The Road to Worlds 2013, Week 11

by James Hoskin, Director of Organized Play

13th June 2013

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 2013, 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.

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Week 10 Review

Saturday 8th June		Sunday 9th June
First Edition (Block OTF) Dragon's Lair Kungsholmstorg 8 112 21 Stockholm Sweden [Results]	Tribbles (Standard) Dragon's Lair Kungsholmstorg 8 112 21 Stockholm Sweden [Results]	Second Edition (Standard) Good Games St James 3/1083 Albany Highway St James, WA 6102 Australia [Results]	Tribbles (Standard) Good Games St James 3/1083 Albany Highway St James, WA 6102 Australia [Results]
		First Edition (OTF) Telak's Place Elsa-Brändström-Str. 5 28359 Bremen Germany [Awaiting Results]	Second Edition (Standard) Critical Hit Games 3101 Emmorton Road, A4 Abingdon, MD 21009 United States [Results]

Dragon's Lair (First Edition): Five players turned out for the first part of an Omarion Nebula Regional double header in Stockholm, Sweden. After three of the four rounds, two players were in contention to take the title: Johan Skoglund (scox), playing a Federation deck titled "Swedish virtual mercenaries", had twelve victory points; and Cristoffer Wiker (Smiley), playing a Ferengi deck titled "Virtual Ferengi", had eleven victory points. The two had played each other in the second round, but an inability to overcome dilemmas by both players meant the game ended at 0-0. That meant that Johan only had to match the result achieved by Cristoffer to defend the title he won last year. Unfortunately for him, Johan lost his final game and left the door open for Cristoffer to sneak in and take the win with a victory in his final game. He did just that, and won his second Regional title in the Continuing Committee-era. Other affiliations played include Borg, Federation and Ferengi. All Five deck lists and three tournament reports can be found on the tournament results page, and an interview with Cristoffer Wiker is below.

Statistics from Dragon's Lair:

Total achievements awarded	21
Most achievements won	Cristoffer Wiker (Smiley) with 7
Average achievements per player	4.2
Biggest ratings gain	Cristoffer Wiker (Smiley), up 16 points to 1687
Average rating of all 5 players	1518

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Jon's Prediction
Cristoffer Wiker	Cristoffer Wiker	Cristoffer Wiker	Johan Skoglund

Dragon's Lair (Tribbles): Five players participated in this low scoring Omarion Nebula Regional. It was an evenly matched game, with four different players going out in the first four rounds. Cristoffer Wiker (Smiley), playing a Discard deck titled "Actually, I'm Not Even Mad... That's Amazing! ver 3.0" was the eventual winner after emptying his hand in the fifth and final round. He finished the tournament with a score of 247,542 Tribbles, just over 40,000 Tribbles ahead of defending champion Johanna Lax (JossuPossu), playing a Toxin/Utilize deck titled "Winning even if I never go out", in second place. Other powers played include Draw, Go and Go/Rescue. All Five deck lists and three tournament reports can be found on the tournament results page, and an interview with Cristoffer Wiker is below.

Statistics from Dragon's Lair:

Total achievements awarded	11
Most achievements won	Cristoffer Wiker (Smiley) with 4
Average achievements per player	2.2
Total Tribbles scored	662,302
Average Tribbles scored by all 5 players	132,460

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Jon's Prediction
Cristoffer Wiker	Torbjorn Lindquist	Torbjorn Lindquist	Johan Skoglund

Good Games St James (Second Edition): Four players fought it out for the title of Deep Space Station K-7 Regional champion in Perth, Australia. The results were only just entered while this article was being written, so no achievements have been awarded yet, and there are no tournament reports to help with the review. Matthew Townsend (thac0276), playing a Klingon deck titled "I Like Men", was undefeated over three rounds, to take the title. This was Matthew's fourth Regional title in the Continuing Committee-era, but the first he has won playing Second Edition. Defending champion Matthyas Kiraly (stoovie), playing a Borg deck titled "Nice Rack", took second place having just one loss to his name. Other affiliations played include Non-Aligned and Voyager. All Four deck lists can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Good Games St James:

