+1 for practicing your shuffles. My 6 year old walks around the house with a deck practicing his mash shuffling. Kid can shuffle art sleeves w/ outers like pro. Even TH Brad said he shuffles better than most adults lol.
I'm always one to call out cheaters when I see it. I'm glad when people get their comeuppance for doing so. That being said, this shuffle looks legal. I can understand why people might have been suspicious but it does become clearly evident that his cards change order fairly randomly by assessing that close up. I agree we shouldn't shuffle like that just to be efficient beyond a shadow of a doubt and raise no eyebrows. Noah definitely didn't deserve this DQ.
For me, every motion of his hands looked like he was focusing on not shuffling the top cards. Maybe he in fact did, but a judge can't be expected to divine intent. If that's really how he shuffles, then he needs to learn how to shuffle better.
Overhand shuffling with a light deck is not a good idea at a top level competition. Especially not good to bring sleeves that are the same color as your clothing or board decorations.
I have watched plenty of decks where the top card stays on top for many shuffles. If he made sure one was replaced on the top and one replaced on the bottom so it’s different. It would look like they were stacking the deck.
As a new player, this is why I always do the OG card shuffle in between a few mash shuffles because it moves the top card. Just makes me feel a bit better about my shuffle.
When I mash I take my cards from the top and put them into the middle. Then repeat the process 9-10 times. My top card changes every mash so there's no way to get caught up in something like this.
Yeah and I agree with the team I think it was a miss mash not his fault. When you're up there time has to feel like it's moving a million miles a minute. He'll recover from this, just unfortunate that it really wasn't intentional and his World's is now in jeopardy.
@@magicspoon2571yea moving your ace spec to the very top of the deck, then mashing in a way to keep the top card on top plus riffling to keep the top card in top along with the half cut shuffling and keeping the top card on top is just plain cheating. If that is his practiced way of shuffling than that’s an issue. Saying he’s “changing his shuffle” reads as if he does this every time he shuffles. Which if true is scary for competitive play.
@@AzulGG I did rewatch it, you’re correct. But with his mash shuffling the top card only ever moves to the second card from top. Idk it’s a weird way to shuffle nonetheless if randomness is your goal.
Ultimately I think it would be fairly easy to point a couple extra cameras at each side of the table, hook them up with OBS, record the video to file on separate review computers, and then call a couple floor judges over to review each of the video files and come to a conclusion.
Frustrating that people are getting DQ’d for a debatable shuffle on stream, meanwhile a Dialga player clearly attached two energies on stream at Indianapolis and nothing was ever done as far as I’m aware.
The questionable shuffle was caught on stream while the Dialga player was only found out after the opponent conceded, match slip was signed and entered. Once entered, it is notoriously difficult or impossible to fix and retroactive punishments are for the most insane situations that are 100% provable with intent (according to someone I spoke to who works in the program).
Normalize shuffling opponents deck instead of cutting sometimes!! Keeps the game state clean and foils stackers. I’ll usually watch my opponent shuffle and if they shuffle less than 7 times, or whiff the shuffle (deck could be too small so it’s tougher), I’ll do a couple extra shuffles for them
Imagine being reverse stacked against too, leaving only awful draws. why don’t judges shuffle? Couldn’t the judge just shuffle for every major stream match? Idk
Honestly, Pokemon judges need to settle down with the DQs. It's getting way out of hand with the number of DQs we seem to hear about, and this was another mistake on the judges part. Coming as a judge from other card games, this has to stop.
50:50 Klinkling won nats in 2012 because of a gear grind coin flip, one of which went off the table so there was even more suspense. But that wasn't stream back in those days the way it is now.
Actually from statistics August gets into the 80s for heat. It will feel more humid the further you go into the tropical rainforest climates on the Hawaiian islands, but as August tends to be one of the driest months, it is one of the least humid overall. Avg humidity in summer is only 63% dipping in August. So it’s not nearly 100% and 95 degrees like New Orleans was.
After the talk about all this young guys taking over the game I have to ask. In which year you guys think we're getting the Old Folks division and how old you should be for it? 35 years +? 40+?
It's an IC if your not gonna have a clean shuffle you should get penalized for it no matter if it's malicious or not. Coming from MTG the only time I didnt cut each others decks was when we faced a long time local goer that I knew but I always offered my deck to be cut unless we were short on match time. I know pokemon doesnt consider itself "as sweaty" as MTG players at a competitive level but I still wouldnt trust anyone to not try something at a regional or IC considering there is a cash prize on the line. Dont wanna get dinged for warnings or get potentially DQ'd for some suspicious stuff then just be clean play wise as anything higher than a local it's that simple. It's wild how pokemon judging and play operates. Chien pao player on stream has a judge call that takes forever because of a dexterity error when cutting their own deck and yet its an IC and someone is allowed to take back their discard choice on a refinement after already drawing their cards (hasnt looked at the cards yet but you already finished resolving the ability by those 2 cards hitting the table). "spirit of the game" is all great and all but that really shouldnt apply at anything higher than locals because we all know the really high level players get insane decision paralysis and actively blow the match timer. After worlds might be the time for TPCI to clean up all this garbage and have stricter penalties at regionals and ICs like MTG does. Locals is where you learn to play clean and have a good starting point. Regionals and IC's is where you go if you want to prove yourself as a player and the standards should be held as such.
