10 years of competitive Pokémon TCG: The World Champion Rises

Hello everyone!


I feel like I have already written a LOT about my history in Pokémon TCG, but heck, I’m not even 1/3 way through! Writing these entries really make me think about how long I have really been

Back in the day this card was the BCIF.

playing Pokémon TCG and how big part of my life has it always been. Even though it’s “just” a trading card game!

Anyways, as always, before going reading this entry, remember to read the previous ones, or otherwise you will be missing out some key things in this entry as well. You can find the previous parts of this series from the links below.

- 2004
- 2005

Before going to the next season, let’s get a quick recap where I’m at now. It’s autumn 2005 and I’m 14-years old. I just came back from Worlds with a top32 placement by losing bitterly to bad luck and misplaying. Winds of changes are coming to Pokémon TCG scene of Finland as Marko U. is taking over as the Admin of Pokémon TCG and Finland is just about to get a bunch of new leagues and its own Pokémon TCG forum. So, what’s next?

Finnish forums for Pokémon TCG and the Local Distributor engagement



The autumn went very fast Pokémon-wise. Hyvinkää league got a lot of new member as we made an article about my Worlds Championships run to our local newspaper. Suddenly we had over 30 members in our league and the whole league room was packed of people! However, soon all of them disappeared and we were quickly just a league of 6-8 people. These “original” Hyvinkää players as we like to call them became all very good friends (and some even more than friends since we had two girls in there as well). 

The reason for the decreasing number of players was that my big brother who ran the league normally was an exchange student in Germany the whole year. He pretty much was the face of the league and did all the socializing stuff, while I just played the game. Since my noobish social manners back then, I was almost able to destroy the whole league. On the other hand, we have agreed that if this year never happened, we wouldn’t have never gotten as good in this game as we got. When there were no “random” players around, everyone weas very serious about the game and competition and this year all of us developed as players more than I could have ever imagined.

Our league was going weak, but as Marko established his own league to his home town, more and more people started playing the game all over Finland.

In December 2005, Marko broke down BIG news. Finland would be getting its own Pokémon Forums that are mainly for Pokémon TCG. It was funded by our Local Distributor. This was one of the biggest steps in the history of Finnish Pokémon TCG, because the website was pokemon.fi (because it was an official site) and the potential to grow Pokémon TCG with the website was almost unlimited.

When the forums were established a lot of people suddenly found Pokémon TCG again and a lot of new interest was gathered towards new leagues. However, as finding an adult for the leagues was difficult, not that many leagues were established.

There were more tournaments than ever before in Finland and them all were organized by our new Admin now. I was still playing in Seniors, but I was soon to turn 15, which would make me a Masters player (yes you could change age groups DURING seasons back then). I played all kinds of fun decks like ZRE and Jynx(Unseen Forces)/Wobbuffet(Legend Maker), but eventually still ended up winning all the tournaments I played in.

I was on a huge roll, but I still felt unsure about National Championships. The game had gotten a lot bigger around Finland and I knew, I couldn’t underestimate anyone this time. I had to bring the big guns to Nationals. I even put my “National Championships decklist” to our Pokémon forums that year, if someone would really buy that I would be cocky enough to reveal my Nationals decklist. And in the end someone really bought it, because they teched against my supposed-to-be-National Championship deck. I thought I was clever. In hindsight, I was just a stupid kid.


Finnish National Championships 2006


Any old school players here? I’m sure you could guess what I was going to play in the Nationals, if I was aiming at victory. I know some of you guessed correctly – it was the BDIF of that season – LBS (stands for Lugia EX/Blastoise EX/Steelix EX). Here’s my National list (about).

Pokemon :

3x Jirachi DX
3x Squirtle RG
2x Wartortle
3x Blastoise ex
2x Onix UF
2x Steelix ex
2x Pidgey RG
1x Pidgeotto RG
2x Pidgeot RG
1x Lugia ex
1x Latias*
=22

Trainer:

4x Rare Candy
2x Copycat
2x Rocket’s Admin
3x Steven's Advice
1x Celio’s Network
3x Professor Elm's Training Method
2x Pokémon Retriever
1x Warp Point
1x Switch
1x Swoop Teleporter
2x Island Cave
2x Power Tree
=24

Energy :

9x Water Energy
3x Holon's Magneton
2x Holon's Electrode
=14

It was sick expensive and sick good. So naturally I loaned over half of the cards from Marko since I have always had very limited card resources. Anyways, to the tournament. It’s good to mention that my big brother came back from Germany to Finland just for few days, so he could playtest with me and attend to Nationals himself.