Total achievements awarded	0
Most achievements won	-
Average achievements per player	0.0
Biggest ratings gain	Matthew Townsend (thac0276), up 40 points to 1676
Average rating of all 4 players	1584

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Jon's Prediction
Matthew Townsend	Matthyas Kiraly	Robert Dawson	Robert Dawson

Good Games St James (Tribbles): Part two of the Deep Space Station K-7 Region double header saw four players participate in this Tribbles Regional. As with the Second Edition Regional, the results have only just been entered (at the time of writing), so there is little to report on. Matthyas Kiraly (stoovie) dominated the field, finishing with a score of 692,106 Tribbles - over 70% of all the Tribbles scored on the day. Robert Dawson (TBT) took second place with a score of 131,336 Tribbles using his Discard/Go deck titled "Suck on my Furry Purring Balls". One deck list can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Good Games St James:

Total achievements awarded	0
Most achievements won	-
Average achievements per player	0.0
Total Tribbles scored	987,612
Average Tribbles scored by all 5 players	246,903

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Jon's Prediction
Matthyas Kiraly	Robert Dawson	Robert Dawson	Robert Dawson

Telak's Place: The results for this First Edition Vandros IV Regional have yet to be entered. If/When they are, a review will be added to this article.

Critical Hit Games: This Second Edition Romulus Regional attracted five players for some round-robin action. With the average rating of all five players sitting at 1761, it was an extremely high caliber affair. (For comparison, the average rating of most Regionals is between 1500 and 1550.) The deciding game of the tournament happened in round four, where the last two undefeated players faced off against each other. Neil Timmons (ntimmons), playing a Borg deck titled "I'm in your snooz! takin' your dudes!!"; beat double defending champion Ben Hosp (bhosp), playing a Klingon deck titled "Legitimate Leader of the Empire v4" by 100-40 to guarantee the tournament victory before the final game was played. Neil was able to play the Annexation Drone four times during the game, something he would not normally be able to do. The fourth time, he was sitting at 95 points so it won him the game. Other affiliations played include Cardassian, Dominion and Starfleet. Three deck lists and one tournament report can be found on the tournament results page.

Statistics from Critical Hit Games:

Total achievements awarded	9
Most achievements won	Neil Timmons (ntimmons) with 4
Average achievements per player	1.8
Biggest ratings gain	Ben Hosp (bhosp), up 42 points to 1752
Average rating of all 5 players	1761

Winner	James' Prediction	Kris' Prediction	Steve's Prediction
Neil Timmons	Phil Schrader	Neil Timmons	Neil Timmons

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Interview

This week, Cristoffer Wiker (Smiley), winner of both Regionals (First Edition and Tribbles) in Stockholm, Sweden on Saturday stops by for a chat.

James: Congratulations on your wins Cristoffer. Let's Start with First Edition. Which decks were you considering playing?
Cristoffer: As we originally planned to hold a Block format tournament, I thought I'd try my luck on Ferengi as it was the only thing I hadn't played yet in Block. But after the switch to Virtual I thought long and hard about Borg and Federation Enterprise-E but finally decided on seeing if the Ferengi still had any bite left in them after the errata to Ferengi Military Operations.

James: What decks did you expect to face?
Cristoffer: Well, Virtual is new to me and I do believe that it was the first time for all attending so I was not sure what to expect. But to be true, I thought that Jorn (Admiral-mogh) would bring a Borg deck as he loves that affiliation and it was possible to play them in Virtual. And I know that Johan (Scox) likes the Federation so a version of them would probably see the light of day. Other than that, I expected to see Ferengi so I planned for that at least. Our playgroup is not the largest one and due to conflicting schedules (being a parent mostly) many could not attend.

James: Last year you stayed up until 5am the morning of the tournament building your deck. How late did you stay up building your deck this year? And, is that a reason why you went "small and thin" with your deck?
Cristoffer: Hehe, you got me there! This year I was more or less finished with the basics for my deck at breakfast the morning before but I still needed dilemmas that could tackle both Borg and Federation alike and if need be, something I could pass myself if it came to duplication on missions. So this year I was done with everything and actually went to bed at 2am. Instead, I was up at 7am and making breakfast for everyone - sleep has never been a focus for me. And the only reason I wanted to go with a "small an thin" deck was that I had grown tired of the huge decks I kept lugging around with me. I wanted something that reminded me of how it used to be in the earlier times of the game.