It isn’t an unreasonable dq, but it’s also important that pokemon fixes the situation and gives him his invite. As a friend of his, I can say he has been absolutely devastated by this. :(
I'm pretty sure he shuffled just fine. He did two methods of shuffling many times and offered his opponent to cut/shuffle his deck afterwards. There is not much more you could do besides that. And even if his shuffle was not sufficiently perfect enough, it does not deserve him to get dqd. I am certain that throughout that tournament there were probably others who did a worse shuffle than him.
Whoa didn’t see that CPao/Refinement mishap, do you know which round it happened? I agree that if my opponent discarded something with Refinement, I would only ever allow a take-back if it were local. Challenge/Cup/Regional, no fucking way
I heard there is a shift of mentality of the judges but there is still an internal struggle between various factions and philosophies since the entire program is mostly volunteers contributing and self-policing (there are TPCi employees monitoring the program but they were former judges before becoming TPCi employees). The issues are further complicated by TPC judges who are doing their own thing and at Worlds superseded many experienced TPCi judges and their calls causing a lot of inconsistency (allegedly the TPCi judges calling for appropriate stricter punishments while TPC judges were super lenient due to a misguided cultural belief in "competitive honor" and the Bo1 format common in Japan). But since Worlds took place in Japan ... Guess who won. I have heard from a friend in Japan that TPC started their own judge program prior to the pandemic but refused to listen to the advice from TPCi judges who have done this for nearly two decades and as such they are relearning the same lessons and growing pains the international judges had learned from years ago.
I have heard from a friend that it is all volunteers from around the world for ICs. They get compensated via product (BBs, promo cards, Staff mats and sleeves, other trinkets) and a small stipend (like $100-300) not sure how much). For ICs I have overheard that travel and hotels are reimbursed but for most other events the judges eat the costs. I have also heard from people that people who become judges are passionate about the game (i.e.grew up with the game) or judges who are parents but became judges because their kids played the game and stuck around. Also there are some non-verified rumors that TPCi doesn't like to hire people who love Pokemon too much which is similar to how certain graduate schools don't like to accept people from their undergraduate programs, which sense in a way as you want the employees to do their jobs.onstead of getting caught up into the Pokemon fervor distracting them from their jobs.
Who actually even wants to be on stream anymore? Everytime you go on stream, it just opens you up to being accused of cheating / DQs / accused of slow plays, etc... It also just puts more pressure on you to be "PERFECT". At this point, the safest thing would be to go on stream, play 1 basic and immediately concede.
In the first dq u showed if I watch it slow mo like u did u can see that top card always goes under the top card from I see I went over it a few times and it always there
If there is a card mechanic in the scene, so be it. When a player starts selecting certain cards in their deck, whether it be for prize check or a quick count of the specific card, i employ my own shuffle and cut after their search. WE HAVE RULES FOR A REASON GUYS! We are all allowed to cut or shuffle an opponents deck regardless of whether they offer or not. This is a competition with serious prizing, people will cheat, and the rulebook allows every possible way for us to prevent and penalize others for it. Stop complaining and get good.
you can’t start with the assumption someone is guilty. And then try to find how that person is guilty. It was a 17 card deck. Being hard to shuffle. Trying to follow where a card is while it’s being properly randomly shuffled. Doesn’t prove anyone cheated. we can make the same predictions for other cards we see in his deck, and claiming “it’s somewhere on the bottom or top” is just guessing.
It was just. If you get caught cheating it should be a DQ for sure, if not a ban from competing for 6 months. Pokemon is way too lenient with it and there needs to be repercussions. Isaiah Bradner is still competing after cheating on stream as well, including multiple people coming forward that he's stacked decks, too. When I play against other players I cut every time, and I cut randomly. Sometimes i cut in half, other times in 3 stacks, etc. But those top cards are moving for sure. If I cut you into Boss's Orders so be it 😂
Riffle shuffling is relatively uncommon due to people getting their cards ruined. Mash shuffling for a period of time (10-15 seconds) is considered sufficient randomization. So just because no one ridge shuffled doesn't mean they didn't shuffle or have insufficient randomization.
Came here just to see what the "kid shuffle" looks like. Thought that was funny. Although I've been playing TCGs since I was 9 and I don't shuffle like that.
Almost seems like the judges were hyper aware of unfair stamp at this tournament. Almost like they've predetermined unfair stamp to be a problematic card that needed policing beyond any other card. This is odd given its the first time the card was legal. I would second guess playing the card in future at a high level.
Nah that is unlikely, what likely happened is that you have veteran judges at the stream table and they are keeping an extremely close eye. At International tournaments the judges tend to be veterans and some have judged for over a decade or from the original inception of the Pokemon TCG (there were several who have judged since 2000-2002). I know the judges at Internationals tend to escalate and are taught to escalate punishment due to the highly competitive nature.
