Baltimore Showed Us What's Wrong With The New Tournament Structure | Uncommon Energy Episode 124 

I'll go ahead and say it: watching a live stream of a Pokemon TCG regionals without Chip Richey casting is a suboptimal experience. Don't ever leave us again for Vegas Chip.

I had to comment on the "More Successful Tournament" Conversation. The Correct answer is Player B was more successful because they finished higher. The issue with Azul's argument is that you have to REMOVE the final round of play from the conversation just to argue that Player A did better, effectively removing Player A's Loss and discounting Player B's WIN. Both players lost in MUST WIN Scenarios, this difference is that Player B lost a round earlier than Player A. If we are judging the Tourney as a WHOLE, you can't remove the final round from the equation just to make A look better after taking a loss and Player B look worse after securing a WIN. Getting into a Win-and -In Scenario in the final round does NOT mean you had better preparation if you don't WIN. Both players failed to progress into top 8 but Player B placed significantly higher, so Player B clearly had a MORE successful Tourney. Rant Over

Can we please add time stamps to the episodes?

If you really want proof that variance does matter for these major tournaments, Jesse Parker went undefeated at worlds and then went 0-3 drop at this event. He played the same list as JW, who nearly made top 8, and they practiced together - he hit some really rough matchups and couldn’t recover. Just a part of the game sometimes.

Chip is 100% right about variance. Lugia is a prime example. It’s a clunky deck but the times you set up perfectly, it’s a GOD-Tier deck. Look at worlds. Roaring moon had 4 catchers in deck. I would bet that he flipped a lot of heads that day. Same for Iron Thorns. I’m willing to bet that they flipped a lot of heads. If all those decks flipped 100% tails for the day, with all the skill in world, they’re probably still losing.

You conbine Obstruction Letter with Xerosic. They discard until they have 3 cards remaining. Then you force those valued cards to the bottom of their deck and have them draw 3 new cards.

Azul said let me change the question so I can win the argument

Azul: “variations don’t matter in the PTCG” Also azul : “you can’t judge a player based on one tournament because of variations. You need to take multiple tournaments into account” Huh

It’s so sad that Azul can’t speak Spanish when he has the most Latin name ever 😢😅

I can't believe Chip exposed Azul as the secret Sith Lord who manipulates the meta from the shadows.

I know this is a random thought but I think wolf glicke would be dope as a guest on this and to see if he can get a guess that flavor text right lmao

This podcast keeps me alive, keep up the great work ❤

This makes 4 episodes now where I've been yelling at my phone of the correct answer as soon as the flavor text is read. Lol. 😂🤣

It’s sooo far to find out how to sign up for stuff at Baltimore I would have never know what was going on if it wasn’t for y’all saying in the pod last week to follow the gen whoever organizer. So appreciate y’all

One very easy way to avoid ties and let the gameplay decide would be adding 6-8 minutes of gameplay per round by letting people look at their prize cards! 🙈

That whole success segment… “I have a concept of a top 8”

Variance is definitely an important factor, I played garde at Baltimore. Not the Henry Chao list but a more standard version. Went 0-2 against raging bolt, the dream garde matchup, due to just prizing too many key cards in both matches. And went 3-0 against drago and zard. Sometimes the game just goes in your favor and sometimes it really doesn’t. It happens!

The moment chip gave that first lifeline I KNEW the card. GLC knowledge helps so much

I would be shocked if the other 3 NA locations were not Orlando, San Antonio, and Portland. Those are the other 3 "leaked" locations from earlier in the year and the dates matchup, San Antonio in January, Orlando in April, and Portland in May

You guys should totally ask Evan Campbell to come on the show as a rising star

If anyone from OCE doesnt know already, we do have a 3rd regional confirmed either in Melbourne or Sydney and after Brisbane (ESL confirmed it)

Those chairs were so bad lol.

