Hiya folks!  Your friendly neighborhood triple-mole made it to another Pokémon tournament event, this time in sunny (well, it was overcast at the time) Columbus, Ohio.  I brought my trusty Palm Pilot on the way, and I thought it would be cool to write a little something in it every hour or two.  So I figure I'll start this report off with that: my occasional reports that I jotted down throughout the day.  I put little funny quotes at the end of each report when I wrote them, too, just in case you were wondering.

Without more of my nonsensical blabbering, here we go!  ^_^
 

8:00 - Warlord, Saberslash, and I have loaded in ''The Beast'' (Saber's dad's big sweet van) and are on our way.  After filling up its 42 gallon tank o_O and making a few cracks on cheap 80s music and bad drivers, I could tell this is gonna be fun.

Saber's Dad: "C'mon, get in between the lines... there ya g-- oh, wait, no, you're back out'' [said in reference to a car in front of us that was driving way in the birm, started to come back in the road, then decided to drift back on the birm again]
 

9:00 - Well, we're riding down I-71 and are about 45 mi. from Columbus.  Saber is busy building the deck he'll be using, a stall deck with Shuckle and Rocket's Snorlax.  Kinda random, but Saber is good enough to make it work. I made some last-minute tweaks to my Dark Scizor/Dark Golduck, and War is feeling pretty confident about his Erika deck. The Zeo Atelier team is gonna 0wn this tourney!

War: "Dunsparce for TecH!"
Saber: "Yeah, I'll use Dunsparce."
[Dug & War laugh]
 

10:30 - Finaly arriving at the convocation center, the three of us quickly found PK and Ang.  The TO is on the loudspeaker as I write telling the 14 and under to get their decklists in.  The overall feeling is exciting, and it's kinda hard to describe it.  The quote below pretty much sums it up. Ang and I are gonna play, so I'll go now.

Saber: "Just being here is half the fun."
 

12:15 - The main events are well under way.  They've passed out deck registration sheets for the open events, too, and a Modified Swiss tourney should be starting soon.  We've got Ang, Saber, War, and I hanging out at a side table and PK just finished his second round, going 1 and 1 so far.  Tiberius found us earlier, handing out his Celebi and Bellossom promos.  War just bought some overpriced food ($1.75 for a pop?) but those nachos are smelling good...

Warlord: "Make.. the hurting.. stop!" [said while getting beat up by Saber's Rocket's Scyther during their game]
 

12:45 - Warlord just bought an entire pizza, just like he did at the Cleveland QT. Yes, it was noteworty enough to write another update.  =P He was also generous enough to let everyone at the table have a piece.

Dug (returning from a dash to the concession stand): "Dude, they said you CAN buy a whole pizza!"
War: "Sweet!"
 

2:30 - The Open tourney started at about 1:15.  All four of us lost first round, ugh. Then Saber and I got paired up with each other! This tourney is a little anti-Zeo so far... and there's stlll four rounds to go. >_<

Saber & Dug in unison: "NOOOO!!"
 

3:15 - After the third round, War and Saber lost again while Ang and I got landslide wins.  Myself, I played against a Gatr and won, which really amazed me. Maybe Ang and I have a chance at Top 8?

Dug: "I beat a Gatr, I'm so stoked!"
 

4:30 - It's been five rounds now, with just one round left before Top 8. Luck hasn't exactly been on the other Zeo-er's sides.  Ang lost the last two games while I've lost one and won one, respectively chronologically speaking.  So I'm our last hope for a Zeo Top 8... erg. Time to put my nonexistant money where my mouth is...

War: "I will never play Grass again..."
 

5:30 - Ah, I lost, oh well.  Twas fun anyway; at least I went 3-3.  War went 2-4, Ang went 3-3, and Saber went 1-5. We we'ren't exactly playing tournament-worthy decks, but we at least had fun.

Anguris left about 10 min ago, and PK departed maybe an hour ago. It was really cool meeting them and I can't wait until we meet up again at Origins this summer.

