The Road to Worlds, Week 2

by James Hoskin, Director of Organized Play

8th April 2010

This article is the second in a weekly series that aims to preview upcoming Regional tournaments, review Regional tournaments that have just taken place, highlight winning decks, interview players, and more. Last week's article was The Road to Worlds, Week 1.

How can you contribute to this series? First and foremost, I am relying on results and deck lists being promptly entered into this site. I can't write about them otherwise. Other ways you can help include: taking photos, interviewing players, and providing background information. Any other way to help the community be a part of your Regional tournament would be appreciated. Contact details are at the end of this article.

Week 1 Review

Hobie's: Regional season got off to a slightly controversial start, when three of the four players all finished the tournament with the same number of victory points. All three players were still tied after using the first six tiebreakers (head-to-head, strength of schedule, opponents' strength of schedule, number of full wins, fewest losses, and number of modified wins.) It wasn't until the seventh and final tiebreaker (player rating) that they were able to be separated. Congratulations to Nick Fancher (whitestar29) for winning his third consecutive Qo'noS Regional tournament.

At the time of writing, none of the deck lists has been entered and made public. However, Nick Fancher (whitestar29) played Bajoran, an unnamed individual (hunttim1) played Next Generation, Jeff Sherman (the_adept74) played Original Series, and Jason Bales (jbales1974) rocked the Maquis.

Byes

The 2010 Regional Championships' first recipient of a Day One Round One bye into the Continental Championships is Nick Fancher (whitestar29). He has been added to the list of current bye winners for the Continental Championships and the World Championships here.

Week 2 Preview

The complete schedule can be found in this article: Regional Championships Series 2010 Schedule. This week, we have five Regional tournaments taking place on "Super Sunday":

CodCon: The 2008 Deep Space 9 Regional featured eight players, playing decks from six different affiliations, and was won by an undefeated Brian Gondek (Escape Artist) playing a Next Generation deck. Last year, the 2009 Deep Space 9 Regional also featured eight players. This time they were playing decks from five different affiliations, and the tournament was won by an undefeated Mike Burke (ChairmanKoval) playing a Voyager deck. This year, there are eight players pre-registered. What are the odds of them only playing decks from four different affiliations, and that the winner will be undefeated whilst playing a Federation deck of some kind?
Please note that a $5 Con badge is mandatory for entry to this tournament.

Good Games: The 2008 Nekrit Expanse Regional featured six players, and was won by an undefeated Kieren Otton (Honest) playing a Next Generation deck. Last year, the 2009 Nekrit Expanse Regional featured eleven players. Not all deck affiliations were entered into the system, but at least eight different affiliations were represented. Lee Clarke (LCJK) won the tournament playing a Klingon deck and was, you guessed it, undefeated. This year, there are only two players pre-registered. Let's hope that the local players prefer to wait until the last minute to pre-register!

COMSSA Common Room (1E): This is only the second year a First Edition Regional tournament has been run at this location. Last year, the 2009 Nekrit Expanse Regional featured four players, and was won by an undefeated Matthyas Kiraly (stoovie) playing a Federation deck. As he has not retired, I assume that no one decided to take up his offer of paying the $1,000,000,000,000 entry fee for an automatic win.
Please note that while the Open format was used in 2009, this year the Revised format is being used instead.

COMSSA Common Room (2E): The 2008 Nekrit Expanse Regional featured five players, and was won by an undefeated Robert Dawson (TBT) playing an Deep Space 9 Earth deck. Four of the five players that year were using Earth as their headquarters mission. Last year, the 2009 Nekrit Expanse Regional featured just four players. Once again, Robert Dawson (TBT) was undefeated in victory whilst playing a Voyager deck. This year, the only player to have pre-registered is Robert Dawson (TBT). Just because he has won the last two Regional tournaments at this location, doesn't mean he can't be beaten this year. If you can't beat him with your decks, then a good sturdy stick should do.

Der Andere Spieleladen: This will be the first Continuing Committee-sanctioned First Edition Regional to be held in Germany. At the moment, there are six players pre-registered, including the number two ranked First Edition player in the world: Sebastian Kirstein (Caretaker's Guest). Sebastian has a First Edition win percentage of 91%, so he looks to be the favourite at this time. However, he has not played all of his potential opponents before, so an upset could be possible.

Next Week

A review of the results from week two, and a preview of week three's events. In the first of three "Super Saturdays", five Regional tournaments take place on April 17th, while a sixth of the weekend happens on Sunday, April 18th.

Have an opinion about this article? Post it here, or contact the author!

-djl-