Crobat

By Anna Schipper

Stadium Challenge, Beurs van Berlage

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Sunday, June 9th 2002

 

Over 200 participants in the main division (11-14), about 75 participants in the 10- division and 36 professors taking part in the Professor Tournament (15+)

 

Okay, this was the event whole Pokemon Playing Europe was looking forward to, the first and only Stadium Challenge in Europe, and with Holland having the best players in Europe (just kidding…) they decided to organize it in Amsterdam. But of course we had players from Belgium, France, Norway, Denmark and England, too. I saw no kids from Germany, though, but I’m sure there were some.

Since I live in Groningen, about 200 miles away, we left at 7 AM to be at the Stadium Challenge at 10, when it was supposed to start. Supposed, being the keyword.

Just like last year at the STSQ in Amsterdam it had been very badly organized, and when the first round started for the main tournament, it was already after noon, about 1 PM.

 

Well, after riding for about 2 hours we took the last part by tram, and arrived in the Beurs at 10.15, when the registering hadn’t even finished yet. ‘We’ being a group of 14 Pokemon kids from Groningen, including me and my sister, who’s 13 years, and my little Pokemon pal Hans Eskes, he’s 10 years of age, for whom I’d build a deck and helped him out in order for him to finish as high as possible.

 

The other kids made their decks themselves, and though there were some very nice original deck (Like a Light Ledian/Butterfree and a Dark Feraligatr/Feraligatr 100HP) I knew there was gonna be some very rough competition.

 

The badly organized tournament expressed itself mainly in the Professor tournament, which started at 7 PM, can you believe it? By that time I was completely exhausted, feeling very sick, but I decided just to play on, for the trip there was to earn to be a guest judge at the upcoming World Championship, as you all know.

 

So, me and my sister were playing Crobat/Murkrow/Pichu (yes, I know it’s old fashioned and not as good as it used to be, but it worked for me, though not for my sister…) and Hans Blaine’s Arcanine/Typhlosion, where you all know the strategy. I’m going to report my matches as well as the way Hans was doing, so it might be a bit confusing.

 

My and my sister’s Crobat:

 

4 Zubat

4 Golbat

3 Crobat

3 Pichu

3 Cleffa

2 Murkrow

--------

19 Pokemon

 

4 Professor Elm

4 Double Gust

4 Focus Band

3 Misty’s Wrath

3 RSA

3 NGR

2 Chaos Gym

2 Resistance Gym

----------

25 Trainers

 

13 Grass

3 Dark

---------

16 Energies

 

Hans’ Typhlosion deck:

 

4 Cyndaquil (Fireworks)

4 Quilava (Char)

3 Typhlosion (take a wild guess…)

3 Blaine’s Growlithe (Stoke)

3 Blaine’s Arcanine

3 Cleffa

2 Magby

-----------

22 Pokemon

 

4 Professor Elm

4 Double Gust

4 Focus Band

3 Blaine

3 Cinnabar City Gym

1 Time Capsule

---------

19 Trainers

 

19 Fire

-------

19 Energies

 

The original line was 4/4/4 but Hans and I decided to drop a Typhlosion and a Cleffa for 2 more energies since Hans was constantly having an energy shortage, dunno why…

 

The whole morning and afternoon I spent playing, trading and talking with all the kids I knew from other tournaments, ever so often checking up on my sister and Hans and how they were doing. I don’t remember exactly all the matches Hans played, but I’ll try to refresh my memory a bit.

 

Round 1 vs. a boy with ???

 

I only saw Hans’ opening hand which consisted of 5 Fire, a Growlithe and a Focus Band. After that I went on to play some matches for myself, but after 20 minutes I saw a very happy Hans walking to me saying he won easily (he’s getting cocky…)

 

1-0, 3 points

 

Round 2 vs. a young boy with a preconstructed Dark deck (Neo 4).

 

I stayed to watch this game for a little while because they were playing on the outside of the tournament area. Hans got to go first and started with Cleffa active and Growlithe on the bench, the opponent with Cyndaquil active and Gastly or something on the bench.

He drew, attaches to Cleffa and eeeks, starting the set up. After a couple of turns with the opponent flipping tails all the time, Hans brought out a full powered Arcanine with a full powered Typhlosion on the bench to kill the Cyndaquil and later on some more Pokes.

 

2-0, 6 points

 

After these two rounds, which Daniel, another boy I used to play with, who also played in the 10-, won too, I went in search of some other players and discovered that they were holding some 15+ side events. I entered one, losing in the first round to a Feraligatr… Oh well, this was the first Feraligatr I’ve ever played, because almost nobody I know is playing that fat bastard at the moment.

 

Hans won his 3rd and 4th round, too, I found out next, and I stayed with him to search for his lost damage counters while his mom was off into Amsterdam. We finally found them, and he went off to play his 4th round

 

4-0, 12 points

 

Round 5 against Rosanna Schrijver with Entei/Macgargo.

 

I know this girl, and she’s quite good. I think her father build the deck, he was one of the judges, and I know him, too.

I sort of knew Hans was going to lose this one, because he’s never played an Entei/Macgargo before and plays nothing to counter it, like Pichu.

He made the mistake of building an Arcanine on the bench while Rosanna was killing three of his babies with a Macgargo with 5 energies. He finally brought out the Arcanine to Firestorm the Macgargo away, but she flipped heads on the Focus Band. After that I left in search for my sister, but I knew Rosanna was gonna win this one.