The big story in the last hour was the 11-14 Finals.  The son of CJMich (of PokéGym fame) won using a Dark Muk deck aganst Tom Dolezal (#2 DCI-ranked player in Ohio) and his Gatr deck. Yes, a Dark Muk upset a Feraligatr! Big congratulations go out to both players, as it was a hard-fought game. Both of the other Top 4 slots were held by Gatrs.

Not sure who or what decks won in the 10- bracket.  Sorry!

Top 4 in the Open tourney is just shaping up now, and since we'll be leaving soon I prolly won't find out the results before we go.

Dug: "I think I'll buy one of these Base Set boosters just for the heck of it..." [buys a Booster] "Impostor Professor Oak?!"
 

So yeah, that was my on-site writing.  Now I'll talk a little more in-depth from my memory.

I haven't been to Columbus in years, but Saberslash's dad goes there all the time.  He very graciously offered to drive Warlord and I (along with his son, obviously) to our state's capital and hang out while we played for hours and hours on end.  So my first props of this article go out to him!  My second props go out to his van, a Mark II, "The Beast".  What a cool van!  =P

After a two and a half hour ride, we finally arrived at the Veteran's Memorial Hall, the site of the Columbus Gym Challenge 2002.  My trio (as Ang coined it in his report) walked up to the "HQ" tables for the TO and judges, complete with match timer, computers, printers, "The Amazing High-Tech Gray Box", and a variety of Boosters on sale.  After a minute of browsing, we wandered over to the Gym Challenge signs.  A woman on the loudspeakers said the 14 and under kids had to get their decklists finished because their event was starting soon.

Warlord had been to the Columbus QT last year and met PKMNX at that event, so he knew what he looked like.  War identified PK, but was kinda shy about going over and saying hi.  =P  So I went over and said hello, and then introduced myself and Saber.  Then we noticed the person sitting across from PK was wearing a sweatshirt with "Anguris" on it, so we said hi to him too.

Plopping our bookbags and stuff all over the table, the five of us just chewed the fat for a little while.  PK made sure to give us each one of his Gengar promos, which were really neat.  I pulled out my Palm and started writing, and gave PK last-minute advice about which Raikou to use in his deck.  Ang and I decided to pass the time with some games, while Saber had a go against Warlord.  Ang's deck wasn't working too well and mine was working near perfectly, resulting in a poopy win for me.  =/  So we played again, and this time it was very good... both our decks were running well and it was looking like a tough game.  Then some judges interrupted us, announcing that we needed to clear out for the event to start, since we were sitting at the tables they were going to use for it.  So we picked up our cards and bookbags and departed for some side tables with the rest of the 15+ players.

There, we met up with Tiberius, who was giving people a choice between his Celebi and Bellossom promos.  Both were really cool.  Saber started up another game against War and Ang and I restarted as well.  This time we got slow starts, and Ang got a Dark Golduck going a little quicker than I could get a Dark Scizor ready.  It was a great game, and in the end he beat me.  Twas fun all the same!

Nearby, other 15+ players were sparring off.  Chris Fulop, #1 DCI-ranked player in Ohio, was playing against his girlfriend.  Some guy brought a GameCube, a couple controllers, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, and one of those cool new portable screens that are attachable to a Cube.  Everyone nearby thought it was a sweet idea, and he hooked it up to a pillar that had a bunch of electricity sockets in it.  I wanted to play it, but didn't have the time to, oh well.  Crazy, the people you meet at these things.

By the way, there was a Magic Qualifier tournament going on at the same time, and was taking up a lot of the room in the hall.  In fact, all the Magic players had the tables in the middle while us Pokémon players owned the tables along the sides of the room.  Oh well, I guess that goes to show that Magic is #1 and Pokémon is #2.  [shrug]

Now, Ang said that food was cheap at this convention center in his report, but I disagree.  We were wondering what prices were for food, since it was around noontime and we were all hungry.  ("We" being Saber, Ang, War, and I.)  While Ang and Saber started up a game and Warlord watched, I ran off to the concession stand.  Here are the prices of some of the items, as best my memory serves:

Hot dog: $2.50
Piece of pizza: $2.50
Bag of chips: $0.75
Nachos with cheese: $2.00
Pop ("soda" as the rest of the country calls it =P): $1.75
Candy: $2.00

Now in my opinion, I think those were outrageous prices.  Ang mentioned pop being 75 cents a can in his report, which was the price of it in the vending machine on the other side of the large room.  Funny, for a short walk you can save a dollar for just about the same amount of pop!  [rolls eyes]  Anyway, I went back to our encampment on the far end of the convention hall to report the prices to everyone.

