This thread will have the pairings for each round, as well as important notes for all players. All players are responsible for checking this thread at the start of every round; ignorance of the contents of this thread is not an excuse for not following any instructions found herein.
You can "Watch" this thread in order to receive notifications whenever a post is made here, but failing to receive a notification is no excuse for knowing when the round begins or ends. The calendar is posted in several places, including in the first round pairings post.
Do not post in this thread. All posts will be ignored and removed, unless by me. If you have a question, please PM me.
Here are the R1 pairings. I will be posting the full Q&A post after I finish some high priority tasks, but you can play your matches between now and then.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome back. Once again, it's JGB's time in the TO limelight. For those of you who are confused about why Pokemedic was here and I was gone, and then why I'm back this month, and what the heck is going on.... We switch off every month. This is to avoid either of us getting burnt out, and to give me a chance to still compete during the off months. So, yes, that means you get to beat up on me in February
Now then, the March Cup is a go! Good to see you again. And it's nice to see some new faces too. Let's get to it, then.
If you have any questions, your first course of action should be to help yourself by reading this thread, because I promise you most of what you want to know can be found here. If the answer isn't here, it's in the news story. If it's not there, then you may ask me; be warned, however, that if the answer to your question can be found in one of the aforementioned locations, I will direct you there rather than answer your question directly. I may also choose to ask you a question in reply to help you find the answer yourself.
Basically, don't be lazy.
Again - read this entire post, especially if you're new. You'd be surprised what you can learn by taking the time to help yourself.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Every month I get questions that could be answered by reading the news story. Since no one listens to us, we have compiled a tl;dr version in this post. You should still read the news story, since this FAQ does not aim to answer every question, but it should answer the more common ones. If you ask me a question that is found in the FAQ, I will get upset, and you won't like my response.
To ensure you are apprised of all relevant updates, please make sure to "Watch" this thread. You will (should) receive notifications every time a post is made. Alternatively, you can "Follow" me personally so you can be notified every time I post (I think that's how it works?).
That said, not receiving a notification is no excuse for not manually checking this thread at the start of every round.
1. When and where can I submit my list?
When: I accept submissions any time after the first round starts. Where: in a new private message to me.
2. Is a private message the same thing as a conversation?
Yes.
3. Am I allowed to re-submit my list once I send it to you?
As long as you haven't played your match, yes. If you tell me you want to change your mind, I will ignore your submitted list and it will be as if you sent me nothing, so please don't forget to re-submit.
4. Am I allowed to switch card art (i.e. switching to a full art Professor Sycamore instead of a regular art)?
Yes.
5. I sent you my deck, but you didn't approve it.
Give it time. As long as you have submitted before the end of the round, you will be approved with no penalty, even if I approve it after the round is over. That said, if you submit incorrectly, you will get a warning if the deadline has passed, so read the rest of this post to figure out how to submit properly so this does not happen. Please do not post on my wall or send me additional PMs saying that you sent me your list in. I know you sent it. I got your PM. Just be patient, please.
7. Do I still need to post in the thread if my opponent doesn't show up?
If your match is decided by me, you do not need to post the results.
8. How long do I need to be a premium member in order to be eligible for premium-level prizes?
Your subscription must be active for the duration of the entire tournament.
9. My opponent dropped/forfeited the round. What do I do?
If they tell you they drop in your conversation with them, add me to the conversation -or- post in the thread saying they dropped. If they post in the thread saying they dropped, you do not have to do anything. You will get a round loss if your opponent drops in a private PM to me and you don't say anything, because that means you either didn't try to contact them or didn't contact me when you did and they didn't get back to you. Either way, you weren't on the ball, so you get a round loss.
10. What does "overflow" mean? Do I need to send you my list?
Overflow means you submitted a proper registration post, but were unable to play due to the player limit being reached. If you are on this list, you will have priority access in next month's tournament as long as either you mention it in your signup post, or I happen to notice you were on the list. You will not be playing in this month's tournament, so you do not need to send me your list.
11. I don't see myself on the pairings list. Why not?
There is an odd number of players. If you aren't dropped and aren't on the current round's pairing list, you have a bye and do not need to do anything for this round. Enjoy your break.
