Introducing the PokéStats Invitational

The recent surge of online tournament series has allowed the competitive Pokémon TCG community to persevere throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, with almost every day of the week now giving players the opportunity to compete in an event ranging in size from a League Cup to a small Regional. In order to track and recognize the achievements of high-placing players in these online events, PokéStats recently established our Online Tournament Player Points Rankings system, aggregating Top 16 finishes from an assortment of the most prestigious online tournament series.

We feel that a logical conclusion of these player rankings would be to host an Invitational tournament rewarding the players who have earned the most points in online events during a given period. This would be a high-stakes event that pits some of the strongest players in the game against each other, allowing previously-established "top players" to continue defending their positions as such, while also letting some of the "new blood" players who have made their name from online success to prove their skill in an Invitational setting.

With that in mind:

The first PokéStats Invitational (Standard TEU-DAA format) will take place on November 21-22, 2020. 

• The Top 16 players in our Online Tournament Player Points Rankings during the time period specified below will qualify for the PokéStats Invitational. 
• The final date of qualification for the Invitational (the last day for which tournament placements will earn points towards qualification) will be November 15th, 2020. This will give qualified players just under a week's notice to clear their schedules and prepare for the tournament. All tournaments featured on this page will earn qualification points for this Invitational.
• These players will compete in a double-elimination bracket tournament across the two-day time period to determine the Invitational Champion. 
• Matches will be best-of-3 and will be played on PTCGO. 
• PokéStats will provide exclusive live coverage of the Invitational including a Twitch stream with commentary from experienced players and a live-updated match results feed (with in-depth statistics) here on our website. 
• We have chosen the November 21-22 weekend date carefully: this is the weekend after the release of Vivid Voltage, so there will be less conflict with players and streamers looking to play with the new set on November 14-15. However, the TEU-DAA format should still be fresh in qualified players' minds. 
• Recognizing that this will be a global event with players from many time zones, we are not yet committing to an official time frame for the event during the weekend; as we continue to work with tournament staff and receive input from community members, we will provide information on the exact hours of the tournament.
• If a qualified player is unable or unwilling to attend the Invitational, the next-highest-ranked player in the rankings will qualify. For example, if the 10th-ranked player is unable to attend, the 17th-ranked player would qualify as the 16th seed and players ranked 11th through 16th would all move up one seed. 
• Prizing for the Invitational is TBA (based on sponsors and donations over the next several weeks) but we will ensure that significant cash prizing is awarded to all players placing Top 8 or higher. Special PokéStats merchandise will also be provided to qualifiers. Please consider supporting our Patreon; we will convert a large percentage of all donations during the next several weeks into prizing for the Invitational. 

Please direct any further questions about the PokéStats Invitational, as well as offers for sponsorships or donations to the prize pool, to officialpokestats@gmail.com, or contact Tate Whitesell on Twitter/Facebook/Discord. 

Team Updates: Team Rocket's Hideout and Never Lucky Fam Join The Battle

✎ Tate Whitesell / @twhitesell42

Update: As a clarification, PokéStats is using "team" to refer to a testing group or close association of players, and not necessarily implying that every "team" has a financial partnership with a store or other company. Neither Team Rocket's Hideout nor NLF currently has such a financial partnership. -TW

As part of our ongoing effort to keep readers informed of developments in the world of competitive Pokémon TCG teams, PokéStats brings you some relevant updates from this past weekend. One highly-regarded North American team is shutting down, but many of its former members have found a home at an exciting new team and article site. On the other side of the world, some of the Oceania region's top players have formed a new team in an attempt to solidify that often-overlooked region's reputation on the international stage.

"Sad" news first: the Top Cut Comics competitive team announced on August that it was officially disbanding. At the time of the announcement, the TCC roster was comprised of Justin Bokhari, Zach Bokhari, Justin Kulas, Will Jenkins, Charlie Lockyer, and Emery Taylor. TCC finished the 2018-19 season ranked third globally in Limitless's team rating system.

Now, four of those players--Justin Bokhari, Kulas, Jenkins, and Taylor--have joined a new article site under the direction of two-time Regional Champion Alex Wilson. The site, Team Rocket's Hideout, is based on a new model of paywall content for the community: rather than paying for a subscription to gain access to all articles for a set period of time, readers can simply pay for individual articles.

(The disbanding of TCC and the foundation of Team Rocket's Hideout are not correlated; Charlie Lockyer told PokéStats "it was just coincidental that they [were announced] on the same day.")

