What A Top Deck Society and Vanguard Tournament.
WATD x VGCS Collaboration event.
On the 11th of March, WATD helped YellowCardTCG to host their yearly Cardfight Vanguard tournament VGCS at the Staffs Uni London campus.
This project happened due to WATDs involvement in running the broadcast production and helping out with the planning for a YGO region qualifier last summer and my involvement in the Cardfight Vanguard community.
I wanted to build upon our experiences and create a similar event for a community I care about. Through talks with my friend Ben Anuworakarn who’s part of YellowCardTCG, we agreed to hold a larger-scale VGCS at our campus and push the limits of our experiences, his as a tournament organizer and mine as a broadcast and venue organizer.
Planning started in November/December of last year, and the turnout and support exceeded expectations.
We had a turnout of 92 attendees showing up, both nationals and internationals from countries such as Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Slovenia, all fighting for the top 8 spots and prizes valued in a total of £1550. We also had 5 society members, 1 level 6 Esport student, and 6 ambassadors help out on the day, together with 1 TO, 6 judges, 2 professional casters and 1 media person brought in by YellowCardTCG.
The day consisted of 7 rounds of swiss, followed by a break and a raffle event to get free prizes for people who didn’t qualify for the top 8 spots before starting the top 8 rounds together with some small side events for the other players.
WATD and society are very grateful to the Student Union and Staffordshire University London for letting YellowCardTCG, and put on such a larger-scale international-level event. I want to give a big shout-out to the society member Callum Clark for running the broadcast and dealing with any challenges arising there to ensure that the professional broadcast of the event went smoothly together with Christopher Warner and Joseph Knight for being my extra pair of legs on the day running around and helping where needed if I were busy, and Connor Clarke for taking charge of the student ambassadors and making sure they knew what to do.
But for now, I look forward to more WATD events in the future!
- Tarjei Torvik