The Road to Worlds 2011, Week 13

by James Hoskin, Director of Organized Play

23rd June 2011

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 2011, Week 12.

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 12 Review

Saturday 18th June		Sunday 19th June
Second Edition (Standard) Wizards Comics and Collectibles 8619 109th Street Edmonton, AB T6G Canada [Results]	Second Edition (Standard) Rusty's Pizza 3731 State Street Santa Barbara, CA 93105 United States [Results]	First Edition (Official) The Pommeler's Rest 198 Tower Bridge Road London, SE1 2UN United Kingdom [Results]	Tribbles (Standard) The Pommeler's Rest 198 Tower Bridge Road London, SE1 2UN United Kingdom [Results]
		Tribbles (Standard) OBS De Blijberg Gordelweg 216 3038 GA, Rotterdam The Netherlands [Results]

Wizards Comics and Collectibles: Four players participated in this Second Edition Rura Penthe Regional. Mark Morris (BaronMorrath), playing a Terok Nor deck titled "Terrok Nor 2.0", was undefeated over three rounds and won the title. Mark has now played in two Continuing Committee era Regional Championships and he has won them both. Thomas Solway (tksolway), who I picked to win, took second place. He played a Klingon deck titled "Stinky Klingons." The remaining two players only had three Second Edition games experience between them. Mike Slivorski (Empty_Mags), playing a Romulan deck titled "Romulan Event", beat Jason (Gauntlet), playing a Next Generation deck titled "Jason's Deck", and took third place over Jason, who was fourth. Four deck lists and three tournament reports can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Wizards Comics and Collectibles:

Total achievements awarded	6
Most achievements won	Mark Morris (BaronMorrath), with 4
Average achievements per player	1.5
Biggest ratings gain	Mark Morris (BaronMorrath), up 46 points to 1578
Average rating of all 4 players	1519

Rusty's Pizza: Eleven players took part in the inaugural Second Edition Regional Championships to be held in Santa Barbara. With many players traveling in from other parts of California, it was left to local player Chris Donati (Swisherfan) to defend the honor of Santa Barbara. He was undefeated over four rounds, playing an Earth (Home of Starfleet Command) deck titled "Jaresh Inyo and the Fellowship of DS9." Two of his four wins were only modified wins though, so three players finished just one victory point behind him. Thomas Kamiura (Bosskamiura), playing a Next Generation deck titled "TK Optimism v4.0", had the best strength of schedule and finished in second place; while Charlie Plaine (MidnightLich), playing a Dominion / Terok Nor deck titled "Ho.S.S. for the Boss", took third. My pick to win, Johnny Holeva (jjh), finished in fifth place with two wins and two losses. Eleven of the fifteen headquarters/affiliations were represented at this tournament, with no one headquarters/affiliation being played by more than two players. Nine deck lists and three tournament reports can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Rusty's Pizza:

Total achievements awarded	11
Most achievements won	Chris Donati (Swisherfan), with 3
Average achievements per player	0.6
Biggest ratings gain	Chris Donati (Swisherfan), up 66 points to 1607
Average rating of all 11 players	1548

The Pommeler's Rest [1E]: Only two of the eight players at this First Edition tournament were local players. Some had three hour drives, others had five hour drives. One dedicated player had a twelve hour bus ride to get to the venue. Danny Nuttall (nuttersuclan) was undefeated over four rounds, playing a Romulan deck titled "[OTF] Shades of Sneaky, v1.1." Sean Turner (the_magpie7), playing a two-mission win Delta Quadrant Federation deck, only lost one game to Danny, and finished in second place. Rounding out the top three, the highest finishing player with two wins and two losses was Thomas Olley (Sukibabe). Tom was playing an Android deck. My pick to win, Stuart Marsh (SAM2000), finished dead last. If the games had been one or two rounds longer, his interactive deck would have had time to complete more missions, and Stuart would have had a good chance of winning the tournament. It wasn't to be though. Six deck lists and four tournament reports can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from The Pommeler's Rest:

Total achievements awarded	18
Most achievements won	Danny Nuttall (nuttersuclan), with 6
Average achievements per player	2.3
Biggest ratings gain	Danny Nuttall (nuttersuclan), up 66 points to 1553
Average rating of all 8 players	1496

