weekends are for Pokemon
Harvey and I got back into competitive Pokemon over the last two weekends. We kicked things off back on the 16th with a League Challenge at MIT. The afternoon got off to a shaky start when Harvey left his wallet (and the Charlie Ticket) on the bus on the way there, but things just got better from there. In a small event Harvey and I both finished first—and we both got to beat top-25 players in our age division in the process. It was the first weekend that the Team Up set was legal, and I think Harvey surprised some competitors with the Pikachu-Zekrom deck he brought. (I totally wanted to play it myself, but he gets first pick because he's more competitive than I am, and plus, he pulled the cards.) On the bus ride home we huddled over my phone watching the Juniors finals at the big international event in Australia—where both competitors were playing PikaRom.
The next day saw us in Lexington for a tournament at Omar's. No championship points at stake, but Omar's is now our local shop and we want to show our support! We brought the same decks, and did almost as well: Harvey won again, and I was second in Masters. It was a tiny tournament and my two wins were against Juniors playing not-really-competitive decks—which meant those games weren't as fun as my round one loss against a very good player. I almost pulled it out! The event finished early enough that we contemplated driving to one more tournament, out in Worcester. We could have made it... but in the end we decided to accept an invitation from friends for dinner and a movie at their house. Probably a good call.
This past Sunday saw us in Saugus for another Challenge. This one was much larger: something like eighteen Masters and six Juniors. Harvey had a tough loss in his first game and, even though he won the next two, finished up third. There five rounds in Masters; I started off with two wins then lost my next three in frustrating fashion I'd be happy to recount if you care to listen. It was still super fun, though. My second loss was to Darin O'Meara, fresh off a fine performance in Australia the previous weekend, and he didn't entirely blow me out.
It's nice for Harvey and I to get out together, and win or lose we both really enjoy being part of the scene; all the more so now as we get to know more and more people playing. Plus it's fun going all these places we'd never visit otherwise: imagine, Saugus! We'll be doing it again in Londonderry, New Hampshire this weekend.. wish us luck!
getting some swinging in after playing at MIT