USA Qualifier Tournament for Worlds Championship - Update

oh wow, that's pretty exciting. Since I'm going to miss out on going to EVO this year, maybe I will save the vacation time to make it out to this. Mostly for the swag I'm sure will be there, and I guess I can play a game or two

interested to see how it will play out.

Any updates on location and signing up for this so we can begin planning?

New update on the NA Championship! I'm super excited! Tickets go on sale in about two hours from now. I have no idea how fast they'll go since this event will be covering all of North America, so I'll be buying my ticket on the dot.

HYPE! I got my ticket as well. Things are a little crazy at work right now as I'm trying to get promoted or into another department so I'm not 100% I'll be able to attend, but I also owe it to myself to get away from home for a weekend lol

I'll definitely be keeping this thread in mind for roommates as at least for now I would be going by myself. I'm curious to see if anyone from my local scene will be attending at all. I am excited even though I expect to do poorly, I figure this would give me an opportunity to see all the cool merch and stuff i'm sure will be available.

Yeah I will let you know very soon actually. I'm gonna check with my local scene if anyone got tickets. I didn't expect it to sell out as fast as it did, so if it looks like I'm going to be going solo (depending on the response of my local group) I will let you know.

oh wow, thanks for the heads up! I'm definitely interested as it would be a good way for me to get some games in before the event. I don't expect much out of this as I mostly want some swag and the experience points, but I definitely don't want to lost all my matches either lol.

Late news, but it's been said by RB from the SE staff that there will be side events on Day 2 for those that get cut from the tournament. That's another main reason to attend the whole weekend even if you don't make it to Day 2.

This was pretty much expected though. It's stated in the FAQs that there will be other events planned. But at least we now have confirmation that there's stuff to do on Day 2 and helps with people's trip plans.

As to the specifics of the events planned, that is still unannounced. I can definitely see a lot of giveaways happening. Maybe they'll have some side games happening. Any other ideas? I hope they announce them soon.

I gotta say that I'm more hyped for the side events. That's where I'll be at during Day 2. I'm pretty sure I'll lose all my matches on Day 1 if any of the few recent games I've been playing are a glimpse of how I'll do in the tournament.

I'm super happy to see a Chocobo Crystal Hunt side event! I love the artwork for these cards. The game, however, is just too simple and it's more like a child's game. There isn't much skill involved and mostly relies on luck, but I'm hoping that the new Dungeons and Monsters expansion set will make the game more advanced. That set hasn't been released yet, but they sold it at PAX West just this past weekend as well as a few others conventions already so I'm assuming that they'll have it for sale here at this event too.

I'd suggest everyone to join the side events if they can, especially the free events. Square Enix gives out a lot of consolation prizes, so you don't have to necessarily win to get some free swag.

It was great meeting everyone at Nats! This was a super fun first tournament event for me. I learned a lot of stuff and met/played with many great players. I surprisingly did a lot better than I thought I would, much thanks to my roommate for lending me his deck. Considering my experience, I'm more than happy with how I did. Luckily, there wasn't too much toxic stuff at this event that others have warned about from other TCG tournaments. The FFTCG community is great and I hope to see everyone again at future events!

I'll post a bit more details on the event and my experience later. If anyone has any stories/pictures to share, please post. I didn't take many pictures.

Full report:

Swag bags consisted of the tote bag, playmat, notebook, pen, lanyard, and a Gabranth foil promo card. Not many people knew of the Gabranth foil promo until it was too late. It was loose in the bag, so some people had gotten it creased. Feelsbadman. I found out late as well, but luckily mine was still in mint condition when I pulled it out.



A survey was given out, asking for location, LGS scenes, what should the next promo card be, and most importantly, what events would we want Square Enix to attend. I put in Anime Expo and Stan Lee's Comic Con. They're both in L.A. I'm hoping for another big local event. We got to turn in the survey for an Onion Knight promo card.

Square Enix had a small amount of merch available for sale. Aside from the regular TCG items, they had their 30th Anniversary T-shirts and a few small figures and plushes. So I should've bought the Final Fantasy X playmat at San Diego Comic Con. The price was increased here at this event to $25. I just bought the Chocobo Crystal Hunt expansion set since I'm on a budget.

