Ok, here’s the IYL9 Playoff bracket: IYL 9 - Playoffs - Challonge
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Very exciting!
@vengefulpickle – Mind adding my Challonge account to the tournament? The user name is Cyphen (it seems that I got an invite, but it was to an old version of the bracket which got deleted). Thanks!
Now, to go schedule my first match!
Yeah, I had your account on it, but then my code wasn’t able to send you a match invite, so I cancelled the invite for now. I’ll re-add
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with Ivan is it ok if we play the 26 ? 
it’s a bit late I know
Shouldn’t this match be Bo7? IIRC only play-ins are Bo5 but I am not sure whether this is considered a play-in match or not. @vengefulpickle
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Hm… Yeah, I didn’t specify. Let’s call all of these playoffs and go Bo7. If it’s too much of a struggle to reschedule, I’ll accept the Bo5 for this set.
So… @flagrantangles and I just finished out our set, and it looks like I took the next two games. I’ll have a full post on it, here, soon.
Once again, huge thanks to 'em for the sportsmanship. I was perfectly content to let it lie, since we hand both verbally confirmed/agreed to the match rules, at the start of the match (and, I figured, certain counterpick or even in-game decisions were made assuming the Bo5 context). So, like, massive props to Flagrantangles for their grit.
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| Game | @Cypher | vs. | @flagrantangles |
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| Round 1 |  |
 
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| Round 2 | |
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| Round 3 | |
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| Round 4 |  |
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| Round 5 | |
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| Intermission | |||
| Round 6 | |
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| Round 7 | |
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Cypher wins, 4-3
- Round 1 – Man, those 0.0 speed Aces can really hurt! Great defensive game by Geiger, with strong undercuts and relentless high-percentage plays.
- Round 2 – This one went more how I wanted it to, although the vortex shenanigans were fairly light.
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Round 3 – The dreaded counterpick! It works really well, too. I get Gwen’s life down by about half
before I’m blown up. - Round 4 – Very straightforward game, goes about as well as you expect. Gwen gets some real traction, towards the end, but it’s not enough.
- Round 5 – An absolutely abysmal draw sees me with no throws until the midpoint of the match, at which point they’re too late and Quince’s range has shifted into “close out the match.” Really strong vortex play by my opponent, though, it would be wrong to discount it. I fell for plenty of tricks.
At this point, we have a brief intermission (one week) as we both thought the set was over. Flagrantangles exhibits some real sportsmanship, though, and suggests we play out the rest of the match even though I’m alright to let it sit.
- Round 6 – I pretty much expect that I’m not gonna be able to clutch it out, so I switch back to may favorite character. Despite a massive mistake, in which (after calling out a Q-spin with a Mistress’s Command), I use my only in-hand knockdown (a 10) for its ability and am unable to set up my vortex off of the mind-controlled turn. Whoops! I somehow manage to squeeze by, with timer-pressure getting to both my opponent and me.
- Round 7 – I’m familiar enough with this matchup that it’s not abysmal, and I’m aided by a near perfect vortex that lasts almost the entire match. Never take a real hit, just block damage, land like three On Your Knees. Sometimes you’re just on the wrong/right Yomi layer.
Big thanks, again, to my opponent. Great games, and great vibes.
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@Casta 4 - 1 @Ivan
ggs ! thanks for the games ! 
Zane and DeGrey are OP, I usually don’t like to play them but it’s IYL playoffs so I somehow have to play the best I can 
Your jaina and gwen are awesome, I had much fun yesterday !
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cpat 4-1 Castanietzsche
> - Really solid earlygame as far as combat reveals, but didn’t have a lot of reliable damage to convert. Got knocked down once but successfully blocked the ensuing Anarchy. Chipped off some more HP before getting knocked down again, but I reversaled the second time. Got knocked down a third time, but won out with a wake-up throw.
> - Went for three aggressive early throws. Definitely overconverted a little bit and ended up with a bit of an awkward hand, but DeGrey found himself with a hand of a known Ace and topdeck, so I was able to stabilize and dodge my way to a comfortable win.
> - Lost an early combat and 30 HP. Bluffed a second combat loss and found myself at sub-35 HP and knocked down. Ate a 6-attack but had the real Joker to stay alive. Dealt some good Jaina damage back before my 7-throw got counter-thrown to drop me under 10 and Zane activated C&D. I found myself with a hand of 44QQ! and went for dodge into Q+ into Q+ for exact lethal.
< - Another bad start, getting dropped to sub-35 HP, but I struggled to convert damage in this midgame. Went for a more blodge-oriented playstyle and got thrown a bunch for it. Despite this, I hit a couple late counter-throws and should’ve won this game with A, but instead tried to throw again and ended up throwing the whole game for it.
