The journey to the National Championships for the Flesh and Blood Trading Card Game (FaB TCG) is now officially underway as the first of many Road To Nationals (RTN) tournaments concluded at Unbox Greenhills last Saturday with some very interesting results.
More than 60 players have thrown their hat into the ring to compete for Nationals invites, rainbow foil versions of the new Heavy Hitter Heroes, and the coveted black envelope containing a gold foil version of a common to majestic-rarity equipment card that’s generally worth hundreds of dollars.
The most popular Hero during the weekend turned out to be Kayo, the new Brute introduced in Heavy Hitters. He’s followed closely by both Bravo and Dorinthea – two Heroes who have been popular since the beginning of the game and have gained new upgrades from the latest set. The rest of the field is a wide-open mix of other Heroes – it seems like anyone’s simply playing whoever they want.
Unbox FaB TCG RTN Results – Top 8
After 6 rounds of Swiss, 6 different heroes qualified for the cut. Justin Cu from Team Unbox, who recently won Battle Hardened Manila and is widely regarded as the best FaB (Flesh and Blood) player in Southeast Asia, led the pack with a flawless 6-0 record using the new Guardian Victor. Joining him in the Top 8 were three more teammates – Carlo Ople, the team’s big boss and a Battle Hardened Manila Top 4 finisher, who used Dromai, Jaime Manzano, the team’s Dorinthea specialist, and Jet Malabed, their Rhinar specialist.
The other half of the top 8 were also composed of well-known names such as Andre See from team Kachi, who is potentially the overall MVP of Battle Hardened Manila, and still used Kassai to great success, Paolo Mayo, an Illusionist class specialist from the South, who is also on Dromai, Keenan Fernandez and Dodge Marquez – two of the rising stars who have been performing admirably during the past months, who are on Kassai and Dash respectively.
To get into Top 4, Dodge caused a huge upset and won against the Battle Hardened Manila champion. Meanwhile, Andre and Paolo also won against their respective opponents. Finally, Carlo advanced against Jet in their team kill match to complete the first four qualified players for this year’s National Championships.
At the end of the night, the Top 4 field proved to be quite favorable for Dromai, as both Carlo and Paolo dispatched their respective opponents in the next round to meet in a mirror match in the Finals. Paolo emerged victorious after a grueling match of grinding out small advantages and strategic play.
The National Championships And How To Qualify
The National Championships is FaB TCG’s most prestigious and biggest annual tournament on the local level, whose renown is rivaled only by a Calling, and is just a step below the Pro Tour and the World Championships. With the recent recognition of Legend Story Studios (LSS) regarding the game’s explosive growth in the country, the Philippines’ National Championships player cap was raised from 64 to 96 -similar to that of countries like Spain and Japan.
To secure one of these 96 slots a player needs to Top 4 in a Road To Nationals (RTN) tournament. At the moment, there are 12 RTNs scheduled around the country – guaranteeing a maximum of 48 (repeat Top 4’ers don’t pass down their invite) qualified players. The remaining slots will then be filled based on overall ELO (FaB’s rating system), with the highest unqualified 48 (or so) making it in.
Why go through all of that effort just to join the Nationals? Besides the prestige of being crowned as the third National Champion and recognized as PH’s best for the year, the winner is also awarded a Black Envelope containing a Gold Foil Legendary card worth thousands of dollars. They also get a direct invite to the World Championship AND be the bearer of the country’s flag during the opening ceremonies. Needless to say, they’ll forever be part of both local and international FaB history.
Speaking of history, check out our recap of Battle Hardened Manila – a historical tournament for FaB in the Philippines.
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