Meta Share Analysis: April 2023

Team ZapdOaks, through collaboration with the local sanctioned Pokémon leagues and organized play! league organizers, have partnered to grow and elevate the professional standards of local competition. This is achieved by enabling reporting for all Pokémon TCG events that are earn you Championship Points or have significant prizing support.

This initiative will focus on the Meta Share for the month and feature the top performing decks at the event. This allows for players of all calibers to see what decks are performing and improve their deck building skills, irrespective of age, experience and geographical region.

From a community reach perspective, this initiative will also allow players, parents and followers with an expanded base of all events that may occur within their respective city and draw awareness to all leagues in an equal and fair setting.

We create the necessary graphics to summarize the anonymized data that is reported and the public has access to the database used for graphing to ensure that all information is available. We have added a FAQ section below to expand on various questions for your benefit.

The multitude of benefits that this type of initiative has on the scene is far reaching and has multiple benefits across all different age groups, player experience and relevant stakeholder. We have illustrated some of the benefits across various different bands, however bear in mind that this is not an exhaustive list and the benefit stacks as time goes on.

Juniors / Seniors:

This division of players is the most critical when looking at a sustainably growing the local scene; they are at the age where their reading skills are rapidly developing, they’re forming the foundations of critical thinking, improving social and communication skills whilst associating the game with fun.
The Juniors / Seniors look up to the Masters players and whilst many may be shy to ask for help / ask questions an open community platform focusing on player development and publishing of tournament information allows for them to research and build on some of the aforementioned skills whilst associating it with the potential players they look up to.
It enables an avenue, through a mutual talking point, to start the discussions for these younger players and potentially enable them to build relationships with players who are more experienced than themselves.
Exposure to the level of competition: When players transition from Juniors / Seniors to Masters there is a big step-up in the average competitiveness of the pool you play against. By exposing the Juniors / Seniors to the deck lists that the top Master players are running it provides the Juniors / Seniors with to challenge themselves by learning to pilot different deck styles during their Junior and Senior careers, through inspiration from a multitude of resources that they can associate with.
The decks that are often featured generally require strategic decision making when playing, by exposing the Juniors / Seniors to this it enables the various Juniors / Seniors to actively practice these fundamental skills through either discussing with their peers, researching the deck, practicing the deck or asking Parents, Masters, Store / League owners questions.

Parents:

Parents build a relationship with store owners / league administrators / certain players and other parents. There is an important element of trust within the community space. This initiative provides parents with the assurance that there is content published through players that they may know and recognize that is safe for their children to consume.
Through publishing the top performing deck lists, in combination with our community guides, it provides parents with the ability to have more informed discussions with store owners, players and their kids about what type of cards or products they can purchase whilst ensuring the cards can be relevant and useful for multiple tournaments.
In the event that their child has expressed interested in competing at a higher level, it provides the parents with the chance to build a secondary deck that is competitive relevant for at-home practice with their child.
It provides parents the ability to discuss the decks that the top players are using with their children and provide coaching resources whilst engaging with their child within a / forming a critical thinking environment.

New Comers

It provides a support mechanism for new players in the scene with the ability to easily understand what types of decks perform well at events and assist in understanding deck building skills as the decks featured are often efficient and have a good balance between Pokémon, Trainers, Supports and Energies.
It provides new entrance with an accelerated learning resource so that they can catch-up to the average competitor level and ultimately improve their chance of remaining in the scene for a longer period of time.
It provides them with a pathway to start discussing news within the scene with other local players and building relationships.

Competitive Players

For the top competitors, this provides them with the access to the top performing decks across the country which significantly assists in their preparation for upcoming events.
For all competitors, it helps drive our meta-game and encourages players to not only think about “copying” a deck online but also identifying how our local meta-game can evolve and how to play around it.
It provides all competitors with access to the top performing lists, thus improving the average player that may have built inefficient decks.
For the top players that are interested in traveling to Worlds. A healthy, strong, knowledgeable and competitive local scene will significantly improve the practice that you receive locally ahead of the international challenges.
For competitors that simply want a shot at placing at an event, this provides you with some insight into the top performing decks to help you make an informed decision or improve your decks to try achieve your goal of earning some points.

Judges / Tournament Organizers / Stores

Through consolidating the reporting, it provides you with much more knowledge into the meta game which can assist in:
- Cross selling products (V Battle Decks, singles etc.)
- Identifying match-ups to assist new players and/or juniors / seniors in store.
- Brushing up on interactions of newly meta-cards before being required to make official judging calls.
- Collaboratively growing the entire community.
- Assisting with informed knowledge sharing when asked for tips and advice.
Specifically for store owners, it provides you with the opportunity to roll out various initiatives with the new / young players at Learn To Play! Events by easily showing them the type of information that they can access should they want to improve ahead of their next visit to the store. Their interactions with the community forms real connections which can safeguard some of the risk that they do not return.

The TL:DR / summarized conclusion is that this reporting provides a centralized location whereby players (of all ages), parents, spectators, media-outlets, stores, judges and tournament organizers can access resources surrounding our local scene to improve their tournament preparation, accelerate their practice, expand their knowledge on deck building, build exposure to competitive relevant decks and learn about all the various stores and leagues that are in their city. It is an initiative for all players and focused on improving every single player in the local game, irrespective of age or experience.

