Trials of the Zodiac Braves

Greetings! With 3 Trials (and 1 Side Quest) completed, we have officially passed the halfway point for Season 5. Even if we stopped here, it would be considered a great season already, but luckily for everyone, there’s more to come! Here are some of the trends and insights of the season so far: Attendance This season has been great thus far in terms of attendance. We started out slow with only 11 because many had other obligations or were celebrating the FFXIV FanFest. However, the 2 nd trial was bolstered by the SF community at their home store of Anime Imports and we saw a great turnout of 21 participants. We had not seen those numbers in over half a year and it was a welcomed surprise. We expected a bit of a drop-off by the 3 rd event, but the Sacramento crew showed up to Galaxy and we had 25 players! This puts our grand total of unique participants to 35. Parity NorCal is a region in which our talent is top-heavy. The skill within the top 6-ish is quite sta...

I never imagined I'd be traveling across the country to compete in a card tournament. The Journey I've played card games for 23 years now, from Overpower to Decipher's Star Wars and Star Trek games, Lord of the Rings, and so on.  The 'meta' was always myself and my friends, we never went to card shops for tournaments and the vast majority of my games throughout the years were against my best friend.  Almost two years ago in the Spring of 2017 that all changed when I attended my first FFTCG tournament at Isle of Gamers in Santa Clara, CA.  In FFTCG I discovered a whole new community and made a wealth of new friends. Never would I have guessed that over those next two years I would end up taking the reins of a local circuit and helping to guide it into a regular fixture of the local community.  Never imagined commentating matches and having people from across the U.S. (and the world?!?) watching and listening.  I certainly couldn't imagine havi...

An evil falls and a legend rises. However, not every hero is remembered. Come and hear an untold tale of a Zodiac Brave. Welcome back! In our second part of the “Entering the Field” series, our next player spotlight is Jonathan Bauer! Jonathan is a recent addition to the NorCal family who only started playing the game after the 2018 Crystal Cup Seattle. He makes the hour-long drive from Santa Cruz to Santa Clara weekly and is known as a stand-up guy and fierce competitor. He started out with some interesting Prishe decks, but has since roared into the top cuts of the Trials of the Zodiac Braves circuit with Earth and Earth/Wind decks. Hi Jonathan! Thanks for doing this interview. Can you start off by us an introduction of yourself? To start out, my name is Jonathan Bauer and I am a new addition to the Bay Area Group. I recently got into the FFTCG around September after playing a little bit at PAX West. I first heard about the game at PAX West 2017. I was pretty interested in th...