12. I won prizes! What do I need to do?
You wait. I will contact you at some point after your role in the tournament has ended with more information.
Got any suggestions for new questions? Drop me a line (don't post in this thread).
Bookmark this link. I typically enter scores after a round has ended in order to minimize attempts at influencing decisions to ID, since standings are updated in real time as I enter them into Challonge and gives players information they wouldn't otherwise have at an actual tournament. When you check your scores, please make sure the standings are correct; let me know immediately if they are not.
TOURNAMENT TIMETABLE
Here are all the deadlines for every round. I will post each round's deadline in the main thread as well as in each individual round's post in the pairings thread. If you aren't sure when the round ends, check! It's right here!
Registration: Friday 3/8/2019 to Sunday 3/10/19 Round 1: Monday 3/11/19 to Thursday 3/14/19 Turn in your deck list to JGB146 by: Thursday 3/14/19 Round 2: Friday 3/15/19 to Monday 3/18/19 Round 3: Tuesday 3/19/19 to Friday 3/22/19 Round 4: Saturday 3/23/19 to Tuesday 3/26/19 Round 5: Wednesday 3/27/19 to Saturday 3/30/19 Round 6: Sunday 3/31/19 to Wednesday 4/3/19 Round 7: Thursday 4/4/19 to Sunday 4/7/19 Pre-top 8 tiebreaker round (if needed): Monday 4/8/19 to Wednesday 4/10/19 Top 8: Within 3 days of Swiss or Tiebreaker rounds completing (as applicable) Top 4: Within 3 days of Top 8 completing* Finals: Within 3 days of Top 4 completing*
*Top cut matches may be completed as soon as the previous top cut matches are reported.
You can submit your list to me any time before the deadline. You do not have to play your match first. If the deadline approaches and you and your opponent still haven't fought yet, I would suggest sending me your list so you can get it approved. If I don't approve your list by the deadline, it's okay as long as I receive it before the deadline. Outlined below is the very simple way that I accept lists. This is the only way I will accept your list. It's not hard to do, so the only way you can muck it up is if you haven't read this post.
TOURNAMENT NOTICES FOR JANUARY
JGB is back
We require six hours notice for a match confirmation to be valid for no-show wins. What this means is that if I am slated to play JGB and on Saturday he messages me suggesting 5pm EDT Sunday as our play time, I cannot claim a no-show win against him unless I replied before 11am EDT on Sunday. Since the offer was made prior to that, I had more than six hours notice. If I reply and confirm at 4pm, he can claim a no-show win against me but I cannot claim a no-show win against him.Note that we can still play the match. He just is not penalized for missing a reply that occurred too soon before the match. This way, he gets a reasonable amount of time to know whether or not he has a match
I highly recommend specifying your IGN, general availability, and asking for a specific play time in your first message to your opponent. If you have done this in the first message to your opponent and they did not reciprocate, it could be enough to influence whether an unplayed match ends as a tie or a win.
All players with a 5-1-1 record or better will make top cut, regardless of resistance: If this results in a larger top cut than 8 players, the lower resistance players will have a round of single elimination prior to the start of the true top 8
Requesting a concession is not acceptable under any circumstances
Please continue to include your table number and full scores when reporting results. You guys are awesome for how well you did at this!
HOW TO PROPERLY SUBMIT YOUR DECK LIST
Have PTCGO copy your deck list to the clipboard, paste it in a new conversation to me (even if you competed last month), and hit send.
This is the only way I will accept your deck list, so pay attention. Here's an image to help you out if you don't know what I'm talking about:
In the deck manager, clicking dis will copy your deck list to the clipboard. The program will even tell you it's done.
Now, in the conversation to me, right click and Paste, or hit CTRL + V to paste the contents. Make sure PTCGO approves of your list before you send it - if it's legal for them, that's a good sign.
If your client is not in English, you can translate your cards if you want, but you don't have to.
PAIRING
Below is the image that contains the pairings for round one. All names on this image are PokeBeach usernames; look for your PokeBeach username on this image and contact your opponent immediately. Tell them exactly when you can play; this saves both of you time and makes you look good in case I need to hand down an activity ruling.
