Super Trainer Showdown

The Super Trainer Showdowns were large Pokemon Trading Card Game tournaments held by Wizards of the Coast. These tournaments were frequently bi-yearly and were open to the public. Each tournament consisted of three age groups; 10 and under, 11 to 14 years old, and 15 years old and over. Each Super Trainer Showdown was preceded by a series of Qualifier Tournaments held in cities around the United States and abroad in which players in the 11-to-14 and 10-and-under age groups could win trips for themselves and a parent or guardian to the Super Trainer Showdown event.

The first Super Trainer Showdown was held in Long Beach, California inside of the cruise liner, the Queen Mary on July 22, 2000. The winners were Joseph Viray, Jack Savage, and Andrew Marshall. [Citation | last=Kane | first=Gordon | author-link=Gordon Kane | title=The Scene on the Queen | journal=Pojo's Unofficial Pokemon News & Price Guide Monthly | volume=2 | issue=1 | pages=60-66 | year=2000 | date=November 2000 ] The format was unlimited, meaning that all Pokemon cards released in the United States were legal for deck construction.

The second Super Trainer Showdown was held at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, NJ on November 18, 2000. There were over 700 players in all three age divisions competing for the title. The tournament was eight rounds of Swiss style pairings followed by a cut to a top-eight single-elimination playoff. All games were best-of-one. The format was titled “15/3” in that you were allowed to construct 60-card decks using only fifteen “Trainer” cards and only three of any one card, save basic Energy Cards. This forced players to run more Pokemon and Energy Cards than usual and forced variety in the cards used, due to the 3-max stipulation. In the 10-and-under age group, Jonathan Brooks was the winner, followed by Jerome Schosse, David Santos, Christopher Bailey, Elliot Freidmann, Glen Sylvester, Malcolm Scotland and Gabriel Mends (in that order). For the 11-to-14 age group, Rudy Rodriguez was the champion, followed by James O’Brien, Carson White, Jason Imperiale, Kevin Chen, Yi-An Lu, Andrew Daly, and Alex Elkins. In the 15-and-older age group, the champion was Tom Hanley, followed by Heidi Craig, Israel Quiroz, Peter Keller, Jason Klaczynski, Michael Delgaudio, Joshua Morris, and Matt Brooks.

The third Super Trainer Showdown was held again in the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, New Jersey. It was held on June 23rd and 24th, 2001 and more than 1,600 players attended the event. The Super Trainer Showdown featured a League Zone area, which provided open game play supervised by Master Trainers; Erika's Challenge, a one-on-one challenge with a Master Trainer; a trading area; photos with popular, giant-sized Pokémon TCG cards; Pokémon trivia contests; and a create-your-own-card area. The tournament was eight rounds of Swiss-style pairings for the 10-and-under age and 15-and-older age groups and nine rounds for the 11-to-14 age group. The format for this event was titled “Modified” and allowed players to construct 60-card decks using a maximum of four of any card other than basic energy from the sets Team Rocket, Gym Heroes, Gym Challenge, and Neo Genesis. The card “Sneasel” from the Neo Genesis set was banned from play in the Modified format, making it the first Pokemon Trading Card Game card to be banned from tournament play. This tournament was different from the first two Super Trainer Showdowns in that it consisted of two one-day tournaments; one held on Saturday and run to completion and one held on Sunday and run to completion with a champion crowned in each age division each day. The results were as follows:

* Saturday

:* 10-and-under:

::* Champion Paul Lamancusa, 2nd Mindy Lambkee, 3rd Kevin Yauy, 4th Ryan Lucero, 5th Kevin Hossain, 6th Jonathan Brooks, 7th Jacob Vilches, 8th Nathaniel Allen

:* 11-to-14:

::* Champion Josh Goldstein, 2nd Phil Mondiello, 3rd Chris Peditto, 4th Jared Passanante, 5th Daniel Deardoff, 6th Matt Toeniskoetter, 7th Chris Vilches, 8th Jimmy O'Brien

:* 15-and-older

::* Champion Jeremy Borchardt, 2nd Chris Fulop, 3rd Ben Zoz, 4th Jason Klaczynski, 5th Andrés Rodriquez, 6th Alvin Leu, 7th Bruce Long, 8th Thian Y. Hoang

* Sunday

:* 10-and-under:

::* Champion Jonathan Brooks, 2nd Mindy Lambkee, 3rd John Nhuyen, 4th Stephanie Borchardt, 5th Ryan Lucero, 6th Nathan Kessel, 7th Joshua Cartagena, 8th Joseph Barone

:* 11-to-14:

::* Champion Tom Liesegang, 2nd Aaron Gerardo, 3rd Phil Mondiello, 4th Robert Frac, 5th Devin Peltier-Robson, 6th Alex Brosseau, 7th Dylan Austin, 8th Brian Six

:* 15-and-older:

::* Champion Tom Hanley, 2nd Jason Klaczynski, 3rd Rudy Rodriquez, 4th Matt Tyler, 5th Frank Moore, 6th David Nishijimu, 7th Chris Fulop, 8th Bruce Long

The fourth and final Super Trainer Showdown was held at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California on December 1st and 2nd, 2001. The event was open to the public; however unlike the previous Super Trainer Showdowns, a participant was required to pre-register for the event meaning that walk-ins were not allowed in the main tournament. The format was again Modified, however the newest set Neo Discovery was also legal for the tournament. Again, the card “Sneasel” from Neo Genesis was banned from play. New to this Super Trainer Showdown was the splitting of the 11-to-14-year-old age group into the 11-to-12 and 13-to-14-year-old age groups. This was done largely due to the massive numbers in the 11-to-14 age group in the previous Super Trainer Showdown. Players from around the world met to compete and the results for the Sunday and partial report of Saturday tournaments were as follows:

* Saturday

* 10-and-under:

:* Champion Michael Perucca

* 13-to-14:

:* Champion Eric Brooks, 2nd Aaron Geraudo, 3rd Stephanie Borchardt

* Sunday

* 10-and-under:

:* Champion David Bui, 2nd Jonathan Brooks, 3rd Joseph Barone, 4th Luke Waruszewski, 5th Martin Charest, 6th Nicholas Chimento, 7th Stuart Benson, 8th Wesley Bartlett

* 11-to-12:

:* Champion Seena Ghaziaskar, 2nd Bryson Bonham, 3rd Adam Falconi, 4th Gustavo Alex Patricio, 5th Rual Stern, 6th Devon Mancini, 7th Tommy Derian, 8th Chris Cartagena

* 13-to-14:

:* Champion Robert Frac, 2nd Dylan Austin, 3rd Jonathan "Jonniemonster" Recktenwald, 4th Robert Francis, 5th Chris Wilms, 6th Levi Canfield, 7th Vincent Shek, 8th Steven Bearzi

* 15-and-older:

:* Champion Matthew Moss, 2nd Robert Fischer, 3rd Josue Rojano, 4th LeAntjuan Hunter, 5th Vincent Barone, 6th Andres Rodríguez, 7th Ngoc Cang Dinh, 8th Doug Bui

References