On October 22-23, 2016, Bushiroad held a California qualifier event for the world championships to be held later in Los Angeles. This qualifying event was held at Fairplex in Pomona, California. The three games that held tournaments were Vanguard which occupied all of Saturday while Buddyfight and Weiss Schwarz were both on Sunday. It was a free event to attend and compete

It was much different than the spring qualifiers earlier in May because this event had more people, but the spring qualifiers were in a much bigger venue in the Anaheim Convention Center.

I personally only went on Sunday to compete in the Weiss Schwarz event. This particular year, they changed the format so that it would be just double elimination as opposed to before when it was Swiss style. It was a good format for those that intended to have a short day, but it was a terrible format for those that came a long distance to compete and wanted to keep on playing. In my case, it wasn’t too pleasant as I went 0-2.

They had a lot of booths to purchase things like sleeves, playmats, and more cards. They had some rare cards like signed ones and Japanese cards. It was helpful for those that don’t get to buy things in person often.

The side events were pretty cool which gave some people a second chance at redemption if they were eliminated already. At this event, they introduced a variation of Weiss Schwarz called “Dice Schwarz” which involved a dice to add changes to the game which may benefit or be against you.

It was a fun event to attend especially since it was free. Along with it being a free event, it was cool to get a swag bag as well. I appreciate Bushiroad creating a free season long event to crown a champion in these various games.  It felt like a major but for card games.

Written by: Timtastic