NOTE: I had turned 15 in April and Nats were on May, so I was finally a Masters division player and this was the first Nationals when we had 3 age groups. Travel awards were given for the winners of Seniors and Masters. I think we had total of 50-60 players.

1. Bye

 I got a bye, because I had won everything that season from Regionals to Cities.
1-0


2. Round Don’t remember

You can’t blame me. I have played far too much Pokémon, so I could remember every single game I played!
2-0


3. Round My big brother (Arcanine EX/Ludicolo)

My big brother always loses to me. I don’t really get it why. Probably, because he doesn’t even want to beat me? That’s probably it. Also, the match-up was favorable for me.
3-0


4. Round Metagross(Deoxys)/Scizor EX (I think it was called SMP)

SMP was one of the other decks that did very well throughout the season. However, the difference was that Blastoise could energy accelerate unlimited amounts of energy. This match-up is like Blastoise/Keldeo EX vs Eelektrik without Rayquaza EX with the difference being that Metagross is a stage2 Pokémon, not a stage1 Pokémon like Eelektrik. Probably the biggest difference maker was that Lugia EX and Latias* could OHKO his Pokémon, but there was nothing in his deck ,which could OHKO my Pokémon. The match-up is highly favorable for LBS and no wonder, because LBS was the BDIF, unless it was directly countered.
4-0

5. Round Nidoqueen/Pidgeot

This match-up is very tough for LBS, because Nidoqueen is very consistent and they can Poison you making Blastoise and Jirachi ineffective. Gladly, in this match, the Nidoqueen player didn’t get a T1 Nidoqueen, so I was safe from the Special Conditions in the early game. This gave me enough time to set-up. And when LBS gets it set-up, there was nothing that could stop it. It hits 200. Every turn. For the rest of the game.
5-0


6. Round Medicham EX/Espeon EX

I hadn’t tested the match-up, so I was extremely concerned about the game. Thankfully I was already through thanks to 5-0, so all I had to do was to from a game plan against the deck. He went first, got a T2 Medicham and I found myself in a VERY bad spot, because all of my set-up was based on Poké-Powers. I should have run at least one of the other Jirachis (from Hidden Legends), but for some reason I didn’t. The Espeon EX tech finished the game as he was able to devolve my Blastoise EX, which I had to evolve by using Rare Candy. Even though the game was very even, I felt like I was being crushed.
5-1


Top8 SMP

1. & 2. Game

To be honest, I don’t have any picture at all about these games. I remember that there was nothing surprising happening. Compared to the current game, the games back then were so much slower that not even a bad set-up screwed your games if you knew how to make a comeback. And as the match-up was favorable for me and I pretty much knew, which string I needed to pull in order to win the game, I was able to win 2-0.
7-1(2-0)

Top4 Nidoqueen/Pidgeot

1. & 2. Game

I know these games aren’t the usual tournament report style reports, but as I don’t remember the games very well, there is nothing I can do to it. I don’t remember anything about the first game, but I remember the 2^nd game, because it was one of the funniest set ups I have ever seen in this format.

As I won the first game, he gets to decide who goes first. Well, surprisingly he decided to go first (you weren’t able to use Supporters in the very first turn of the game back then) and starts with Nidoran. Rare Candy. Nidoqueen. Celio’s Network, Pidgey, Rare candy, Pidgeot (yes you couid Rare Candy in T1). I just stared at his set-up as I only had Lugia EX as the active Pokémon. Well, he proceeds Poisoning me with Nidoqueen and it’s my turn. I topdeck a Candy and look at my hand for a while. I use Celio for Squirtle, Rare Candy, Blastoise EX. Attach 3 energy to Lugia EX and hit 200 in T1. Two broken set-ups in a same game, pretty ironic. Anyway, as I am able to get the Lugia EX back eventually with Pokemon retriever, I just roll through is Pokémon as set upping a basic is easier than set upping Nidoqueen every time.
9-1(2-0)


My big brother was also playing in top4, which I was very surprised of. Usually he does very well in the Swiss rounds, but just loses his momentum in the top cut. This time was different. I couldn’t watch his game, but eventually noticed that he in fact won the game. Which meant that the finals would be me vs. my big brother.


