Weekly 1E Roundup - 4 MARCH 2020

by Charlie Plaine, Director of First Edition

4th March 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

It's March, a new month in 2020, and that means the First Monday has brought new rulings, new errata, and new updates. This was a big month with a lot of changes, so let's break them down one-by-one. Rules Manager James Heaney (BCSWowbagger) wrote an article about this month's rules changes; mostly these are just cleaning up the documents and clarifying rules questions. He also explains a little bit about how the Rules Committee works, and explains why we've replaced the Current Rulings Document (CRD) with a new document. His article is highly informative and well worth reading.

We've also announced four (4) errata, one (1) card coming off the OTF Ban List, two (2) cards going onto that list, and the return of the Watch List; you can read all about these changes. The change I'm most excited about is the return of The Sheliak, now in the form of a menacing Self-Controlling dilemma. We've also added two cards, Classic Communicator and Five Year Mission, to the OTF Ban List to help address some concerns about the overall power level of decks ahead of this year's first Trek Masters Series event.

Tournament Reports

Unfortunately, we didn't have any tournaments to cover in this section over the past week. We did get a post about some games played between friends, who battled it out in three games over the weekend. Seppel (Caretaker's Guest) provides write ups of each game, as well as his deck lists, which make for a great read. Thanks for the report!

I would like everyone to join me in giving a good degree of grief to Niall Matthew (sexecutioner), who still hasn't posted the results from his Aberdeen Anarchy events from two weeks ago. Feel free to drop him a PM and ask him to please post his results. Oh, and absolutely tell him I sent you!

Meanwhile, 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 1E in any way, shape, or form, tell us about it!

Tournament Previews

There are four (4) tournaments scheduled to begin over the next weekend, starting with the 3rd in Brian Sykes's (Armus) Return to Talos IV series. This month's event is an OTF Limited Constructed, with players limited to cards from Premiere through Rules of Acquisition. Brian calls this the "Golden Age: 1999" format; right now, six (6) players are pre-registered to battle it out. It will be interesting to see how the modern Official Tournament Format (OTF) rules affect the card pool of the past. Good luck to Brian, James Heaney (BCSWowbagger), Niall Matthew, Spectre9, Bruce Parrish (Captain Parrish), and Austin Chandler (DarkSabre). There is still time to pre-register before the tournament kicks off on Friday.

My former crew in San Diego, California, USA is getting together to christen their new venue, the Arby's-A, for an OTF Complete Constructed event this Saturday. Six (6) players are pre-registered, including casual players Graham Matuszewski (matuszeg) and Jon Callan (jCallan1) whom will be making the trip down from Los Angeles. They'll be joined by San Diego regulars Johnny Holvea (jjh), Dan Hamman (SirDan), Rogue Shindler (SirRogue), and Thomas Vineberg (Exon). This should be a great event, and here's hoping the inaugural tournament at the Arby's-A is a better experience than that of the Enterprise-A.

Upcoming Championships

APPLY FOR A REGIONAL

Brooklyn, New York Trek Masters Series Sunday, 15 March OTF Complete Constructed

Online Regional Championship Friday, 3 April OTF Complete Constructed

Glen Ellyn, Illinois Regional Championship Sunday, 5 April OTF Complete Constructed

Ypsilanti, Michigan Trek Masters Series Sunday, 25 April OTF Legacy Constructed

Across the world, in Austria, Stefan Slaby (Winner of Borg) has scheduled an OTF Complete Constructed tournament for Sunday, March 8th. Though nobody is pre-registered at the time of writing this column, I hope that Stefan gets some players out to join him for some fun.

Finally, kicking off on Monday, March 9th is another OTF Complete Constructed tournament as part of The Dojo's League of Champions. Three (3) players are pre-registered, including Mathew McCalpin (Keiimaster) who will be playing in his first tournament in the CC-era. Joining him will be Greg Dillon (Latok) and Sebastian Kirstein (Caretaker's Guest), which will make for a round-robin event. If you'd like to join in, there's still time to pre-register and sign up before the tournament starts on Monday.