James: How does your deck work?
Cristoffer: I must confess that the dilemmas that I chose were mostly in discussion with Johan and looking at other decks on the forum. I have fallen a little behind in the "what is a good combo"-department of late so I now rest on the shoulders of giants before me. The deck itself is just a simple report and solve, nothing fancy. I hoped to be the only one with Mercenary Raiders as I thought most would try out the new idea of Followers of the One. But, I was wrong as I think I saw a Raider in every deck I met except the Borg. So, report, draw, solve, repeat. That's it! It's really that simple with The Next Generation. And the most disturbing thing is that it's so easy to play and keep up with really advanced decks.

James: Are there any special tricks or combos in the deck?
Cristoffer: No, the only trick is probably The Next Generation, and that's not even a hard one. Build a deck around Continuing Mission and the rest just falls into place.

James: What was your dilemma strategy?
Cristoffer: My strategy was to just be faster at solving than my dilemmas would keep my opponent occupied. I would like to say that I had some sort of profound idea with my dilemmas but I just listened to Johan and looked what all the others were playing and reused some of my older ones as I was not as up to date as I wanted to be.

James: How did the tournament play out, from your perspective?
Cristoffer: It was a nail biter! The first round was against the only woman there. She was pretty new to the game. I think this was her third matchup so I was not that worried. I tried to be as helpful as possible and answer any questions she had about everything in the game. The game between Johan and I was the most intense thing I ever played. A true tie, 0-0 at time. I shot and stabbed him to pieces but at the same time I just could not pick his dilemma combos apart! Then, there was this Borg deck that I was truly frightened by. He started to hunt me down for spare parts and I just threw anything at my missions to get the game to end. In the final game, I had this fantastic match against Torbjorn (Linkan). We duplicated five (!) missions so I had to completely rethink my dilemma strategy. Up until the last turn, it was all up in the air as to who would win. Both Johan and Jorn looked better on paper than me.

James: Who was your toughest opponent?
Cristoffer: I would have to go with myself. I need to stop second guessing myself and just commit to an attempt sometimes. But to be fair, Johan had a far better deck than me, and if he had not lost his final game he would have won the tournament. In the game we played, he had much more tech going on than me. I was just a blunt, brutal shovel of an opponent.

James: Now the tournament is over, how would you improve the deck?
Cristoffer: Hard to say, I would maybe put in an extra ship. Personnel-wise I think I'm good for the environment and I really didn't lack anything. Maybe Rybak as I ended up needing a cook and a bodyguard more than once! And probably that fancy new Non-Aligned Outpost to shield my Raider from first turn annihilation. I won't even go into the dilemmas.

James: Moving onto Tribbles, if you could have built your own deck, what powers would you have focused on?
Cristoffer: I like it quick and dirty so I usually go with Go, Rescue and Discard. Then I boost that up with Replay and Copy, and things that just balance out my overuse of old mechanics that have seen more than one new mechanic made to counter it. Clone is also a good choice on 10,000 and 100,000 I think. Masaka is a little too good in my eyes as I used it to win both my rounds.

James: How was the tournament?
Cristoffer: It was strange. The first round took more time than all the other four combined. But we had fun and laughed together. It's what you want from a good Tribble tournament. Unfortunately, I hadn't been able to make any more Tribbles to give away as prizes (like last year) but it didn't seem to discourage the players.

James: From your tournament report, it sounds like you are not a fan of some of the new cards. Which powers don't you like?
Cristoffer: Well, I'm a gamer at heart and a designer by profession so I tend to look at things maybe from a different perspective. Take for example BaH!, it forces everyone to reseat after each round. I myself think that this is something you should do anyway and nothing that should be put on a card. And I never liked it when you move cards from one deck to another. If you play with the same sleeves it's really hard to remember that it's there and not even yours. And Dance is just silly! In a bad way. Something else I have noticed when playing the game with people that are new to the game and not having English as their first language is that many of the cards are poorly written. Some are even hard to understand for some.

