Weekly 1E Roundup - 2 SEPTEMBER 2020

by Charlie Plaine, Director of First Edition

2nd September 2020

Welcome to the Weekly 1E Roundup, a weekly column looking back at the past week in the world of First Edition as well as a preview of the week ahead. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for content, you can contact me at cplaine@gmail.com or on the forums via PM to MidnightLich. I'm happy to write about your tournaments, get togethers, or other 1E-related goings-on. But for now, let's get into the column and see what's been going on in the world of First Edition!

The Big News

Balance Team co-leaders Dan Hamman (SirDan) and Jason Robinette (JasonRed3) have officially put out the call for volunteers. As a member of the Balance Team, you will be shaping the health and stability of the game at all levels of play. The Balance Team is replacing the Errata Team, but serves much of the same function - you can read all about it in my article from earlier this year. If something is too good or causing problems in First Edition, in particular in organized play, the Balance Team will identify the issue, test solutions, and take action. You can be part of this team and volunteer by filling out this Google Form. For more information on the position, or for any of the open volunteer positions within The Continuing Committee, check out the Volunteer page.

Tournament Reports

It's been nothing but Tribbles since my last edition, so let's take a look at the four (4) tournaments that have been held in that time - starting with Tuesday Night Tribbles on August 18th. If you aren't aware, this weekly tournament series, hosted by Maggie Geppert (jadziadax8), brings folks together to play a game and, as she says, "...players are expected to bring their best smack talk and age-appropriate beverages!" On the 18th, Michael Van Breemen brought his Just Score deck and won, breeding 873,565. Just behind him was John Paul Veasey (elveez) with 821,143, though I'm not sure what he played. Dan Hamman (SirDan) took 3rd, with 724,223 tribbles, but had a moral victory by going out by activating Magic. Eric Robinett (rycar60), Kris Sonsteby (LORE), Jeremy Benedict (flrazor), and Maggie Geppert rounded out the event - you can check out all their deck lists on the tournament page.

In Winter Park, Florida, USA, there were two tournaments held on Saturday, August 22nd. In the first, CJ Ash (Domino) took first bred 707,637 tribbled to claim first place, playing a Poison deck. Rick Kinney (T-Ricks) had 662,301 which got him 2nd place, piloting "Little scores add up". Martin Drake (Warrior50), playing a Generosity Player deck, took 3rd with 650,000 tribbles. And while Joseph Bazemore (Cmdr Xym) may have been in 4th place with 502,442 tribbles, he wins the prize for desk deck name with "Throwing Random Cards Together (Avalanche of Pain Edition)." Kudos, all!

Meanwhile, presumably at a table or two away, John Kinney (Kivas Fajo) won the second event with 650,000 tribbles; his deck had just ten (10) different powers in it! Eric Robinett was "Here to Set the Bar," and got a 2nd place finish with 550,000 tribbles. Matthew McClain (Indyguy1183) claimed 3rd, playing "The original discard" to a score of 408,726 while Sean O'Reilly (Jono) scored an even 400,000 with "A kind bonus" as his deck.

Finally, the most recent edition of Tuesday Night Tribbles (prior to the writing of this column) took place on August 25th. Michal Van Breemen claimed victory again, dominating with a score of 1,184,766. His deck, called Tribble Boom, seems to have been designed to Battle a lot of points into his play pile, and successfully if I might add. Eric Robinett claimed 2nd place with 842,213 tribbles and held a respectable lead over Dan Hamman, in 3rd place. Maggie Geppert took 4th, while Kris Sonsteby came in 5th, with 400,000 and 350,000 tribbles, respectively. All of their decks, except Dan's, are linked on the tournament page - so check them out!

If you're playing, getting together, I want to hear about it! Did you play online? Tell me about it! Play with family? Send me pictures! I'm happy to cover tournaments and casual games in this column - you just have to let me know. You can find my contact information at the bottom of every column, and you're welcome to email me, PM me, or just post on the forums. So if you're out there, playing First Edition or Tribbles in any way, shape, or form, tell us about it!