In Europe there is 2022 tournament and Fanfinity ( they used to be called tournament center ) People tend to prefer TC/Fanity, and likely will continue to be the case this year

The question of most successful tournament gives an interesting argument towards the fighting game system of double/triple elimination. Everyone who is still in the tournament, has a shot at winning the whole thing. But the con is forcing people out of the tournament and I imagine logistics of timing rounds could get weird

Can I get someone’s take on this? I’m a senior, and I had trouble hearing the announcements for time in round. I talked to some other players and they also said they struggled with that. Don’t care about the details but me being unaware of this led to me getting a tie in a match I definitely should have won. After that match, I talked to a head judge in my section, and they offered to have the judges go around and announce when time is called. Next round goes to time, and again I don’t hear the announcement. No judge ever came up to me to let me know time was called, and I found out through my opponent two turns into time. I again after that round asked that judge if they could find a way to make it clearer when time is called, and she then threatened me with a warning for not paying attention to the announcements? I think? Is that a reasonable punishment, and did other people have similar issues?

Baltimore was my second regional, with last year's Sacramento being my first, and this tournament felt like a letdown. The tournament organizers invested in less, with no lanyard and a badge that wore out much faster than last year. The diversity of the side events was terrible compared with my experience with Sacramento. It felt like a lazy, last-minute listing of events.

At this point Big Pikachu should just hire Jake Gearhart.

Azul needs to go to LAIC and skip NAIC because he's only halfway through in conquering all four corners of the world 🌎 OCIC ✔️ NAIC ✔️ LAIC🔆 EUIC⌛️

LMAO at calling out all the lugia players

Being epic splash cube for the people waiting!

Mann. I did bad at the tournament and ppl was crying trying to make agreements. Like idc about your day two. You lost game two you didn’t scoop now you wanna gentleman’s know your turbo deck set up quicker than mine to get the win. No I’m not doing that. Looks like we both don’t make day two than. Homie was ready start crying. I think ties should not be a thing

38:20 kind of like Jesse Parker playing Lugia and hitting iron Thorns round 1 which happened. Though idk what he hit the next 2

Player A and B are 10-2 going into round 13. Player A loses against their opponent and ends 10-3. Player B IDs and ends 10-2-1. The bubble was 33 but player B never went for the win to get into cut like player A did. Who should be rewarded more for their tournament?

Azul changes the question to try to be right, and is still wrong lmao

Just do prizing in the same structure that is used for golf. Fair and simple

Azul was particularly based this episode.

i agree with azul, someone in contention of a top cut has a better tournament run, I went 5 0 0 then ended on 5 4 0, yet my friend thinks he did better when they went 1 3 0 to 5 3 1, so no chance of a day 2

Bought my flights to Monterrey for regional!

You guys neeeeeeed timestamps that would be amazing

You're right I had the best tournament run maybe ever

A TIE in any streamed competitive game is generally anti climactic. Game could be amazing but if it ends 1-1 trust me no one enjoys it as a spectator sport. We want results not gentleman agreements and off screen shenanigans

The performance of a player was kinda of a bad take from azul. Agreed with chip on that one

Timestamps or im disliking the video

I’ve been saying that for $ on prizes!!!

No regional in Texas??

it took for ever to get in and there was couchy stains all over the chairs . and it was mad bread to buy items

Mohn-teh-rrrrrrrr-ay = Monterrey I used to live there so I get it 🙂‍↕️

if you are thinking about a latam regional I’d suggest Monterrey. plenty things to see, nice weather (that particular month), and great food.

No you cannot play the same people I’m pretty sure

Reward for doing better is doing better … you dont need to pick going first, azul just trying to control any randomness that is built into the game and has always been there

Man yall complain about the structure and it is t even that bad. It’s the same structure yugioh uses. Helps eliminate 🤡 from forcing ties to help pad their chances to get into top. It’s simply more skill based now.

30:30 this is why we needed more rounds not less, to actually have a more solid answer of who did better. 6 rounds day 2 wasn't enough, idk how 4 rounds is somehow enough

Maybe if you say ON AVERAGE louder you’ll make your argument stronger 🫢