James: If you could create an achievement, what would it be?
Cristoffer: Achievements has never been anything I have collected myself but I really like the idea of them. Working with gamification on the site is a good thing and a great way to excite and engage the players. I would like to see more engagement on the writing of articles for the site and even badges for play testing and all that sort of stuff. I hope that would make more people want to help out.

James: Do you have anything else to add?
Cristoffer: I would like to thank everyone that attended and all the time they put into making deck and teaching new players to play these games. It's what makes it so fun to run tournaments!

My thanks to Cristoffer for taking the time to answer these questions.

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Byes

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

• Cristoffer Wiker (Smiley), winner at Dragon's Lair

And, two players won a Day One, Round One bye into their local Second Edition Continental Championships:

• Matthew Townsend (thac0276), winner at Good Games St James
• Ben Hosp (bhosp), second place (bye handed down) at Critical Hit Games

And, two players won a 100,000 Tribble Headstart into their local Tribbles Continental Championships:

• Cristoffer Wiker (Smiley), winner at Dragon's Lair
• Matthyas Kiraly (stoovie), winner at Good Games St James

These bye winners have been added to the list of current bye winners for the Continental Championships and the World Championships here. For everyone who didn't win a bye, there are now only 14 Regionals where you can earn one.

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Deck Statistics

There were 5 players at one First Edition tournament this week, taking the total players at First Edition Regional Championships to 119 - an average of 6.6 players per tournament.

The best performing First Edition affiliations to date are Vidiian, averaging 11.6 victory points per tournament; followed by Bajoran, averaging 11.2 victory points; and then Ferengi, averaging 10.0 victory points. The worst performing affiliations to date are Hirogen, averaging 7.4 victory points per tournament; followed by Klingon/Cardassian Alliance, averaging 7.0 victory points; and then Starfleet, averaging 6.0 victory points.

The most popular First Edition affiliations are currently:
1.	Federation	Used by 26 (22%) players	4 Regional wins
2.	Ferengi	Used by 15 (13%) players	5 Regional wins
3.	Klingon	Used by 14 (12%) players	3 Regional wins
4.	Romulan	Used by 13 (11%) players	1 Regional win
5.	Borg	Used by 11 (9%) players	1 Regional win
6.	Vidiian	Used by 9 (8%) players	1 Regional win
7.	Hirogen	Used by 7 (6%) players
8.	Dual Affiliations	Used by 6 (5%) players
9.	Non-Aligned	Used by 5 (4%) players
10.	Cardassian	Used by 4 (3%) players	1 Regional win
10.	Unknown?	Used by 4 (3%) players
12.	Bajoran	Used by 3 (3%) players	2 Regional wins
13.	Dominion	Used by 1 (1%) player
13.	Klingon/Cardassian Alliance	Used by 1 (1%) player

There were nine players at two Second Edition tournaments this week, taking the total players at Second Edition Regional Championships to 216 - an average of 8.3 players per tournament.

The best performing Second Edition affiliations to date are Maquis, averaging 14.3 victory points per tournament; followed by Relativity, averaging 12.3 victory points; and then Klingon, averaging 12.2 victory points. The worst performing affiliations are Voyager/Equinox, averaging 9.5 victory points per tournament; followed by Ferengi, averaging 9.4 victory points; and then Non-Aligned, averaging 8.5 victory points.

The most popular Second Edition affiliations are currently:
1.	Next Generation	Used by 29 (13%) players	1 Regional win
2.	Klingon	Used by 26 (12%) players	7 Regional wins
3.	Starfleet	Used by 20 (9%) players	3 Regional wins
4.	Borg	Used by 19 (9%) players	4 Regional wins
5.	Dominion	Used by 15 (7%) players	3 Regional wins
6.	Relativity	Used by 14 (7%) players
6.	Original Series	Used by 14 (7%) players
8.	Cardassian	Used by 12 (6%) players	1 Regional win
9.	Voyager/Equinox	Used by 11 (5%) players
10.	Deep Space 9	Used by 8 (4%) players	2 Regional wins
10.	Earth Space 9	Used by 8 (4%) players	1 Regional win
12.	Bajoran	Used by 6 (3%) players	1 Regional win
12.	Maquis	Used by 6 (3%) players	2 Regional wins
12.	Terok Nor	Used by 6 (3%) players
15.	Romulan	Used by 5 (2%) players
15.	Dual Affiliations	Used by 5 (2%) players
17.	Ferengi	Used by 4 (2%) players	1 Regional win
17.	Non-Aligned	Used by 4 (2%) players
17.	Unknown?	Used by 4 (2%) players