Finals My big brother Ludicolo/Arcanine EX

Long story short, I guess my big brother has won me once in a tournament during the 10-year span we have been playing. And no, it wasn’t in my most important game of 2006. However, due to one very horrible start, he was able to get one win from me.
11-2 (2-1)


Woot! Another National Champioship! And to be honest, this felt better than last year, because last year I only won, because of my huge luck and not due to my skill or deck. However, this year was different and I really felt like I deserved the win, because of my hard work I had put into the preparation and since there were some very good games along the tournament.

On a side note, Seniors WEREN’T won by Miska. In fact, Miska ended up being third in the Seniors division as he played a fun deck I made, which included Weezing/Magcargos/Rhydon/Lanturn and a bunch of Swoop Teleporters. It was super fun anti-metagame deck to play and I have no idea, why I didn’t play it at Worlds. Probably, because I wasn’t confident enough with my rogue building skills back then even though I should have been. The seniors were won by Eetu, who played MetaNite - one year before it became very popular. And he was able to defeat LBS in the finals! In the end, all the 3 age groups were won by Hyvinkää players, even though our league size was very small.




The “mad” summer


I have talked about this summer in my Underground articles as a warning. I was 15-years old, so I had nothing else to do but to referee some soccer games every now and then in the evenings (that was my summer job). So, what did I do for the rest of the day? Played Pokémon TCG of course! And lot of it. I’m not exaggerating when I say, I played at least 8 hours a day, EVERY DAY. During the whole freaking summer. You do the math. I even recorded the results of every game. I was on the top of my game. Or so I thought…



Worlds Championships 2006


Worlds were in Anaheim this year. I really liked the place and would like to see Worlds again there some year. Team Finland included 4-5 Seniors Players, 2 Juniors and 3 Masters including me and my big brother. The third player was Sami G, who in my opinion is one of the best Finnish players who have ever played the game, but unfortunately he quit the game after SP Pokémon took over. My big brother played LBS, Sami played Metagross d/Electrode EX/Rayquaza* and I played…

Pokémon:

4× Mew ex   
4× Electrike  
3× Manectric ex                 
1× Roselia    
1× Deoxys ex                     
1× Girafarig
=14               
                     
Trainer:

4× Rocket's Admin             
4× Professor Elm's Training Method        
2× Mary's Request              
3× Scott        
3× TV Reporter
4× Dual Ball
4x Energy Removal 2
1× Cursed Stone                 
1× Switch
1x Warp Point                    
3× Battle Frontier
=30               

Energy:

10× Lightning Energy         
4× Multi Energy
2× Holon's Magneton
=16


If you are familiar with the history, you know that Jason Klaczynski won the Worlds with the very same deck this year. My list ended up being about 5-6 cards different from his. However, the difference between our results was just like night and day. The idea of the deck was to get T2 Disconnect (Zebstrika’s attack, you know) and attack with Mew EX or Manectric EX. Battle Frontier stopped most Power’s in the game and Cursed Stone did damage to all the Pokémon in play with Poké-Powers. The tech Pokémon in the deck were staple techs that everyone run.

So, yeah I was pumped up, excited and confident on my deck. In hindsight my list was also very similar to the Worlds winning deck and even more consistent (no Regirock EX). So everything will go well, right? You have no idea…



1. Round (Rock-Lock)

This was against a Japanese player. It was my first game against Japanese player ever, so I was really nervous. Thankfully, I had a decent set-up with T2 Manectric EX going. The only thing I missed was Battle Frontier. He was able to get dark Tyranitar active in T1 before I was able to Disconnect, which made my life very difficult, but as I hit Energy Removal 2 heads (Crushing Hammer), I was able to prevent him from attacking in T2 (Manectric EX was weak to Tyranitar, so it would have been the game, if I didn’t hit heads). From that point onwards, I was finally able to 3HKO the Dark Tyranitar and continue Disconnecting throughout the rest of the game. It was pretty easy win after I was able to kill the first Dark Tyranitar, because he ran a lot of Balls in his Rock-Lock, but if I hadn’t been able to hit the ER2 heads in the first turn, I would have probably lost the game. Pretty rough.
1-0


2. Round (Arcanine EX/Lunarock)

This was against a French opponent. This is the game, which pretty much set the tone for the rest of the tournament. This game is probably the most legendary one and best known among Finnish player due to my opening hand. My opening hand was Speed Deoxys EX and 6 energy cards. I mean, that shouldn’t even be possible with this deck! Well, it sure was…Well, nonetheless I topdecked Dual ball, which gave me Roselia, which helped me to buy some time and somehow miraculousy I won the game, wtf. I still have no idea how I was able to win this game, because my opening hand was… TERRIBLE.

