[Andreas Colter]

On behalf of and written by Kieren Otton, may I present:

Well, this time next week the WA gentlemen will be arriving in Sydney for a 5 day TREK smorgasboard. This is a highlight of the year for me gaming wise (though having just booked Worlds flights 2 days ago, I may have 2 highlights this year ). I thought with Stoovies Dream Team competition attracting a lot of outside Sydney interest, I may just do a quick run through on the likely local field for the weeks festivities. I am also hopeful that this year will be the biggest Continentals we've had, surpassing the 23 we had last year.

Some new faces this year have bought some new enthusiasm to the group. Ensign Gibbers (Craig Giblett), who doubles as bass player in the band I am in, is a former MTG player of some renown, and now has 2 regular TREK event events plus a Regionals worth of experience to take into next weeks festivities. Gibbers also brings plenty of MTG deckbuilding experience to the table with him, lets see what he comes up with next week.

Troy (Louis) Armstrong is a good friend of mine, and travelled to Gencon 2007 with me. I bought him a couple of $15 combo boxes there and in return he has played the odd regionals as a favour to me since. He is a former Yugioh goober, who is excellent at WOW, VS, The Spoils and MTG ccgs. HE improves expodentially with every game he plays, and is getting very solid with a Starfleet deck, so much so he is even asking for strategic changes to the build. Troy also holds his liquor fairly well, just saying…

Chris Foggin, affectionately know to me by a variety of names, namely EB, Foggo the Ferengi or Obiwan Foggobi, is my former business partner a good friend. EB is exactly the type of player I would love to see play TREK full time, however, the main stumbling block is that, and call him crazy, he doesn’t like the game that much! However, when he does play, he plays for fun, both for him and the player he is against, which makes him a fine ambassador for TREK players, and game players everywhere. He will be bringing his best with what else but Ferengi.

Pete Santamaria is a friend of Iron Mike’s, which automatically makes him a top bloke. Pete was on the fringe of becoming a TREK regular, but because of his work behind a bar, his smoldering good looks and his devil may care attitude, he got a girlfriend at a pivotal time in his TREK development and didn’t play for some time. Pete, and his very solid Marquis deck, made a welcome return at regionals this year, which hopefully gave him a taste for the game again, and a good warm up for the Continentals. Hopefully his work behind the bar will keep him in good stead for the Biermiester…

Sean Carroll is the creator of the fine card game Viewpoint. He also is a former 1E player who also picked up some 2E Premier gear a while ago, and made a deck from that stock and played Regionals with it. He struggled, but had a good time anyway, and has a better understanding of the game now. Hopefully Sean will be back, fired up, and bringing his Klingon maniacs with him.

[Andreas Colter]

Michael Lou (rcharo) will make the top 8 of the AU Continentals. He has played only 7 events, yet won 3 of them, from memory 2 of his first 3. Trek is about his 4th game, and he excels in pretty much everything he picks up. From a standing start he has made a cutting edge Bajoran deck that is both versatile and efficient. Give him any deck for any game and he will be competitive, in Trek even more so.

Of the returning to the game players, Steve Hartmann and Ben Wynn are Sydney Treks equivalent of Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman (I’ll let them choose who is who). Ben taught me this well presented game around 2003, just as Energise was hitting the shelves, and he must have done a good job as I’ve been playing ever since. Ben made the finals in 2007, missed 2008, then came back with his ’07 deck unchanged to have a crack last year, finishing a win outside the top 8. He has played once or twice since, but a young family has inhibited his ability to get away for a tournament on a regular basis. Steve (Chompers) has been back on the scene for around 6 months and has taken his Cardassian deck from strength to strength. Whilst time poor for deck building, he is nearly always competitive and still finds time to tinker. A highlight this year was his innovative Ferengi deck, that couldn’t actually pilot any of his ships! Steve is a fine community member, always active on the forums and always fun to play against.

Shane Brierley (Shane Brier) should go into the Continentals one of the favourites, along with 2008 champion Lee Clarke He is always building innovative decks that push the boundaries of card/rules interactions, and playing them precisely and with flair. He is the NSW Regional Champion, made the top 8 in the Continentals last year, and has a very impressive event win ratio, especially in the last 6 months. The only question really is, which deck will he play day 1?