There were nine players at two Tribbles tournaments this week, bringing the total players at Tribbles Regional Championships to 131 - an average of 6.9 players per tournament. Excluding preliminary heats, a total of 39,712,152 Tribbles have been scored to date, an average of 303,146 Tribbles per player.

Please note: Deck lists are a vital resource for our design teams. We are now missing over 25% of all Tribbles decks played at a Regional this year. If players do not enter their deck lists, it is the responsibility of tournament organizers to enter them. Those organizers that cannot follow the rules will not be allowed to run a Regional next year.

The most popular Tribbles powers in each deck are:
1.	Unknown?	Used by 33 (25%) players	5 Regional wins
2.	Go	Used by 25 (19%) players	5 Regional wins
3.	IDIC	Used by 9 (7%) players
4.	Clone	Used by 7 (5%) players
5.	Discard	Used by 6 (5%) players	2 Regional wins
5.	Poison	Used by 6 (5%) players	1 Regional win
7.	Battle	Used by 5 (4%) players
7.	Utilize	Used by 5 (4%) players
9.	Bonus	Used by 4 (3%) players	1 Regional win
10.	Rescue	Used by 3 (2%) players
11.	Replay	Used by 2 (2%) players
11.	Battle/Score	Used by 2 (2%) players
11.	Assimilate/Poison/Score	Used by 2 (2%) players
14.	Copy	Used by 1 (1%) player
14.	Draw	Used by 1 (1%) player
14.	Freeze	Used by 1 (1%) player
14.	Recycle	Used by 1 (1%) player
14.	Replicate	Used by 1 (1%) player
14.	Scan	Used by 1 (1%) player	1 Regional win
14.	Skip	Used by 1 (1%) player
14.	Toxin	Used by 1 (1%) player	1 Regional win
14.	BaH!/Qapla'	Used by 1 (1%) player
14.	Battle/Go	Used by 1 (1%) player
14.	Clone/Go	Used by 1 (1%) player	1 Regional win
14.	Clone/Replay	Used by 1 (1%) player
14.	Discard/Go	Used by 1 (1%) player
14.	Discard/Rescue	Used by 1 (1%) player
14.	Go/Masaka	Used by 1 (1%) player
14.	Go/Rescue	Used by 1 (1%) player
14.	Go/Scan	Used by 1 (1%) player
14.	Poison/Rescue	Used by 1 (1%) player	1 Regional win
14.	Reverse/Skip	Used by 1 (1%) player
14.	Scan/Utilize	Used by 1 (1%) player
14.	Toxin/Utilize	Used by 1 (1%) player
14.	Bonus/Reverse/Skip	Used by 1 (1%) player

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Predictions

James	Kris	Interviewees
20/64 (31.3%)	21/64 (32.8%)	22/64 (34.4%)

2013 Prediction Accuracy

Kris made up a little ground this week, with two correct predictions, while last week's interviewee, Jon Carter (pfti), and I only managed one each. As a result, Jon joins Soren Ramme Nielsen (s_ramme) at the bottom of the prediction accuracy table, and I am now last in the overall predictor table. It looks like I need to abuse my position as overseer of predictions (is that a real thing?) and implement a new strategy to help me catch back up. I've started this week by interviewing a First Edition player, Cristoffer Wiker (Smiley), and asking him to predict a bunch of Second Edition Regional results. With my best evil smirk, I'll ask "How hard can it be?"

