The Original Champion's Challenge Results!

by Kris Sonsteby, Staff Writer

10th December 2013

Good evening, 'Trek fans! For my longtime broadcast partner, Matt "The Original Champion" Frid, I'm Kris "The Old Pro" Sonsteby welcoming you back for a very special edition of T2E Confidential; the only show that brings you, the fans, through the ropes for an up close and personal look at the game's greatest Superstars. On tonight's episode, we will be discussing T2E Entertainment's third annual installment of The Original Champion's Challenge pay-per-view, which went down inside the R.H. Stafford Library's infamous "Jungle" atrium in affluent Woodbury, Minnesota just a few short weeks ago. For the uninitiated, The Original Champion's Challenge is a once a year opportunity for greater MN-Land's assembled Champions to relive the dawn of Second Edition by way of a Premiere Only constructed event in which combatants are encouraged to hand pick their opponents and each card is played exactly as it reads, regardless of errata. Regular viewers will likely recall, but it bears repeating that as is customary on our program, all of the upcoming analysis will be told from the perspective of everyone's favorite broadcaster, "T.O.P." So, without any further ado, let's take a look back… at the OCC.

Game #1: Opening Bout versus Ben "Mankind" Johnson

Following a pair of callouts and a selfless volunteer willing to sit out with the bye, Ben and I squared off in a rematch of epic proportions as we found ourselves in a final round dog fight at the inaugural Original Champion's Challenge two years ago, wherein I took the day's top honors. Fast forward to the present where I returned to the scene of the crime with a similar design, yet Ben opted for a change of pace and went with Deep Space Nine rather than reanimate his Romulans. While an intriguing choice, despite the inherent advantage of boasting a 1-range headquarters mission which allows it's owner to traverse both the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants with ease, Premiere Only DS9'ers are notoriously short on the command stars necessary to fly their space faring tubs. And, unfortunately for Ben, this lack of authoritarian leadership would prove to be a recurring theme, not only in our match but also throughout the remainder of the day.

With the OCC's starting gun still ringing in our ears, I fired a menagerie of purple and green into play while Ben countered with a trio of all-stars; Jadzia Dax, Miles O'Brien, and Pran Tainer. After a few similarly paced turns, I used the range reduction of regionalized missions to full effect as I departed Cardassia, collected a handful of Reman refugees at Romulus, and arrived next door at Remus for an attempt at Supervise Dilithium Mine in one fluid motion. Despite losing one geologist to Pursuit Just Behind, this motley crew had it in spades, and following a couple of additional single stoppers Jerax, Talvin, and the fattest Legate of 'em all, Parn, led what remained of the troop to my first mission solve of the tournament. Backed into a corner of being a mission behind and having yet to get out of the blocks himself, Ben ventured out to the prettiest place in the galaxy, Investigate Rumors, on the U.S.S. Akira where he was promptly greeted with a Personal Duty / Aggressive Behavior combo that tried to snack on his only commander, the timeless cranial ridge himself, Mr. Worf. Luckily, Ben was able to save him via a well-timed Escape, but the damage had been done, both literally and figuratively, as with his range reduced by two he would thus be unable to fly home and come back with reinforcements in one turn despite the presence of an Astrometrics Lab.

Getting his ship smashed early further compounded the going concern of having higher than average cost personnel in play, as I had a significant advantage in warm bodies from that point forward and incidentally also would not be required to waste precious counters on a second vessel to keep my crews mobile. Thus, with Ben methodically churning through dilemmas in the air, I began double teaming on the ground, eventually worming my way through Evacuate Colony to take a 70 point lead. As crunch time rapidly approached, Ben finally punched his way through space and ferried over to Geological Survey via a newly minted T’Lani Munitions Ship, but was Pinned Down before falling victim to Temptation. Still in the driver's seat with just one mission to go, I drew nearly all of my final turn's counters in an effort to locate Parn's lovely Comfort Women, eventually finding one and a Shady Resources to use at the aptly themed Kressari Rendezvous. True to form, Ben didn't give an inch as he combined a trio of stoppers with a Maglock, but I was able to uber-cheat through it as Thexor handed his Programming over to Parn twice, once via the Shady and again by way of "comforting" the woebegone bureaucrat, en route to a hard fought 100-30 victory.

