The Road to Worlds, Week 11 Tweet

by James Hoskin, Director of Organized Play

10th June 2010

Regular readers should know that this is 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 10.

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, writing previews, and providing background information. Any other way to help the community be a part of your Regional tournament would be appreciated, too. Contact details are at the end of this article.

Week 10 Review

Saturday 5th June		Sunday 6th June
First Edition (Revised) Arby's Restaurant 7110 Clairemont Mesa Blvd San Diego, CA 92111 United States [Results]	Second Edition (Standard) Battlezone Games 85 North Center Point Road Hiawatha, IA 52233 United States [Results]	Second Edition (Draft) Cafe Insider Reindorfgasse 17 1150 Wien Austria [Results]	Second Edition (Standard) NordCon Pachthofschule Beim Pachthof 15 22111 Hamburg Germany [Results]

Arby's Restaurant: This First Edition tournament attracted seven players, but only six of them actually played. Bizarrely, Dan Hamman (SirDan) managed to miss all four of his games, despite judging the tournament. The things some people do to get a Regionals badge on their forum profile! Anyhow, Franklin Kenter (MilesStuntDouble) managed to stay undefeated over four rounds to add the title of 2010 Risa Regional Champion to his other title: 2009 First Edition World Champion. Dan's quick tournament report on the discussion page includes a quick overview of Franklin's Starfleet deck, with (in Dan's words) "crazy 2E Backwards Compatible tech". Once the First Edition frolics were over, the Tribbles were brought out for a five-round tournament. Dan didn't miss a single game of this tournament, and managed to beat Franklin into second place with a margin of just 1,186 Tribbles. That equates to slightly less than one floor's worth and two office's worth of Tribbles.

Kris Sonsteby (LORE) reviews the action in Iowa:
Battlezone Games: As a result of a suspect vehicle situation for Nat "The Beast from the East" Kirton (Nate Jeezy) and a last-second cancellation from Mike "The Natural" Harrington (Ajnaran) due to illness, I took it upon myself to dramatically re-engineer my weekend so that The Big Goodbye would still be able to main event the Iowa regional as initially planned, and the results were well worth it. Despite personally taking one on the chin from Nat in round four, and dropping a nail biting winner-is-whoever-goes-first game against Michael van Breemen in round five, the team once again reigned supreme as The Beast from the East came home the Iowa Regional Champion for the second time in his storied career.

As we have come to expect at various PPV’s in the land of T2E Entertainment, the player attendance was once again through the roof, the competition was fierce, and the home field advantage was successfully defended. Other notable facts you simply can't discover for yourself from the tournament page are that Tragic Turn dilemma piles were everywhere (with no less than five being played), success up here quickly breeds imitation (as variants on the Starfleet Samuels, Next Generation Vintner, and Motion Pictures builds were all seen in action), and that Amber "The Glamazon" Mitchell (Marquetry) ran one heck of a tournament in Iowa's first major event of the Continuing Committee era. A tip of the cap to her is definitely merited following the timeliness of the event itself, the fairness of the rulings made, and the vast array of prizes awarded.

So, as we collectively turn the page on the Iowa event and move ever closer to the end of Regional road, here in the Deep Space 9 Region only one question remains: with The Big Goodbye now four for four in Regionals attended (following The Natural's win in SD, The Old Pro's win in ND, The Original Champion's win in MN, and The Beast from the East's win in IA) will they be able to complete the sweep in Rochester in two weeks at "Hot Rod" Dave Kuck's sealed extravaganza? Tune in to find out!
Thanks Kris!

Cafe Insider: Six players turned up in Wien, Austria for this tournament that was also serving as the final playoff in the Borg region for the 2010 season of World Championship Trek. Eventual winner Stefan Slaby (Winner of Borg) has written a comprehensive tournament report on the discussion page, and there is little left for me to add. I will point out that Kathrin Haderer (phasmid), playing in her first Continuing Committee-sanctioned tournament, did what 218 players before her didn't have the courage to do; she played Terok Nor. The naysayers will point out that the Project Transwarp starter deck was randomly assigned to her, but it doesn't matter to me. Terok Nor has finally been played in the 2010 Regional Championships!

NordCon: In what must count as the beginnings of a tradition, four players turned out at NordCon for the second year running. Michael Mittelstedt (Roga Danar), playing Starfleet, was victorious and won his second Regional tournament in a week. Holger Janusch (remataklan), playing Equinox, finished second; Tiemo Mittelstedt, playing Ferengi, was third; and Daniel Radtke, playing in his first Continuing Committee-sanctioned tournament was fourth. Deck lists have yet to be made public, so we'll have to speculate on their contents for now.

Byes

This week, five players won a Day One Round One bye into the Continental Championships:

• Franklin Kenter (MilesStuntDouble), winner at Arby's Restaurant
• Nat Kirton (Nate Jeezy), winner at Battlezone Games
• Michael O'Shogay (shagg08), third place (bye handed down) at Battlezone Games
• Stefan Slaby (Winner of Borg), winner at Cafe Insider
• Holger Janusch (remataklan), second place (bye handed down) at NordCon

Congratulations to all players, and I wish better luck to anyone who didn't make it. These bye winners have been added to the list of current bye winners for the Continental Championships and the World Championships here. There are now only nine Regional tournaments remaining this year for those players still looking to win a bye.

Deck Statistics

With a total of 47 players at seven sanctioned First Edition Regional tournaments, we are averaging 6.7 players per tournament. Unfortunately, around one third of all First Edition decks played in this year's Regional championships have still not been entered in the tournament system, so this table doesn't really reflect what is being played.