2-0  

3. Round (LBS)

My opponent was from Argentina. This is an interesting game in my Worlds history, because I tend to face an Argentinian player in every tournament and this is the only time I have lost to Argentinian player. I usually have good luck against them. After surviving the most horrendous opening hand in my Pokémon TCG history (ok, it wasn’t the worst, because the worst was drawn in 2011, but it’s not that time yet), I knew I would have a very good chance in this match-up. LBS was my most tested match-up and it was extremely good. Well, he goes first and gets a T1 Blastoise with 3 energy MEW EX in the active spot. My hand doesn’t have a supporter, but I do have 2 Eelctrikes and 1 Mew EX and 2 Dual Balls. Well, that’s why Roselia is for, you can’t really go T1 Blastoise against Mewtric, because the Roselia will drag the Blastoise active and it’s GG after that (Especially since he only had 2 cards in his hand). I flip Dual Ball – double tails. seoncd Dual Ball…Tails…Heads! I search for the Roselia. Aaaaand it’s prized. What a bummer. Well, there is nothing I can do, because I don’t have a supporter, so I try to Foresight with Girafarig (nothing in my next 5cards), so I just got squashed like a bug.
2-1  

4. Round (MetaNite)

This was against a Mexican player. MetaNite is probably the most autowin match-up of all for this deck. Manectric EX has Metal resistance. They are full of stage2 Pokémon, which are either stopped by Battle Frontier or Damaged by Cursed Stone. I don’t think you can get more autowin from this. Well, I open with Girafarig and Dual Ball and Mary’s request. I draw nothing from Mary and flip Dual tails from Girafair. I believe I got something like T6 Disconnect in this game. Even though I said that the game was slower than before, failing the game plan completely doesn’t help you to win. The interesting thing in this and the remaining matches was that I always opened with the 3 techs, not with my 8 main starters. These starts combined to horrible opening hands made me lose this and…
2-2

5. Round (LBS)

…Lots of other games. This game was against Anna Schipper from The Netherlands. I remember this, because I got the revenge of this game 3 years later, lol. In this game my set-up was good, but somehow she was able to pull off a Blastoise before me getting Disconnect. After that the game went like this. She draws 2 prizes, I N her to 4, she draws counter stadium and energy for Lugia EX, she draws 20 more prizes, I use Roselia and N her to 2, she draws Switch and KOs my Roselia. 1 N her to 1 and she draws Holon’s Electrode and Water Energy from the 1 card N + turn card (i.e. 150 damage with Latias*). The funny part in this game was that everything went according to my game plan except the Blastoise getting to play, but she still draw everything from her about 30 card deck no matter how much I N’d her. It was really frustrating. Oh yes, and N = Rocket’s Admin back in the day.
2-3   

6. Round (LudiCargo)

When you are facing a deck you played in the last year’s Worlds, you know something hasn’t gone right. This opponent was from the U.S. and his deck worked about as well as mine. With the exception that his deck actually worked! I try to buy time by Poisoning Magcargo, but he draws Switch /Warp Point every time I do so. It was one of those days when you draw nothing and it feels like your opponents draw into anything.
2-4

7. Round (DragTrode)

This deck also saw its best days last season. Once again an U.S. Player. He starts with Rocket’s Sneasel EX and goes first. Hits my active Roselia for 20 with Drag Off. I look at my hand. 3 Prof Elm’s Training Method, 2 Manectric EX, 1 Holon’s Electrode, 1 Battle Frontier. No, it wasn’t funny anymore at that point. I pass, he proceeds benching 3 Pokémon and play R Energy for the KO. My quickest loss in the World Championships history until Tord Reklev donked me in the first turn of the game last year!
2-5