The Team Rocket's Hideout competitive team currently consists of:

• Justin Bokhari
• Isaiah Bradner
• Alex Espinosa
• Cody Graham
• Will Jenkins
• Justin Kulas
• Mike Morton Jr. 
• Darin O'Meara
• Adam Reinhardt
• Emery Taylor
• Brent Tonisson
• Alex Wilson

Judge/TO and Virbank City moderator Will Post will also serve as a writer for the site. Team Rocket's Hideout can be found on Twitter @team_rocket_TCG. 

Across the ocean, another new team has emerged: Never Lucky Fam, or NLF. The team features some of the Oceania region's top-performing players, with the current lineup as follows:

• James Cox
• Ying Hao Tou
• Christian Hasbani
• Jeremy Lim (PokéStats Oceania Correspondent)
• Jack Millar
• Corey Munro
• Naomi Murn

Jimmy Chen will serve as NLF's general manager. 

Team Updates: ARG Europe Disbands; Nerd Rage Roster Grows; Taylor to TCC

✎ Tate Whitesell / @twhitesell42

As the countdown to the 2019 World Championships continues, several competitive Pokémon TCG teams have been making changes over the past few days.

Back on July 14th, Jimmy Pendarvis made the surprising announcement that he was parting ways with Dead Draw Gaming. Pendarvis won four Regionals during the 2018-19 season and was an important part of DDG's dominance at North American tournaments throughout the season.

Now, the past two days have brought a flurry of changes, with a promising recently-announced team announcing its disbandment, and a handful of successful younger Masters players joining a new team.

Today, ARG Europe announced they will no longer be continuing as a team. ARG Europe was announced in May 2019 as a sister team to the successful North American ARG roster, and featured some of the best and most recognizable players in Europe, including Joe Bernard, Mees Brenninkmeijer, Bert Wolters, and others. (You can read PokéStats's article on the original announcement here.) The team posted this message on their Facebook page earlier in the day:

Dear Pokemon community.
Today, we have some unfortunate news. Due to internal issues, lack of communication and general misunderstandings, we have decided we no longer wish to support the ARG project.
This choice has not come about lightly with days of talks amongst ourselves, we decided this would be the best thing for us moving forward.
We would like to thank the community for their constant support, as always we wouldn't be able to do what we do without you.
We would also like to wish Jim [McMahon] and the rest of Alter Reality Games the best of luck with Argent Saga and their future projects, we appreciate the opportunity.
Please, stay tuned to our social medias as we progress forward.
Thank you.

We expect these talented players to find new teams to compete on before long, and PokéStats will update if and when that happens.

As if to say "with every ending comes a new beginning," only a day before the ARG Europe announcement, a previously little-known North American team announced a new roster for this coming season. The Nerd Rage Gaming lineup features:

• Michael Catron
• Jonathan Croxton
• Ben Cryer
• Alec Geissler
• Wes Hollenberg
• Isaac Milaski
• Arlo Neel
• Alex Schemanske
• Evan Smith

Only Geissler was a previous member of the team, having joined in December 2018. Five other players who were on the team last season, including the three founding members from 2017, are no longer on the team. Every member of the new roster except for Smith had at least one Day 2 appearance at a Regional in the 2018-19 season. Croxton had a trio of Top 8 appearances (all with Shock Lock), Milaski had one Top 8, Catron had a Top 4, and Schemanske had a Top 8, a 2nd, and a Special Event win. 

Emery Taylor has become a fan-favorite
player after his 2019 NAIC finals
appearance. 

The Nerd Rage announcement comes shortly after Top Cut Comics' announcement on the 19th that Hollenberg and Schemanske would be leaving their roster. While both of those two are strong players, Top Cut Comics made a move to make up for their loss by today announcing the addition of 2019 NAIC finalist Emery Taylor. The Top Cut Comics team now consists of Taylor, Justin Bokhari, Zachary Bokhari, Will Jenkins, Justin Kulas, and Charlie Lockyer. Taylor tweeted that he was "pleased" to be joining the team and to "be playing with this amazing group of guys."


Our friends at Limitless have updated the team rosters in their database to reflect all of these changes, so you can continue to follow your favorite teams' and players' results with ease during Worlds and the beginning of the 2019-20 season. 

Team ARG Acquires Complexity Card Gaming as ARG Europe

May 20, 2019 // Tate Whitesell

Effective today, Pokémon TCG team Alter Reality Games (ARG) has acquired Europe-based team Complexity Card Gaming. The former Complexity roster will now play under the "ARG Europe" team name. 

