Images in this article were contributed by Dylan Michaelis and The MAGIC RAIN.
On the 7th – 8th April 2018, if you are an ardent trading card player you would have known that there was a slew of card tournaments happening at the at the inaugural Toy, Anime, Games & Comic Convention (TAGCC) held at Mid Valley Exhibition Centre.
Bushiroad, producers of famous Japanese collectible card games were present at the convention with an area spanning over 16 booths, where they were having the annual Bushiroad Spring Fest 2018 and Asia Championship Qualifiers 2018, featuring Cardfight Vanguard English and Japanese versions together with Weiß Schwarz and Future Card Buddyfight. With four tournaments and over 500 participants, it was bound to be a tough challenge for all these competitors to reach the champion’s circle.
On Saturday, the tournaments featured were the Cardfight Vanguard English Team League Regional Championships and the Weiß Schwarz Asia Championship. A total of 72 teams, which consisted of 216 players, participated in the Cardfight Vanguard English Team League. The tournament format was a six-round Swiss format before a cut off to the top 8 teams.
It is a 3v3 tournament and players had to forge allegiances to form a team of three, each playing a unique clan, to battle their opponents. There were many players who were looking to make the top cut but it was a hard fought tournament as there were many different types of clans and decks around.
At the end of the day, only the strong prevailed and there stood the winners, Team 20K 3 Pass. The team members are Loke How Kiat (Angel Feather Nociel Gyze), Frederick Fong (Gear Chronicle ZTB) and Chai Kah Thung (Dark Irregulars), who beat Team Crowser’s Deciplem which consisted of Steven Low (Gear Chronicle ZTB), Jerome Heng (Dimensional Police) and Yap Khai Meng (Dark Irregulars).
It was an intense final as it went 1-1 and it all fell on Jerome Heng’s Dimensional Police deck to secure the win but Frederick Fong’s ZTB had all the answers to stop the powerful Dimensional Police deck and Team 20K 3 Pass won the finals.
The Weiß Schwarz Asia Championship on the other hand, was a straight forward affair as it was an individual tournament where 100 players participated in a double elimination format. Kok Jing Tao who used a Re:Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu deck beat out Seow Kar Lok’s Kantai Collection deck.
On the second day of TAGCC 2018, the Bushiroad tournaments continued with the Cardfight Vanguard Japanese Asia Championship together with the Future Card Buddyfight Regional Championship. For the Cardfight Vanguard Japanese Asia Championship, there were over 260 participants in the tournament, which featured a double elimination format. In the finals, we saw Chai Kah Thung who used a Gear Chronicle ZTB deck to face off against Wong Kang Wei, who piloted a Bermuda Triangle Ange Harmony deck.
It was really tough for the Gear Chronicle player as he was on the back foot for most of the game as the Bermuda Triangle deck pressured him really hard for the 2-0 win. It was especially dramatic since half of the decks in the top 8 were from the Gear Chronicle clan. The winner, Wong Kang Wei, had to fight two other Gear Chronicle decks to make it to the finals before proceeding to beat his last opponent, who was also running a Gear Chronicle deck.
For the Future Card Buddyfight Regional Championship, Team Telur Asian Flag which consists of Andrew Feng, Rinaldo Giovani and Daniel Leronardi won the tournament in emphatic fashion over their opponents.
Alongside the major tournaments, there were also side events and activities such as demo stations as well as the free fight areas, where interested members of the public can learn how to play Cardfight Vanguard and get rewarded with exclusive promotional items at the same time. At the same time, players also tried their hand at the brand new demo decks that feature some of the new art for the upcoming set release.
They also had their first taste of the mechanics that will be in the all new standard format that will be coming to the Cardfight Vanguard English with the release of the new trial decks of Royal Paladin and Kagero on the 8th of June 2018.
The new booster set, which kick starts the new standard format, named Unite Team Q4, will be released on the 22nd of June 2018 and features the 4 clans of the protagonists, namely Royal Paladin, Kagero, Oracle Think Tank and Nova Grapplers. There was also a preview for a brand new card, Knight of Morgana, which will be released in the upcoming booster set as well.
All in all, it was a great weekend for the participants and the Bushiroad team. There were a lot of activities that were exciting and there were a lot of players enjoying their time at the event itself, either through the tournaments, side activities or even via casual play. With the new herald of a format change, things look particularly interesting for Cardfight Vanguard and its future.
