Tournament: Raid Group Sorcerous Cup

Sunday - yesterday - was actually a bit of a busy day for me, in relation to Pokémon. As I've detailed in my previous post, it involved a figure gathering unlike any previous ones. But it also involved a Pokémon Go tournament later that same day, specifically one hosted by my raid group. I actually could have written a single post about both as I've done at times on this blog for certain occasions, but I did want to focus on the figure gathering more so than the tournament, and so the latter had to be reserved. Of course, I also want to get it out of the way while it's still fresh in my mind, and therefore that leads to this post.

This tournament, as per the Silph League Arena competitive season, used the Sorcerous theme designated for this month. Needless to say, the tournament still utilized the remote protocol of current times, as well as the raid group's own protocol of conflict resolution if conflict arose, which did not seem to be the case. Another matter of interest with this tournament was that it was held at 7 PM, somewhat later than usual for both remote ("online") and regular live tournaments. This is essentially another reason for shelving the tournament coverage to today, as it would be challenging to incorporate both in one, especially given that they're disparate and separated by time.

The time schedule might also have impacted the number of participants for the tournament. At the time the tournament started, there were 14 participants, with one more having missed the deadline and couldn't participate, and another one simply declaring interest. Given that rounds run approximately 30 minutes and more participants means more rounds, some might have been deterred to participate in the first place; in fact, someone quite high on national rankings had intended to participate, but then withdrew some moments before the start, possibly realizing that it could mean lengthening the tournament for everyone. Ultimately, with the 14 participants, it came down to 4 rounds, which meant a reasonable evening finish.

As for how I did within those rounds, this is one of, if not the worst results I had for this kind of tournament ever. I lost all 4 rounds and ended up on absolutely the very bottom. I did win 2 matches and had a couple of very close calls, while the rest was somewhat farther out. One of those two matches happened to be against a very good friend of mine, who tends to have a good track record in these tournaments but has been declining recently; in fact, we both met in the third round after having lost two rounds and one of my match wins was incidentally against him. Meanwhile, a friend of his and mine had a very good run, three match wins before being stopped by a top national player for the tournament win; it could be said to be his "rise". Overall, the results were neat: one big winner, four each with 3, 2, and 1 total wins, and of course me at the bottom. Perhaps not so neat for me.

This tournament has had its ups and downs, with mine being mostly down. While that may call into question my continued participation in the tournaments, I still believe at times that I can obtain benefits from them, though clearly not this time around. It was still one of my Pokémon businesses the other day, and the same could be said for everyone who fully participated and even those who only had the slightest consideration. With what unfolded, the benefit for some of the others became quite apparent while for others like me it was less so. Yet with this and the gathering the other day, I may consider myself to still have benefited regardless from them.

One year ago: Pokémon Go Event Rollup, 6/29/2019

Two years ago: Monotype (of) Sorts

Three years ago: 3DS Circle Pad and Pokémon Games... Plus My Experience