8. Round (MetaNite)

Some people would have dropped ages ago, but I believe that if you are going to Worlds, you better play there to the bitter end. There are so much people that would do anything just in order to compete at Worlds and I don’t see a point of 1-3 dropping, just because you can’t get through anymore. Anyways, just to make things more awkward, my deck decided that it’s a good idea to troll me since it’s the last round of the tournament and no harm can be done (i.e. I can’t get to the top cut). I start the game and get T2 Disconnect with Battle Frontier in play. He never gets a single prize. Irony at its best…
3-5


Moral of the story: It doesn’t matter if you test 100, 200 or over 9000 games. Worlds’ Swiss rounds are just 8 random games among the myriad of games you play and there is no controlling whether the deck does or doesn’t work in those 8 games.

Also, interesting fact. This was the last year that Worlds’ had 8 rounds of Swiss, which I think is a sad thing. 8 Swiss rounds is IMO the perfect number, because all the players with 6-2 get through.


The Story of the First European World Champion(?!)

My tournament was over and I was very frustrated. My big brother went 5-3 and Sami went 3-5 as well. Our Seniors competitors had to face each other in the Swiss rounds and Miska was one to lose that game. However, in top32 we had one in Seniors and 1 in Juniors – Miska and one of Marko’s kids, which name I don’t remember.

Miska played is infamous LunaRock deck. Which was built by me and Marko. At one point in the testing, Miska told us that “This Holon Engine doesn’t work here”. We decided to just stare him down. And now he was in top32 in the Worlds with LunaRock that –surprisesurprise – had Holon Engine in it. I was there cheering for Miska from top16 onwards. I wasn’t cheering from T32 onwards, because I was sure he was going to lose since he hadn’t ever won anything xD Anyways, here’s the epic rundown of Miska’s top cut.

Top32 LBS

Miska wins 2-1, because the time runs out.

Top16 (against Bobby Malec, who defeated me in the top32 last year)

For this I have a special treat for you. A direct quote from Bobby’s own Worlds report!

Game 1: This takes awhile, I get stoise but never actually get a chance to use it. I still got close on prizes but I lost this one fairly and completely, GG

Game 2: I looked at my hand and thought, ugh, GG! I had 6 pokemon and a switch. My turns take about 5 seconds each, I'm just drawing and saying pass. After giving up about 4 prizes, I topdeck an admin, play squirtle candy stoise, 4 energy, switch, and admin. I come back tremendously from there and win on prizes. GG

Game 3: The beginning was similar to that of game 2, except my hand was much more reasonable. It was 2-2 in prizes nearing the end of the hour, and here's where my fun ruling happens. He has absolutely nothing except the one lunatone thats attacking me, and I need one more energy to attack with stoise. So first I play power tree, and then say "I'm checking my discard," noticing no waters in my discard pile. So having nothing else in my hand I could afford to lose, I discard the water and adventurer, grabbing the extra water, then I say "I'll use power tree," and my opponents hand shoots in the air and he brings the judge over, saying I can't use power tree because I've already used it. So the judges talk for a few seconds and decide that I don't get to use the tree. That could have effectively won me the game, since after that he hit some crucial flips and KO'd me with the same lunatone, and I would have only had to take out one more pokemon, which wasn't hard in my position. Oh well, what's done's done, I kept playing and was still within a few cards of winning. In the end I hit tails on burn and gave him his last prize. Great games.
/end report

A VERY interesting fact about the Power Tree ruling. It was the first time something like that happened and they had to bring the tournament head judge to rule it. A year later, it was revised that you can’t even use Power Tree, if you don’t have energy in your discard pile, so with that ruling Bobby would have been able to use the Power Tree. And as I was watching the game, I can say it made all the difference in the game. Also, have to love Miska’s strategy of using Hyper Beam (Crushing Hammer as an attack) against Blastoise decks… Well, good for Miska!