The Pommeler's Rest [Tr]: Regrettably, many of the First Edition players had long journeys ahead of them, and couldn't stay for the Tribbles. Only four players participated in the end. William Hoskin (Gumbo) played a Clone & Go deck titled "Clone & Go 2011" that he found on this website. Johannes Klarhauser (Kaiser) played an Evolve & Rescue deck. Niall Matthew (sexecutioner) played a Poison deck borrowed from Johannes, and James Hoskin (RedDwarf) played an unfocused deck titled "Regionals 2011." Niall, who had never played Tribbles before, quickly got the hang of the game and began poisoning players virtually every turn. Will had all the luck, and found a 100,000 Tribbles (Antidote) on top of his deck three times that he was poisoned. His luck held out for the first seven rounds, as he won all of them. His lead was significant and despite Johannes winning two rounds and Niall winning another, Will finished the game with 1,084,144 Tribbles - almost twice as many as second place Niall's 565,748 Tribbles. Johannes scored 369,677 Tribbles in third place; and my pick to win, me, only scored 11,000 Tribbles. Two deck lists and one tournament report can be found on the tournament results page, and an interview with the winner, William Hoskin, is below.

Statistics from The Pommeler's Rest:

Total achievements awarded	6
Most achievements won	William Hoskin (Gumbo) and Niall Matthew (sexecutioner), with 3 each
Average achievements per player	1.5
Total Tribbles scored	2,030,569
Average Tribbles scored by all 4 players	507,642

OBS De Blijberg: The second Tribbles Regional Championship of the day took place in Rotterdam, in the New Bajor Region. Seven players participated, and large numbers of Tribbles were scored during the five rounds. Oscar Ruberg (weyoun7), playing in his first Tribbles tournament, scored 1,215,757 Tribbles and took the title. Pah-wraith, also playing in his first Tribbles tournament, was second with 1,015,878 Tribbles scored. Both players won five achievements for their performances. My pick to win, Enrico Evink (enrico81), was third having scored 674,533 Tribbles. Unfortunately, the tournament results page does not contain any deck lists or tournament reports yet.

Statistics from OBS De Blijberg:

Total achievements awarded	18
Most achievements won	Oscar Ruberg (weyoun7) and Pah-wraith, with 5 each
Average achievements per player	2.6
Total Tribbles scored	4,220,723
Average Tribbles scored by all 7 players	602,960

Interview

This week, William Hoskin (Gumbo); famous for being related to a great player, answers my questions.

James: Before I congratulate you on your Tribbles Regional win, I'd like to talk about the First Edition Regional you played beforehand. What decks were you considering?
Will: So long as you don't forget to publicly congratulate me! I am not a huge First Edition player and have only played around five tournaments in the last three or four years. They were mostly at GenCon when I've been knocked out of the Second Edition tournaments. As this was a Regional, I decided to build a deck. I was considering playing Borg, Hirogen, Vidiian or Kazon; mainly because I haven't played Borg in Second Edition in a long time and you can't play the other three affiliations in Second Edition. In the end, I was going to go for Hirogen; but then you decided you wanted to play them, so I went for Vidiians. I figured with the Vidiian Harvester in play I could get past a few Medical related dilemmas, and I knew there were some from the Shades of Grey expansion to get through.

James: What decks did you expect to face?
Will: I thought I would see a Khan Ceti Eel deck (it was there, but not who I thought would play it) and a Romulan deck using Raptor One to draw cards. Other than that, I had no idea what I would see.

James: Why did you play Vidiian?
Will: If you'd been listening, I've already answered that one.

James: Huh? What? Did you have any tricks in the deck or with the dilemmas?
Will: I could get a crewed ship and seven to nine personnel in play on the first turn, and if I was feeling lucky I would go and attempt. I did that on two occasions. The first went well, clearing two missions of dilemmas; and the second not so well, getting four personnel killed and the ship damaged. I didn't have any major tricks in my dilemma combos, but I hoped that they would hold out for long enough.

James: How was the tournament for you?
Will: Well you can read the full report. I was two turns from winning in my first game. If I had gone first, I would have won the second game. I did win the third game, and I had no chance in the fourth game. All in all, I enjoyed playing a simple deck and not getting a headache.

James: Who was your toughest opponent?
Will: I have to say I enjoyed meeting all of the Northern horde players who came down, and would have to say that I was my own toughest opponent. I made a lot of mistakes and had I been more accurate and thought a bit more, I could have done a better job.

James: Now that the tournament is over, how would you improve your deck?
Will: I would have to remove three of my seeded referee cards and put them in my draw deck. I would then add Caretaker's Array, U.S.S. Voyager and Home Away From Home, and change some of the Vidiians who do not play for free with Voyager people who do play for free. I would also adjust my dilemma combos.

James: Moving onto Tribbles... how long did you spend deciding which deck to steal off the Internet?
Will: Well, I will tell you once you congratulate me on winning! Bit of a bad loser are we? I was looking for a deck that wasn't to big and did lots of different things. Dan Hamman's Clone & Go deck seemed to fit the best.

