LIVE UPDATES: 2019 Kuala Lumpur Regionals

The 2019-20 Kuala Lumpur Regional Championships are taking place this weekend (December 20-21) at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre in Malaysia. There is no stream from the tournament, but our own Kashvinder Singh Mann is playing in the event, and he and our other Oceania Correspondent, Jeremy Lim, will be sending us some updates on the metagame, top tables, and other developments of interest.

282 Masters are present at the event. There will not be a full "Day 2," just a direct cut to Top 8 which will be played on Sunday.


Live updates
all times EST

Day 2 (Top 8)
7:17 PM Top 8 has started.


Day 1 (Swiss)

8:20 AM Swiss has concluded and we have tweeted out the Top 8 competitors.

3:22 AM Top tables entering Round 6 are full of Malamar and Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX/Keldeo-GX, with Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX and Mewtwo & Mew-GX Toolbox close behind in popularity. The Singapore SPE finalist from earlier this month, Adrian Velasco, is sticking with the Lucario & Melmetal-GX deck he used for Singapore, while well-known Malaysian player Athavan Akilan has decided to spice things up and play Dark Box (Weavile-GX).

12:30 AM Interesting matchups at the top tables for Round 3. Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX/Moltres & Zapdos & Articuno-GX versus Malamar (with a Dedenne-GX!) at table 1, and Pikachu & Zekrom-GX/Zapdos versus what appears to be Doll Stall at table 2.

11:23 PM If Malamar is the most-played deck here, Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX may be the second-most common. Several variants are at the top tables including the common Keldeo-GX variant as well as some other builds, such as 2018 World Championships Top 4 finisher Klive Aw with a Spiritomb variant of the deck.

10:28 PM Many of the top players appear to be playing Malamar, seeminly similar builds to the Team DDG list from San Diego Regionals. There is an Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX/Moltres & Zapdos & Articuno-GX deck going around (the recent Singapore SPE featured an Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX/Pheromosa & Buzzwole-GX deck in Top 8).

8:51 PM Pairings go up for Round 1.


Notable players and decks
Athavan Akilan - Weavile-GX
Klive Aw - Arceus & Palkia & Dialga-GX/Spiritomb
Matthew Burris - Mewtwo & Mew-GX Toolbox
Kaiwen Cabbabe - Malamar with Ultra Necrozma-GX
Shane Chee - Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX/Keldeo-GX
Yee Wei Chun - Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX/Keldeo-GX
Joey Ho - Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX/Keldeo-GX
Clifton Goh - Malamar with Ultra Necrozma-GX
Michael Kan - Malamar
Colin Tang - Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX/Keldeo-GX
Adrian Velasco - Lucario & Melmetal-GX
Keep refreshing the page for more updates as we continue to receive information.


More notes
  • Tait Tran is playing in his first major event since quitting the TCG at the end of the 2017-18 season, in which he finished Top 8 in Oceania. 
  • Several other top Australian players are competing in the tournament, including 2019 Brisbane Regional Champion Matthew Burris, 2019 Singapore SPE Champion Kaiwen Cabbabe, Jack Millar, and Brent Tonisson. Also, Cameron Shenoy flew over from the United States!