The roster includes ten European players, all of whom have strong major event performance history and are often at the top of the EU leaderboards:

• Fatih Akdemir (Germany)
• Joe Bernard (UK)
• Mees Brenninkmeijer (Netherlands)
• Tamao Cameron (UK)
• Alex Dao (UK)
• Luke Kirkham (UK)
• Steven Mao (Germany)
• Benjamin Pham (Netherlands)
• Seb Symonds (UK)
• Bert Wolters (Netherlands)

Complexity Card Gaming was Limitless's ninth-ranked team worldwide during the 2017-18 season. They were ranked tenth worldwide for the 2018-19 season at the time of the acquisition by ARG. 

The new ARG Europe team's Facebook page can be found here. 

SPE Results for April 13-14, 2019

This weekend saw three Special Events held around the world: in Manila, the Philippines; Lima, Peru; and Mixco, Guatemala. PokéStats has obtained the Top 8 standings for each event. You can find additional tournament information on these events' individual data pages.

Manila SPE
the Philippines

1. Luther Wong, Pikachu & Zekrom-GX
2. Melvyn Lee, Zapdos
3. Colin Tang, Zapdos/Jolteon-GX
4. Athavan Akilan, Tapu Koko Spread
5. Syahmi Razak, Zapdos/Jolteon-GX/Ultra Beasts
6. Adrian Acuzar, Vikavolt/Rayquaza-GX
7. Klive Aw, Hoopa/Regigigas
8. Jit Min Lim, Golisopod-GX/Lucario-GX/Garbodor

Malaysia and Lightning-type Pokémon took down this tournament, with the top five finishers being Malaysians playing Lightning-based decks! 2018 Worlds Top 4 finisher Klive Aw took a break from his trademark Zygarde-GX decks to play some stall, while another well-known player, Jit Min Lim, played a rogue Stage 1 toolbox deck powered by Jirachi TEU and Rainbow Energy. Meanwhile, Adrian Acuzar chose to bring back Vikavolt/Rayquaza-GX--as we will see, the same deck Jose Marrero used to win an SPE on the other side of the world this weekend.


Mixco SPE
Guatemala

1. Jose Marrero, Vikavolt/Rayquaza-GX
2. Rahul Reddy, Pikachu & Zekrom-GX
3. Nestor Fabrizio Lazo Orellana, Pikachu & Zekrom-GX
4. Jan Andres Castillo Moreno, Zoroark-GX Control
5. Zachery Stover, Zapdos
6. Finn McKeefry, Zoroark-GX Control
7. Rodolfo Santiago Funes Muñoz, Zygarde-GX/Lucario-GX
8. Fernando Castañeda Perez, Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel

Two Americans met in the finals of this SPE, with Jose Marrero taking the win using an unexpected deck--Vikavolt/Rayquaza-GX, which was often considered the BDIF at the very beginning of this season but has rarely been played since then. The rest of Top 8 was fairly standard, with a couple of players opting for the Zoroark-GX Control deck Caleb Gedemer used to win Denver Regionals last weekend.


Lima SPE
Peru

1. Bastian Silva, Pikachu & Zekrom-GX
2. Jose Carlos Gomez, Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel
3. Bruno Paredes, Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel
4. Jorge Salas, Pikachu & Zekrom-GX/Zapdos
5. Bruno Eguizabal, Malamar/Ultra Necrozma-GX
6. Renzo Zambrano, Zapdos/Jolteon-GX
7. Carlos Jesus Melgar, Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel
8. Rodrigo Pereda, Zoroark-GX Control

Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel had the most Top 8 appearances of any deck in Lima, with three. This was also the only one of this weekend's three events to feature a Malamar deck in Top 8. 

Team DDG Acquires Azul Garcia Griego

13 December 2018 - Team Dead Draw Gaming, the current first-place team in Limitless TCG's 2018-19 season rankings, has acquired multiple-time Regional Champion, 2017-18 LAIC finalist, and 2017-18 top NA CP earner Azul Garcia Griego.

Team DDG has taken the competitive Pokémon TCG scene by storm this season, winning all five Regionals and SPEs on North American soil so far as well as the 2018-19 LAIC. Their roster features stars such as 2018 Philadelphia Regional Champion Caleb Gedemer, 2018 Portland and Virginia Regional Champion Jimmy Pendarvis, and 2018 Memphis Regional and 2018-19 LAIC Champion Daniel Altavilla, among many others. DDG signed up-and-coming player Carter Musgrove this past Tuesday and added Griego today to bring their current roster size to 19 players.