James: Three of the times Niall poisoned you, you had 100,000 Tribbles (Antidote) on top of your deck. Were you rigging it when we weren't looking?
Will: No, and as I kept showing you there was a number of times the Niall decided to poison other people that I ended up having to draw my next card and it was a 100,000 Tribbles (Antidote). The fact was that I kept recycling my discard pile so that the 100,000 Tribbles came back into my draw deck.

James: How was the tournament for you?
Will: Well, winning the first seven rounds kind of helped. The fact that for the second set of five games I was sat next to you, and kept skipping your turn made me feel a lot better.

James: Now that the tournament is over, how would you improve your deck?
Will: There were a couple of times I was left with 1,000 Tribbles (or higher) in my hand, with no Tribbles under 1,000. That hurt, so I think I just need to shuffle better.

James: What was your favourite moment of the day?
Will: I would have to say winning a round of Tribbles with a total of 2,020 Tribbles scored - not including the antidote. I also enjoyed scoring over one million Tribbles in the game, and seeing our face drop when you realized I was likely to win.

James: Do you have anything else to add?
Will: I just wanted to ask how many Tribbles you managed to score in the ten rounds we played? And did you win any of the rounds?

Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions Will. Oh, and I'm quite proud of the 11,000 Tribbles I scored, despite not winning any rounds in Tribbles.

Byes

This week, one player won a Day One, Round One bye into the First Edition Continental Championships:

• Danny Nuttall (nuttersuclan), winner at The Pommeler's Rest

Three players won a Day One, Round One bye into the Second Edition Continental Championships:

• Thomas Solway (tksolway), second place (bye handed down) at Wizards Comics and Collectibles
• Chris Donati (Swisherfan), winner at Rusty's Pizza
• Charlie Plaine (MidnightLich), third place (bye handed down) at Rusty's Pizza

And, two players won a 100,000 Tribbles Headstart into the Tribbles Continental Championships:

• William Hoskin (Gumbo), winner at The Pommeler's Rest
• Oscar Ruberg (weyoun7), winner at OBS De Blijberg

Congratulations to all players, and I wish better luck to anyone who didn't make it this time. These bye winners have been added to the list of current bye winners for the Continental Championships and the World Championships here.

Deck Statistics

There were eight First Edition players at one tournament this week, taking the total players at First Edition Regional Championships to 100 - an average of 7.1 players per tournament. Bajoran, Ferengi and Cardassian decks are averaging between 10.1 and 10.8 victory points per player so far. Federation decks are averaging 9.7 victory points per player. Klingon, Starfleet, Romulan, and Borg are all averaging between 8.0 and 8.7 victory points per player. Vidiian, Hirogen and Terran Empire are the worst performing affiliations, averaging between 7.0 and 7.9 victory points per player.

The most popular First Edition affiliations are currently:
1.	Unknown Affiliations	Used by 21 (21%) players	3 Regional wins
2.	Federation	Used by 18 (18%) players	2 Regional wins
3.	Multiple Affiliations	Used by 16 (16%) players	3 Regional wins
4.	Ferengi	Used by 9 (9%) players	1 Regional win
5.	Romulan	Used by 7 (7%) players	1 Regional win
6.	Klingon	Used by 6 (6%) players
7.	Borg	Used by 4 (4%) players
7.	Cardassian	Used by 4 (4%) players	1 Regional win
9.	Bajoran	Used by 3 (3%) players	1 Regional win
9.	Non-Aligned	Used by 3 (3%) players	1 Regional win
9.	Starfleet	Used by 3 (3%) players	1 Regional win
12.	Hirogen	Used by 2 (2%) players
12.	Terran Empire	Used by 2 (2%) players
12.	Vidiian	Used by 2 (2%) player

There were 15 Second Edition players at two tournaments this week, taking the total players at Second Edition Regional Championships to 269 - an average of 9.0 players per tournament. Earth (Home of Starfleet Command) decks are now averaging 13.4 victory points per player. Terok Nor and Starfleet decks are averaging between 12.4 and 12.8 victory points per player. Voyager/Equinox, Original Series, Cardassian, Deep Space 9 and Borg decks are averaging between 11.0 and 11.6 victory points per player. Klingon, Romulan and Next Generation are averaging between 10.1 and 10.9 victory points per player. Dominion, Non-Aligned, Ferengi and Maquis decks are averaging between 9.0 and 9.9 victory points per player. Bajoran is the worst performing affiliation, averaging just 8.8 victory points per player.