Tournament Previews

We've got a number of upcoming tournaments to discuss, so let's jump right into it. After taking August off for the (not a) World Championship, Brian Sykes (Armus) brings the Return to Talos IV tournament series back with a Voyager-only OTF Constructed event. Kicking off on Friday, September 4th, this event plays with the modern OTF rules and deck construction, but players are limited to only the Voyager and The Borg expansions! That should be a lot of fun, and right now there are five (5) players that agree: Michael Van Breemen, Brian Sykes, Joe Kallstrom (Commander Joe), Stephen R Sanders (Spock with a Goatee), and Maggie Geppert. I'm extremely swamped in September, otherwise I'd be on that list too. Have fun, and sign up for this if you can.

On Saturday, September 5th, there is a one-day online tournament, hosted by Jon Carter (pfti). This OTF Complete Constructed event begins at 9:00 AM Pacific / 12:00 PM Eastern / 6:00 PM CET, and is scheduled or three (3) rounds. Aside from Jon, Michael Van Breemen, Niall Matthew (sexecutioner), and Sebastian Kirstein (Caretaker's Guest) are all pre-registered. There's still time to sign up and play, so check it out if you're interested.

Tjark Ott (tjark) is hosting a belated Tribbles Regional at his home in Koblenz, Germany, on Saturday, September 5th. Nobody has pre-registered as of the authoring of this column, but I know Tjark is a popular guy in Germany and I have every hope we'll be reading about German Tribbles shenanigans in next week's column.

On Monday, September 7th - the Labor Day holiday in the US - Maggie Geppert will be hosting her belated 40th birthday event. For First Edition, she's hosting a Sealed Warp Speed event, though it's unclear if it will be Voyager or something else. Since it's sealed, it doesn't matter! Right now, it looks like they are having one very distant guest, Michael Van Breemen, who will be joining Maggie herself and Brian S. (JeBuS). Hopefully, there will be more people there to help her celebrate her birthday in style - socially distanced, of course.

And speaking of her birthday extravaganza, it'll also be featuring a Tribbles tournament, with Eric Bieche (biecheer) joining the previous three players on the pre-registered player list. Will Michael be able to be as dominating in Tribbles in person as he's been online? We'll see!

Meanwhile, if you are in a part of the world where gatherings are allow, and if you have upcoming events, virtual get togethers, or anything else scheduled that's 1E related, let me know. I'd love to feature you and your friends in this column. I typically only see them if they're scheduled in our tournament software, so if you're not using that, please let me know!

Short Treks (In Other News)

• Paddy Tye (KazonPADD) is hosting the first 1E Cup event! This tournament, unlike most, is a single-elimination event taking place online, starting on Monday, September 14th. It's an OTF Complete Constructed event, with the only difference being that once you lose, you're out! Prizes will be awarded per full win, and this event will be part of the Subspace Series. Check it out!


• Temporal Causality Loop, one of the game's most confusing cards, is back under discussion. LuthySloan asked a simple question, which naturally has turned into three pages of debate about actions and action timing in 1E. It's a very "in the weeds" discussion, but check it out if you enjoy that sort of thing.


• Efforts to improve our rules documents continue unabated. We have a thread for thoughts and questions about the recently updated First Edition rule book. Lately, Violet Edgar (VioletBlaze) has been going through the document entry by entry, pointing out questions and areas for improvement. It's amazing - make sure to thank them. And if you want to help, that's the place.


• Should you have to have a personnel in Ops to return fire on a Nor? I missed posting a Friday question last week, but two weeks ago, the question was about operating a Nor's WEAPONS. The current rule requires someone to be in Ops to push the button, and that rule is one up for deletion. What do you think? Can Sisko make the WEAPONS work from anywhere aboard? Or does he have to be in Ops? Sound off!


• Congratulations to our cousins in the world of Second Edition for the release of All Our Yesterdays. This expansion, their first since April, introduces twenty-five (25) new cards to the game, including a new dilemma keyword, Temporal missions, and more. There's actually a few cards from very similar stories as you'll see in 1E's next expansion. But for now, if you have any interest in 2E, check out All Our Yesterdays!

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That's all for this week's roundup of First Edition news and events. For more news, you can follow The Continuing Committee on Facebook, Twitter, or bookmark our front page. News about upcoming First Edition projects can be found in the most recent Project Status Update from June 2020. If you've got an event coming up and you'd like to be featured in this column, or if you have comments about this column's content, feel free to contact me at cplaine@gmail.com or on the forums via PM to MidnightLich. Until next week, may you expand your power in the universe and live long and prosper.

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