My Charizard ex/Dragapault ex regularly destroys Gardevoir with Dragapaults bench sniping early game + Boss's orders and Charizard having weakness on psychic it's a nightmare for Gardevoir
I watched this match as it happened on stream this weekend and it looked like he intentionally stacked it. So much so, the chat immediately blew up saying he did it
It was the perfect counter to the suspected "Gardevoir killer" Dragapult ex. It uses Dragapult's attack against it by giving free 30 dage to any targets and nullifying Dragapult's large HP pool Gardevoir would have difficulty one-shotting. It also helps the math against other decks such as other VStars, threatening Lost Box decks (due to their low HP), and making basic ex's to be KO's by Driftloon or Scream Tail without a tool needing to be attached.
it doesnt. You just slam it into dragapult as another threat/energy acceleration. Literally have 100% winrate vs charizard as pult on PTCGL because zard can literally never set up in time and i snipe their bird and charmander.
@@RandomGuyCDN Pult has worse mu spread than zard and is 6% of the meta already and dropping becausw deck is unreliable, slow and frankly put: bad for what was expected, is just okay like azul said. It underperformed at naic for a reason. If you look at points per player day 2 at NAIC, zard did better than lugia, bolt, pult and more lined up with LZ, snorlax and garde. Also, the natural progression of the meta is already creating a zard come back as we saw in Japan, it only gets better with next set where zard can hit up to 250 right off the bat. Pult is going to have to wait until crispin to be relevant at top tables outside Japan. Meanwhile, is just an pkayish deck that is outclassed by a bunch of stuff
@@RandomGuyCDN Also, this is bs. MU is 60/40 type of deal, is more winnable than pult's awful raging bolt mu (which is 15% deck and is 25-75 type of MU). Zard vs pult is more in line with pult's lugia mu which is also a 60/40 Lugia favored (zard is 50/50 into Lugia and 50/50 into bolt) No one good played dragapult at naic without zard for a reason (with most succesful variant being a zard deck with a minimal pult line)
They didn't even slow down the video and watch it before disqualifying him. I think he is owed far more than a worlds invite. That's crazy dude, one minutes of research shows it just looks weird and he wasn't doing anything wrong. There is literally no excuse for this dq, unless they have more evidence. But if they don't have more evidence this is very bad and people should be able to refuse to be on stream after this. The judges cost this guy possible many thousands of dollars and the community thinks he's a cheater and he lost his invite. This should never happen
It’s just crazy how players will literally try to cheat on camera & act like nothing is going on that’s why you always say Final Cut. Next time they’re shuffling the deck don’t cut always keep them on their toes
Miraidon has a favorable match up due to its insane speed and set up. If it gets an Iron Hands KO or two KOs before Gardevoir ex comes into play it is hard for the Gardevoir player to make a comeback. This is what happened at Japan Championships a month ago.
For Azul it was a personal goal to try and get top 16 without going to any local cups or leagues to prove top 16 in NA is possible without going to locals.
I truly believe he didn't mean to shuffle like that but the DQ was justified. The reason why i say it's justified is the way he held the cards and seems like he traced the card he needed with his fingers to the top of the deck. I do believe he should still get the points he already accumulated at the time of the DQ.
@@hectorhernandez7472 I think so. I can’t imagine that happening inside it. But yeah they drained him of everything. Meds, money, phone, etc. shit sucks
@@rishwynsingh4370 yeah. He also spent time in the hospital. Once from the attack, twice from having his insulin stolen and he had a diabetic incident.
I’d love to hear your justification for him putting every shuffled “half” of his deck just under the top card every time. Even the riffle shuffle makes sure to not move the top card.
@@Hongcranker yes I now agree, in another comment thread on this video I retracted my statements as well. I’m glad I rewatched the clip over and over again.
Azul what you are saying is absolutely BS. It’s your job to know if your cards are randomized not your opponent. It’s called paying attention to your cards. Rightfully deserved. Know how to shuffle your cards Noah.
@@UncommonEnergyPodcast you said you think he shouldn’t be DQ’d. Totally disagree with that because of reasons above. Player needs to shuffle and leave no doubt his cards were randomized properly. That’s some junior division stuff that happened.
@@wjo_8889 He was DQd for cheating not insufficient randomization I never said he shouldn't or anyone shouldn't have to sufficiently randomize their deck. I said I don't think he should have been DQd for cheating I also think his deck was sufficiently randomized
@@AzulGG if his deck was randomized properly he would of known the top card wasn’t the same everytime he shuffled. Guy needs to pay attention more instead of playing dumb.
@@Baysoni_this is defo what it looks like at first glance, but if you look carefully you can see that the way noah shuffles pushes the stamp towards the middle of the deck, actually.