Griego, who streams on Twitch at AzulGG and can be found on Twitter @Azul_GG, last played for CCG Castle, before becoming a free agent on February 16 of this year after CCG disbanded. He finished the 2017-18 season with the most CP of any North American player and second in the world, behind only Tord Reklev. In addition to winning that season's San Jose Regionals, he infamously lost in the 2017-18 LAIC finals to Dyego Rathje, who was disqualified from a later tournament for cheating.

With this acquisition, Team DDG now boasts 5 of the top 25 players in the Limitless one-year global rankings, 9 of the top 25 players in the Limitless one-year NA rankings, and 7 of the Top 16 players on Pokémon's official US & Canada CP leaderboard.

At this weekend's Anaheim Regionals, all eyes will be on Team DDG--especially with this big new roster addition--to see if they can be stopped from winning a North American major event title for the first time this season. 

2018 Memphis Regionals Casters Announced

The casting lineup for the 2018 Memphis Regional Championships, held this October 6-7, has been announced by the tournament stream team. Super Rod-cast's Kirk Dubé and Jeffrey Surran will be joined in the booth by well-known player John Kettler in his casting debut.

We are excited to announce your 2018 Memphis Regionals commentators for the Pokemon Trading Card Game!! pic.twitter.com/6E9DgxCQxd

— LGN (@LGNlivestreams) September 8, 2018

2018 World Championships: Players Advancing to Day 2

Refresh this page periodically to keep track of all advancements as they occur. As of 8:00 PM CST we believe every qualifier is accounted for below.

Below are the players who achieved 18 Match Points to advance to Day 2 of the 2018 World Championships. Their home country and the deck they used on Day 1 are also listed.

• Ahmed Ali (US), Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX
• Kian Amini (US), Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX
• Athavan Balendran (US), Rayquaza-GX
• Michael Bergerac (US), Rayquaza-GX with Jolteon-EX/Ninja Boy
• Lance Bradshaw (US), Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX
• Nathan Brower (US), Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX
• Chris Brown (US), Rayquaza-GX
• Hunter Butler (US), Buzzwole FLI/Garbodor/Shrine of Punishment
• Michael Catron (US), Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX
• Ross Cawthon (US), Buzzwole FLI/Garbodor/Shrine of Punishment
• Alessandro Cremascoli (IT), Buzzwole FLI/Garbodor/Shrine of Punishment
• Brad Curcio (US), Zoroark-GX/Lycanroc-GX
• Jake Ewart (US), Greninja BREAK
• Nathalia Godinho Fernandez (BR), Rayquaza-GX
• Connor Finton (US), Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX
• Reuben Fong (SG), Rayquaza-GX
• Joey Gaffney (CA), Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX
• Marcus Guy (US), Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX
• Tom Hall (GB), Malamar/Shining Lugia
• Blaine Hill (US), Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX
• Riley Hulbert (US), Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX
• Gavin Irving (GB), Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX
• Lyder Iverson (NO), Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX
• Peter Kica (US), Rayquaza-GX
• Robert Kinbrum (GB), Buzzwole/Magcargo
• Adam Knowles (US), Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX
• Mitch Knuckey (AU), Buzzwole FLI/Garbodor/Shrine of Memories
• Jeff Kolenc (CA), Malamar/Psychic
• Patrick Landis (CH), Zoroark-GX/Garbodor
• Poet Larsen (US), Zoroark-GX/Garbodor
• Edwin Lopez (US), Rayquaza-GX
• Alex McNeill (US), Zoroark-GX/Garbodor
• Jack Millar (AU), Buzzwole FLI/Garbodor/Shrine of Punishment
• Brian Miller (US), Zoroark-GX/Golisopod-GX
• Tyler Ninomura (US), Buzzwole FLI/Garbodor/Shrine of Punishment
• Brandon Nguyen (US)
• Christian Ortiz (US), Rayquaza-GX
• Ben Osborn (US), Rayquaza-GX/Garbodor BKP
• Karl Peters (DE), Buzzwole FLI/Garbodor/Shrine of Punishment
• Yamil Pietri (US), Buzzwole FLI/Garbodor/Shrine of Punishment
• Ben Potter (US), Lucario-GX/Lycanroc-GX
• Daniel Ross-Brown (AU), Buzzwole FLI/Garbodor/Shrine of Punishment
• Santiago Rossi (AR), Buzzwole FLI/Garbodor/Shrine of Punishment
• Adrian Sado (CA), Malamar/Psychic
• Carl Sitavi (US), Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX
• Eric Smith (US), Rayquaza-GX
• Israel Sosa (US), Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX
• Mauro Spanò (IT), Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX
• Kidd Starck (US), Zoroark-GX/Garbodor
• Andrew Tandanius (AU), Buzzwole FLI/Garbodor/Shrine of Punishment
• Ángel Javier Torres (ES), Rayquaza-GX
• Aaron Van Der Kolk (AU), Buzzwole FLI/Garbodor/Shrine of Punishment
• Bryan de Vries (NL), Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX
• Chris Wilkinson (US), Zoroark-GX/Garbodor
• Treynor Wolfe (US), Buzzwole/Lycanroc-GX
• Keith Yong (MY), Buzzwole FLI/Garbodor/Shrine of Punishment