Past Interviewee Prediction Accuracy
Week 6	Matthew Frid (bandana8472)	1/1 (100%)
Week 2	Nat Kirton (Nate Jeezy)	3/6 (50.0%)
Week 7	Johnny Holeva (jjh)	4/9 (44.4%)
Week 1	Sean O'Reilly (Jono)	4/9 (44.4%)
Week 3	Matt Kirk (CaptMDKirk)	3/8 (37.5%)
Week 9	Steve Hartmann (chompers)	2/7 (28.6%)
Week 5	Johannes Klarhauser (Kaiser)	1/4 (25.0%)
Week 8	Chris Lobban (Maelwys)	2/9 (22.2%)
Week 10	Jon Carter (pfti)	1/5 (20.0%)
Week 4	Soren Ramme Nielsen (s_ramme)	1/5 (20.0%)

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Week 11 Preview

The complete schedule can be found in the article 2013 Regional Championships Schedule. There are four Regional tournaments this week:

Saturday 15th June		Sunday 16th June
Second Edition (Standard) GameKnight Games and Cool Stuff 726 Osborne Street Winnipeg, MB R3L 2C2 Canada [Discuss] [Pre-register]		Second Edition (Standard) NordCon Pachthofschule Beim Pachthof 15 22111 Hamburg Germany [Discuss] [Pre-register]	Second Edition (Standard) Obs De Blijberg Gordelweg 216 3039GA Rotterdam The Netherlands [Discuss] [Pre-register]
		Tribbles (Draft) Obs De Blijberg Gordelweg 216 3039GA Rotterdam The Netherlands [Discuss] [Pre-register]

GameKnight Games and Cool Stuff: This Rura Penthe Regional is being organized for the fourth year. There have been five or six players in each of the last three years, and three have pre-registered for this year's event so far. Tournament organizer Keith Morris (Foreman) is the highest rated player pre-registered, and has eight wins from the 27 tournaments he has entered. However, Keith has only played in two tournaments since last year's Regional, and finished in the middle of the pack at both. Matthew Hayes (karonofborg13) will be crossing the 49th parallel North for this Regional, and is looking for players in the Minnesota/North Dakota/South Dakota/Wisconsin area to make the journey with. This will be the eleventh Regional Matthew will have entered this year. Matthew recently earned his 101st Second Edition tournament win (from the 291 he has entered), a win ratio slightly better than Keith's. Kyle Schewe (caravanhymn) is the third player pre-registered. He has yet to win a tournament in the Continuing Committee-era, but has been one win from taking the victory at four of the six tournaments he has played in. When it comes to head-to-head statistics, all three players are pretty evenly matched. Keith and Matthew have six wins each from twelve games. Matthew and Kyle have two wins each from four games, and Keith has two wins from three games against Kyle. As it stands, all three are looking like potential winners. My gut says Matthew will win this one.

Kris: Matt Hayes to win. Why? Torn between picking The Foreman, who avoids the ring like the plague, and The Animal, who competes in three bouts before his morning shave, I gotta believe all that experience is gonna count for something when these two collide at Road Wild. Mark my words, Gorilla, when The Animal gets unleashed this weekend, bad things are gonna happen to his opponents.

Cristoffer: I've never been a Second Edition player so I never really got into the tournament scene there. But just looking a the ratings I would go with Keith Morris.

Past Second Edition Regional results at GameKnight Games and Cool Stuff:
2012, won by Keith Morris (Foreman) playing Voyager.
2011, won by Matthew Hayes (karonofborg13) playing Borg.
2010 (alternate venue), won by Mark Morris (BaronMorrath) playing Romulan.
2009, not played.
2008, not played.

NordCon: This Second Edition Vandros IV Regional celebrates its fifth anniversary on Sunday. It has attracted either four or five players in the past. Just two have pre-registered so far this year, but we can probably expect more looking at the previous tournaments. Tobias Rausmann (garetjax) is ranked #6 in the world, #3 in Europe and #2 in Germany. He has won five of the eight tournaments he has played this year, including another Regional and the Danish National Championships; and his overall winning record stands at 75% of the 432 games he has played. Former Continuing Committee European Organized Play Coordinator Thorsten Wanek (JaglomShrek) will have his work cut out for him. He has won two of the seven tournaments he has played this year though, and has beaten Tobias five times in the 24 games they have played. Former two-time winner of this Regional Michael Mittelstedt (Roga Danar) has only played three tournaments since last year's regional, but he finished in second place - behind Tobias - at all three of them. Like Thorsten, he too has beaten Tobias five times, from 13 games. That's not enough for me though. Tobias to be the #1 ranked player at this tournament.