Blatant cheaters and “pro” players defending them cause they also cheat with the same tactics c: Also it’s amazing how people in this game dont cut their opponents deck, theres money on the line, obviously they will cheat xd
I think they should just make an example of him on how cheating won't be tolerated cuz all the top level players cheat there's no possible way with how random Pokemon is that the same top level players are always winning as much as they do ..the only possible way it can be explainable is that players are intentionally losing or cheating to lose....this is crazy, I feel like I'm talking crazy pills with how much people defend these guys ...it's like watching the world series of dice where the same guys always roll 7's .....yeah someone will win and will have the luck but the same guy always having that luck isnt luck at all its cheating
@@magicspoon2571 Dude, stop spamming every comment. We get it, you are this guy's friend, or even his alter acc. No one cares, tell him to stop stacking his deck during the games, and he won't be dq'd ever again, simple as that.
@@magicspoon2571 At this point, you're straight up crying about it. "My friend cheated and now he is sadsies about it, please give his invite to worlds back, he will learn to cheat better in his future games😭"
I know you’ll never believe me, because I know him and am his friend but as a friend of noah and lifelong competitor as well, he’s legitimately the cleanest player I know. It hurts my soul to see him being prosecuted for something I know he didn’t do, especially after he created such a detailed argument against the allegation. Just consider his point of view please…. He lost his invite because of a dq that he at the very least knows was false :(
It’s hard to know 100% what his intentions were. But the officials caught him and he was DQ’d. I think the “pros” are more defending the honor of the game. Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity or ignorance. That type of thinking
The fact is that Noah stacked his deck. There was no sufficient randomization, requesting a response from the judges and Pokémon TCG is ludicrous and borderline delusional as the clip reveals the reason to DQ him. The worse part is that your showing the evidence and stating is not what is looks like.
I’m sorry but when he goes to shuffle and then realigns the card, to me that is intentional cheating. Stopping a shuffle alignment knowing it would put a card deeper into the deck and not keep it as the second card is clear cheating
@@magicspoon2571 you must randomize the whole deck. So if the first two cards are the same two cards you draw when shuffling, you definitely didn’t randomize. He didn’t miss. He slides the shuffle in and pulls it back out
You pokémon players are so naive. If he dont stack here I am the pope 😂 And if it is not stacking for all of you and he get rehabilitated I ''wont stack'' either in the future 😂😂😂
+1 for practicing your shuffles. My 6 year old walks around the house with a deck practicing his mash shuffling. Kid can shuffle art sleeves w/ outers like pro. Even TH Brad said he shuffles better than most adults lol.
I'm always one to call out cheaters when I see it. I'm glad when people get their comeuppance for doing so. That being said, this shuffle looks legal. I can understand why people might have been suspicious but it does become clearly evident that his cards change order fairly randomly by assessing that close up. I agree we shouldn't shuffle like that just to be efficient beyond a shadow of a doubt and raise no eyebrows. Noah definitely didn't deserve this DQ.
For me, every motion of his hands looked like he was focusing on not shuffling the top cards. Maybe he in fact did, but a judge can't be expected to divine intent. If that's really how he shuffles, then he needs to learn how to shuffle better.
Overhand shuffling with a light deck is not a good idea at a top level competition. Especially not good to bring sleeves that are the same color as your clothing or board decorations.
I have watched plenty of decks where the top card stays on top for many shuffles.
If he made sure one was replaced on the top and one replaced on the bottom so it’s different.
It would look like they were stacking the deck.
As a new player, this is why I always do the OG card shuffle in between a few mash shuffles because it moves the top card. Just makes me feel a bit better about my shuffle.
When I mash I take my cards from the top and put them into the middle. Then repeat the process 9-10 times. My top card changes every mash so there's no way to get caught up in something like this.
I’m a friend of Noah’s. We’ve talked about how he’s defo changing his shuffle from here on out, just to avoid any more allegations haha
Yeah and I agree with the team I think it was a miss mash not his fault. When you're up there time has to feel like it's moving a million miles a minute. He'll recover from this, just unfortunate that it really wasn't intentional and his World's is now in jeopardy.
@@magicspoon2571yea moving your ace spec to the very top of the deck, then mashing in a way to keep the top card on top plus riffling to keep the top card in top along with the half cut shuffling and keeping the top card on top is just plain cheating. If that is his practiced way of shuffling than that’s an issue. Saying he’s “changing his shuffle” reads as if he does this every time he shuffles. Which if true is scary for competitive play.
@@VitulaJoy Noah never moved the Unfair Stamp to the top of the deck have you even watched the clip?
@@AzulGG I did rewatch it, you’re correct. But with his mash shuffling the top card only ever moves to the second card from top. Idk it’s a weird way to shuffle nonetheless if randomness is your goal.
Ultimately I think it would be fairly easy to point a couple extra cameras at each side of the table, hook them up with OBS, record the video to file on separate review computers, and then call a couple floor judges over to review each of the video files and come to a conclusion.
Frustrating that people are getting DQ’d for a debatable shuffle on stream, meanwhile a Dialga player clearly attached two energies on stream at Indianapolis and nothing was ever done as far as I’m aware.