Warlord went off to buy himself some nachos and cheese and a Coke (ugh, I wish they'd have had Pepsi; there's my first slops of this report).  The smell of them (the nachos) was too much for me, and I had to trapse off to bite the bullet and pay $4.75 for a pop and nachos w/ cheese for myself.  Before I left, Warlord wondered if he could buy an entire pizza instead of just a piece.  There's a backstory to that...

At the Cleveland Qualifier Tournament in 2001, the TO & staff served Marco's Pizza for lunch to everyone.  War decided to buy an entire pizza from them since he was "very hungry".  It was funny at the time, and he shared a lot of it with everyone there.  Twas pretty cool.

So, intrigued by the possibility that we might be able to do this again, I asked if it was possible for one to buy a pizza.  After the girl behind the counter got on the walkie talkie with some omnipotent voice, she told me that it was $14 for an entire pizza.  I proceeded to get my nachos, cheese, and watered-down fountain Coke (glad it was the watered down fountain kind, otherwise I can't take drinking Coke) and get back to our table.  The quote from my 12:45 thing up there says it all!  "Dude, they said you CAN buy a whole pizza!"  "Sweet!!"  And with that War dashed off.

After eating and filling out our deck registration sheets, the Open Modified Swiss tournament finally begun.  I entered with my Dark Scizor/Dark Golduck deck that I've been tweaking for a while now.  In fact, it used to be Dark Scizor/Dark Vaporeon up until like a week ago, so this deck was still a little new to me.  Ang was using his Dark Golduck/Discovery Xatu/Magcargo deck, Saber was using his hastily-constructed (read: built on the van ride over) Rocket's Snorlax/Revelation Shuckle deck, and War was using his well-known Erika's Victreebel/Erika's Vileplume deck.  We all felt pretty confident going in....

Round 1 vs. Crobat
My deck was working quite well in the beginning, KOing a starting Zubat, and I even managed to drop a Crobat with a Dark Scizor pretty easily by like turn five.  After killing a Pichu and Double Gusting a Zubat, I left pretty confident in winning, considering he had only Knocked Out one of my Pokémon.  But I had let a Murkrow build up to having two Darkness Energies, and all the Energy suddenly disappeared from my deck leaving a Dark Golduck on my Bench unpowered.  It slowly Feint Attacked my monsters as my deck stalled out of drawing ability, Double Gusts, and Psychic Energy.  I lost, crapplesauce.
0-1

Round 2 vs. Rocket's Snorlax/Revelation Shuckle
Yes, Saberslash and I were paired up against each other.  Damn!  I wish circumstances had been different, but oh well.  This was the first time I played against his deck.  He gave me a little trouble with his Shuckle that he got 2 Grass and 3 Metal on, but my [G][D][D] Dark Scizor was able to sit there picking away at it 10 damage at a time (Shuckle's power reduces attacks 40 and below down to 10) until I KOed it.  He tried sending Rocket's Snorlax out there with Counterattack Claws on it and a TR Drowzee on the Bench, which was the backup plan in his deck, but it didn't work very well.  My deck has too many Double Gusts and status healing stuff in it... in the end I won against him.
1-1

Round 3 vs. Feraligatr
I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach when I saw a Totodile and a Suicune on this person's Bench with her Cleffa up front.  A Gatr, no!!  This was a true test of my deck, I felt, and thank goodness my deck ran the best of the entire tournament in this game.