Looking at upcoming championship events, the first 2020 Trek Masters Series event for First Edition is just weeks away, in Brooklyn, New York. On Sunday, March 15th, this OTF Complete Constructed event will kick off at 11 AM at Lock Yard, the new hub of Trek in NYC. Robin Honeycutt (robin1234) will be playing host, and as of right now we've got nine (9) players pre-registered. Obviously Robin is a top-tier threat, and the highest rated player we know to be attending, but Michael Van Breemen (The Ninja Scot) will also be attending and he's as skilled as they come. And happily, former First Edition leader Jason Robinette (JasonRed3) is planning on coming back to 1E after an extended absence. We'll talk more about this event next week, but the Road to Worlds 2020 begins in earnest soon!

If you have upcoming events, 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)

• I posted a Project Status Update report for March 2020. In this Project Status Update article, I announce a new project and give updates about all of the current projects that have changed since my last update in January. I'm going to try and do regular updates like this every month (or every other month) on the 1st. Let me know if there's other information you would like to see in future updates.


• The February 2020 board meeting took place last weekend. You can watch the replay of the meeting on YouTube, or read the minutes. There's also a discussion thread if you'd like to ask follow up questions about the meeting. There wasn't too much First Edition news that hasn't been covered in articles linked above.


• What are your favorite decks to play? Last week's Friday question was all about favorite decks to play. Do you have a favorite deck, even if it doesn't ever win a game? Please go share, especially if you have a link to the deck. Playing 1E isn't always about winning, and sometimes it's about trying to nuke some whales from orbit. Hop into the thread and share the decks you just love to play.


• Are there recent tournament promo series that you would like to see reprinted? On and off over the last two years, the CC has had trouble keeping the Promenade stocked with tournament promos. In recognition of this problem, we've started a poll and a discussion about which recent tournament promos should be reprinted. Go vote, because it will make a difference on which series get reprinted first.


• Looking for beginner-friendly Traditional decks? If so, then forum user SuddenKapala has you covered. He recently posted a series of Traditional Open decks with instructions on how to play them. We're getting more and more people join our community who still play Traditional - Decipher-cards only - and it's great to see resources for those players.


• Speaking of Traditional decks, we can help a new forum user make a deck. Richard Steele (Daimyoshi) has recently joined us from Calgary, Alberta, Canada and is looking to build a deck. He's sticking with the Traditional card pool, and has decided on an Earth-based solver using Office of the President. If you have any suggestions or ideas, jump into the thread and weigh-in!

First Edition March Madness

Ladies, gentlemen, and non-binary friends, welcome to the return of First Edition March Madness! Last year, you voted on sixty-three (63) matches between the most popular cards of the previous year, and Q's Tent edged out Assign Mission Specialists in the championship game. This year, to mix things up, we're putting just personnel to the test. Thanks to the hard work of Chief Programmer Chris Lobban (Maelwys), forum user Iron Prime, and forum user Se7enofMin, we have a list of the sixty-four (64) most played personnel over the past year. These personnel have been split into four (4) brackets and seeded in each from 1st to 16th. Over the next five weeks, you'll get to vote on winners and determine the 2020 First Edition March Madness Champion!

Here are the four (4) divisions of the bracket, each with eight (8) games for you to vote upon. Click on the links to open the polls - there are four (4) in total, one for each division. For fun, I've also listed a featured match for each bracket.

Bracket	#1 Seed	Link to Poll	Feature Match
Alpha Division	Dr. McCoy	Vote in the Alpha Division	Ladies Night: (5) Vash (The Next Generation) vs (12) Fiona McKenzie
Beta Division	McKay	Vote in the Beta Division	Transporter Wizards: (2) Mr. Scott vs (15) Emory Erickson
Gamma Division	Christopher Pike	Vote in the Gamma Division	22nd Century Battle: (3) Maxwell Forrest vs (14) T'Les
Delta Division	Mr. Spock	Vote in the Delta Division	The Cage Match: (8) The Keeper vs (9) Lt. Commander Giotto

To sweeten the pot, we'll be giving away five (5) random First Edition borderless promo cards - one each week - to a participant who votes in the polls. You'll need to enter your email address to win, and an email address is required - if you don't care about winning, then feel free to enter in something like "no@nope.com" instead. But if you do enter your email, you'll be entered each week into a drawing to win a gorgeous foil promo! Each poll you complete is an additional entry, so if you vote in each division this week, you'll get four (4) chances to win!

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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 March 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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