Hey Bill wuz up? How you doing. I wanted to let you know that my 7 year old son Nick won the Qualifier in Milford, Mass. We are going to San Diego. Here is a report to post on your site. Are you going out to San Diego this year? Thanks - John Firestorming Recharge by Johnny Blaze @T.J. Collectibles Milford, MA Sunday 10/28/2001 Our trip started out on Saturday. We left the day before because T.J.'s was holding a practice tournament a day before the qualifier began. The practice tourney was a 4 round Swiss open age bracket Modified with no finals. I was quite impressed with the place. As a comics and fantasy aficionado that I am this place had it all. T.J.'s is a two floor store with all comics, action figures, trading cards, shirts, etc on the 1st floor and a huge gaming area downstairs in the basement. The only bad thing is that the gaming area only had fans and got very hot at times. I played Feraligatr with Parasect and my son Nick played his Firestorm Recharge deck. There were about 18 players with all mixed ages. Nick went 3-1 with his deck and I faced another Feraligatr and lost. So my record that day was also 3-1. The other Gatr player was my friend Roy Landry and he went 4-0 that tournament. The prizes ranged from Booster packs to Stuffed Pokemon dolls. So the night before the tournament started my friend Roy and his family we all go out to eat at Diner 99. Then we left and Roy went home with his family and Nick, Devon M., Ben, and myself go back to the hotel and practice all night for the tourney. Devon was undecided to what deck he was going to play in the 11-14 age bracket. He had Feraligatr and also anti-Gatr. I helped build him a deck like my son's and he beat my Gatr that nite so he decides to also play Typhlosion/Blaine's Arcanine. Luckily, we remembered to set our clocks back an hour for daylight savings time. So without further adieu here is my son's deck list and report. Since the 15+ age bracket was also going on I don't have complete results of the 10 and under Swiss but I do have the Top 8 game by game. Pokemon (25) 4 -Cyndaquil (Fireworks) 4 -Quilava (Char) 4 -Typhlosion (Fire Recharge) 3 - Blaine's Growlithe 3 - Blaine's Arcanine 4 - Cleffa 3 - Magby Trainers (19) 4 -Professor Elm 4 -Double Gust 4 -Focus Band 3 -Blaine 3 -Cinnabar City Gym 1 -Time Capsule Energy (16) Fire Energy of course! The turnout at Milford was great with parents and kids total there was close to 200 people. There were around 40 + kids in the 11- 14 and there were around 30 kids in the 10 and under division. There were a ton of people from the boards that attended that I saw and meet - Alaka Deka, Pokedad, Mama Gengar, LuMAga, FireFighter09, Marril 2K from Zeo, Samantha 129, Charwolf, BJJ74963, and Monkey. Sorry for those that I forgot. Swiss Round matches that I remember: Round 1 Nick was matched up against one of Roy's players, Matt H., from his shop. Matt was playing a Rocket Zapdos and Rocket Scyther deck. Matt used Misty's Wrath like 3 times within a 2 turn span and was close to decking himself near the end of the game when Nick drew his final prize with a Flame Burst on Rocket's Scyther. Nick's record 1-0 Skip to Round 4 At this point, Nick was 3-0 and was facing Pokedad's daughter Alayna who was also 3-0. 2 weeks prior to this tourney my son Nick and Alayna also competed in the Syracuse qualifiers and faced each other twice. So this is like their 3rd battle. Neither one of them have won a trip to San Diego so far. Alayna was also playing Fire but she was using the Flame Wheel Typhlosion. From what I could see Alayna was out to a slow start and Nick ended up winning by prizes with FireStorm. Alayna had 3 prizes left. Nick's Record 4-0 Round 5 Final round. This match is to see who gets the 1st place seed in the Top 8. Nick is facing another undefeated Girl at 4-0! Valerie was using an all Psychic deck with Sabrina's Alakazam, Rocket's Mewtwo, and the new Psychic Lugia. It was great to see that another girl made it this far and with a psychic deck to boot. Before the match I meet Valerie's dad and we were talking. They drove out from Rhode Island to compete in this event. From what I could see Valerie could not get out Sabrina's Alakazam but did successfully Life Drain one of Nick's Typhlosion's. On next turn Valerie used PsyLink to kill Typhlosion but Nick flipped heads on the Focus Band. Nick then burned his way through the rest of her Psychic Pokemon to win on Prizes. Nick's Record is 5-0 at the end of Swiss. I go check on the 11-14 division and our friend Devon is 6-0 at the end of Swiss with his Typhlosion/RK9 deck. The Top 8 in 10 and under: 1. Nick C. 2. Alayna C. 3. Savannah B. 4. Valerie S. 5. Theo R. 6. Nick K. 7. Johnathon M. 8. Matt H. Quarter-Finals: Nick vs. Matt H. They played 1st match of the day so they both knew what to expect. Matt was hanging on with Rocket's Scyther Shadow Images while Nick kept on flipping tails for that and for Matt's Pokemon baby power. Matt took a couple of prizes early but the 2 pumped Typhlosions that Nick had built up on the bench was to much in the end for Matt's Pokemon. Nick won. Nick's Record 6-0 Semi-Finals: Nick vs. Theo R. Theo previously beat Valerie in the other Quarter finals match with some controversy. Valerie inadvertently drew a prize when she thought she had knocked out a Pokemon so Theo was awarded 2 prizes! Valerie thought that Theo had replaced a knocked out Pokemon back on the bench to start the controversy. The final ruling was that because the match already ended Theo advances. Theo was using an Erika's Vileplume deck with all those nasty status effects. Nick only started with 2 Cleffas with Focus Bands. Luckily for the Focus Band flips Nick got back in to the game and built up a Typhlosion to cook Theo's Leaf Pokemon. Nick's Record 7-0. Finals vs. Alayna. This is the 4th time these 2 kids play in the past couple of weeks. This time it is for the ultimate prize to San Diego. Alayna's father Pokedad could not watch the match as he said he gets too nervous. Alayna had the upper hand all match long and was up on prizes 4-2. Nick finally pumped up an RK9 to k.o. her Typhlosion. The prize count then was 3-2 with Alayana with the advantage. Alayana knocks out Nick's RK9 with a Quilava. The prize count is 3-1. Alayana only has the Quilava and 2 babies on her bench. Nick brings out a pumped Typhlosion to k.o. her Quilava. Prize count 2-1. Nick finally flips heads to knock out the babies. Very good match. This is what the game is all about. They shake hands and Nick earns a trip to San Diego. Nicks Record 8-0 We go over to the 11-14 finals and our friend Devon just beat a Slowking/Rocket Zapdos deck to make it to San Diego also. Devon faced 3 Feraligatr decks and still won. His record was 9-0. Typhlosion went undefeated that day. Thanks for reading please contact me at AN7710@dfa.state.ny.us Props To: * 3 Girls making the Top 8. * 2 Typhlosion decks going 17-0. * Cool prize give away. Slops To: * The parents that bring their kids to these events with the wrong deck format then the poor kids are disqualified and end up crying.