The questionable shuffle was caught on stream while the Dialga player was only found out after the opponent conceded, match slip was signed and entered. Once entered, it is notoriously difficult or impossible to fix and retroactive punishments are for the most insane situations that are 100% provable with intent (according to someone I spoke to who works in the program).
Normalize shuffling opponents deck instead of cutting sometimes!! Keeps the game state clean and foils stackers. I’ll usually watch my opponent shuffle and if they shuffle less than 7 times, or whiff the shuffle (deck could be too small so it’s tougher), I’ll do a couple extra shuffles for them
Agree
This is true but hoooooly shit there are some asshats who riffle shuffle other people’s decks
Imagine being reverse stacked against too, leaving only awful draws. why don’t judges shuffle? Couldn’t the judge just shuffle for every major stream match? Idk
@@jaceee4154yup some people just want to ruin your cards
When my opponent starts riffling my $300+ cards I'm reaching across the table to beat their ass.
Honestly, Pokemon judges need to settle down with the DQs. It's getting way out of hand with the number of DQs we seem to hear about, and this was another mistake on the judges part. Coming as a judge from other card games, this has to stop.
50:50 Klinkling won nats in 2012 because of a gear grind coin flip, one of which went off the table so there was even more suspense. But that wasn't stream back in those days the way it is now.
Cab we get a preview of the content begind the paywall?
Jacob Eye goes to college with me and it was amazing to see him do that well with regidrago!!
Actually from statistics August gets into the 80s for heat. It will feel more humid the further you go into the tropical rainforest climates on the Hawaiian islands, but as August tends to be one of the driest months, it is one of the least humid overall. Avg humidity in summer is only 63% dipping in August. So it’s not nearly 100% and 95 degrees like New Orleans was.
After the talk about all this young guys taking over the game I have to ask.
In which year you guys think we're getting the Old Folks division and how old you should be for it? 35 years +? 40+?
Great job as always guys. Thanks!
Hey Azul can you share a link to the interview with the Chinese players? That sounds super interesting
It's an IC if your not gonna have a clean shuffle you should get penalized for it no matter if it's malicious or not. Coming from MTG the only time I didnt cut each others decks was when we faced a long time local goer that I knew but I always offered my deck to be cut unless we were short on match time. I know pokemon doesnt consider itself "as sweaty" as MTG players at a competitive level but I still wouldnt trust anyone to not try something at a regional or IC considering there is a cash prize on the line. Dont wanna get dinged for warnings or get potentially DQ'd for some suspicious stuff then just be clean play wise as anything higher than a local it's that simple.
It's wild how pokemon judging and play operates. Chien pao player on stream has a judge call that takes forever because of a dexterity error when cutting their own deck and yet its an IC and someone is allowed to take back their discard choice on a refinement after already drawing their cards (hasnt looked at the cards yet but you already finished resolving the ability by those 2 cards hitting the table). "spirit of the game" is all great and all but that really shouldnt apply at anything higher than locals because we all know the really high level players get insane decision paralysis and actively blow the match timer. After worlds might be the time for TPCI to clean up all this garbage and have stricter penalties at regionals and ICs like MTG does. Locals is where you learn to play clean and have a good starting point. Regionals and IC's is where you go if you want to prove yourself as a player and the standards should be held as such.
It isn’t an unreasonable dq, but it’s also important that pokemon fixes the situation and gives him his invite. As a friend of his, I can say he has been absolutely devastated by this. :(
I'm pretty sure he shuffled just fine. He did two methods of shuffling many times and offered his opponent to cut/shuffle his deck afterwards. There is not much more you could do besides that. And even if his shuffle was not sufficiently perfect enough, it does not deserve him to get dqd. I am certain that throughout that tournament there were probably others who did a worse shuffle than him.
Whoa didn’t see that CPao/Refinement mishap, do you know which round it happened? I agree that if my opponent discarded something with Refinement, I would only ever allow a take-back if it were local. Challenge/Cup/Regional, no fucking way
Letting your opponent take back a decision is never gonna be a rules thing that’s just players being extra nice if they want to
I heard there is a shift of mentality of the judges but there is still an internal struggle between various factions and philosophies since the entire program is mostly volunteers contributing and self-policing (there are TPCi employees monitoring the program but they were former judges before becoming TPCi employees). The issues are further complicated by TPC judges who are doing their own thing and at Worlds superseded many experienced TPCi judges and their calls causing a lot of inconsistency (allegedly the TPCi judges calling for appropriate stricter punishments while TPC judges were super lenient due to a misguided cultural belief in "competitive honor" and the Bo1 format common in Japan). But since Worlds took place in Japan ... Guess who won.
I have heard from a friend in Japan that TPC started their own judge program prior to the pandemic but refused to listen to the advice from TPCi judges who have done this for nearly two decades and as such they are relearning the same lessons and growing pains the international judges had learned from years ago.
The first many shuffles didn't sufficiently randomize the top of deck imo. But he then does normal shuffling.