Pete Hill is, along with Clayton Walton, the 2 remaining old school players, whose Trek careers have gone along uninterrupted since the 1E days. Pete can play pretty much any deck, and has a thorough, methodical style of play. Lately he has settled on Borg as his deck of choice, though spent the practice day tinkering with a Marquis deck.. He used his experience and guile last year to make the top 8, which is pretty much what you would expect from a solid player with plenty of experience.

Clayton is also a pillar of the Sydney TREK community, running monthly Trek events at his house, always taking a choc a block full trade folder with him, and also playing with an old school thorough, methodical style. Clayton won the 2006 Continentals with, of all things, a Ferengi deck, that at the time was unheard of. He liked it so much he still has it, with some minor changes. I think he is also using the same sleeves he used in 2006, we’re waiting for the carbon dating tests to get back to us…Clayton made top 8 last year also, and excels in all of the games formats. He’ll be more than likely defending his 1E title this year, so all those in the dream team comp make sure you consider him in your line up.

[Andreas Colter]

Daniel Waller (walzo) surprised everyone, even himself, by making the top 8 last year with his ruthlessly efficient Voyager deck. Daniels relationship with Janeway may border on being unnatural, however, when the time came she and her crew were there for him. Daniel has used the last 12 months trying to build another top 8 worthy deck, with mixed results, and his slower than average play style sometimes works against him. However, he is up for the Biermeister, the 1E and the 2E events, so whatever team you end up with in your dream team, you’d probably do better with Walzo in it.

Kenny (Goober) Nguyen (blinkite) will make the top 8. The only reason I can see he may miss some DTs is that being 16, he cannot come to the pub Wednesday night for the Biermeister. He is a WOW TCG, A Spoils TCG National Champion, a Pokemon National semi finalist and has qualified and played on the MTG Pro Tour. He is friendly, efficient, mature way beyond his years and has competition experience better than most. He was playing and winning with Cardassians way before they were fashionable, and is currently teching out another deck to give him another option on day 1, in case he even needed it. At 15 points he is a steal

Dennis Lee is another fine member of the Sydney Trek community. Dennis 3 years ago donated his entire collection, excepting I think 2 Klingon decks, to the community, and this generosity has led to new players and strong prizes ever since. Dennis has been true to The Empire since then, and at the regionals pulled one of the best, most innovative decks I’ve seen out of the air to power to a popular and well deserved third. Dennis has confirmed he cannot make Biermeister, but should be good for a variety of other events over the weekend

Iron Mike Nugent. The very name conjures up inspiration and dependable leadership. If this man was in Starfleet, he’d have his own star ship command on the ragged edge of civilization, and would be loving every minute of it. He is the only participant in the field to have his own fan club, with their own shirts, that I know of. He finished 9th last year, and this year had a chance to win Regionals, but lost the final round to his good friend Scott. I think, with a bit of luck, Iron Mike will make day 2 this year, and I do know he is in for all the events over the 5 days, so look out!!

Luke Roberts has gone AWOL from TREK. He has turned into some Nordic simulating crazy man on weekends, and thus been unable to play. Luckily, he is a good guy and I chat to him on line every now and then, and I’m hopeful he’ll come back to at least defend his 2009 Biermeister title.He may be a little underprepared for the main game, however, he may have been in the lab for 12 months also…

Willie Herold is a good friend of Shane Briers (and mine now) who is the essential fun gamer, which is why we taught him how to play TREK. Willie doesn’t have much experience, but he has plenty of heart, so we’ll see what happens at the end of day 1. If nothing else, rest assured, Willie will have a good time.

Of those who are listed, Scott Newsome won’t be attending, as he is being a jerk and chasing snow bunnies around the Victorian Ski fields this winter (rather than playing Trek with nerds), Nona, Colin and Neil & Coz are expecting to enlarge their respective families and may or may not be able to make it. Pere hopefully can make it, but I only recently got in touch with him again, and the MIGHTY Allan Sharpe has had a few health issues in recent times, and whilst he is on the road to recovery, it may be a little too soon to get him out on the grog, and them have him back up 4 days running, at this stage.

[Andreas Colter]

For the record,I think the top 8 will

LCJK
Blinkite
ShaneBrier
TBT
Iron Mike
Rcharo
Daniel Hyde
Honest (sporting HOT new tech himself inspired by one of his TREK heros)

At any rate, whatever happens Wednesday-Sunday next week, a LOT of people will be having a fun time playing a great game in a cool community. Hopefully, we’ll get a few more back during the year and do it all again for 2011.

Honest