180 out of 200 people showed up for the tournament. Even so, there was a few that still further dropped at the beginning and later on when they had too many losses. Not too many people were happy with how they did the results. Once you make it to Day 2, your stats reset and it's like a new tournament again.

The tournament was pretty long. I got burnt out by the 5th game. My opponent had to pretty much wake me up when he got to the table. Lol. Yeah, I lost that game pretty quickly. He did have really strong draws at the beginning while I didn't have much. We played two more games and I think I could've gotten him if I wasn't misplaying so much. The misplays were real in this event. I kept on making the same mistakes over and over again and it costed me a few games.

I managed to get 3-5 in the tournament, which was a lot better than I expected. This is most likely thanks to my roommate for lending me his Mono Earth deck the night before. It was my first time playing with Earth cards, but I ended up liking it. For only having a week of practice for the game before Nats, I thought I did pretty well. I seriously thought I was gonna goose and do 0-8. I wanted to just concede all my games at one point and just grab the swag bag and be done with it. Luckily, I avoided that embarrassment and got a few wins in.

I managed to only take pics of the Day 1 Results for Top 64 and my placing:







So my placing isn't something to brag about. It's a bad score. I just wanted to rub this in my friend's face since I did better than him. Besides that one week of practice before Nats on OCTGN, I'd only played with him. He'd beat me all the time and talk trash. I can't be too proud though. I think he didn't care after his 4th loss and also had a headache from being hungry. He was also really bummed out that he couldn't make it to Day 2 so I didn't want to rub it in his face too much. There was a lot of drinking going around that night. Lol.

--

I did two Drafts on Day 2. I surprised everyone, even myself, when I won both of them since this was my first time to ever do a draft. It was super fun! My first draft was just perfect for me. I got myself a Legendary foil and managed to build an OP Cadet deck. In the second draft, it was harder to rebuild the same deck, especially since I was just after the high rarity cards, so I had to work a bit more to get my wins.

I have to say that it was a little stressful trying to build a deck in that little time. I wasn't sure if I was able to pull it off. But it was still just as fun to see what others could pull and build in that short time. The most notable combo build I went up against was Angeal going to break zone to search and add Zack to hand. I didn't think he would've been lucky to have pulled a Legendary Zack on the draft, but he did. 

The grand championship prize for each draft was 4 Opus III booster packs, two foil promos, a Gabranth and Sazh, a mini trading arts blind box figure, and 4 automatic wins to the Wolves' Den event.



I participated in the Chocobo Crystal Hunt Nationals Tournament. It was only the base game we played. The expansion set wasn't included. I couldn't even win one round. I had the most unluckiest hunts and hunts against me. It was brutal. But at least that was quick and I then had enough time to do the second draft. Congrats to lan on winning a Chocobo Plush from the tournament! Ah I'm so jealous! The Grand Prize was a big Fat Chocobo Plush. It was so cute! It was funny to say that the winner of this tournament is technically a Nationals winner. It's a nice title to have, even if this is a simple game.

I didn't even get to participate in the Wolves' Den and Gunslinger. The drafts took up most of my time. I didn't know about the one or two promos you get from the Gunslinger event, so I'm sad that I missed out on that. But at least I didn't have to embarrass myself in front of the developer of the game. Lol. The waitlist was apparently too long that he couldn't play everyone. Those left on the waitlist got to pick two random promo cards! Ah I wish I signed up for it.

There's also a Sazh foil promo card that's given out to those who participate in the Wolves' Den. Even though I didn't actually get to participate, winning the draft gave me 4 automatic wins to the Wolves' Den, so I was able to grab another foil Sazh promo from that "participation."

At the end of the event when I was ready to go, I found out late about everyone getting their cards and playmats signed. I was pretty bummed that I didn't prepare anything. By the time I went back, everything was finished and they were cleaning up, but luckily there were still some people getting things signed. I'm pretty shy and hate asking for autographs, but I'm glad I did. I got the playmat from the swag bag signed by Kageyama-san and two promo cards I had on hand.



Okay, so that was a lot. I'm ending the essay now. Lol. On a last note, this was a great first tournament event for me. I'm glad to have met a lot of people from the FFTCG community and make some new friends. I'm excited for future events and hope to see everyone again.