They need to pay these judges so they don’t make ridiculous calls like this
I have heard from a friend that it is all volunteers from around the world for ICs. They get compensated via product (BBs, promo cards, Staff mats and sleeves, other trinkets) and a small stipend (like $100-300) not sure how much). For ICs I have overheard that travel and hotels are reimbursed but for most other events the judges eat the costs. I have also heard from people that people who become judges are passionate about the game (i.e.grew up with the game) or judges who are parents but became judges because their kids played the game and stuck around. Also there are some non-verified rumors that TPCi doesn't like to hire people who love Pokemon too much which is similar to how certain graduate schools don't like to accept people from their undergraduate programs, which sense in a way as you want the employees to do their jobs.onstead of getting caught up into the Pokemon fervor distracting them from their jobs.
Who actually even wants to be on stream anymore? Everytime you go on stream, it just opens you up to being accused of cheating / DQs / accused of slow plays, etc...
It also just puts more pressure on you to be "PERFECT".
At this point, the safest thing would be to go on stream, play 1 basic and immediately concede.
Can't find the China PTCG scene interview with Azul anywhere, not even from Chinese websites. 😭 What's the name of the interviewer?
In the first dq u showed if I watch it slow mo like u did u can see that top card always goes under the top card from I see I went over it a few times and it always there
He’s taking the cards from the middle so the “top card” is actually from the middle
If there is a card mechanic in the scene, so be it. When a player starts selecting certain cards in their deck, whether it be for prize check or a quick count of the specific card, i employ my own shuffle and cut after their search.
WE HAVE RULES FOR A REASON GUYS! We are all allowed to cut or shuffle an opponents deck regardless of whether they offer or not. This is a competition with serious prizing, people will cheat, and the rulebook allows every possible way for us to prevent and penalize others for it. Stop complaining and get good.
you can’t start with the assumption someone is guilty. And then try to find how that person is guilty.
It was a 17 card deck. Being hard to shuffle.
Trying to follow where a card is while it’s being properly randomly shuffled. Doesn’t prove anyone cheated.
we can make the same predictions for other cards we see in his deck, and claiming “it’s somewhere on the bottom or top” is just guessing.
This is why I do a combination of forced push shuffle and riffel about 5-7 of each
It was just. If you get caught cheating it should be a DQ for sure, if not a ban from competing for 6 months. Pokemon is way too lenient with it and there needs to be repercussions. Isaiah Bradner is still competing after cheating on stream as well, including multiple people coming forward that he's stacked decks, too.
When I play against other players I cut every time, and I cut randomly. Sometimes i cut in half, other times in 3 stacks, etc. But those top cards are moving for sure.
If I cut you into Boss's Orders so be it 😂
Is it possible that the clip you guys watched is edited? I thought when I saw it on versilify That the player never riffle shuffled at all
Riffle shuffling is relatively uncommon due to people getting their cards ruined. Mash shuffling for a period of time (10-15 seconds) is considered sufficient randomization.
So just because no one ridge shuffled doesn't mean they didn't shuffle or have insufficient randomization.
Came here just to see what the "kid shuffle" looks like. Thought that was funny. Although I've been playing TCGs since I was 9 and I don't shuffle like that.
With all the talk about youngins and age divisions, do you think they'll ever make an Old Heads division?
Age 35 and up, call it the "Legends Division", lol
Veterans
Grand Master Division
I hope they do, my mom would love that!
Almost seems like the judges were hyper aware of unfair stamp at this tournament. Almost like they've predetermined unfair stamp to be a problematic card that needed policing beyond any other card. This is odd given its the first time the card was legal. I would second guess playing the card in future at a high level.
Nah that is unlikely, what likely happened is that you have veteran judges at the stream table and they are keeping an extremely close eye. At International tournaments the judges tend to be veterans and some have judged for over a decade or from the original inception of the Pokemon TCG (there were several who have judged since 2000-2002).
I know the judges at Internationals tend to escalate and are taught to escalate punishment due to the highly competitive nature.
2008 had some fun decks that could beat gardevoir. One of my favorites is a spread version of empoleon that runs bronzong.
God that Bronzong was so cool. I miss DPT era so much.
My Charizard ex/Dragapault ex regularly destroys Gardevoir with Dragapaults bench sniping early game + Boss's orders and Charizard having weakness on psychic it's a nightmare for Gardevoir
The problem is, he separated the cards before he shuffled, that was the main problem.
I watched this match as it happened on stream this weekend and it looked like he intentionally stacked it. So much so, the chat immediately blew up saying he did it
Azul you and boys will bring it home for NA don't worry
so basically Munkidori pushed Gardevoir decks to be Tier I ?
It was the perfect counter to the suspected "Gardevoir killer" Dragapult ex. It uses Dragapult's attack against it by giving free 30 dage to any targets and nullifying Dragapult's large HP pool Gardevoir would have difficulty one-shotting. It also helps the math against other decks such as other VStars, threatening Lost Box decks (due to their low HP), and making basic ex's to be KO's by Driftloon or Scream Tail without a tool needing to be attached.