 

4-1, 12 points

 

At this point I realized that maybe I still had to take the Professor test, because I took the test online two days ago, but I didn’t know if they had those results here. Friday I got 36 good answers, that day I made it again, with 37 good! Wow, I’ve improved. I was the only one who passed the test that day, and I was allowed in the Professor tournament.

 

Hans lost his 6th round, too, but he was still placed 15th, so he would get boosters at any rate (8 boosters for 17th to 32nd). I told him that if he’d win the next round he might have a change of placing T8 and going on to the single elimination.

I stayed to watch his last game, since I had nothing else to do.

 

4-2, 12 points ranked 15th

 

Round 7 vs. an annoying boy from Belgium with Crobat/Scizor/other Grass

 

This boy was incredibly annoying, scolding the whole time, throwing cards over the tables and playing extra slow when he was on the losing end.

Hans didn’t let himself get annoyed by that, and just played on. When he hade two Typhlosions and one powered Arcanine that he played a Double Gust. The boy started yelling like “What if I don’t want to switch my Pokemon” and all that kind of nonsense. The judge, who was standing next to it, calmed the kid down and Hans won shortly after that. Well actually the boy gave up with one Scyther active and no Trainers or Basic Pokes in his hand. He thought Hans would only get one point if he gave up… How childish… Well, Hans still got the 3 points and after this round we checked out his results…

 

And he came in 9th…. If he would’ve played one different opponent, he might’ve gotten in the T8 and have a chance at the two trips they were giving to the T2. Oh well…He still did incredibly well and I’m very proud of him. He won 24 booster, 20 Neo Destiny and 4 Legendary.

He gave me four of the boosters he won since I helped him out with his deck and all, and since he didn’t want the Legendary cards anyway (who does?).

 

My sister came in 61st with a 4-3 record winning nothing at all. She said she was all unlucky with the Cross Attack flips and the Focus Band flips, but I’m sure she could’ve done better than that. I’m still proud of her, too, since it was the first real big tournament she participated in.

 

Okay, finally at 7 PM the 15+ tourney started. I’m gonna be brief about the rounds, since I don’t quite now all the details anymore, and else this report is getting way too long.

 

Round 1 versus ??? with Dark Muk

 

I got an amazing starting hand, with Zubat, Pichu and Cleffa, and I won the flip. I messed him up with RSA, while I was building two Crobats on the bench, while eeking. He couldn’t attack my babies and he couldn’t find any of the cards he needed. This was harder than it should’ve been though, I could feel I was tired and fit enough to play good anymore, making mistakes like Double Gusting a Dark Muk when he could choose a Baby that I couldn’t retreat for free anymore. Well, I pulled off a victory in the end, but it was a bit of a close call. I do remember him playing three Erika’s in a row, so I just drew cards until I had a great hand, but he didn’t get the Impostor Professor Oak he wanted, so that left me with an amazing hand so he was pretty chanceless from there on.

 

1-0  3 points

 

Round 2 versus ??? with Arcanine/Typhlosion.

 

This was the only Dutch guy I played, and he was also having problems in the set-up while I got a Crobat on turn 3. When he finally got out a Typhlosion with no energies, I Double Gusted it to confuse it. With him not being able to retreat, use the Pokemon power or do anything else (I played a Chaos Gym) I picked off his bench with Murkrow, and finished the job with a second Crobat.

 

2-0  6 points

 

Round 3 versus ??? with Crobat/Trap deck.

 

This guy was from England as well. I got the better cards again (maybe my Crobat coin DID help…) getting 2 Crobats on turn 3. With him being much slower and getting none of his Trap combo’s to work, I won this 6 prizes to 2 or 3 or something.

 

Well, I ended up being T8, logically and drafted a fire/lightning deck with Neo Genesis and Neo Destiny. We did a normal Booster Draft since it would go much faster, and I build a deck with Light Ninetales, Flaaffy/Dark Flaaffy and Quilava. I know now it wouldn’t have worked anyway because I had too little fire energies to build up a Ninetales and keep doing the attack (I had 9 fire/8 Electric).

 

I lost the booster draft in the first round against a water/fighting deck (Can you believe it… 7 other players and I get paired up with the one who plays all my weaknesses…).

Oh well, I had fun, and I still got 6 boosters, 3 Neo 4 and 3 Legendary, that I traded for three other Neo 4 since I don’t need legendary cards. Well, turned out the packages I traded contained a Shining Charizard and a Miracle Energy so I was glad I did that.

Plus, I got to keep the cards I drafted, including Light Arcanine, Bellossom, 2 Broken Ground Gym, Elekid, Light Togetic and some other rares.

 

After that we went home almost immediately and since we were some of the only ones left we got a lot of free things like rubber play mats and cards and surprise bags that they still had left from the beginning of the tournament.

 

I was glad we got here by car, so I was able to sleep during the ride, my poor dad couldn’t… We were home at 1 AM and went to bed immediately.

 

Still I had a great day, and got all great prizes and cards. I’m going to the next Dutch Championship next year, without a doubt, as well.

 

Props:

 

 

Slops:

 

 

Thanks for reading! I know it was a long one!

Please mail me with comments, questions or deck tips!

 

Anna Schipper

annabeetleborfan@hotmail.com