What I did right

I’ve learned from my mistakes

This isn’t even just Worlds specific. The entire journey from my first locals until after Worlds and onwards. Improving in a game like FFTCG, or anything strategic really takes a great deal of concentrated effort in reflection to grow.

It’s not just binary CP value, or statistical learning, hedging and variance either. There’s complicated rules, an ever-changing metagame. There’s different kinds of players, subtle reads, whether it’s concious or subconscious. There’s things like tilt and nerves which are really important to mitigate. Avoiding things like trying to match another players pace, or not letting yourself be rattled by it and not being afraid to involve judges are just good things to do in general.

Overall, your mental approach to the game is what will make or break you as a competitive player. When you lose a game, or miss top cut in a tournament do you question why, or do you look for excuses? It’s very far from being that black and white, but there’s loads of grey in between.

I had fun!

Regardless of my performance, the event was a blast and as much as my attention was darting around the different tables and wanting to comment on things that were happening in games, I had to stifle my excitement a little bit so as not to cause issues.

I met so many amazing people and had so much fun playing random games after day 1 had finished as well. Some brief Gunslinger matches, a bunch of drafting. Going to the Pub with players from all around the world on two different occasions. I’ve made connections with amazing people I probably otherwise wouldn’t have.

I made the most of the opportunity

I’ve never so much as left Australia before in my life, hell I’ve barely left the bubble of Melbourne which I call home. I might have sent myself broke in the process, but travelling to the other side of the Globe is something I never would have branched out to do on my own without this opportunity. I traveled a little bit around Europe and saw different countries, learned about different cultures and did all of the typical touristy stuff. I got lost a bunch, I met and talked to people from all around Europe and further abroad. I also got to see what a Winter Christmas looks like for the first time.

I didn’t get angry at other people, or down on myself for doing poorly

I could have done better, for a lot of the reasons I’ve already mentioned in this article and while a lot of that is in hindsight, it’s an easy trap to fall into beating yourself up. Make mistakes, learn from them, grow.

As an example: I could be salty about my round 1 games against Okimoto for sure if I was that way inclined. I opened fire into a mostly blind Aulstyne game 1 which was a silly mistake on my part. In game 2. I played Wind and attacked into 4 EX against him on Earth/Wind while I was struggling to find backups which definitely blows.

I was just happy to be a part of the experience. It was a fast round 1 and some other guys finished early. Instead of being a grump following the game, I actually sat with Okimoto and Jordan D for a while picking their brains about the games, asking what they would do in that situation etc.

That’s all just part of the game, people make mistakes and variance can stack up in some really unfavourable ways sometimes. Good players should be taking advantage of both their opponents mistakes and skewed variance, they also shouldn’t be getting overly upset by it when on the receiving end.

On that note, there was a lot that seemed excessive in Alex’s game against Jamie in the finals for the last couple of turns while Alex was playing Ice. His position was really strong and he had options to close the game. Some people might see it as slow rolling, others might view it as bad manners and others might just plainly state that how Alex played there was wrong and how they would have done it better. You should always look to get as far ahead as possible, until you’re absolutely certain you can close a game especially when the stakes are that high. But it’s a good rule of thumb to always stick to. When you’re ahead, get further ahead.

Also, I totally scrubbed out on purpose to maintain the competitive integrity for Worlds, since I got the Bye in round 2.

In closing

I already did make a post to gush about the event on the old Facebook and this isn’t so much an event report as much as it is reflection and sharing what I’ve learned, so I’ll leave the formalities aside for now. Just know that I really appreciate all of your support and I’m always looking forward to what FFTCG has to bring in the future!

I hope that despite my result, my reflection and ramblings can offer some insight for your own improvement moving forward. It’s been a wild learning curve for me!