Neo Discovery was a tough set for me to guess, so +0 points still at 77 rn
How do you guys think charizard adapts to the meta?
it doesnt. You just slam it into dragapult as another threat/energy acceleration. Literally have 100% winrate vs charizard as pult on PTCGL because zard can literally never set up in time and i snipe their bird and charmander.
@@RandomGuyCDNPult is like what, 10% of the meta? Just send it and take the bad matchup if you just wanna play straight Zard, I think it’ll be fine.
@@RandomGuyCDN
Pult has worse mu spread than zard and is 6% of the meta already and dropping becausw deck is unreliable, slow and frankly put: bad for what was expected, is just okay like azul said. It underperformed at naic for a reason.
If you look at points per player day 2 at NAIC, zard did better than lugia, bolt, pult and more lined up with LZ, snorlax and garde. Also, the natural progression of the meta is already creating a zard come back as we saw in Japan, it only gets better with next set where zard can hit up to 250 right off the bat.
Pult is going to have to wait until crispin to be relevant at top tables outside Japan.
Meanwhile, is just an pkayish deck that is outclassed by a bunch of stuff
@@RandomGuyCDN
Also, this is bs. MU is 60/40 type of deal, is more winnable than pult's awful raging bolt mu (which is 15% deck and is 25-75 type of MU). Zard vs pult is more in line with pult's lugia mu which is also a 60/40 Lugia favored (zard is 50/50 into Lugia and 50/50 into bolt)
No one good played dragapult at naic without zard for a reason (with most succesful variant being a zard deck with a minimal pult line)
@@RandomGuyCDN zard crushes pult if you know how to play it lmao
Ofc I get in to the game for the coolest player I’ve found in my research to stop taking the game seriously 😭
just mass shuffle a bunch of energy's they are readily available and if you bend 1 it doesn't matter
EUIC had a DQ round 14 at table 6
Who?
nice judge work
Yea I’m ready for announcement of the 2025 season
No one played Festival Lead 😢
Massachusetts gangs letsss goooo only if Azul was still in Mass lol
They didn't even slow down the video and watch it before disqualifying him. I think he is owed far more than a worlds invite. That's crazy dude, one minutes of research shows it just looks weird and he wasn't doing anything wrong. There is literally no excuse for this dq, unless they have more evidence. But if they don't have more evidence this is very bad and people should be able to refuse to be on stream after this. The judges cost this guy possible many thousands of dollars and the community thinks he's a cheater and he lost his invite. This should never happen
It’s just crazy how players will literally try to cheat on camera & act like nothing is going on that’s why you always say Final Cut. Next time they’re shuffling the deck don’t cut always keep them on their toes
Cpao not mentioned 😢
The Gabriel Fernandez DQ is more egregious. I'm in the belief we need to train the judges at the IC better
what beats gardy besides LZB
Miraidon has a favorable match up due to its insane speed and set up. If it gets an Iron Hands KO or two KOs before Gardevoir ex comes into play it is hard for the Gardevoir player to make a comeback. This is what happened at Japan Championships a month ago.
Anything that doesn't fear One prizers and not overly reliant on basic abilities (due to Klefki and Flutter Mane).
Does winning a regionals not give a invite to worlds? Was confuse on why it was so important to get top 16 NA.
It does
For Azul it was a personal goal to try and get top 16 without going to any local cups or leagues to prove top 16 in NA is possible without going to locals.
Idk if azul is just susceptible to sleight of hand but Noah is being sure to take that “half” and put it just under the top card.
I truly believe he didn't mean to shuffle like that but the DQ was justified. The reason why i say it's justified is the way he held the cards and seems like he traced the card he needed with his fingers to the top of the deck. I do believe he should still get the points he already accumulated at the time of the DQ.
what if “guess that flavor text” is not our favorite segment of the podcast? 😢
false
A guy at my locals got beaten and robbed at New orleans. I guess go to these events at your own risk :(
Outside the venue?
@@hectorhernandez7472 I think so. I can’t imagine that happening inside it. But yeah they drained him of everything. Meds, money, phone, etc. shit sucks
Was the incident reported to law enforcement?
@@rishwynsingh4370 yeah. He also spent time in the hospital. Once from the attack, twice from having his insulin stolen and he had a diabetic incident.
He got caught cheating
Every year, "they cheated!!!!" - People doing a witch hunt ALL the time.....
I’d love to hear your justification for him putting every shuffled “half” of his deck just under the top card every time. Even the riffle shuffle makes sure to not move the top card.
@@VitulaJoythis is just very clearly not true when you look at the slowed down video you can see that the top card changes multiple times
@@Hongcranker yes I now agree, in another comment thread on this video I retracted my statements as well. I’m glad I rewatched the clip over and over again.
fur is thick hair and that espeon looks like Sphynx Cat hairless breed lol. pokemon are weird
Stop defending cheating bro
Didn’t chip say it was a basic, espeon is a stage 1
And he still cheated 👍
Azul what you are saying is absolutely BS. It’s your job to know if your cards are randomized not your opponent. It’s called paying attention to your cards. Rightfully deserved. Know how to shuffle your cards Noah.
