Hello!

Another year has passed and it was time for us to participate in this year’s SpringFest Neo-Showdown! We chose to repeat last year’s location with another trip to Huddersfield as we haven’t had the chance to get a qualifier in Portugal.

Unfortunately I couldn’t repeat the feat of winning, but I still got into the top 8!

This year, me and Tiago went to UK with two friends from Portugal, Beatriz and Diogo (we had already been together at Worlds where Diogo got second place with his AOT Titans deck

The choices for our decks were based on what we tested on our locals and the results we were getting from the other qualifiers around the world.

We concluded AOT was one of the best options in the current english meta, so both Tiago and Diogo took theirs corps builds (slightly different for each other to accommodate their play styles).

For me the choice was clear: I still think PD is one of the best sets, I’m really used to it, and I think the set is a little underrated by some: last year it won most of the tournaments in the Neo-Showdown and this year it still shows great results even when there are more great options (like AOT, CG, and better builds of Fate and SAO). I took a green Madoka build to Worlds but it didn’t go so well. I love Homura but I don’t think the deck was consistent enough.

Beatriz chose to go with her Cinderella Girls deck, a blue based build, with Minami and Ranko combos. The doubt for her was between taking CG or Nisekoi but she loves CG series and the deck is great, so she went with it.

ROUND 1 – MADOKA

I was paired with a really nice girl with a green Madoka build – it was very close to my Worlds build so I knew the deck well. My deck went really well as I made the soundless voice combo three turns in a row as soon as I got to level 1. She couldn’t pass my wall and kept losing her characters, losing hand advantage and not being able to fill her stage on subsequent turns. Finally at level 3 she clock shoots one of my Len with her Demon Homura, but I was still really behind in damage. Next turn all her climaxes were out of the deck and I pushed the final damage.

1 – 0

ROUND 2 – KANCOLLE

This time I was going against Kancolle. I knew Kancolle really well too, we have the set collection and we know the usual builds (and some unusual ones): I was already paying attention to see if it was a Shimakaze or a Haguro build, so I could adjust my game. If it was the first one I’d have to try to level up first, if it was Haguro I’d just soul rush it from the start. I saw one of the Shimakaze climaxes and no blue so I kept it really slow at the start. I passed one of my turns so he couldn’t level up, and when it wasn’t possible to pass anymore I just rushed him and made him go directly to level 2. He was still able to use Shimakaze once, but it was too little too late. He levelled up to level 3 with just 2 stock, so no problem facing one Musashi when I was really behind on damage.

2 – 0

At this point, me, Tiago and Diogo were both 2-0 , and we were fearing that we had to face each other soon, our fears were right as they played each other on the next round . I was first paired at table 1 with Max Lawrence. Last year I was able to win against him on the top 4, and I knew his Madoka build really well, but he’s a great player ( who went second on this year Worlds European Continental ) so it was going to be a really challenging match, but there was a mistake with the pairings and they needed to re-pair the round, so my opponent was changed. Maybe next time we’ll play again!

Tiago and Diogo got stuck with each other anyway…

ROUND 3 – IDOLM@STER – CINDERELLA GIRLS

This round I was paired against a yellow build of Cinderella Girls. I was more used to play against the blue build, so I didn’t know the yellow build that well, but it didn’t raise any problems against my deck. Soundless Voice went too well again!

3-0

ROUND 4 – PROJECT DIVA

Round 4 was a mirror match! Another Soundless Voice, but a full yellow Rin/Len build. This was a really really close match! On the last attack I needed to give 3 damage, and I went for a frontal attack to 3 and then triggered +2 soul and I was like “OK, no way he won’t cancel that now”, but he took the 5 damage and I won the round.

4-0

Just two more rounds and I needed to win at least one to guarantee going to top 8.

ROUND 5 – IDOLM@STER – CINDERELLA GIRLS

Another cinderella girls deck, this time it was a red build.

And this time it didn’t go so well. My Lens lost their power boost too soon and at the start of his level 2 he played the early level Anzu . He was able to keep attacking and killing my characters and I was my hand was decreasing fast. (That’s the main problem of the deck when it doesn’t go well)

4-1, my first game loss.

And then the last Round ..

ROUND 6 – SWORD ART ONLINE

I was paired up against who would be this year’s winner of the Huddersfield Neo-Showdown – Luke Biggs. I knew the usual SAO build after the new set, but Yuuki did a good job compressing the deck and I clocked a card to draw two climaxes to my hand two turns in a row and refreshed with a really poor deck.

4-2 😦

Fortunately, as I played with Luke, who just had victories, my tiebreak score was high enough to still get into the top 8!

TOP 8

But as the 8th place I was going to play with Luke again!! OMG REMATCH. This time the game was going really nice for me. I chose to soul rush at the start of game before he had time to compress the deck with Yuuki’s abilitiy. The plan was going really well but on the last turn I messed up the order of attacks and wasn’t able to give one last damage… At 3/6 with his deck at the end he was able to play one Sinon to heal and take the top4 from me.

Luke won the rest of the games finishing the tournament undefeated.

For the rest of us, Diogo got 4-2 too, but his tiebreak score was lower so he got 10th place (He lost the round earlier with Tiago (AOT corps mirror match) and the round with the same CG player I lost at round 5, Lewis Marshall, who took the 3rd place for the tournament.

Tiago went 3-3, with the best tiebreaker for the players with 9 points. He lost to Max Lawrence with Madoka, an AOT titan build and Kill la Kill. He won the rounds against another Titan build, another Madoka (Gemma, who went to the top 8 and actually only lost to him before top 8 cut) and the AOT corps build of Diogo. Tiago got 16th place.

Beatriz wasn’t so lucky, as she was paired with the SAO winner on the first round and lost. She got 3-3 too but with not so good tie breakers as she lost the first 2 rounds. Anyway she got 24th place, the middle of the table as there where 45 players total.

TOP 8 was : SAO, 2 AOT (1 corps, 1 titans), 1 CG, 2 Madoka 1 LL, 1 PD

TOP 4 in order: SAO, AOT (corps), CG (red), AOT (titans)

We loved participating in these types of tournaments and hope to see you all at a still undecided Worlds qualifier location! We also are hoping for the chance to have these kinds qualifiers in Portugal again, so other also great players here can share this awesome experience!

Thanks to IQ Games for providing the space for this great tournament! You are always awesome organisers.

Thanks to the Bushiroad staff present at the tournament, providing a great playing environment for all of us!

And thanks to all the players present, it’s always really nice to see awesome people again!

P.S. Thank you for the free distribution of salt when needed!! Tears are super salty and we needed to replenish the salt in our bodies.