The most popular First Edition affiliations are currently:
1.	Unknown	Used by 15 (32%) players	2 Regional wins
2.	Federation	Used by 7 (15%) players
3.	Multiple Affiliations	Used by 5 (11%) players	1 Regional win
4.	Dominion	Used by 4 (9%) players	1 Regional win
4.	Hirogen	Used by 4 (9%) players
6.	Klingon	Used by 3 (6%) players	1 Regional win
7.	Borg	Used by 2 (4%) players	1 Regional win
7.	Romulan	Used by 2 (4%) players
7.	Starfleet	Used by 2 (4%) players	1 Regional win
10.	Bajoran	Used by 1 (2%) players
10.	Cardassian	Used by 1 (2%) players
10.	Kazon	Used by 1 (2%) players

The addition of 28 players from three Second Edition Regional tournaments this week, sees the total number of players rise to 219. That is an average of 7.8 players per tournament. If you are playing in a Regional tournament in the next few weeks, and are undecided on what to play, Voyager/Equinox is statistically the most likely affiliation to win, with an average of one win for every three players using the faction. The next best affiliation is Deep Space 9, with an average of one win for every six players playing the faction. Of the affiliations that have won, the least likely to win has been Original Series, with an average of one win from every 20 players playing the faction; followed by Cardassian, with an average of one win for every 15 players playing with the "spoonheads."

The most popular Second Edition affiliations are currently:
1.	Next Generation	Used by 26 (12%) players	3 Regional wins
2.	Klingon	Used by 22 (10%) players	3 Regional wins
3.	Borg	Used by 21 (10%) players	3 Regional wins
4.	Original Series	Used by 20 (9%) players	1 Regional win
4.	Starfleet	Used by 20 (9%) players	2 Regional win
6.	Multiple Affiliations	Used by 17 (8%) players	4 Regional wins
7.	Cardassian	Used by 15 (7%) players	1 Regional win
8.	Romulan	Used by 12 (5%) players
8.	Voyager/Equinox	Used by 12 (5%) players	4 Regional wins
10.	Dominion	Used by 9 (4%) players	1 Regional Win
11.	Bajoran	Used by 8 (4%) players	1 Regional win
11.	Maquis	Used by 8 (4%) players
13.	Earth (Home of Starfleet Command)	Used by 7 (3%) players
13.	Ferengi	Used by 7 (3%) players	1 Regional win
15.	Deep Space 9	Used by 6 (3%) players	1 Regional win
15.	Unknown	Used by 6 (3%) players	1 Regional win
17.	Non-Aligned	Used by 2 (1%) players
18.	Terok Nor	Used by 1 (0.5%) players

Week 11 Preview

The complete schedule can be found in this article: Regional Championships Series 2010 Schedule. There are three Regional tournaments this week:

Saturday 12th June		Sunday 13th June
Second Edition (Standard) Grotten Randersvej 79 8200 Århus N Denmark [Discuss] [Pre-register]		Second Edition (Standard) Between Books 2703 Philadelphia Pike Claymont, DE 19703 United States [Discuss] [Pre-register]	Second Edition (Draft) The River Bar 206-208 Tower Bridge Road London, SE1 2UP United Kingdom [Discuss] [Pre-register]

Grotten: This weekend sees the first Continuing Committee-sanctioned Regional tournament in Denmark. There may only be three players pre-registered at this time, but judge Peter Møller (Peukon) informs me that he has been giving away cards and building decks like crazy, and has managed to get a lot of new players hooked on the game. He expects to have at least nine players in attendance, many of which are new to the game. One of them will even be learning the game shortly before the tournament begins. Thanks for all your hard work, Peter, and I hope you have a great time on Saturday!

Between Books: The 2008 Romulan Regional saw nine players battle it out over six rounds. No player stayed undefeated, but current World Champion Neil Timmons (ntimmons), playing Klingon, emerged victorious. The top three finishers were all playing Klingon decks. Also played that day were two Borg decks, two Terok Nor decks, Starfleet and Ferengi / Next Generation. Last year, the 2009 Romulan Regional saw visiting Michael van Breemen (The Ninja Scot), playing Deep Space 9, win all of his five games to take the title. Neil Timmons, playing Klingon finished second (for a change!) ahead of eight other players. The list of decks being played included three Klingon decks, two Borg decks and a Starfleet deck. If you are planning on playing this year, you have a good idea of what you might be facing. There are only two players pre-registered so far, but John Corbett (KillerB) is offering a KillerBOUNTY to any out-of-towner who makes the trip. Beating a local player will earn you a foil card of your choice from John's supply, and beating John himself will net you five foils of your choice.

The River Bar: After weeks of writing about other people's Regionals, it is finally time to write about my own. This year, we are playing an Infinite Diversity Draft. The first twelve players pre-registered will be provided with all draftable material (please bring 90 sleeves with backing cards though). Should there be more than a dozen players, those beyond the twelfth to pre-register are asked to bring their own draft packs. Previous Regional tournaments held in London have been constructed affairs, so they hold little relevance to this year's draft. Still, the 2008 Omarion Nebula Regional saw eight players in attendance, and the highest place a local player took was fourth. (Doug Hughes (gtdoug), playing a Romulan deck titled "Romulan Surprise!" was that palyer). Last year, the 2009 Omarion Nebula Regional saw seven players participate in a seven-round marathon. It resulted in a three-way tie for first place, and a headache for the Department of Organized Play. As a member of the department this year, I'll be doing my best to ensure that the same does not happen again. Should I fail to win the tournament outright, my backup plan is to get everyone so drunk that they can't sit up straight. Unfortunately, this may not work as I know that several players perform better when inebriated. Still, I'll have my camera handy.

Next Week

A review of the results from Week 11, more statistics, and a preview of the events in Week 12. Saturday, June 19th sees Second Edition Regional tournaments in Minnesota, North Carolina and Germany.

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

-djl-

Back to Archive index