The events that will feature this type of reporting on will be reserved for the most competitive tournaments available to the players. This provides all local players with access to the most competitive datasets and the ability to now interpret the data points and improve on their own.

This will include the following types of events:

Events that are classified as a tournament on the official Pokémon Event Locator
- League Challenges
- League Cups
- SPE’s / Regionals / Nationals / Internationals (depending on availability within our region)
Major private tournaments that feature a large player-base with significant prizing support (e.g. Tournaments run through Unplug Yourself at Comic Con)

We strive to publish the reports on a weekly basis with the ideal publication date being the Wednesday of the week. Stores / Leagues would submit the data by COB Monday latest and we ensure the graphics, posts and databases are adequately updated on the Tuesday ahead of publication.

The frequency of weekly Wednesday is done to ensure that the reporting for any event that took place is fair and consistent across the board. This allows the community to be assured that no player or store is disadvantaged with a delayed reporting window and thus removing time that they could practice, review or plan ahead of the next time that they play and thus accommodate the average player who might only play in one League event a month and not travel.

As detailed in an earlier FAQ; The objective of this initiative is to provide a resource to all members of the local community that enables those individuals to make better informed decisions when attending future tournament events. It is a resource that is designed with the primary objective to improve the average player, whilst also allowing for post-event reporting and historic analysis for all players across the entire country ahead of larger tournaments to better prepare at a competitive level and thus raising the competitive standards at all events.

In order to achieve this objective, the deck lists that are shared should represent those that performed well enough to earn Championship Points or prizing at the larger events.

The consistent rule that is applied: Any deck that earned CP or prize support will be shared. The minimum amount of decks that will be featured can be summarised as follows;

League Challenges – Top 4 Decks, unless a kicker applied and more decks earned CP.
League Cups – Top 4 Decks, unless a kicker applied and more decks earned CP.
Special Events – Top 8 Decks, unless a kicker applied and more decks earned CP.
Large Private Events – Top X Decks that featured prize support.

For more information on Championship Points and kickers, please visit the official Pokémon site: https://www.pokemon.com/us/play-pokemon/pokemon-events/pokemon-tournaments/earn-championship-points-tcg/

Pokémon’s Rules & Regulations pertaining to tournaments can be found HERE. Our responses for each of the relevant rules are in Red following the official Play! Pokémon Tournament Rules Handbook outline the following clauses:

2.6 Publishing Tournament Information

Pokémon Organized Play reserves the right to publish tournament information, including but not limited to deck lists, team lists, transcripts, audio and/or video recordings or other recounts, player penalties, awards, or any other resultant information from the tournament.
Organizers, judges, players, and spectators are also free to publish details of play and/or the results of a tournament, subject to local, state, and national laws.
Attendance at a Play! Pokémon event may lead to an attendee’s image and likeness being photographed and video-recorded by or on behalf of The Pokémon Company International (TPCi).
By entering or remaining at Play! Pokémon events, attendees grant permission for TPCi, its affiliates, and media organizations to publish their name, image, likeness, team or deck composition, methods of play, and written and oral statements in connection with any still photograph, live or recorded video display, or other transmission or reproduction of the event, in whole or in any part.

Team ZapdOaks primarily interacts as a a media organization specifically operating within the competitive Pokémon TCG niche. Refer to our detailed site and community segments whereby we generate media for the betterment of the community as a whole and work in partnership with stores and leagues to achieve this. As a media organization we have the mandate as permitted by The Pokémon Company International to generate such content around deck lists should it be released. Players are reminded that by playing in Organized Play! Events you grant consent to media organizations to publish your deck lists.

2.6.1 Publishing Deck/ Team Lists

The contents of any player’s deck or team may be published by the Organizer at any time once the event has begun, provided that this information is publicly accessible, and that the publication of such data is part of an initiative that provides additional value to those attending or watching the event. For example, this includes broadcasting a match via live stream or publishing an article about the event.

As outlined in another segment of our FAQ the objective of this initiative is to bring awareness to events and provide additional value in connection to the event for all stakeholders. This content is generated for all Organized Play! Events without prejudice or bias. The only limitation is if this content was not available to the public whilst the event was ongoing.

We are required to comply with all laws and regulations within South Africa. Specifically, we are required to abide by the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI Act) same with all stores and leagues that we interact with on this initiative. Additionally, we are required to abide by the rules as set out by The Pokémon Company International.

In order to populate the database, graphics and posts we require the deck lists from each league for all participants.The deck lists contain the following personal information; Player Name, Player Pokémon ID & Date of Birth.

The following safeguards are applied to this data that we collect:

The data entered into the database, which is public and POPIA compliant, does not contain any personal information (i.e. Your name, Player ID and Date of Birth is not stored in any database).
Deck lists that are submitted to us have the relevant personal particulars already censored out at discretion of the store.
In accordance with Pokémon Rules & Regulations; the paper based and scanned deck lists submission are destroyed by the time of reporting.
All lists as published on our website do not contain any personal information and do not link the said player to that list.