The most popular Second Edition affiliations are currently:
1.	Klingon	Used by 35 (13%) players	6 Regional wins
2.	Multiple Affiliations	Used by 25 (9%) players	2 Regional wins
3.	Romulan	Used by 24 (9%) players	2 Regional wins
4.	Next Generation	Used by 23 (9%) players	1 Regional win
5.	Borg	Used by 22 (8%) players	5 Regional wins
6.	Original Series	Used by 21 (8%) players	4 Regional wins
7.	Starfleet	Used by 17 (6%) players
8.	Cardassian	Used by 16 (6%) players	1 Regional win
8.	Voyager/Equinox	Used by 16 (6%) players	3 Regional wins
10.	Earth (Home of Starfleet Command)	Used by 11 (4%) players	2 Regional wins
11.	Deep Space 9	Used by 10 (4%) players	2 Regional wins
11.	Unknown Affiliations	Used by 10 (4%) players
13.	Dominion	Used by 9 (3%) players
13.	Terok Nor	Used by 9 (3%) players	1 Regional win
15.	Ferengi	Used by 8 (3%) players	1 Regional win
16.	Bajoran	Used by 5 (2%) players
16.	Maquis	Used by 5 (2%) players
18.	Non-Aligned	Used by 3 (1%) players

There were eleven Tribbles players at two tournaments this week, taking the total players at Tribbles Regional Championships to 46 - an average of 6.6 players per tournament. A total of 16,294,908 Tribbles have been scored to date - an average of 354,237 Tribbles per player.

Week 13 Preview

The complete schedule can be found in the article Regional Championships Series 2011 Schedule. There are eight Regional tournaments this week:

Saturday 25th June		Sunday 26th June
Second Edition (Standard) Outpost Herna Kroftova 8 Praha 5, 15000 Czech Republic [Discuss] [Pre-register]	Second Edition (Standard) CVJM Kassel e.V. Wolfsschlucht 21 34117 Kassel Germany [Discuss] [Pre-register]	First Edition (Official) Battlezone Games 85 North Center Point Road Hiawatha, IA 52233 United States [Discuss] [Pre-register]	First Edition (Official) Cranberry Cafe 115 West 45th Street New York, NY 10036-4005 United States [Discuss] [Pre-register]
Second Edition (Standard) Battlezone Games 85 North Center Point Road Hiawatha, IA 52233 United States [Discuss] [Pre-register]	First Edition (Official) Arby's Restaurant 2815 13th Avenue South Fargo, ND 58103 United States [Discuss] [Pre-register]
Second Edition (Standard) Red Planet Games and Hobbies 118 East Main Street Forest City, NC 28043 United States [Discuss] [Pre-register]	Tribbles (Standard) Red Planet Games and Hobbies 118 East Main Street Forest City, NC 28043 United States [Discuss] [Pre-register]

Outpost Herna: This will be the first Regional Championship to be held in the Czech Republic. Only three players have pre-registered so far, but previous Second Edition tournaments at the venue have attracted between four and eight players, so sanctioning looks likely. Of the ten tournaments held at the venue in the last year, nine have been won by Vladimir Vrbata (vlasopes). The other winner, and second place finisher at several of those tournaments, was Jan Rohacek (Medik). Another contender to win this tournament is Jirka Paska (Taurnil). He is the top rated player in the Czech Republic, and is ranked number four in the world. Vladimir is only 20 ratings points behind Jirka though, and I suspect he'll do enough to take the top spot. Vladimir is my pick to win.

There are no past Regionals results at Outpost Herna.

CVJM Kassel e.V. This Second Edition Regional Championship on Saturday is a warm up for the German National Championships being held on Sunday. Last year, 15 players participated. Nine have pre-registered so far this year. The top rated player is reigning European Champion Tyler Fultz (DJstormtrooper), who says this weekend is his last chance to win the German Nationals. He has won four tournaments this year, and is sure to be in contention. Reigning World Champion Tobias Rausmann (garetjax) has also pre-registered. He has been beaten into second place in the two Regional Championships he has played this year, but has won three other tournaments and can't be discounted. Tournament organizer Thomas Schneider (thsch) has a similar record to Tobias this year, and he won last year's tournament. Tyler is my pick to win though.

Past Regional results at CVJM Kassel e.V.:
2010, won by Thomas Schneider (thsch) playing Borg.
2009, not played.
2008, not played.