Top8 LBS (Against Elissa Hill)

Whoa, Miska is in a hot LBS streak! And just like for the top8 game, I have an authentic version from the Elissa’s report as well. It’s the real deal, just try to understand it…

top 8: FINLAND lunasol guy

game 1: my starting hand: 1 castform, 4 water energy (of the SEVEN in my deck. sheesh), 1 power tree, 1 retriever. i start off with castform (obv) and...I DRAW A....power tree. DOESN'T. i lose 3rd turn ='(

game 2: i had nothing like, teh whole game. but i managed to win SOMEHOW, dont ask me how because im prettttttyyyy sure he should've won, but hey w/e. this game i went first and i passed. he foresights himself..um...welll ooookk....mayb i have a mentor or something right?
next turn, i draw, i pass, he foresights himself again. O_o ...ok then.
anywayz, i went attacking wartortle cuz its obv the play and evolved and rained for my last prize or something.

game 3: ughhhhhhh i mean, he SHOULD win this game right i mean i have nothing, but towards the end it comes down to our last few prizes. he admins me down to 3 and i get a rare candy, blastoise, water. i have a wartortle active w/ a castform. all i need to basically win (he'd have nothing, i could 1hit ko everything he has) is to topdeck a water. what does he do? he goes attacking solrock???@!@??!?!?@111?!?! WHATT?!?!?!! he flips *heads* UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH i hate life again. ><
guess what i topdeck. a holon's magnemite. -_-
so ya that was pretty sad, and i was liek UGH ONE FLIP AWAY FROM HAWAII, NOOOOO A $4000 FLIP HOW SAD. but i still did a lot better than i thought i would, so oh well. bobby lost for looking through his discard so i guess thats a little worse than losing on a $4000 flip lolllz.


As you can see, Miska’s ultimate strategy – using Hyper Beam to win games was in full works once again. I think the reason why Miska won the Worlds with Lunarock, but it didn’t succeed in the other age divisions was that they played it incorrectly. MIska very well proved that the more you flip with LunaRock, the better the deck is!

Top4 LBS (Surprise surprise)

These games were different. Miska just ran over him in about 30 minutes. 2-0


Finals David Booij (Netherlands! Flariados)

This was a very interesting game. Do you know why? Because whoever won the match, would be the first not Japanese or U.S. Player to win World Championship! All the 3 games were mad tough, but and it came down to time once again.

I always remember how Miska was in the lead in the 3^rd game. His head turns slowly to the screen, which shows that there is under 5 minutes left to play (there was no + 3 turns when time is called back then). And you know what? He stares at the screen for 10 seconds…Well, soon the time is called, Miska is the FIRST EUROPEAN WORLD CHAMPION EVER!!! We went pretty much crazy about that. And when landing to the airport, Miska got to the National television just like any sports star! It was pretty cool. Once I could find it from Youtube, but now I can’t seem to find it. Someone can post it to comments if they can find it.

Anyways, after my huge upset in the Worlds and due to Miska’s success, I was more excited about the next season than ever! And to think that Worlds would be in Hawaii. That makes thing even more exciting!

I decided I would put everything for the next season and wouldn’t be disappointed, but it was soon clear that the season 2006-2007 was the most controversial in the history of Pokémon TCG. So, if you thought the way Miska won was controversial, be sure check out my next story! The 2006-2007 season was unbelievable from the international point of view.  


Anyways, as the sugar on the bottom of the entry, I’ll show you some of the (in my opinion) most hilarious comments that were caused by Miska winning Worlds and certain players along the way.

“As the Judge of your Lunasol match I gotta tell you, without being bias-I hated to keep seeing the flips hit heads. You had the match, it was yours for the taking “


“FINLAND FTW?

Funny, you and bobby both got pwned by the same person AND the same card.
You should've stopped that guy, now he can take over the world!
Seriously. Has anyone looked at that guy's face in the t8 picture? HE'S EVIL.”

” SOLROCK FTL!! Who uses hyper beam anyway??”

” Man, I wished I got to watch that guy play. =( His dice rolling skills must have been at the level of Japanese.”

“Dude, that Miska guy, he looks weird. =O”



Conclusion

Once again, this turned out to be as long as some of my UG articles, but I hope it wasn’t too long a story. And I also feel like I wouldn’t do any justice for the history of my Pokémon TCG career, if these weren’t this long. A lot happens in a year and not everything fits even into 5000 words.

It’s only 5 days for my Nationals!!! (They are on Sunday). I hope I’ll be able to do one more blog post before it, so I can pour all my scrambling thoughts on it. I’m more nervous than in long time before Nationals!

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment on anything! I hope this was an entertaining read and that you had a laugh or two!

Thanks for reading!