If you have any further questions please refer to our privacy policy.

We are industry leaders, with players that are representatives of the community and operating in a manner that is not compliant with Pokémon’s values can result in bans from events for all of our parties involved.

Furthermore, we are also legally accountable as operating in a way that breaches laws & regulations has legal ramifications for our authorized representatives that belong to professional bodies, non-compliance with the Companies Act, risk of losing retailer licenses and unrecoverable brand reputation loss.

The underlying database is publicly available through every post, please refer to the Public Database section of this report. You are able to view an embedded file or access the database directly through the link.

Note: You are not required to sign in to any account to view the database, it is 100% available to the public all thanks to the stores and tournament administrators that want to help grow the scene. Their locations are outlined through each segment later in this report and we encourage you support the stores that contribute to a growing scene.

We are always happy to answer any question, ensure your community voice is heard and expand on the reporting base. Please email nick@zapdoaks.com.

Total Meta Share

If you would like to enlarge the image, please Right Click and select “Open Image in New Tab”.

Meta Share by Championship Points only, limited to top 5 best performing decks.

If you would like to enlarge the image, please Right Click and select “Open Image in New Tab”.

Included below is a summary of all decks that have earned Championship Points / Prizing at Major Events. Reminder: You are able to access the full database within the post. As we have embedded the database and provided a link to access it.

The database that is maintained for graphing purposes is open to the public, we have embedded the database below so that you may browse it as part of the post, however, we have also included the LINK so you can view it as its own webpage.

Venue Address
Imperium Games
Unit 32E Helderberg Village Walk Centre, 1ste Floor,
Cnr Caledon and Drama Street,
Somerset West, Western Cape, 7130

View their official Pokémon Play! Page and contact details at https://www.pokemon.com/us/play-pokemon/pokemon-events/leagues/6236883/

1st Place

Pokémon
4 Lugia V SIT 138
3 Lugia VSTAR SIT 139
4 Archeops SIT 147
2 Tyranitar V BST 097
2 Stonjourner BST 084
2 Lumineon V BRS 40
1 Pumpkaboo EVS 076
1 Radiant Gardevoir LOR 069

Trainers
3 Professor’s Research
3 Boss’s Orders
2 Judge
1 Professor Burnet
4 Ultra Ball
4 Capturing Aroma
4 Urn of Vitality
2 Nest Ball
2 Mesagoza
2 Tower of Darkness
1 Collapsed Stadium

Energies
4 Single Strike Energy
3 Double Turbo Energy
2 V Guard Energy
2 Gift Energy
2 Regenerative Energy

2nd Place

Pokémon
4 Comfey LOR 79
2 Sableye LOR 70
2 Cramorant LOR 50
2 Manaphy BRS 41
1 Raikou V BRS 48
1 Drapion V LOR 118
1 Radiant Greninja ASR 46
1 Hawlucha SVI 118
1 Galarian Zapdos V CRE 80

Trainers
4 Colress’s Experiment
2 Raihan
2 Klara
1 Boss’s Orders
4 Battle VIP Pass
4 Escape Rope
4 Switch Cart
4 Nest Ball
3 Mirage Gate
2 Energy Recycler
1 Hisuian Heavy Ball
1 Pokegear 3.0
1 Sky Seal Stone
2 Beach Court

Energies
4 Water Energy
3 Psychic Energy
2 Lightning Energy
1 Fighting Energy

3rd Place

Pokémon
4 Mew V FST 113
3 Mew VMAX FST 114
4 Genesect V FST 185
1 Oricorio FST 042

Trainers
2 Boss’s Orders
2 Judge
1 Professor’s Research
1 Roxanne
1 Cyllene
4 Battle VIP Pass
4 Cram-o-matic
4 Ultra Ball
4 Power Tablet
2 Pal Pad
2 Choice Belt
2 Feather Ball
2 Nest Ball
2 Switch
2 Escape Rope
2 Trekking Shoes
2 Crushing Hammer
2 Lost Vacuum
3 Path to the Peak

Energies
4 Double Turbo Energy

4th Place

Pokémon
4 Comfey LOR 79
4 Kecleon CRE 122
3 Cramorant LOR 50
1 Radiant Charizard CRZ 20
1 Sableye LOR 70

Trainers
4 Colress’s Experiment
2 Boss’s Orders
2 Klara
2 Raihan
4 Battle VIP Pass
4 Switch
4 Level Ball
4 Mirage Gate
3 Switch Cart
2 Supereffective Glasses
1 Energy Recycler
1 Hisuian Heavy Ball
1 Escape Rope
1 Path to the Peak
1 Beach Court

Energies
2 Double Turbo Energy
2 Darkness Energy
2 Lightning Energy
1 Fire Energy
1 Water Energy
1 Metal Energy
1 Fighting Energy
1 Psychic Energy

Venue Address
Sword & Board
Unit 6a Point Business Park
Koeburg Street, Milnerton
Cape Town, Western Cape, 7441

View their official Pokémon Play! Page and contact details at https://www.pokemon.com/us/play-pokemon/pokemon-events/leagues/6234009/