2018-19 Competitive Play Information: What We Know So Far

Today, The Pokémon Company International began the process of introducing its competitive player base to the structure of the 2018-19 season. The information revealed is notably incomplete, and what  we did receive is long overdue, with a new stipend structure inconveniencing (to put it mildly) several top players. But we can start to piece together what changes TPCi has decided will be best the competitive scene over the next twelve months.

What we know...

Regional Championships and Special Events (combined) now have a Best Finish Limit (BFL) of eight. This means that only a player's eight best Regional placements will provide CP towards their Worlds invite. (E.g., if you earn CP from ten Regionals, CP from the two lowest placements will not count.) Back in June, Christopher Schemanske, one of the game's foremost experts on competitive play structure, wrote that he believes a BFL will be "a conceptual charade that will achieve nothing." TPCi apparently believes it will solve at least some of the problems players experienced in the 2017-18 season, so we will see to what degree it proves effective.

The 2018-19 Latin American International Championship will occur from November 16-18, 2018, in São Paulo, Brazil. TPCi has revealed some information regarding travel stipends for this event. PokéStats previously reported on the LAIC date and location when it was leaked a few days ago. However, TPCi has now revealed that travel awards to the event will be based on CP earned between April 30 and July 8, 2018. Below is a table compiled by Schemanske (source) showing the top CP earners in North America during that time period:

This is problematic, to say the least, for multiple players, due to the fact that this structure was announced after July 8th: thus, players had no clue that they were playing for 2018-19 travel awards during the last quarter of 2017-18. James Arnold, just outside the Top 16 cutoff in the table above, noted that he would have likely attended Mexico City Regionals if he'd known a strong finish there could have earned him a stipend for the 2018-19 LAIC. Rahul Reddy, outside of Top 16 by a hair, said he would have scooped to fewer players at League Cups toward the end of the season if he'd known about the new structure: by being a "nice guy," he put himself out of contention for the LAIC stipends without having any idea that he was doing so. In the view of most players, the biggest problem with today's announcement is not the structure itself, but the unprofessionally late timing of the announcement. 

"This bothers me. The change itself is not in and of itself bad. Not letting us know while decisions were being made that affect this is not okay. Rahul scooped himself out of T16. I would have likely gone to Mexico if I knew I was remotely in the running." - James Arnold

"In the 2019 season, awards for travel to the International Championships will be based on stand-alone qualification periods." This ends the "snowball" structure of last season, where stipends were awarded based on CP earned cumulatively across the entire season. That structure let Top 16 players (to use the North American example) use International Championships to further bolster their lead over non-Top 16 competitors: if you didn't qualify for International stipends and couldn't fly to one on your own, you fell further behind in the race to earn stipends for the next one. Reaction to this announcement has trended positive but some players are unimpressed. Top German player Marc Lutz, already notably disgruntled with the 2017-18 structure, announced that "TPCi [likes] it better when people highroll at one tournament instead of what we had before," and promptly announced his retirement from the game.

League Cups and League Challenges no longer share a Best Finish Limit. During the 2017-18 season, Cups and Challenges shared a BFL of two per quarter (eight for the season). In 2018-19, the two types of events are uncoupled, and each one now has the two-per-quarter BFL. In effect, this makes League Challenges relevant again. Last season, players atop the rankings had no incentive to travel to Challenges, since Cups would always award more CP per placement. Now, those "top players" need to keep both Challenges and Cups in mind in addition to the demanding Regional/International travel schedule. Below are the dates that will outline the aforementioned quarters for 2018-19. Note that they are different for Cups and Challenges. (Alex Hill also pointed out an inconsistency between these dates and the LAIC stipend cutoff, which poses an entirely different problem.)

