Italian Championship 2015 VGC
The last European national championship of the season took place from June 13 to 14 at the Mediolanum Forum in Milan. Francesco Pardini gave Italy a title and stopped the German wave at the same time, a country that had won two consecutive national championships. In 3 finals, the Germans occupied 4 places as well as 8 places in the 6 semi-finals, which means that the scene is set for Boston.
401 players were registered in the Masters category, slightly fewer than in Germany and England. The dice are not all cast for qualification to the World Championships in Boston from August 21 to 23, since the Bochum Regional on June 27 could shake up the rankings. Some European players could even participate in the United States Championship from July 3 to 5, since there is no nationality restriction as is the case for the card game.
Francesco Pardini, 2015 Italian champion
The final ended in a strange way in this 2015 Italian Championship.
With one round all, we expected an extremely tense third and final round during this final between the Italian Francesco Pardini and the German Dominic Scheffler. It was not lacking since everything was played out in a final duel between Francesco’s Blighter with only 1 HP (thanks to the Force Belt) and Dominic’s paralyzed Aegislash. To win, the Italian had to be content with using Shelter during the turns where the Aegislash attacked since it adopted its assault form. Dominic had to cross his fingers so as not to suffer the 25% of Parahaxx (Pokémon that does not attack because of paralysis). However, during Dominic’s only opportunity, the latter surprisingly used Royal Shield and was therefore unable to eliminate the opposing Blighter, which allowed the latter to use Sabotage twice and therefore win this final.
Many questions surrounding this final and certainly disappointment on the part of the German player who had nevertheless reached the final by suffering a little too often from the luck of his opponents, notably in the semi-final against a Mega-Drattak with Vantardise.
Top 16 of the Italian Championship 2015
After a disastrous English Championship for the French in the Masters category, we were expecting a French revolt to hope for at least a qualification for the World Championships next August. It was a miss since no French player made it to the Top Cut, the results were even generally very bad. Nothing to get their teeth into for all French speakers since the Swiss players suffered the same fate.
There is still hope for a handful of French players since several of them could go to the United States Championship in a few weeks.
The Top Cut featured many well-known players as many of them have already reached the Top several times in the national championships.
At the organizational level, we will deplore the very long waiting time for registrations, including for pre-registered players who sometimes waited longer than non-pre-registered players, as well as the lack of space in the waiting area which forced players to stand between rounds. On the other hand, the waiting time between rounds was shorter than in Stuttgart and Manchester, which allowed players to finish the rounds more quickly and therefore to rest better for those qualified in Top Cut on the second day of competition.