I had a turn-two Dark Scizor with a Metal and a Darkness on it.  My Threaten (its first attack) failed, but oh well... I just attached a Full Heal Energy, (my only Energy on-hand,) played a Rocket's Hideout gym, laid a Gold Berry on my monster, and Slashed for 40... flipping through to kill the Cleffa.  She proceeded to send up a Croconaw and evolve it to Gatr, doing 50 after Metal Energy to Dark Scizor.  Gold Berry activated, I attached another Metal, and Slashed away.  She couldn't do much so she used an Elm, Benched a couple things, and passed.   I attached a second Darkness and another Gold Berry, Slashing for 50.  She Trash Exchanged, Wrathed, got 7 Water Energies in the discard pile, and did 50 to me.  Gold Berry knocked it down again, with 20 total damage on Scizor.  I attached another Metal, did 50, and her Focus Band failed.  Score, my first Prize, hard-earned as it was!

She then sent out something I can't remember.  ^_^"  I attached a third Darkness, did 60, and KOed the thing.  She sent out another damned Croconaw, evolved it to Gatr, but had no Energy.  I smashed away at it with 60 damage.  Next turn she knocked away my Hideout gym with her Energy Stadium, but I had a second Hideout to replace hers.  I attached the third and last Metal Energy of my deck and KOed this second Gatr.  She sent up her Suicune, which couldn't do anything damage-wise due to my three Metals, but was able to put me to Sleep.  I woke up though, attached my fourth Darkness Energy, and nailed it for 70.  My card drawing had been amazing all game... lucky top-decks, two Special Energies while using a Wrath, Elms when I needed them...  So with two Prizes left, I just chopped away at whatever she sent up, I can't remember what because it was a little anti-climactic, and I ended up winning.
2-1

Round 4 vs. Dark Octillery
After that last sweet win, I was feeling pretty good, but my deck was horribly shuffled.  I couldn't do anything all game... my opponent was getting bad flips, (like 10 tails in a row against my Pichu?!) which kinda made up for it, but his Dark Octilleries owned me, bad.  There were all three Dark Scizors in my hand, and I didn't see ANY Scythers the entire game!  Yech.  He was a really nice guy, though, so I didn't feel so badly about losing this one.
2-2

Round 5 vs. Dark Ampharos
This guy didn't get a chance to get a Dark Ampharos up, and all I saw was a Dark Flaaffy and a Rocket's Zapdos.  I remember that he was a very serious player who didn't seem to trust me very much.  ^_^"  When I grabbed a dice and tossed one his way, saying, "High roll to see who goes first?" he tossed the dice away.  I was confused until he said, "I'll use the dice you're using."  That kinda disarmed me, and I wondered for a moment how one would rig a die... anyway... The game was going pretty well, with my getting a Dark Scizor powered up on my Bench and I believe a Dark Golduck was Active and attacking.  But then he played a Challenge! after using Professor Elm.  I never noticed it, but when he realized it he conceded the game.  o_O  I was willing to just take a Prize and let him set an extra Prize out and move along with the game, but he wanted to give up.  Oh well, it was a win on paper.
3-2

Because my previous "win" came so quickly, I had a good 20 minutes before the next round's pairings would go up.  I noticed a large crowd over by the main event area huddled around a single match.  I mosied on over and asked someone nearby if this was the 11-14 Finals.  "Yes," someone replied, who continued to explain, "it's a Dark Muk versus Feraligatr, and the Dark Muk is about to win!"  The air around that crowd was tense, lemme tell ya.  Seeing the opportunity to do some reporting for Zeo, I pulled out my Palm Pilot and started scribbling down information.

Finally, the winner was determined and everyone applauded.  I jumped in to ask the finalists for their names, telling them that I was "reporting for Zeo".  (Yes, a shameless plug.  ^_^)  After talking with some more people, I found out that I had been talking to Pokenaut, who's a well-known member at the PokéGym message boards.  I also met CJMich, another Gymmer.  In case you skipped over my on-site writeups for some reason, [sniff,] I'll tell ya who won.  It was Brian Gurta, the son of CJMich, playing a Dark Muk deck.  The runner-up was Tom Dolezal, the #2 DCI-ranked player in Ohio, playing Feraligatr.  The two third-place winners were playing Gatr as well.