...and what we don't

We don't know the cash prize structure for Regionals, Special Events, or Internationals. It appears that the CP award structure for each of those events is unchanged from the 2017-18 season.

Detailed information on travel stipends has not been announced. Players considering playing for travel awards do not know what awards, specifically, they'll be entitled to.

The invite qualifications for the 2019 World Championships are currently unknown. TPCi has not announced whether 400 CP will remain the cutoff for Worlds invites, or whether a new number will replace it. Rahul Reddy has said that he "expects 500" CP to be the new requirement.


This post will be updated and edited for clarity as new information becomes available.

Competitive Team Roster Moves: March 2018

Several competitive Pokémon TCG teams announced additions or cuts to their player rosters this month.

Some1sPC added Brazilian player Nathàlia Fernandes. One of the best female players in the world, Fernandes is the first woman and first non-US player to play for Some1sPC. Fernandes has won two Regionals, made the finals at two others (plus an additional four Top 8 appearances), and has twice made Top 64 at the World Championships.

Team Top Cut Comics lost Brandon Salazar (the 2014 US National Champion), but added Wesley Hollenberg. Salazar currently registers only 10 ratings points in the Limitless database, with his last notable finish being at Fort Wayne Regionals at the beginning of this season (17th place). Hollenberg currently sits at 40 Limitless points, with a Regional Top 8 and Origins SPE Top 8 in the last two seasons; his five finishes listed in Limitless each came with different archetypes.

Top Cut Comics has quietly built an impressive roster in recent months with additions such as Alex Schemanske and Isaiah Williams.

Belgian esports team Sector One, which has competitors in LoL, CS:GO, Hearthstone, G1Z1, and Gwent: The Witcher Card Game, added its first Pokémon TCG player: Sen Caubergh of Belgium. Caubergh Top 8'd Worlds in 2016, won that season's Belgian National Championship, and currently holds 24 Limitless points. (This season he took 2nd place at Leipzig Regionals.) 

Dates And Locations Revealed For 2018 NAIC, Worlds

TPCi has released information on the 2018 North American International Championship and the 2018 World Championship. Press release: http://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/summers-biggest-pokemon-tournaments-unveiled/

The 2018 NAIC, which in 2017 brought in nearly 1500 worldwide competitors in TCG Masters, will be held at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio, from July 6-8.

The 2018 World Championships will be held at the Music City Center in Nashville, Tennessee (as announced after 2017 Worlds), from August 24-26. 

Reklev Defeats Ruettiger 2-1, Claims Third International Title

Reklev's previous International win, in
Europe, saw him pair Zoroark-GX with
Golisopod-GX; this time, he and his testing
partners turned to Gardevoir-GX as a
secondary attacker. 

Norwegian player Tord Reklev has won his third consecutive International Championship title, a feat unprecedented in the history of the Pokémon TCG. Reklev battled mild illness across the three days of the tournament to take the deck he and the Limitless TCG team created - Zoroark-GX/Gardevoir-GX - all the way into the finals, where he seemed almost destined to come out on top despite strong play from up-and-coming American player Joe Ruettiger.

A Prized Mew-EX - a tech card crucial to the matchup against Ruettiger's Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc-GX deck - did not stop Reklev in Game 3. A flash of luck on the final turn - two Puzzle of Time drawn off of Trade - allowed him to attach the necessary Energy to his Gardevoir-GX before slamming down a Guzma to emphatically seal the win.

Reklev now owns half of the six International first-place trophies (in Masters) in the history of the game; the only International he has not yet won is South America's. All eyes will undoubtedly be on him again in April, when this year's South American championship kicks off in Brazil.

With this win, Reklev has firmly cemented himself as a contender for the "Greatest Of All Time." While three-time World Champion Jason Klaczynski, seven-time Regional Champion Michael Pramawat, and other perennial contenders such as Igor Costa have their own cases to be the GOAT, the Norwegian wonder is up there with them.

Below is the decklist used by Reklev, Philip Schulz (3rd), Nico Alabas (Top 16), Magnus Kalland (Top 32), Jesper Eriksen (Top 32), and Robin Schulz (Top 64). These 60 cards earned those players a combined 1450 CP and $15,500 over the course of the weekend. (It's difficult to tell, but there are four Ralts.)