The Wizards/Professors
Challenge 2002
August 3-4, Seattle
Written by Eskil "Golduck" Vestre (16)
Professor Challenge Amsterdam winner
This tournament was held in the Pokémon World Championship hall,
across two days (Saturday night and Sunday night) and would crown the
best Professor and the best Wizards employee of the year. You had to
work as a judge at the World Championship for a total of at least 4
hours during the weekend in order to participate (and of course, you
had to be a Professor).
The tournament had regular players (like me) and special players who
had a star right to their name on the pairings list. These players
included Wizards employees, members of the "Team Compendium" and
Wizards Pokégym moderators. If a regular player defeated a
special player, he would win that player's "bounty" (a Promo Card, a
badge and so on).
The tournament used the Unlimited format, which allows every card
released by Wizards of the coast with the exception of Birthday Pikachu
and Ancient Mew. Also, the tournament was not dci sanctioned (because
the Wizards staff played in it).
Unfortunately, there was only one Professor Event in Europe this year,
so I was the only European Professor who won a trip to this event.
However, some of the guardians for the younger players attended this
event.
At Saturday, around 8 PM, all the Professors gathered at the Side
Events area. All the other persons in the Convention Center had to
leave. First, the Professors were given Pizza (sure we were hungry
after working all day long :P) and then they posted the pairings. We
were 90 participants in the tournament! That's pretty much considering
that every single one of us were judging Worlds.
I had decided to use a Slowking deck for this tournament. I really
think it's a boring deck to play, but I had the choice between a
Chansey deck, a Clefable deck and the Slowking, and I chose Slowking
because I was used to playing this deck. I really hadn't practised
Unlimited very much, because I like Modified so much better, and never
play Unlimited with friends or at tournaments anymore. But anyway,
here's the deck:
Unlimited Craziness
17 Pokémon:
4 Slowpoke (Genesis)
4 Slowking (Genesis)
3 Cleffa (Genesis)
2 Sneasel (Genesis)
2 Murkrow (Genesis)
2 Tyrogue (Discovery)
31 Trainers:
4 Professor Oak (Base)
4 Computer Search (Base)
3 Item Finder (Base)
3 Lass (Base)
3 Super Energy Removal (Base)
3 Focus Band (Genesis)
2 Professor Elm (Genesis)
2 Gust of Wind (Base)
2 Energy Charge (Genesis)
2 Sprout Tower (Genesis)
2 Switch (Base)
1 Nightly Garbage Run (Rocket)
12 Energy:
4 Darkness Energy (Genesis)
4 Rainbow Energy (Rocket/Promo)
4 Recycle Energy (Genesis)
Cards from Neo Genesis: 32
Cards from Base Set: 21
Cards from Rocket: 5
Cards from Neo Discovery: 2
Well, enough about my deck (it's just another boring Slowking deck
anyway). Let's start the tournament report!
Team Europe members in the Wizards/Professor Challenge:
-Michel
-Sentimental Blastoise
-Freddy K (Hairy Clefairy)
-Golduck
Match reports
First round, I played against a woman many of you know as "Purity". She
works at the poular Pokémon webiste "Pokemonzeo.com"! On turn 3,
I have 2 Slowkings on the bench, and a Sneasel active with 2 Darkness.
She has only a Murkrow and a Magby. I beat up both of them, and the
match is finished. It took less than 10 minutes. At that point, I
wished we would have played Modified instead.
(+3) 3 points
My second round opponent was a "Poké-dad". He had a son playing
at Worlds and is a very good player himself. He's known as "SteveP" on
internet message boards. I get very bad hands with Elm, Oak and Eeeek
and only get to evolve one of my Slowpokes to Slowking, which he uses
Igglybuff's Gaze to stop. Meanwhile, he evolves his Blaine's Charmander
to a terryfying Blaine's Charizard. It quickly toasts my Sneasel,
Murkrow and several baby Pokémon, and he wins.