Game #2: Mid-Card Match versus Rylee "The Golden Boy" Johnson

Early upsets of both Jeremy "The Razor" Benedict and Matt "The Animal" Hayes had left T2E's young blood riding high and the old guard on the run as we entered round two, with one rookie chalking up a win in his first ever sanctioned Second Edition game and the other evening his record at 3-3 in this only his second pay-per-view appearance. After another series of anything but random pairings saw our youngest competitor partner off with n.W.o. 4-Life'r and returning Champion John "Rigg-kishi" Rigg, I dealt myself the younger of the Johnson brothers, Rylee, and the stage was set for an old school versus new school grudge match.

As Rylee and I settled into a cozy corner nook of the R.H. Stafford Library's lush plaza, it became apparent that the Federation symbol was, in fact, a family sigil in the Johnson household as both siblings had brought blue to the OCC; Ben being armed with Deep Space Nine while Rylee had equipped himself with Earth, Cradle of the Federation. This caught me slightly off balance as Cardassian, Romulan, Klingon, and Dual HQ blends had historically been the flavors of choice among the majority of OCC competitors, and as such I had not anticipated much of a human presence this year. However, in what turned out to be a cruel twist of fate, Ben's lack of command authority throughout game one was perfectly mirrored by Rylee's abundance of it in game two, leaving the junior Johnson susceptible to the same Personal Duty / Aggressive Behavior coupling that had previously devastated his elder brother.

With Rylee sent reeling from the impact, a standard issue Galor afforded me the range necessary to gather a handful of minions at Romulus before venturing over to Kressari, which I succinctly solved to take a quick 30-0 lead after Enemy Boarding Party all but whiffed and my treacherous brood laughed at the prospect of an external Temptation. When the turn was passed back to him, Rylee piled up a five-spot of background characters in the forms of Daniel Kwan, Davies, Martin, Rixx, and Miss crabby pants herself, Lieutenant Commander Shelby, before being summarily tagged with another volley of Personal Duty at Intercept Renegade. Forced to gamble with dilemmas at Evacuate Colony due to a crippled ship and only two dilemmas earned thus far, Damar and Jorvas outran Rylee's Hunter Gangs while the remaining stopper dilemmas proved insufficient to deny me the mission solve and a sixty five point advantage over my less experienced opponent. With things going sideways in a hurry, deck designer Matt "The Animal" Hayes tossed Rylee a foreign object in the way of the format illegal Arctus Baran, but even that desperation maneuver failed to deliver as an Unscientific Method eliminated Rylee's lone geologist shortly before Microbrain turned him away a third and final time in space. Smelling blood in the water, I moved in for the kill at Remus and separated my haggard looking bunch into two away teams, eventually nailing down both the mission and the match with the B Squad to earn the old guard a 100-0 second round reprieve.

Game #3: Main Event versus Henry "The Chosen One" Frid

Hot on the heels of two victories over the brothers Johnson, my 2013 edition of The Original Champion's Challenge continued it's familial undertones as only three Superstars were left unscathed at the halfway point; the man of the hour himself Matt "The Original Champion" Frid, his son, "The Chosen One," Henry, and I. Despite his rookie status and an ID card which reads just over a decade of existence, Henry entered this event with the confidence that can only come from six months worth of format specific training at Chez Frid wherein he collected dark match victories over both his undefeated rivals. Armed with the brazen hunger of youth and the otherworldly coolness he inherited from his father, I knew Henry was not to be taken lightly. This notion was eerily reinforced as he quickly poured a mixture of cheap Klingon and Non-Aligned personnel into play, deftly covering all of the potential threats posed by Premiere's infamous 2-fer skill dilemmas, shortly before up ending Rescue Prisoners in one attempt to take an early lead.

Despite stock piling personnel at both HQ's, I had not even drawn a ship to this point, although both Shinzon and The Viceroy were doing their part to find me one fast. Given the game state as Henry moved along to Khitomer Investigation, I tossed a Trabe Gernade his way in the hopes of eliminating Soto, which would subsequently earn me a hard stop from the Achilles heel of his Klingon Treachery concoction, Antedian Assassins. This 1-in-3 connection proved to be the turning point in our match, as once the gold guy with a face only a mother could love hit the discard pile I was able to stonewall two more of the junior Mr. Frid's attempts via Blended and another dose of those deadly shower curtains. In the interim, having finally drawn a ship, I tag teamed my way through Chula: Pick One to Save Two, Kolaran Raiders, and Triage at Remus and grabbed a pair of dilemmas at Kressari to effectively even things up with my adolescent adversary.

