There was one more qualifying session before the bracket matches began.
When I looked at the qualifying standings, I saw that I had a chance to make it in the Bronze Bracket. But I could easily get bumped off the Bronze Bracket if most of the players in this session beat my score of 459K which was very low.
Grand Designs was invited on stage to initiate the countdown for this qualifying session.
I watched as some players easily beat my score. A lot of attention was on Noah Dengler, a 2024 CTWC Semifinalist who was capable of getting a high seeding rank. Towards the end of the session, Dengler started to play more aggressively. The people sitting behind me were screaming as Dengler went for the aggressive play. Sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn’t.
At the end, Dengler qualified for the Gold Bracket as the #15 seed. He got to skip Round 0 as one of the Top 16 seeds.
Did I Qualify For The Classic Tetris World Championship?
As for me, most of the players in that session beat my qualifying score. I was 2 spots below the Bronze Bracket cutoff.
When Lucy arrived at the stats table, she was informed about Doodle dropping out of the tournament. That put me one spot below the Bronze Bracket cutoff, it did not feel good to be that close to making it in and failing to do so.
Doodle dropping out allowed Danny Cox to advance to the Bronze Bracket. I went backstage to inform Danny.
I returned to the stats table, wondering if one more player was going to drop out. That was all I needed to make it in the bracket.
One player went up to Lucy to find out where they stood in their respective bracket. Kingsman let that player know they will be able to make accommodations to their volunteer schedule if they made a deep run in the tournament. Ultimately, that individual decided not to drop out of the competition.
I was sad to be that close to making it in the Bronze Bracket and failing to make it in. I thought to myself, if I had just done a little bit better I would have made it in. All that practice I had been doing for those last few weeks was essentially for nothing. I refrained from heavily complaining about it to Lucy. One thing I learned from life is that only the end results matter, people are not going to care about how much work you put into that result. I was ready to move on and focus on my volunteer task.
aGameScout showed up to the stats table to find out where he stood in the bracket. He was the #1 seed in the Bronze Bracket so he had a good chance of making a deep run in the bracket. He considered dropping out because he wanted to focus on his volunteer tasks, such as taking photos. (I just remembered him talking about wanting to drop out in the first place, but didn’t want to because he was qualifying on the livestream.)
I brought up that I was 1 spot below the Bronze Bracket cutoff. Scout asked me if I wanted to be in the Bronze Bracket. Once I said yes, he told Lucy that he was dropping out of the tournament, which meant that I was in the Bronze Bracket. I immediately thanked Scout.
When I didn’t make it into the bracket in the previous 2 years, I didn’t have any videos of myself competing at the tournament. I really wanted to make it into the Bronze Bracket so that I would compete in a match and it would be on YouTube.
So it was an exciting moment for me to realize that I finally made it into a CTWC bracket after my third attempt.
Thinking about it afterwards, a series of events got me in the Bronze Bracket. Joseph Saelee was going to be at this year’s tournament, but could not attend due to a personal emergency. Doodle dropped out of competition. And finally, aGameScout dropped out of the tournament so that I could make it in the Bronze Bracket. Sometimes, it takes a series of events that are out of your control to get in a CTWC bracket.
Well, it was time to prepare for the tournament.