> - Fairly standard Zane-Troq game. Got thrown once but got two early blocks attached, and was able to hit both normals and facecards to cruise to a relatively pain-free win. I did suspect that Anarchy was possibly in play with an early Ace powerup, but I never saw it come out.
GGs! The Jaina games felt particularly rewarding today.
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mastrblastr 4 - 3 @Cypher
< 
felt pretty confident I was going to be on the right yomi layer at CP and felt like this MU was pretty likely. Then I proceed to blow it / Cypher plays the MU really well knows how to conserve cards and the top of his deck had all throws. Close game but couldn’t clutch it at the end.
> this one felt much more what it should be like although it was very tense during it and I did have to defuse attached aces by actually blocking.
> comfortable win with big damage being done early and then surviving a vortex and thenclose it out after
> big damage early, but then a big perse vortex and all of a sudden its anyone’s game. very tense back and forth affair with me having all 4 kings in hand and all 4 get dodged by perse while i’m KD! Able to keep composure and close it out
< got rinsed early, tried coming back but couldn’t string enough wins in a row to do it.
< basically perfected. Lost the 2:1 favorite yomi flip like 11 times in a row. Felt awful.
> Down backed 5 turns in a row. Had a 12 card hand with no pair in it. Get a couple throws for damage, attack KD perse with their known AA, do big damage + KD, then dodge next time and get thrown and looped. my K trades with their AA twice in a row. I was planning on setting up guaranteed chipout but they countered the 2nd K. I take the KD power up for AAAA and GAPA rip it to beat a perse attack to win the game and match.
GGs, terrifying games!
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So, when are these finals happening? Are they on the Yomi Tournament Calendar? I wanna watch, if possible.
: - )
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Yeah, I’d love to catch the finals if I can.
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We are aiming for Tuesday, 8/3 at 9:30pm EDT.
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Ok. Who is the IYL9 - 2021 Great Champion? Some reports and/or videos will be great.
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IYL9 Finals Match Report
cpat 4-2 mastrblastr
> - Disappointed at the very start because I intended to lead DeGrey but backed out at the last second. Lots of small hits back and forth until both of us dropped under 30. I ate a T-throw but responded immediately with a throw of my own; however, was unable to kill since I did not have a normal in my hand to link AA. At 19 HP, I hedged my bets against a FA J+ and hit with a third Ace to close it out.
< - I converted an early throw for damage and an aggressive lifelead, and we both decided to play at low hand sizes. Towards the end, I got hit with random Cycloid but counter-threw the next turn to drop Geiger to sub-15. Unfortunately, Geiger (I believe) topdecked Flash Gear and I found myself knocked down with TD up. I guessed correctly that turn with Red Dragon but lost to a slow throw on the subsequent turn.
> - I went with the obvious Zane counterpick here. Again, small hits back and forth in the earlygame as we jostled for cards. Finally, I got a knockdown and swung with a 9-attack for a massive 32-damage payout. Dodged the Cycloid next turn for another knockdown, dropping Geiger to 8 HP. Geiger went for a heroic last stand with two TDs but the so-called worst reversal in the game nullified the threat.
> - Onimaru had an awkward early draw with an abnormal number of high normals, most of which got snuffed out by slightly lower Zane normals, and I grabbed a huge early life advantage. However, I got hit with two huge face cards and my own Crash Bomb, leaving myself with a hand full of garbage in the process. Fortunately, the resource cost on Onimaru was too much, and I finally counterthrew him to win a game that became too close for comfort.
< - Hit the early T-throw but ominously flipped a Joker and a 4, so I knew I was in for a bad time. DeGrey opted for a higher hand strategy which meant that any combat loss could eventually lead to 30 damage. I also blocked up and built Anarchy but threw it away immediately to a Ghost Riposte. Sniffed out PCP with a 6-attack but DeGrey was able to draw the fourth K on his wakeup to stop the mixup chain. I tried to sniff out another PCP but it never came and I died for it.
> - Weird game. I started with three silent Aces so I had a bit of a dead draw early (wholly due to my own greed) and was largely unable to build up cards solidly. Hit a mixup normal but decided to be greedy and keep the Aces in a misguided attempt to close the game with Anarchy. I hit a throw for decent damage, scored a knockdown with K and slammed the Anarchy, only to have it blocked. Fortunately, DeGrey had sustained a lot of damage and was down to sub-10 HP, so an unexpected Crash Bomb from my side closed out the game and the series.
GGs!
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