What do you think I said that implies that? - Azul
@@UncommonEnergyPodcast you said you think he shouldn’t be DQ’d. Totally disagree with that because of reasons above. Player needs to shuffle and leave no doubt his cards were randomized properly. That’s some junior division stuff that happened.
@@wjo_8889He did shuffle them, and more than adequately. Watch closer bro, actually watch
@@wjo_8889 He was DQd for cheating not insufficient randomization
I never said he shouldn't or anyone shouldn't have to sufficiently randomize their deck. I said I don't think he should have been DQd for cheating
I also think his deck was sufficiently randomized
@@AzulGG if his deck was randomized properly he would of known the top card wasn’t the same everytime he shuffled. Guy needs to pay attention more instead of playing dumb.
Is it just me? It doesn't look like the top card ever changes. How could that be sufficient shuffling?
It's just you. The top card clearly changes multiple times.
@jamesjiang52 idk man
You move the top card under the 2nd card, then you do it again. Really the card isn't moving.
@@Baysoni_this is defo what it looks like at first glance, but if you look carefully you can see that the way noah shuffles pushes the stamp towards the middle of the deck, actually.
Blatant cheaters and “pro” players defending them cause they also cheat with the same tactics c:
Also it’s amazing how people in this game dont cut their opponents deck, theres money on the line, obviously they will cheat xd
🤡🤡
I think they should just make an example of him on how cheating won't be tolerated cuz all the top level players cheat there's no possible way with how random Pokemon is that the same top level players are always winning as much as they do ..the only possible way it can be explainable is that players are intentionally losing or cheating to lose....this is crazy, I feel like I'm talking crazy pills with how much people defend these guys ...it's like watching the world series of dice where the same guys always roll 7's .....yeah someone will win and will have the luck but the same guy always having that luck isnt luck at all its cheating
if he's innocent, he should be made an example of on top of being wrongly dqd? this seems unfair IMO
@@magicspoon2571 Dude, stop spamming every comment. We get it, you are this guy's friend, or even his alter acc. No one cares, tell him to stop stacking his deck during the games, and he won't be dq'd ever again, simple as that.
@@mono8786 it isn’t right. Unfair dq.
@@magicspoon2571 At this point, you're straight up crying about it. "My friend cheated and now he is sadsies about it, please give his invite to worlds back, he will learn to cheat better in his future games😭"
That's your whole argumentation
Stop defending cheaters
Noah stacked his deck guys... the "pros" and players defending him should be put under the magnify glass cuz they probably are all BK Stackers
Bro Open your f’ing eyes and Watch that clip, like please, you dmassss
agreed, definite cheating and needs calling out more on stream and by top players, not defending
Damn. You're wrong.
I know you’ll never believe me, because I know him and am his friend but as a friend of noah and lifelong competitor as well, he’s legitimately the cleanest player I know. It hurts my soul to see him being prosecuted for something I know he didn’t do, especially after he created such a detailed argument against the allegation. Just consider his point of view please…. He lost his invite because of a dq that he at the very least knows was false :(
It’s hard to know 100% what his intentions were. But the officials caught him and he was DQ’d. I think the “pros” are more defending the honor of the game. Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity or ignorance. That type of thinking
The fact is that Noah stacked his deck. There was no sufficient randomization, requesting a response from the judges and Pokémon TCG is ludicrous and borderline delusional as the clip reveals the reason to DQ him. The worse part is that your showing the evidence and stating is not what is looks like.
the video is proof noah randomized his deck tho
@@magicspoon2571 😏
I’m sorry but when he goes to shuffle and then realigns the card, to me that is intentional cheating. Stopping a shuffle alignment knowing it would put a card deeper into the deck and not keep it as the second card is clear cheating
what if he just missed? The following shuffles randomized plenty
@@magicspoon2571 you must randomize the whole deck. So if the first two cards are the same two cards you draw when shuffling, you definitely didn’t randomize. He didn’t miss. He slides the shuffle in and pulls it back out
@@Da_Poke_King the first two cards weren’t the same, only the stamp was.
@@Da_Poke_King also, he shuffles after that one so I’m not rly sure what ur point is tbh
@@magicspoon2571 he clearly doesnt shuffle to where the top two cards aren’t randomized. Not hard to make it look like your shuffling
You pokémon players are so naive. If he dont stack here I am the pope 😂 And if it is not stacking for all of you and he get rehabilitated I ''wont stack'' either in the future 😂😂😂
🤡🤡🤡
4th
Cool you guys are making excuses for an obvious cheater wouldnt be surprised if you do some of theys things yourself
did you watch the whole clip?
First
All bradner is gonna push is how much he can cheat without getting caught or in trouble 😂
So glad he got caught for cheating
did you even watch the clip lmao
@@magicspoon2571 do you even have a brain?