With the Qualifying rounds over, the Top 48 players would compete head-to-head to become the first Jonas Cup winner.
Diane and I were tasked with updating the bracket results. The Google sheet that we used had the matches listed, and we just had to input losing scores on the row that corresponded with the correct player. After that, we mark down which games the players won, which would automatically update the bracket.
Diane color-coded some of the cells to make it easier to keep track of the active matches and which ones were on CT1 and CT2.
Dr. Mario – Play-In
There was a Dr. Mario tournament happening on the side stage. A Dr. Mario Championship (DrMC) Regional tournament, to be exact.
I signed up for the tournament and was randomly placed in the bracket. There were no Qualifiers.
Eventually, it was my turn to compete. My first opponent was a guy named Jeff S. I wanted to compete right away, but my opponent wanted to play a practice game. I won the game. It didn’t count, but it let me know that I had a good chance of winning the match.
After that, we played the Best of 5 match. Matches in Round 1 were played on Level 5. It was very unlikely that any of us would top out. So it was going to come down to who was the fastest. Ultimately, I was faster than him and swept the match. I took a deep breath afterwards, knowing that I was still good at the game.
Dr. Mario – Top 16
A few matches later, it was my turn to compete in the Top 16.
The players that won the Play-In rounds were up against 8 of the players that had byes to Round 1. Basically, the top contenders.
I was up against Catpants, who had finished in the Top 32 at the 2023 Dr. Mario Championship (DrMC). This match was not going to be easy for me.
I was neck and neck with Catpants going into Game 1. Catpants cleared all the viruses first to win the first game. I managed to win Game 2 when Catpants topped out, which surprised me when my game ended. I thought the game froze. The match was tied 1-1.
In Game 3, I had a narrow column to work with. I eventually topped out and lost. Catpants led the match 2-1.
Catpants cruised through Game 4, quickly eliminating all of her viruses and eliminating me from the tournament.
It was actually a relief that I was eliminated because I could get back to helping Diane with updating the Jonas Cup bracket.
