Follow Live: 2018 Salt Lake City Regionals

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:
  • 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.

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