TAK Games > Australian Nationals 2016 Recap

Australian Nationals 2016 Recap

The year has been a massive for Organised Play in Australia, with Regional Championships seeing some strong numbers across the board. Over $20,000 in prizes on top of the amazing promos and booster prizes have been handed out over the course of the year, and next year we’re hoping to make things bigger and better again.

2016 culminated in the biggest showing of players the game had seen in Australia, including past National events in the old game. 98 players descended on Melbourne to compete over the two days to be crowned National Champion, and earn one of the two World Championship invites up for grabs.

With the ebb and flow of recent results across Australia and the US, it was interesting to see the vast differences in decks that turned out. Broly, Cooler, and Piccolo had the strongest showing, after all three have recently shown their dominance across Regional events. But play styles were evenly split across Black, Red, Namekian, and Saiyan Styles making who you drew in your matchups even more important with such a varied field. A full breakdown can be found here.

A few handsome roosters
A few handsome roosters

 

After 7 tense rounds, our Top 16 was an amazing mix of old and new guard players. Making up the field were;

Tobye Ryan – Red Ruthless Broly
Rhys McGlinn – Saiyan Empowered Broly
Bailey Packer – Namekian Knowledge Piccolo
Karl Fletcher – Blue Tag Team Trunks
Jacob El-Ahmad – Orange Adaptive Android 20
Neville Pearson – Red Ruthless Broly
David Birch – Red Ruthless Broly
Joshua Craig – Red Enraged Android 13
Damien Hutchins – Blue Tag Team Android 13
Nathan Ash – Saiyan Rampaging Raditz
Fahad Rahman – Black Devious Krillin
Ben Sinnbeck – Black Devious Krillin
Jason Lintott – Namekian Knowledge Piccolo
Blair Simpson – Blue Protective Ginyu
David Spencer – Red Ruthless Broly
Dylan Freckleton – Red Enraged Android 13

Day 2 brought some of the closest matches many of the players had ever faced. Grinding their way into the Top 4 match ups were;

Fahad Rahman (Black Krillin) vs Bailey Packer (Namekian Piccolo)

Both players turned back the clock in their match up with decks

Top 16 kicks off
Top 16 kicks off

very reminiscent of 2015. Fahad got the burst on Bailey early, dealing some damage to try and push through a tough match up. But towards the end, Bailey got back into the game as only Namekian Piccolo can. He accelerated to Level 4 with the help of Namekian Leaping Kick to try and shut off Fahad using the immediate effects of any Dragon Balls he could steal. The match was tense, with 6 Dragon Balls on Fahad’s side of the field, and the final one sitting with Bailey, protected by Knowledge Mastery, but just a successful Optic Blast away. In the end, Fahad was able to push through enough damage at the end to leave Bailey to draw out on his turn.

David Spencer (Red Ruthless Broly) vs Damien Hutchins (Blue Tag Team Android 13)

Over the course of 2016, David showed that he has been the most

Top 16, or the Bar?
Top 16, or the Bar?

consistent player in Australia, and his top 4 showing at Nationals was no exception. And in this game, he became the gatekeeper to a potential invite for Damien. Coming from a strong background in MTG, Damien showed some great play to push the game all the way. Both players looked to push out some strong damage against their opponent. But this was David’s undoing in the end, as Damien grabbed the win, and an invite to Worlds on the back of milling David for 5 cards after blocking with 13’s Impenetrable Defense while David was on 0 power stages.

The Final!

It was fitting that the day end with an epic best of three encounter that took all three games to decide the winner. In game one, Fahad kept Damien on his toes, with his deck always looking for options to block or get out of combat as fast as it could. Damien used his Beerus ally in game one from the start, and his Nappa ally not seeing much play. This ended up deciding the first match with the Tag Team mastery unable to help him keep Fahad from using his board to grind out the game.

But in game two, Damien showed how skillful a player he was, and that he can quickly learn and adapt. Nappa came in quickly and quite possibly never left the field all game. Things looked like they were getting close in the end, but Damien was able to take game two to push a decider.

The final game of the tournament was a true testament to Fahad, and his amazing ability to think through a great number of plays to see the correct path to take. Damien pushed his Nappa ally to its limits keeping Fahad under control. But it was a bridge too far, and Fahad came away as National Champion for the second year running.

 

Congratulations again to our Australian qualifiers for the World Championships; Fahad, Damien, and David. We will be there with them in Texas, and we promise to help you follow their progress over the weekend.

Game on!
– Trent (@TAKGames_Trent) and Kyp (@JustKyp).