--- joe mammano wrote: > WCSTSQ Qualifier-Milford,MA October 28,2001 > By:Joseph Mammano > > Its not often that you can say the 2nd qualifier you attend was better then the 1st but in this > case i can say that because it was. The day was Oct,.28th. I woke up to a phone call from by > buddy > ray saying we had to go and i overslept. I ran out the door preparing for a big qualifier. I was > ready 1 minute prior to ray arrivcing. The trip took 2 1/2 hours. The directions were quite > simple. The trip was very long only because i had no way to occupy my time and the only time i > had > that wasent watching the raod was when i seperated my cards by set and card name. We dident > get > lost once and made it to main streeet milford on time. We arrive at a place call Tj's sports > cards > and find the back door right into the downstairs play area where the Qualifier was held . It > was > a 2 room basement area. It was quite big for a qualifier and there was enough room to hold > everyone. I got in,ray dispersing off. I look around and quickly bumped into johnny blaze his > son nick, my other buddy ben and his son devon. We all get ready and settle down. The > tournnemant dident begin till 1 hour after we made it. I was battling and won 1 of 3 battles i > had. Devon angered me when he said:"Its no fun beating you anymore". I know i am not a good > enough > player to be champion but thats just a mean statement. I lost to him in a bad loss. He beat me > with his tournmanet typhlosion deck. The day was starting up after that when i beat ray in a > come > back victory against his biger broither little bother steelix skarmory deck. I met a memeber of > team rocket onmega as time passed and got this awesome pin thats white with this big R on it. > Ray > got one to and after puting it on his hat was constainly misten for a reporter.:~o I got a > Rockets sneak attack signed by her. She is the nicest person ive met in a very long time and > she > told me about the message baord of team roicket omega. The time passed and i met charwolf again. > This time we knew eachother so we talked some and i found out i get to stay at the Embassy suits > with him,Pokedad and another roommate. SWEET!!!!! $240 total ill pay but for the embassy its > worth it. I remember a quote from charwolf: "$320 a noight. All the hotels in san digo and > you > had to book us in the most expensive one" He said it in a joekful way and we all got a good > laugh at it even pokedad did who char said it to. The tourney started and i had to cut a battle > short due to we were moved to a set of tables so the tourney had room. I started a battkle with > a > gym leader and the bad part was we had that cut when the tables were moved again. Then after > round one we were moved yet AGAIN!!!!!! The judge apoligized and said this will be the last > time > we have to move you all. We ended up signing up for the 15+ tournet at that point. We got > boosters > for competing so for the $5 put in even last place left with 3 boosters whcih was ncie. Round > 3 > of teh younger kids tourneys ends and my buddies nick and devon are sitting pretty as they are > undefeted,. Devons typhlosion deck is now 9-0 in the day since he started playing it over 2 > hours > before the tourney. As i waited i went up to get a bag for my boxes and purchased this awseom > pokemon bookbag that had the name and the Gotta catch em all stiched on the front. It also hadd > pokemon all oevr it and a pokemoball hanging off the strap. I went back down after to find the > tourney is ready to begin and i get prepared to go in. Now the 15+ tourney > > I went 1-4 winning one and losing all the others. I beat a deck after almost winning by default. > My opponent came in a little late and was ready with only 5 seconds before i got a prize for a > penality. I never knew the deck because the fist turn it was 2 sabrina's abras and a revelation > misdevious's vs a rockets grimer so i hit him with abra and ended the game woith energy loop in > the 1st turn. In sadness for his loss i shoke his hand and said i dident expect you to pull a > rockets grimer out and wished him good luck in the next round. > > After that i went up against a macargo deck with entei in it and was wiped out. I almost held > her > off but it ended it when i thoght i had teh chance with sabrinas abra and she got her dark > energy > to use murkrows faint attack to kill it. It was funny,she got new sleeves and said she was used > to dark sleeves so she aciddently 3 times mistakened my cards for hers and since she was > unfarmiliar with her new gold sleeves i said i will enforce no penalty and let the battle go on > cutting the deck each time. > > Next i went up against a fierce dark charizard deck with macrgo and entei again. This deck threw > me down and burned my deck alive. It