2022 US Nationals Wrap: Olson Repeats

July 20, 2022
2022 US National Championship Logo
Credit – Christian Knudsen

In the third major event of 2022, the US National Championship, Joe Olson continued his extraordinary run of success, winning his fifth major since December 2020. In total, 33 players participated in the Main Event, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, this past weekend (July 15-17). Brad Reinhold turned in another outstanding performance, finishing as the runner-up like he did at the 2022 Endor Grand Prix. Kendall Halman and Karl Koenig won the Friday night Team Tournament and Adam Schellberg won the Sunday Swiss Event.

Some of the other highlights of the weekend included:

Lobot (V) – Team Tournament Half-Slip Foil Giveaway
  • Team New Allies members finished 1 through 4 in the Main Event, with Brian Fred going 8-0, Charlie Arlandson 7-1 and Greg Shaw and Mike Kessling
  • Several forms of Bespin-themed prize support
  • Eight SWCCG in-person major event rookies
  • Virtual Set 19 Spoilers
Top 8 Picture – Kessling, Lavigne, Shaw, Olson, Arlandson, Reinhold, Fred. Credit – Garrett Larson

Rounding out the Main Event Top 8 were Jeff Lavigne (the 2022 Endor Grand Prix champion), Olson (his 20th post-Reset Top 8), Reinhold and Matt Wadden.

Special thanks are owed to Garrett Larson, the primary organizer and director of the event. Numerous other individuals were critical to pulling off US Nationals, including the players who showed up when there are still uncertainties and risks for in-person gaming events.

Gaming Room at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis. Credit – Rae Walseth

The most popular decks for Dark Side included Shadow Collective, Ralltiir Operations (V) and Bring Him Before Me (BHBM). For Light, Communing Yoda was seen most, followed by Old Allies and No Idea. Reinhold’s Set Your Course deck and Justin Miyashiro’s BHBM were among the most novel builds in the field. Almost all of the decklists have been published on the webpage already with a majority of them being available in GEMP-importable format here.

In a throwback nature, Olson’s event-winning Light Side deck started the “Pyre” as his starting location – no objective or additional locations via starting interrupts.

All streamed games are available in their own playlist on the PC’s YouTube Channel. Olson is scheduled to be the guest on Star Wars CCG: Holotheatre’s July 20th Episode (9:00pm Eastern) on the PC’s Twitch: twitch.tv/swccgpc, where he will discuss several aspects of his weekend. For additional information on Nationals, see the 2022 US Nationals forum.

Koenig and Halman – Team Tournament Champions.
Credit – Garrett Larson

Next, the SWCCG community turns its competitive attention to the 3rd Annual Boonta Eve Jawa Brawl, followed closely by the August and September iterations of the 2022 Online Championship Series (all on GEMP).

Then, more major in-person events take place in September and October, with the 2022 European Championship slated for Bochum, Germany and the 2022 World Championship to take place in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Mark Walseth (front row, third from right) with many past and present students from Rosemount Middle School – a Star Wars CCG player “academy”. Credit – Rae Walseth
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