Battlezone Games [2E]: This is the second year that this Second Edition Regional Championship has been held. 18 players participated last year, with the local Iowans being joined by traveling players from Minnesota and Illinois. On that day, where Starfleet was the most popular affiliation and Tragic Turn was prevalent, an out-of-state player took the title. Nine players have pre-registered so far, with players from all three states represented. Will the locals be able to reclaim their title? Michael van Breemen (The Ninja Scot) took second place last year, and is the highest rated pre-registered player. Michael O'Shogay (shagg08) has had two poor results this year, but proved at the Minneapolis Regional a few months ago that he can beat the best of them, when he finished in second place out of 26 players. Ben Paulsen (benpaulsen86) is the third highest ranked Iowan. He comes into this tournament as the last player to win a tournament at the venue. Michael van Breemen is my pick to win.

Past Regional results at Battlezone Games:
2010, won by Nat Kirton (Nate Jeezy) playing Voyager.
2009, not played.
2008, not played.

Arby's Restaurant: Please note that this First Edition Regional Championship was originally taking place at Paradox Comics in Fargo, but had to be moved to Arby's Restaurant due to a scheduling conflict. Previous tournaments this year at Paradox Comics have attracted four or five players. Four players have pre-registered so far, but tournament organizer Matthew Hayes (karonofborg13) is expecting at least nine players, maybe more, on the day. Matthew has won over half of the First Edition tournaments he has played in this year; but Jerad Berhow (Jerad), playing Borg, was the last victorious player at the regular venue. The prize pool includes six Decipher era tournament foils, and over 25 Continuing Committee era foils and promos. My pick to win is Matthew.

Past Regional results at Arby's Restaurant:
2010 (alternate venue), won by Matthew Hayes (karonofborg13) playing Starfleet.
2009 (alternate venue), won by Jody Lamb (joedlaw).

Red Planet Games and Hobbies [2E]: This Second Edition tournament is the first half of a double header taking place in the Sector 001 Region. Four players have pre-registered so far, for what will be the first Second Edition tournament held at this venue this year. There are not many tournament results to use as a basis for predicting the winner. Nick C (macgyver221), has played in the most tournaments this year (six), and has won one of them. Tournament organizer Nathan Miracle (GooeyChewie), has also won a tournament this year. The other three pre-registered players have finished in the bottom half of all the tournaments they have played this year, if they have played at all. My pick to win is Nick C.

There are no past Regionals results at Red Planet Games and Hobbies.

Red Planet Games and Hobbies [Tr]: The final Tribbles Regional Championship of the year follows the Second Edition Regional Championship held earlier in the day in Forest City, North Carolina. The previous Tribbles tournament held at the venue saw the top three players (out of the four playing), finish within 35,000 Tribbles scored of each other. The Tribbles tournament before that held at a nearby venue saw all four players finish within the same margin. One thing we can be sure of is that the result for this Sunday's tournament is going to be close. My pick to win is Scott Baughman (Darik).

There are no past Tribbles Regionals results.

Battlezone Games [1E]: Sunday's half of the Iowa Regional weekend sees the inaugural First Edition Regional Championship to be held in the Deep Space 9 Region. Just two players have pre-registered so far, but with at least nine players predicted to participate in the Second Edition Regional a day earlier, there is a good chance some of them will stay around to compete for this title too. Jordan Leung (FrakkinPhoenix) has to be the favorite. He won the 2006 World Championships, was a semi-finalist at the 2009 World Championships, and runner-up at the 2010 North American Continental Championships. 2008 World Champion, and tournament organizer, Michael van Breemen (The Ninja Scot) cannot be discounted either. Michael is (in)famous for his intricate decks in Second Edition. One wonders what he can create in First Edition? Jordan is my pick to win.

There are no past Regionals results at Battlezone Games.

The Cranberry Cafe: This First Edition Romulus Regional was rescheduled after the first attempt had to be cancelled due to low player attendance. Last year saw six players in attendance, while recent tournaments at the venue have attracted between four and nine players, so sanctioning is likely even though only two players have pre-registered so far. In fact, tournament organizer Austin Chandler (DarkSabre) is expecting at least eight players to participate. He also looks to be the favorite as he has won the last two tournaments he has played in at the venue, and he has an impressive 79% winning record too. Austin is my pick to win.

Past Regional results at Cranberry Cafe:
2010, won by Matthew Chandler (noach83)
2009, not played.

Predictions

Last week was my worst set of predictions this year. Not only didn't I get any of the four predictions correct, but two of the players I predicted would win came dead last. Here's hoping I do better this week. My record has dropped to 37% (18 out of 49.)

Next Week

Guest writer Kris Sonsteby (LORE) stands in for me to write the final Road to Worlds article of the Regionals season. Featuring a review of the eight results from week 13, and one final interview.

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