It was the first day of the main event. There were going to be 3 different Qualifying sessions (90 minutes each). Afterwards, Round 0-1 was going to be completed. There were 48 spots in the bracket.
I had signed up for the first session, so I arrived early to pick my seat. Blue Scuti’s Game Crash station was still roped off. I decided to sit next to that station, in my superstitious belief that it would help me get a high score in my Qualifying run.
Before the tournament, there was an attendance sheet where players filled out their names and DAS PB (personal best). From looking at that sheet, I can tell that I would need at least a 700K score for a chance at making the Top 48 bracket. I already knew it was nearly impossible for me to make the bracket because my PB is 621K. Because of that, I was not under a lot of pressure.
Going into the Qualifying run, my main goal was to beat my Qualifying score from the 2024 CTWC, which was a disappointing 409K. If possible, I wanted to get at least 500K because I get that score once during most of my casual sessions.
Before the Qualifying session began, we waited on aGameScout who had a high score on a Level 19 start during a practice run. When the game ended, he and everyone else in the first session were ready.
With that, the first session commenced. I managed to get 420K in my first game. I was already happy with my score, having beaten the Qualifying score I had at the 2024 CTWC. It meant a lot to me because I was disappointed with my previous performance and tried not to show it.
Later on, I reached the 500K mark and finished with a score of 526K. When the Qualifying scores appeared on the livestream, the commentators saw my name and called out the score.
Towards the last seconds, I tried to get another game in, but time ran out before I could start another game.
Overall, I was really happy with my score. I ultimately wanted to get at least 500K, and that’s what I did.
2 things that helped me ease the nerves were that I already knew I wasn’t going to make the bracket. It also helped that I had experience playing in a Qualifying session at a CTWC event, so I knew what to expect.
