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Welcome to the finals of $10K Los Angeles. This has been a fun day of drafting the newest addition to the DC Universe—Justice League of America. We’ve narrowed the field down to two players, and they are ready to battle. |
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Bulk, who defeated David Leader to earn this semifinal berth, was all business as he shuffled up his deck. Dair was similarly stolid, carefully shuffling as quickly as he could. |
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Both of these players have a previous $10K Top 8 finish to their name. Other than that, this is the first high-level tournament experience for both of them. This is certainly the first time that either of them has played in the Danger Room, which is the name of the feature match area for the Pro Circuit. |
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For this Top 8 Draft, I watched David Leader as he . . . what’s that? You’re sick of reading about David Leader? Fine. Have it your way. |
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Ryan, who we followed during the Draft, didn’t do quite as well as he had expected. He has only gone 1-1 in his Draft pod, and that means he probably won’t make Top 8. |
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Both of these players won the first match in their Draft pods and need to win out to have a chance of making Top 8. They were all business as they shuffled up, well aware that they were on the brink of elimination. |
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No, that’s not a typo. These two got paired up two rounds in a row. I know you probably don’t want to see any more matches from either of these guys, but hey, you’re gonna live with it. I’m the reporter, and I’ll pick my feature matches. So there. |
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This Top 24, while not quite as impressive as the one at Wizard World Texas, still has a number of high-profile players. Among them are PC champion Ryan Jones. |
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These players are both guaranteed a Top 24 berth, but both of their decks are quite powerful, so I thought it might be interesting to cover their match. |
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After a full day of the Pro Circuit yesterday, and a full day of the $10K today, everyone was beginning to get a little tired. These competitors were no exception, and weariness showed on their faces. |
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Michael Barnes is the force behind the Xavier’s Dream deck that took PC NY by storm, while David De Michele has multiple $10K Top 8 finishes to his credit. As they both had records of 4–2 going into this round, only the winner would have a shot at making Top 24 tomorrow. |
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These two well-known Vs. professionals each have one loss coming into the round. Alex Smith is a Denver pro who made Top 8 at $10K Indy. Luke Bartter is an Australian pro, a member of the VsParadise team and one of the most recognizable players from that area of the world. |
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For the first Sealed Pack of the weekend, I sat with Adam Horvath as he built his deck. I thought it only appropriate that for the next round of deck construction, I cover his semi–arch-nemesis, fellow PC champion David Leader. |
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Although fifteen undefeated players still remain in the tournament, these two competitors sit at the first table. |
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These guys are Vs. System stars. Each of them has a Pro Circuit Top 8 to his name, although neither made the cut to Day 2 of this weekend’s PC. In fact, I was responsible for eliminating Dustin in the sixth round (before being eliminated myself in the seventh). |
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We rejoin Tillman Bragg in the third round of the tournament, where he remains undefeated. Tillman has a great deal of experience in this format, having made Top 8 in the first JLA $10K a few weeks ago. |
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These men need no introduction. David Leader was the champion of PC Indy, while Adam Horvath claimed victory in PC Amsterdam. These formidable players both missed the cut to Day 2 in this weekend’s PC LA, though, so they are here to fight it out in the $10K. |
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These players are friends from Nashville, Tennessee. Both Tillman and Donald have had a great deal of success in Vs. System recently. Donald made Top 8 at $10K Atlanta, and Tillman Top 8’d the recent $10K at Wizard World Texas. |
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Pro Circuit champion Adam Horvath didn’t have much luck in the PC yesterday, but his weekend is far from over. If Adam succeeds at today’s $10K, it would not be the first time that he’ll have bounced back from a poor start to sit at the final table of a major event. |
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