Tournament Report: Champion of the BCS 25/26 Chicago (Rosemont), IL

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Carmen is a well known competitive Weiss player with multiple tops in both English and Japanese Weiss Schwarz in North America. He has been playing the game since 2018, won 1st place in the JP WGP Nationals in 2019, and took 1st place last season in BCS Houston with TSK (That Time I was Reincarnated as a Slime). Be sure to check out his content at PGH_Weiss Schwarz on YouTube and his Blog . Now onto the interview!

Melanie Lynette (ML): How did the event go for you? Was there anything specific that you'd like to share from the start?

Carmen Condeluci (CC): I didn't prepare much outside of my past few Summer Fests that I played in piloting NIKKE, but ended up doing very well. NIKKE is a difficult but rewarding deck to play in the current environment, so being able to be lucky enough to go undefeated and snag those one or two bad games from the edge felt great.

Winning Decklist:

BushiNavi Code: 1RWQA

https://decklog-en.bushiroad.com/view/1RWQA

ML: What was your match up and how did Round 1 go for you?

CC: I won against Bang Dream!: 8 Comeback (Door). The deck ran the sacrifice at end step Level 1 combo into a typical Doloris top end. Opponent was inexperienced, so struggled with Nikke’s powerful effects.

ML: What was your match up and how did Round 2 go for you?

CC: I won against The Quintessential Quintuplets: 8 Comeback (Door) Itsuki. The opponent had a rough game, and despite getting 2 Itsuki to snipe 2 climaxes off of top deck I was able to swing back for game.

ML: What was your match up and how did Round 3 go for you?

CC: I won against Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation. This was an extremely tight game with a very skilled and knowledgeable opponent who brought MTI specifically targeting NIKKE and BanG Dream!. They hit 3x Ghislaine at level 1 and made it extremely hard for me to establish my board, but thanks to a double Maiden freeze to stop the Ghislaine from promoting to front row, I was able to establish a decent board. From this point the game progressed to the point where we were both dancing around each others' tap counters, and Modernia’s icy tail ended up getting me there. This was definitely one of the games of the day where I had to get lucky to win, as my opponent's meta read was working out very well for him.

ML: What was your match up and how did Round 4 go for you?

CC: I won against Bang Dream. I sat down to play verses Brayden of The Clock Tower and I always have a great time playing any of their members. I knew pretty much exactly what he'd be on, how he likes to play, and he is very familiar with not only my specific card choices but also my play patterns as well. There were no surprises on either end of the table. Both of us ate hefty amounts of damage that we shouldn't have, but his was pre-finisher and mine was post-finisher, actually eating 10 damage straight to avoid any Doloris reflection burns. After untapping at 3-6, it was fairly trivial to close out the game. Definitely one of those "it is what it is" games, but we got there.

ML: What was your match up and how did Round 5 go for you?

CC: I won against Hololive Production: 8 Comeback (Door) Chloe/Ollie. The opponent's deck planned to use Haachama "Dark Hole" to clear boards, and I leveled ACC before seeing Ollie's CX as I expected the usual hexproof, anti-backup midgame of Chloe/Marine. The early game progressed normally, but my opponent began to struggle as I set up my mid-game board. There was a large amounts of cancels on both sides of the table, and there was a turn where my opponent failed to produce an attack in the mid-game due to not having a 2nd Ollie to summon. From that point I ran away with the game. We almost hit time, not due to any fault of the players, but simply due to the raw amount of cancelling in the game on both sides.

ML: What was your match up and how did Round 6 go for you?

CC: I won against Revue Starlight: 4 Gate (Pants)/4 Comeback (Door) Hikari/Karen. I sat down against an undefeated Pants/Door RSL deck, and thanks to Ben of the Refresh Point, I was familiar with nearly all the cards. His Karen was able to challenge my mid-game board and keep him healthy in stock, but his hand began to suffer as I continually slammed Alice EPs. I was able to completely shut down his attempted finisher turn with a combination of memory-kick backup and tap counter, which is what I expected to happen given the normalcy of the game on both sides and generally how well NIKKE "bullies" such strategies that rely on contesting multiple lanes at the endgame.

ML: What was your match up and how did Round 7 go for you?