Locked in a stalemate at the halfway point, Henry then dialed up the pressure by playing his ace in the hole, No Peace in Our Time, and another I.K.S. K’Vort for the unavoidable push at the physically unaltered Explore Black Cluster. Meanwhile, I snatched another Personal Duty and Command Decisions for my troubles in space before abandoning the locale momentarily to scoop the Thexor twins off of Romulus and pound the ground with as much strength as I could muster at Evacuate Colony. As we approached the apex of our back and forth encounter, I thwarted a fourth attempt at Khitomer by hitting the Klingon worth his weight in gold, Khamis, with a second helping of Trabe Gernade and a half hearted effort in space via a Misguided Activist precluding a Center of Attention. With the turn now passed back to me, I drew into and played Lemec, who like the rather anonymous looking, gun toting Thexor twins had obviously taken his steroids and was ready to put his increased strength to good use. With the first wave of meat shields snagging enough dilemmas to give the jacked up team a free pass on planet, the survivors then plodded over to Cardassia, picked up the angry Gul, ditched the riff-raff, and skated through Kressari with a four man band to pull out a very tough come from behind 100-30 win.

Game #4: Title Match versus Matt "The Original Champion" Frid

Three rounds of poetry in motion brought the OCC to a final crescendo as my brother from another mother and I set our friendship aside for a championship bout three years in the making between the reigning title holder and the challenger with an unblemished OCC record. With the tale of the tape revealing nothing to indicate an advantage for either participant and a familiarity bred from countless home games against each other, the day's top honors were undoubtedly balanced on a razor's edge; a minor mistake here or a lucky random selection there would likely spell disaster for one and rocket the other on to victory.

As the opening bell sounded, Matt kick started the party with a barrage of personnel that included the Anthropology wielding Evek and the original Cheater himself, Elim Garak, while I countered with a trio consisting of Chagrith, Dralvek, and Movar as we both hunkered down for the inevitable grind. With both of us knowing that my dilemma pile exploited Antedean Assassins wherever possible while his chewed up Security, Matt sagely burned through his deck in search of Soto's via The Pillage of Bajor and "Observer" From the Obsidian Order, whereas I hunted in vain for Joret Dal or a copy of Thexor, neither of which were to be found. Sensing my initial hesitation while knowing precisely who I had in play, Matt struck first at his own version of Evacuate Colony, eventually putting 35 points on the board when one version of Elim Garak ate his clone for breakfast to bypass a sorely needed stop from Microbrain. In the interim, I ran head long into the buzz saw at Supervise Dilithium Mine, losing Shinzon, The Viceroy, Talvin, and Parn to Kelvan Show of Force, Trabe Gernade, and a double shot of Center of Attention. Following his planet side success, Matt obtained a dearly needed Cardassian Phaser Pistol from his headquarters and made his way over to the conjoined Kressari, blowing through it in one attempt when Personal Duty failed to deliver as I mistakenly assumed he had brought several of his Officers and Leadership personnel with him when, rather slyly, his crew had only included Evek.

Down two missions to none with a discard pile littered with command stars and Leadership, I was uncharacteristically staring down a shutout loss when I finally caught a break in space as Parn version 2.0 survived a second Kelvan selection and his rag-tag ensemble walked past the fully loaded Remus unscathed to pull within five points of the lead. However, Matt remained in complete control as after snagging a pair of D-listers at Cardassia he split his crowded crew into three equal parts in order to power bomb the previously softened up Deliver Supplies. Holding true to the back and forth nature of this game and by default all of our prior matches against one another, I corralled the first attempt with Chula: Pick One to Save Two and the second with a Trabe Gernade before the third Gul infused flock eeked out the strength while the fruit sticker AI'd Kolos provided the necessary skills to propel Matt past me and into first place behind a well deserved 100-65 triumph in round number four.

So folks, with our coverage of the The Original Champion's Challenge pay-per-view drawing to a close, as is often the case here at T2E Confidential we are once again left with more questions than answers: will Matt "The Animal" Hayes continue his ongoing interference at T2E Tough Enough league events? Will Rylee "The Golden Boy" Johnson and Henry "The Chosen One" Frid form an alliance as they seek to overthrow their elders? Will John "Rigg-kishi" Rigg return to action full time, or will he opt to maintain his Legend contract status? For answers to these and all of your T2E Entertainment questions, tune in to December to Dismember to find out!

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