Kris: Tobias Rausmann to win. Why? The Total Package is a reigning National and Regional Champion who outlasted four other men to win gold in that very arena last year. Do you think everyone from Germany is nuts about Last Man Standing matches, Gorilla, or are we just lucky to see all the ones who are?

Cristoffer: The same thing goes here. Tobias Rausmann looks to have a solid track record and I seriously doubt anyone could touch him.

Past Second Edition Regional results at NordCon:
2012, won by Tobias Rausmann (garetjax) playing Maquis.
2011, won by Tiemo Mittelstedt playing Ferengi.
2010, won by Michael Mittelstedt (Roga Danar) playing Earth Space 9.
2009, won by Michael Mittelstedt (Roga Danar) playing Dominion.
2008, not played.

Obs De Blijberg (Second Edition): This New Bajor Regional has attracted between four and eight players at each of the three previous occasions it has been organized. The first two years saw players invading from Germany and walking away with the title. Last year, it was just local players, and it looks to be the same again this year, with three pre-registered so far. Defending champion Enrico Evink (enrico81) only plays one or two tournaments a year, but he has been victorious in four of the seven he has played in. That leaves his rating at 1704, and is enough to rank him in the top 50 players in the world. Like Enrico, Arjan Hoek (arjan242) is also mainly a First Edition player. He only has one Second Edition tournament to his name in the Continuing Committee-era. Rem Boon (Boon of Bolian) has more experience than both of his pre-registered competitors combined, with 51 games across 13 tournaments. He has yet to win a tournament though, the closest he has come is a second place at this Regional last year. This all sounds to me like Enrico will win this one.

Kris: Enrico Evink to win. Why? Double E comes into this pay per view as the reigning Regional Champion, and thanks to his Acoustic Equalizer finisher, he hasn't "done the honors" for another Superstar in over two years. Despite being a rookie in the Steel Cage that is straight sealed, my sources tell me that when the dust settles we'll all be once again asking ourselves "Ain't he great?"

Cristoffer: Enrico Evink for the win!

Past Second Edition Regional results at Obs De Blijberg:
2012 (alternate venue), won by Enrico Evink (enrico81) playing Romulan.
2011 (alternate venue), won by Tyler Fultz (DJstormtrooper) playing Klingon.
2010 (alternate venue), won by Tobias Rausmann (garetjax) playing Original Series.
2009, not played.
2008, not played.

Obs De Blijberg (Tribbles): The second half of the New Bajor double header sees a Tribbles draft taking place. This is the second year that this Regional has been organized. There were six players last year, and two have pre-registered for this year so far. There is barely anything to separate Enrico Evink (enrico81) and Arjan Hoek (arjan242) in the lifetime breeding rankings, with Enrico ranked #64 and Arjan ranked #65 just 5,872 Tribbles behind him. This year, both players have participated in three tournaments. Enrico has one win, while Arjan has two second places. Just about the only differentiators I can find is that Arjan has played in three more tournaments than Enrico, and that Enrico has won six tournaments to Arjan's two. It's slim, but I'll use them as a guide and pick Enrico to win this tournament too.

Kris: Arjan Hoek to win. Why? Averaging over 425k in Battle Royale's in his career, The Ace of Hearts has proven time and again that he's no ham-and-egger. Provided he and Double E take care of their competitors before turning on each other, I'll stake my reputation as a broadcast journalist on him coming out on top without going over the top.

Cristoffer: Tribbles is a totally open game so more or less anyone can win. Just look at what happened here last year. So I'll go with Arjan Hoek for Tribbles.

Past Tribbles Regional results at Obs De Blijberg:
2012 (sealed), won by Enrico Evink (enrico81) playing a Go/Rescue deck.
2011, not played.
2010, not played.
2009, not played.
2008, not played.

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Next Week

Week 12 of the Road to Worlds sees this weekend's four Regionals reviewed, an interview with a winning player, more statistics, and a preview of next weekend's three Regionals.

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