was called anarcky and i had no chance. My offense was > there > but the defence gave the offence almost no chance to strike. > > The last battle I held strong till the last 5 minuites when he pulled ahead 2 prizes and if it > wasent for rule breraking he would of allowed me to take 2 pirzes for no reason and tied because > we had a good battle going and time limit helped him win. Charwolf warned him he would call him > on > chaeting so he asked the judge if he could and obviously the judge denied his request so he won > but we finished it in fun and he won in 2 turns. Ohh well. > > I got 3 packs of revelation and pulled a entei,raichu and a holo Ho-Oh. Many people there > thought > Ho-Oh Holo that was a good pull for the bottom of the box packs. > Ray pulled a porygon 2 and a celibi holo and before i can say it,He said "No,I wont trade it". I > lauged and said i know you wouldent. That ended and we said goodbye to samantha,Team rocket > omega's member. She was very sweet and said she would keep in touch with both me and ray. She > ended 11th that day. As that moment ended we walked off and i lost contact with ray till he > stooped me 5 minuted later and said Marill,from Zeo is here . I looked over and tapped him on > the > sholder saying hi and introduced myself. I was happy to see a memebr of zeo there. He game me > one > of his last promos and autographed it. If he has the pic he got a pic of me looking at the card > next to ray who was surprized by the pic. He was a cool guy who talked with me and ray and > played > in the booster draft. I was happy to meet him. The time passes again and the boosterdraft was > about to pick up speed when suddenly the names of the top 8 coem in for the 10+under. nick > again > was 1st going in. I congradulated him and wished him good luck. Now the booster draft pickes > up > speed and we get 12 members so the owner says lets do this. In thanks he ask ray to run it. Now > ray runs his first ever pokemon booster draft. Due to not knowing the pods were set illegaly the > draft was not dci sanctioned. We draft and everyone does well in thier own right. As the > draft > ends i find devon wins the trip and was 1st place. As i draft i look over to see devon sitting > pretty and looking over at me shaking his head like he did it. After i drafted i ran to > johhnyblaze and found out tht nick won the qualifier and now i see that 4 more firefighters are > going to the WCSTS!!! Johnyblaze,his son nick,ben and his son devon. > I wont give specifcs of my failed 1-4 performance in teh booster draft but i will say this. My > only win was a bye and if i put physcic energy in the deck i would of won 2 battles. 4 rounds of > swiss and no finals. I pulled a stell magnemite and pulled off finding the steel magneton in the > draft that someone passed and a 2nd person also did. I was doing well just the magneton fell > through when 2 firedecks nailed it. Ray went right above me in wins going even with 2 wins one > against me and the bye. Charwolf Won it with an undefeated record. He got 12 packs,2 > revelation > and the rest discovery/genesis mix. The day finally ended when i missed saying goodbye to blaze > and the crew but i did say goodbye to marill and stated this quote: "When you get back to > zeo,Tell > purity and ech me and ray said hi from milford" We left after the draft ended and we walked up > to > say goodbye to charwolf. He said ill talk to you both later and i said to him,Ill see you in san > digo! He said yeah and ill email you soon. We both left with smiles. Like a gym leader told me > that day:"Nomatter what happends,even if you lose every bettle as long as you have fun and leave > with a smile the fustration will melt away" Afterwards me and ray decided to find diner 99 the > owner told us about. Trying to find it was the hard part We got lost 3 times trying to find it. > I > accidently made an error that send up in a big O too the opposite side of milford. When we > found > ourway back we found we made it up on to the opposite side of main street and got back to Tj's > to > ask where it was again and he said im going there. Follow my car. That failed when a stop light > backed us up and we lost him so finally ray said lets go this way and the first sensible > restaurarnt we find we will eat at. We found Applebee's down the road and went in for dinner. It > was a very beautiful clean restaurant and the staff were very friendly. The meal was good and > ray > again got pictures of the resturant and the waitress. The dinner was well and the night ended > with > ray driving back and me sleeping as usual. All in all i had more fun here then in syracuse. > Thanks > to all the Tj's collectibles staff for putting on this great qualifier and if i ever come back > to > milford again ill surelyt stop by your store.