Round 1 ends Thursday 3/14/19 at 11:59PM PST. You have until that time to send me your list and get it approved. Do not assume that just because you sent it means it was approved. Be sure to get confirmation before you relax.
Don't forget you all promised to make 3 posts! We love to see people contributing to our community and doing their part to help it grow. Three posts is easily doable. Please do it. Or else.
Do not post match results in this thread. They won't count. Post them in the main thread only. They will count there.
ROUND 1
In addition to the image posted above, we have one more match: @FralPal vs @Hdog7311
We had a number of people who failed to get deck lists in this month. Everyone on the following list gets a warning (two warnings and you're dropped) AND took a R1 loss, regardless of how the games played out. Please get your lists end before the end of R2 or you will be dropped:
As a reminder, please do not post in the pairings thread. This thread is intended to be for official announcements only. Many people subscribe to this thread so that they can get notifications of when the next round is ready. Do not bother them by making extra posts needlessly. If you have questions for me, post in the main tournament thread, or send it to me in a conversation. I will not answer questions posted in this thread, because I will not do anything to encourage posts made to this thread.
With that out of the way, let's get a couple of notes out of the way from round 2: a few players still have not turned in their decklists, and a few more have not ever responded to any of their opponents in either round. I believe I notified each of the offending players, but if you're dropped and you don't know why, that is probably what is going on.
@Angel Duran you had a bye for Round 2, but you are back in now! @ICEdaddy you have a bye for Round 3, so we will see you in Round 4.
Finally, here are the pairings for Round 3. It runs from now until 11:59pm PDT on Friday 3/22/19
Things went pretty smoothly this round. Let's keep it going into Round 4!
Notes:
1a) You need to message your opponents as quickly as possible! A number of players have missed the opportunity for a free win due to messaging their opponent too late in the round to qualify for the 48-hour timeframe. If you wait until more than half of the round is over, you cannot get a win for their lack of activity.
1b) Please remember to include your table number when reporting your results!
2) Please check your scores going in to the next round!
3) Round 4 is live now! It will end at 11:59pm PDT on Tuesday 3/26/19
But first...
1) Three matches did not finish before I'm going to bed. Technically there is still time left, but I'm going to bed in a few minutes and I leave for a cup out of state first thing in the morning, so I need to start the next round tonight. I will update those results when I get back tomorrow, if such an update is warranted.
2) Thanks to all y'all for being a great community. Reading the comments and seeing how well you guys treat each other made me a happy TO.
3) I haven't been getting notifications about PMs for the duration of this tournament. That's led me to check for new postings only once a day (and occasionally less). I will get this issue sorted out before the next event.
Round 6 will run until 11:59pm PDT on Wednesday 4/3/19
Round 7! This is the last round for anyone who doesn't make top cut!
1. CHECK YOUR SCORES EVERY ROUND! I do my best but I am human. I messed up on a score in an early round, and it went undiscovered until Round 6. By that point, I couldn't fix it without screwing up the whole tournament. Always check after each round so that mistakes don't permanently impact your results!
2. As a reminder, anyone with a score of 5-1-1 or better is guaranteed a spot in top cut. I do not know if lower scores will make it this month, but historically that rarely happens.
3. I am flying to Denver tomorrow morning and playing in this weekend's regional. I imagine some of you are as well. I will be as responsive as I can, but I will definitely not answer any questions during the day Saturday. If I make day 2, then I'll similarly be unavailable during the day Sunday. With those facts in mind, I am going to give a 2-day extension to this round (since it is already the final round). If everyone is finished early, then great! We'll start top cut as soon as the round completes (whether by all matches finishing or by the extension elapsing).
4. Always give a specific day and time that you would most like to play, in your first message to your opponent. Always. There should always be the possibility that your opponent can respond to your first message (or your first response) saying "Yes, that works for me. Let's play at [the day/time you suggested" to have the match completely scheduled in as few steps as possible.
Round 7 is live until Tuesday 4/9/19 at 11:59pm PDT (unless everyone finishes before that point)
