroark)
- Azul Garcia Griego (7-0-1)
- Caleb Gedemer (6-1-1, Zoroark)
- Justin Kinney (6-2-0)
- Tony Morgan (6-1-1)
- Travis Nunlist (7-1-0, Gardevoir-GX)
- Ryan Pena (7-1-0, Glaceon-GX)
- Jimmy Pendarvis (6-2-0)
- Michael Pramawat (6-2-0)
- Rahul Reddy (6-1-1, FightingBox/Octillery)
- Kaleb Sommers (6-1-1)
- David Tomhave (6-1-1, Zoroark)
- Bodhi Tracy (6-2-0)
- Geoffrey Weil (6-2-0)
- Marlin Whitford (6-1-1, Lucario-GX/Octillery)
- Travis Zabala (6-2-0, Drampa-GX/Garbodor)
ID-and-bubble/win-and-in:
- Frank Percic vs. Kevin Abernathy
Win-and-in:
- Amelia Bottemiller vs. Nicholas Fonseca
- Jonathan Donham (down-pair)
- Chris Brown (Durant) vs. Joe Ruettiger
- Chris Stotts vs. Kirk Dube
- Danny Villareal vs. Matthew Price
- Edward Wong (Sylveon-GX) vs. Simon Narode (Zoroark)
- Gabe Cherniske vs. John Collins (Trevenant BREAK)
- Jake Morgan vs. Igor Costa
Win-and-bubble:
- Brian Vogt (down-pair)
- Cory Dickman vs. Matthew Holst
- Dallas Wright vs. James Arnold
- Diane Schemanske vs. Hector Machado
- Eduardo Gonzalez vs. Justin Knowles
- Emilio Orozco vs. Preston Tucker
- George Hall vs. Nathan Stratford (Zoroark)
- Gage Roach vs. Joel Stroeve
- Hayden Cameron-Jacobus vs. Brandon Jones
- Hunter Butler vs. Mike Morton
- Israel Sosa vs. Aidan Toler
9:29 PM: Some names we know are currently guaranteed Day 2 (or can make Day 2 with a Round 9 ID): Azul Garcia Griego, Michael Pramawat, Rahul Reddy.
9:16 PM: John Collins started 4-0-0 with Trevenant BREAK, including beating a Zoroark deck that ran Giratina XY84, but has now fallen to 4-2-1. Pablo Meza (Tablemon) also played Trevenant, dropping at 3-3-1.
6:07 PM: Prior to the event, Kyle "Pooka" Sucevich had hinted at a possible Draft format being tested at this Regional. Christopher Schemanske reports that this is in fact the case; as demonstrated, the format involves constructing a deck from 4 booster packs plus a prerelease-style Evolution Pack. We'll have more information as this develops.
2:15 PM: The stream situation has improved somewhat, with the FPS rate now much closer to what we expect from official streams. (Chat is still in 3-month-followers mode.)
8:57 AM: There are many complaints about the quality of the stream. The framerate is extremely slow (nearly unwatchable) and there is no commentary. While there are markers for Prize Cards taken and player records, there is no indication of a series score.
kind of unfortunate that the stream is a slideshow in 3 months follower's mode— Jonathan (@EzraelVGC) May 5, 2018
This is the worst stream of all time.— Karl Kujak (@Kuj4k) May 5, 2018
It’s always sad to see events with low quality streams. It’s such a missed opportunity to grow the game as well as the TO’s brand for future events.— LPH (@siLPH_Co) May 5, 2018
7:33 AM: Christopher Schemanske notes that this event is now the first US Regional of the 2017-18 season to see a drop in attendance from the previous season. With just 280 Masters present, a 5-0-4 record will make Day 2, as well as almost all players at 6-3-0.
Salt Lake City has officially become the first Regional Championship in North America to see a TCG Masters attendance drop from 2016/17 to 2017/18. 305 to 280. #PlayPokemon— Christopher Schemanske (@cschemanske) May 5, 2018
Jon Eng Drampa-GX/Garbodor
Caleb Gedemer Zoroark
Zach Lesage Donphan/Wobbuffet
Jose Marrero Lucario-GX
Frank Percic Sylveon-GX
Sorina Radu Gardevoir-GX
Rahul Reddy FightingBox/Octillery