After all the excitement of the Dark Muk upsetting Gatr, I realized I had a tournament to return to!  I hiked it back over to the Open tourney, quickly told the other three Zeoers the news, then hung out for a few minutes until the Round 6 pairings went up...

Round 6 vs. Misty's Golduck
This game was against the previously-mentioned Chris Fulop's girlfriend, Stephanie, who I know from our Pokémon League.  Last time we played it was in Unlimited format and I beat her pretty soundly.  But this game my deck was against poorly shuffled and I had three Dark Golducks in my hand without ever seeing a Psyduck.  Her Misty's Golduck really didn't do much, but it was something else in her deck that I forget that took out my like three Basics that I saw the entire game.  =/  Ack.  And so went my chances of Top 8, but oh well, I got some good experience in tournament-playing-wise.
3-3
Ranking after 6 rounds of Swiss: 15th out of 36 players

By the time Round 6 had ended, it was close to 5:00.  There was an orange glow illuminating the place, coming from the setting sun through the huge windows of the V.M.H.  Dejected, War, Saber, and I sat down at a table off to the side to recouperate.  They hadn't done any better than I... War went 2-4 and Saber went 1-5, his only win being because his opponent dropped out from the tournament.  Ang was 3-3, one of those wins being from an opponent drop as well.

After sitting around for a while, I decided to get up and see what was happening in the tournament.  The last match of the Top 8 was being finished.  Top 4 was shaping up to be two Steelixes, a Big Fire, and a Kingdra.  No Gatr, no Crobat, sweetness!  (Chris Fulop ended up winning it with his Kingdra/Rocket's Scyther deck, against Pokenaut and his Steelix deck.)

Making my way back to my trio's table, I noticed Ang making a dash in the direction of the door.  "Ang!" I shouted.  He turned around.  "You leavin'?" I asked.  He said yes, and told me to tell Saber and War that he was going.  I agreed and we exchanged "later"-s.

Sitting back down at our table, I told 'em Ang had left and started writing in my Palm.  Saber called up his dad via cell phone to tell him we were ready.

On our way out, we checked out the Booster Packs on sale.  They were out of Destiny Boosters, but I saw they had Base Set on sale for three bucks.  I bought one for the heck of it, hoping for a Computer Search or Oak so I could build an Unlimited deck for my girlfriend and myself, but to no avail -- no Oak in the Uncommons slots and an Impostor Professor Oak as my rare, yech!  Oh well, twas worth a shot.

Along the way home, we got hungry.  So The Beast pulled into a McDonald's drive thru so we could satiate ourselves.  After eating, the three of us started falling asleep (War was snoring a little at one point, hehe) since it was like 8:30 at that point.

Once we got back to Saber's house, we were met with a nice surprise to end the day.  Purity sent staff goodies to all of us to Saber's house in the hopes that it would make it in time for the Gym Challenge, but alas it arrived while we were in Columbus.  Still, it was a great way to end a great day.

Props to:

Saberslash's dad and The Beast

Everyone who handed out fake promo cards

The TO of the event for running everything so smoothly

My Round 4 opponent for making me feel better as I lost badly...

Dark Muk for taking a Gym Challenge!

The cool prizes for the Open tournament (Pikachu World Collection binder, lots of Destiny Boosters, and a plastic container that had all the Neo Revelation holos in it, pretty sweet)

The dude with the GameCube

My trusty Palm Pilot (and the Duracell batteries that kept it powered the entire day)

Pizza (just because)

Slops to:

The V.M.H. for their overpriced food

The bright idea of holding a Magic tournament at the same time as our Gym Challenge [rolls eyes]

The TO's constant pronounciation of Pokémon as "Pokeemon"

Poorly shuffled decks

The fact that the judges for the Open event were Magic judges and didn't know a bit about Pokémon

Impostor Professor Oak, for being a rare >_<

So that's my report, hope ya liked it.  I look forward to Origins and the Professor Championship this July 2002!

     -Dugtrio