(+0) 3 points
My opponent for the third round also was an adult man. He used Houndoom
(Neo 3) and Sneasel. My Super Energy Removals didn't help me much,
because Houndoom can return Darkness Energy from the discard pile! My
Sneasels tried to knock out his Pokémon, but got knocked out
self before they did anything remarkable. He wins the match.
(+0) 3 points
This wasn't looking very good. One win and two losses is not great, and
I had the feeling that this wasn't the last time I'd lose during this
tournament. There were still 4 rounds left (7 rounds in total).
The man I played 4th round was another father of a Pokémon
player. He used a Chansey/Slowking deck. My Murkrow uses Mean Look, and
then uses Feint Attack to knock out 3 Chanseys, a Cleffa and a
Tyrogue (yes, that's 22 Feint Attacks). His last Pokémon
is a Slowking which I beat up with my Sneasel.
(+3) 6 points
After this 4th round, all Professors went home for a good night's sleep
(or for sitting awake all night, playing Booster Drafts). The
tournament would continue on Sunday with an additional 3 Swiss rounds,
followed by a final with the highest ranked Professor VS the highest
ranked Wizards Employee.
On Sunday, I judged the Side Events, including the Team Multiplayer
Modified, Theme Deck Challenge and Single Elemination Legendary
Collection Sealed. After the prize ceremony for the 11-14 and 10-
champions, people went home and the Wizards/Professor challenge could
continue.
My first opponent for the day, (but still, the 5th round) was a funny
guy who had a Promo Jigglypuff on the back of every single card in his
deck. So instead of the Pokémon Logo on back of every card,
there was a Jigglypuff. Because of this, his deck was very tall. I
don't remember much from the match, except that it was very fun and I
ended up winning.
(+3) 9 points
6th round! The man I was playing against was a very good player. The
game was so close, and after about 25 minutes we were even in prizes,
and I nearly ran out of cards. But by using Nightly Gargage Run and
Lass (shuffling my Trainers into the deck, refilling it) I managed to
hang in there. Time was called on my turn, and I managed to draw my
last prize with Murkrow and won by one prize.
(+3) 12 points
I was climbing up the rankings, and I couldn't believe that I had now
won 3 matches in a row. I knew I would face a good player for the last
round. And he sure was a good player. Some of you might know him as
"Voltorb43" on the internet. I won the coin flip (actually, we rolled a
die) and got to start. I had a Tyrogue active, he had a Neo Genesis
Clefairy! I attached a Focus Band and Recycle Energy, used Oak, filled
up my bench, used Lass (so he couldn't use Trainers on his next turn to
get more Basic Pokémon) and then flipped a coin for Smash Punch.
And it was...heads! I had won the game on my first turn. He didn't even
get to draw a card! I felt sorry for him, and imagined how frustrated
he must have been.
(+3) 15 points
The tournament had very good prizes, and better how high ranked you
were. I placed 15th, and that means I was in the Top 16! The Top 16 all
got a set every holo card in Neo Revelation - first edition - in
addition to boosters. Here's a breakdown of the Top 16:
2 European Professors (me and a guy from Holland who placed 14th)
5 Wizards Employees
9 US Professors
The best ranked Wizards employee played against the best Professor. The
Professor was Alex Brosseau from Illinois, USA (know as "BigChuck" on
the internet) and he won the match. Here is Brosseau's decklist:
Chuck's Chansey
Pokemon- 16
4 Cleffa
3 Igglybuff
2 Tyrogue
2 Chansey
2 Scyther
2 Unown N
1 Ditto
Energy- 13
4 Metal
4 Recycle
4 DCE
1 Grass
Trainers- 31
2 Oak
2 Elm
4 Comp
3 Finder
3 Lass
2 Gust
1 Double Gust
1 Scoop Up
2 Gold Berry
2 Healing Fields
3 Energy Removal
3 Super Energy Removal
2 Energy Charge
1 Nightly Garbage Run
So the Professors won the tournament, and showed that we have such
amazing players among the Professors that they even can beat the people
who work with and decide everything in this game. Hopefully, we will
have more European Professors represented in the USA next year and
possibly another European win!
Eskil "Golduck" Vestre
Team Europe