WOW!

ILLINOIS STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS

Saturday, March 21st at the Hoffman House Banquet Hall on E State St in Rockford
It was AMAZING!

165 Players!
41 Jrs, 47 Seniors, and 77 Masters!
That's only 5 less players than the Regionals we held here 2 years ago! Wow!
We had 6 rounds with a Top 8 for the Jrs and Srs, and 7 rounds with a Top 16 for the Masters!
It was certainly a long day of competing... we started around 11am, and the final match for the Masters finished at 1:30am!

Click here for my Picture Gallery from this fun event!

Just take a look at some of these videos from the event!
( if you took pictures you'd like to include in the gallery, please contact me, I'd love to add them!)

IL States video 1 - Round 1, View of the players and a bit of our silly side, also shows the hats I made and

IL States video 2 - At the back of the room, the art area etc

IL States video 3 - shows the art submission of that interactive Technical Machine gadget for the Art Contest by Scott L.

IL States video 4 - a longer video of me walking around the entire room, this one really gives a good sense of the size of the event and the different areas, like the Art Corner, the food area, the Collect A Card N Comics area, the various players areas, the prizes, the Computers area... all around!.

And here's also one that Steven from PokePress did, it's a parent interview which turned out quite nice. It gives a very favorable impression of the event from a parent's prospective.

Here are the results!

Top 16
1. Alex B (Chuckie)
2. Kyle S (Pooka)
3. Rob S
4. Jonathan S
5. Alvis
6. James F II
7. Joseph M
8. Christian C
9. Jeff W.
10. Abraham M
11. David H
12. Ryan B. (Biginzzz)
13. Robert A.
14. Chad B.
15. Josh W.
16. Carl M.

The top 8 finishers in each of the three age divisions received the following prizes:

(Participants all got a Pokémon TCG S/P/T Championships promo card and a commemorative S/P/T Championships pin!) 

1st Place got:

2nd Place got:

3rd & 4th Place each got:

5th through 8th Place each got:

Door Prizes - We gave out lots of door prizes during the event as well!

One very special door prize was this fantastic 'Custom Collection' donated by Keith and Christina E

Art Corner -  Once again, we had an Art Corner set up where players could color from any number of Pokemon 'Color ME' pages, but this year I also had a lot of the cardboard deck/card storage boxes and other boxes that kids could decorate... I had stickers and various things that kids could use to "decorate their deckboxes", with glue, tape, markers, whatever they like.  I had Event Helpers Patty and Fay there to oversee things. The kids could also Make their own Trainer Card, and Make their own Pokemon card too.

Contests - I had several contests going on during the event, with some fun items to win...

Art Contest - We had many wonderful submissions to the Art Contest... some very creative!
I'll have a link to the Gallery up shortly.
Here are the names of some of the winners: Debra C, Jonathaon N, Scott L, Denice F, Becca S, Adam K, Alicia B.

Dice Dilemna! - The one who was the closest to guess the number of dice in the jar and win 4 Booster Packs was...
well... actually we had 5 players who guessed within 1 die of the total number of 171, so naturally we rolled a die to see who had the high roll to win the packs... and the winner was Anthony K!

Counter Counting! - the winner of 4 Booster Packs, guessing the closest number of damage counters in the jar, was...
Toby N.... he guessed 489 and there were actually 487 inside! Very close guess!!

Chansey's Chance Raffle - Players got a raffle ticket for each Chansey card donated from any set to Devin's Chansey Collection, and 2 for rares and EXs! We collected over 190 Chansey cards, and then drew 2 tickets who each won 6 Booster packs... as it happens, one person, Justin H won both, but then again, he turned in over 100 Chansey cards, so his odds were pretty good!

Pikas for Packs Raffle - You got a raffle ticket for each Pikachu card you turned in, from any set, for Troy's daughter Danielle's Pikachu Collection. We collected roughly 250 Pikachu cards! Then we drew 2 separate winning tickets, and each got 6 booster packs.

Booster Box Raffle - Only $1 got a raffle ticket for the chance to win an entire Booster Box of the newest set, Rising Rivals! One lucky winner got to go home with a whole box for only a dollar!

You're from WHERE?!? - We'll have some random giveaways based on where you've come from, so be sure you put your city and state on your Decklists so we can get you added to our big area Player Map!

Pokemon Hats! - I personally made these cute fleece Pokemon Hats and had drawings for each of them separately.
I gave away a Larvitar, a Pikachu, a Drifloom, and a Marill.(the Buizel was a special one I made for Devin).

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Side Events - By player choice, we had a Free Modified Side Event after the main event. We had 17 players who stuck it through to play after the main event.... the winners were:

1st: Toby N
2nd: Brandon B
3rd: Lothan H

It's a Flip-A-Thon! We had a little side event after the main event where you could flip a coin that we gave you to use until you got tails. Then, the person who flipped the most heads in a row won. That turned out to be Zach P who flipped 7 heads in a row, earning him a fancy certificate with the title of Best Flippin' Flipper at States and 4 booster packs!

I'd like to thank my 5 Event Helpers, who were essential to pulling off this event...

Cody K and Christina E...

Patty B and Fay W...

My Computer Staff Helper - Natalie B (With Judge Keny on the Comps)

And of course I'd like to thank my Staff of 10 fine Judges for this event (pictured below)...they all worked very long and hard to make this a successful event!

Front - Jimmy B, Camille P-R
Left to right- Ryan A, Vicki S, Derrick K, Devin P-R, Adam V, Kevin B
Back - Keny B, Jeremy A, Jordan VH

Thanks again for coming everyone! Hope you had a great time!

Next up... MW Regionals! Check our Midwest Area Pokemon Events website for details!