Packie travels to the TORG Gaming Expo to seek his third win at the 2021 Dr. Mario Championship. He has appeared in every tournament, having won the first 2 tournaments.
Packie Seeks His Third Win at the Dr. Mario Championship
The first step of the tournament is qualifying, where players wait in line to join a 6-player Round-Robin Pool. In one of those pools, Packie won every game. Eventually, he qualified as the #1 seed.
The playoffs began where every match was a Best of 5.
In the first round, Packie swept Elizabeth (#32 seed), 3 Games to 0.
The second round had him facing Doc (#16 seed). Doc won Games 1 and 3, while Packie won Game 2. After those 3 games, Packie was trailing 2-1 in the match, putting him in danger of elimination. However, Packie won the next 2 games to win the match and advance to the Top 8.
In the Quarter-Finals, he swept Crimson (#9 seed and 2020 Semi-Finalist). This match was interesting, especially Game 2. At one point, Crimson had 42 viruses left, while Packie had 3 viruses left. Crimson managed to slow Packie down with her combo play that she cleared 25 viruses before Packie eventually cleared his last 3 viruses to win Game 2. Crimson had 17 viruses left when Packie won that game.
An Umbrella Used As Defense Against Packie
For the Semi-Finals, he faced Inphlox (#13 seed). All the players knew that Packie was a difficult opponent to beat. So Inphlox decided to do an umbrella strategy, where he would create a vitamin column on the sides and form an umbrella at the top of the playing field.
In Game 1, Inphlox formed the umbrella, but it severely limited his placement options which caused him to top out early. In Game 2, Inphlox was able to pull off the strategy without topping out. This allowed him to clear viruses with minimal garbage drops affecting his gameplay. The one noticeable downside to the umbrella was that it limited the number of columns for placing the vitamins. Ultimately, Packie ended up winning Game 2 by clearing all of his viruses.
Inphlox saw that the strategy did not work against Packie, so he abandoned the umbrella in Game 3. But Packie still swept the match to advance.
Packie Returns To The Finals For the First Time In 3 Years.
In the Finals, Packie faced Ibaar (#2 seed). In Game 1, Ibaar topped out early, giving Packie the first win. For Game 2, Packie clears all his viruses to put him one win away from winning the tournament. At the start of Game 3, a combination of one misflip and 2 garbage drops causes Packie to top out early. By Game 4, Packie wins to become a 3-Time Dr. Mario Champion.