CC: I won against Bang Dream!: 4 Gold Bar Oblivionis/ 4 Comeback (Door) Anon/Tomori. A very unique BD build from Chairman of Tressa's Collectibles! I was extremely impressed with how well his chosen tech cards affected the matchup. Our game went mostly normally until he was forced to go for game, and could not get there. I was able to set up checkmate with top deck + Sin burn to close it. Both of us were playing a little loose as the game "did not matter" since we were both undefeated, and was a nice reprieve before going into top cut.

ML: And after deck checks, top cut! How did Top 16 go?

CC: I won against Goddess of Victory: NIKKE. This was absolutely the hardest game of the day. My opponent is the strongest NIKKE pilot I have ever faced to date. My opening was rocky, drawing multiple climaxes, and conversely my opponent's game was going great; up until the end of his first deck. He was stuck in a scenario where he had 3 climaxes in his bottom 4 cards and had no way to recover, which allowed me to salvage the game state and set up my board first, backed up by defensive counters. From this point, I was able to grind the game to a halt, locking my opponent out of the option to present backrow characters that I'd be able to Sin burn. If it were not for my opponent's bad run of luck at the bottom of his first deck, this would have surely been my exit from the tournament. Every successful tournament run relies on at least one or two instances of luck in your favor, and this was certainly one of mine for the day.

ML: And next, Top 8. What was your match up?

CC: I won against Bang Dream! Gold Bar Oblivionis/ Gate (Pants) Tomori. The opponent was skilled and played a fairly standard opening, to which I responded with one of my own. His second deck started to falter as his Oblivionis’ errantly removed multiple climaxes from his deck. My established board was able to start grinding out the game. He presented double Tomori, without climax, in an attempt to heal down and extend the game, but continuing to heal and top deck with Alice got me there in the end.

ML: On to Top 4 then. What was your match up?

CC: I won again against Bang Dream!: 4 Gold Bar Oblivionis/ 4 Comeback (Door) Anon/Tomori. This was my rematch with the Chairman. The game went completely sideways from the jump for both of us, with both of us bleeding climaxes and important pieces, struggling to keep up with one another. I am fairly certain that I triggered first attack every single turn of this game. Thankfully, NIKKE runs on fumes much better than most, even more when your opponent struggles to answer your threats in kind. Chairman put out a fairly impressive finishing board for such a poor-going game, but I was able to survive and "tap it in" with a Delta top-2-rearrange into confirmed damage to end the game at Chairman's 3-6. I was actually so stressed out and zonked from 10 rounds of play at that point that I at first completely missed my guaranteed game-ender and was frantically searching for a way to heal again, as I had canceled out and was left at level 2.

ML: And then, Finals! What was your match up?

CC: I won against Rascal Does Not Dream Series 8 Comeback (Door) Mai. Since all of the stress was gone at this point since a worlds invite had been achieved, I was feeling much more relaxed. This game was unfortunately a total wash for my opponent, as his deck seemed to just completely explode in his hands. It was so bad that my two Level 1 Modernia never left the board after I slammed them at Level 1 in the game, and I continually climaxed swapped back into the Door to continue shoving damage until the game eventually ended in my favor. A fairly anti-climatic way to end the day, but it is what it is.

ML: Congratulations on your accomplishment! Are there any final reflections or shout outs you would like to share?

CC: I'm beyond grateful to have likely my one-and-only undefeated tournament run of my career on a deck that I truly believe in. Comeback (Door)/Standby NIKKE has been a bit contentious in terms of its suspected strength, mostly due in part to its difficulty to be piloted effectively. Even though I consider Bang Dream! (BD) to be the better deck this season, I feel that NIKKE just provides the pilot a lot more agency over how the game goes, giving them more opportunities to leverage their skill against their opponents. Hopefully, a run like this will finally put those suspicions to rest, and get people practicing with the list instead of doubting it.

Shout outs to Pittsburgh and Ohio Weiss for always being there for me, as well as the whole crew at Paul's Gamerzone and 4Horsemen. Also Niko for putting up with my snoring the night before, and my Spamchat boys for always hyping me up.

ML: And that concludes our interview with BCS 25/26 Champion Carmen Condeluci! A special thanks to Carmen for sharing with us! Congratulations to all who topped and good luck at Worlds in 2026!

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