The Road to Worlds, Week 4

by James Hoskin, Director of Organized Play

22nd April 2010

This article is the fourth in 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, Week 3.

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. Contact details are at the end of this article.

Week 3 Review

Saturday 17th April		Sunday 18th April
First Edition (Standard) Philadelphia Airport Hilton 4509 Island Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19153 United States [Cancelled]	First Edition (Open) Restaurant "Peking" Brabantse Turfmarkt 78 2611 CP Delft The Netherlands [Results]	Second Edition (Standard) Philadelphia Airport Hilton 4509 Island Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19153 United States [Results]
Second Edition (Standard) Tower of Games 1400 Kempsville Rd Chesapeake, VA 23320 United States [Results]	Second Edition (Standard) Dragon's Den 5403 W. 41st Street Sioux Falls, SD 57106 United States [Results]
Second Edition (Standard) Hotel Hamm St.-Josef-Str. 32 56068 Koblenz Germany [Results]

Philadelphia Airport Hilton (First Edition): Sadly, only one player turned up for this tournament, so it didn't take place.

Restaurant "Peking": The first Regional tournament in the Netherlands for quite some time was attended by seven players, pictured right. After four rounds, Arjan Hoek (arjan242) was undefeated with his Borg deck. Alex Roos (Alex369) took second place with his Hirogen deck, and Jouke Bottema took third with his Federation deck. Other decks being played include a Klingon deck, a second Hirogen deck and two Dominion decks.

Tower of Games: A total of nine players participated in this tournament. Next Generation made a strong showing, taking four of the top five places, but it was a Borg deck that won the day. Scott Blauvelt (boldarkstorm) emerged victorious after playing Federation decks in all four rounds to win the title of Sector 001 Regional Champion. Charlie Beam (Gooch) and George Meadows (theECH) tied for second place. No deck lists have been entered yet, but the other decks played include Non-Aligned, Dominion, Deep Space 9, and Original Series.

Click for more images.

Dragon's Den: Seven players turned up for this tournament in South Dakota, where a pre-tournament vote saw the number of rounds increased from five to seven for some round robin action. Mike Harrington (Ajnaran) won five games, tied another with Kevin Jaeger (Hoss-Drone), and received a bye on the way to winning this epic tournament with his Ferengi / Deep Space 9 Dabo deck. Kevin took second place, playing Borg; and Nat Kirton (Nate Jeezy) placed third, playing Voyager. Other decks being played included two Cardassian, one Original Series and one Deep Space 9 Earth. Following the tournament, the players participated in the Quad-B Championship. Preston Holida (holida2000) claimed he "never plays pool", before winning four games in a row to defeat all comers. Kevin Jaeger (Hoss-Drone) played the game of his life and killed 93% of his Bucks to win Buck Hunter. Nate Lindgren (Methos) finished his game of bowling with 4 strikes in a row to score an impressive 182, and lots of Beer was consumed. Kevin wrote a small review of the day in the discussion thread, and posted pictures in the photo gallery.

Hotel Hamm: The first Regional tournament in Germany attracted seven players. In a tight event, only three victory points separated all seven players after the fifth and final round. Marco Puelsch (Galen) emerged victorious, playing a 35-card Klingon Sword of Kahless deck. The next four players; Kathleen Fultz (KathleenF) playing a Bajoran Integrity deck, Tyler Fultz (DJstormtrooper42) playing a Maquis personnel denial deck, Tjark Ott (tjark) playing a Past Klingon deck, and Tobias Rausmann (garetjax) playing a Maquis shenanigans deck; all finished with a record of two wins, two losses and a bye.
Special thanks to Thomas Schneider for being the first judge to get all deck lists entered after the tournament!

Philadelphia Airport Hilton (Second Edition): On Sunday, Neil Timmons (ntimmons) ran a Klingon gauntlet to win this round robin tournament. No less than four of the five decks he faced were Klingon. Having won the World Championships with them, he no doubt knew what he was up against though, and his Cardassian capture deck was undefeated. Ben Hosp (bhosp) brought out his Klingon deck to take second place behind Neil (just like at the World Championships), and John Corbett (KillerB) took third place with Deep Space 9 weenies. The highlight of the tournament had to be Neil's victory over John in a game that finished with a score of 100-100. Read Neil's tournament report for more details on how that happened.

Byes

This week, five players won a Day One Round One bye into the Continental Championships:

• Arjan Hoek (arjan242), winner at Restaurant "Peking"
• Scott Blauvelt (boldarkstorm), winner at Tower of Games
• Mike Harrington (Ajnaran), winner at Dragon's Den
• Marco Puelsch (Galen), winner at Hotel Hamm
• John Corbett (KillerB), 3rd place (bye handed down) at Philadelphia Airport Hilton

Congratulations to everyone listed, and I wish better luck to anyone who didn't make it. These bye winners have been added to the list of current bye winners for the Continental Championships and the World Championships here.

Deck Statistics

We have now had a total of 59 players at eight Second Edition Regional tournaments. Only three (5%) players have used multiple headquarters missions, and each time one of them was Ferenginar (Financial Hub). This actually outnumbers the two (3%) players that have played Ferenginar solo.

The most popular Second Edition affiliations are currently:
1.	Klingon	Used by 9 (15%) players	2 Regional wins
2.	Original Series	Used by 7 (12%) players
3.	Next Generation	Used by 6 (10%) players
4.	Borg	Used by 5 (8%) players	1 Regional win
5.	Cardassian	Used by 4 (7%) players	1 Regional win
5.	Maquis	Used by 4 (7%) players
5.	Voyager	Used by 4 (7%) players	1 Regional win

First Edition deck statistics will be included when more results have been entered.

Week 4 Preview

The complete schedule can be found in this article: Regional Championships Series 2010 Schedule. This week's "Super Saturday" features five Regional tournaments, and there is a sixth on Sunday:

Saturday 24th April		Sunday 25th April
Second Edition (Standard) The Commerce Center 2701 Emerywood Parkway Richmond, VA 23294 United States [Discuss] [Pre-register]	Second Edition (Standard) Round Table Pizza 2960 Treat Blvd Concord, CA 94518 United States [Pre-register]	Second Edition (Virtual) Conference Room Avalon Riverview building 201 50th Avenue Long Island City, NY 11109 United States [Discuss] [Pre-register]
Second Edition (Virtual) Galaxy Comics and Collectibles 1109 Henderson Highway Winnipeg, MB Canada [Discuss] [Pre-register]	Second Edition (Standard) Olivers Sickbay Kurt-Weill-Str. 41 D-06844 Dessau Germany [Discuss] [Pre-register]
Second Edition (Standard) Restaurant "Peking" Brabantse Turfmarkt 78 2611 CP Delft The Netherlands [Discuss] [Pre-register]

The Commerce Center: The 2008 Sector 001 Regional featured twelve players. While Next Generation, Starfleet and Romulan decks were popular, Ben Hosp (bhosp) was victorious playing Klingon. Last year, the 2009 Sector 001 Regional drew nine players, and the winning combination turned out to be Neil Timmons (ntimmons) playing Klingon. With Neil and Ben already having byes, will they stay away and let someone else win this year? Even if they do take part, those all important byes will be passed down should they win.

Round Table Pizza: This is the first Continuing Committee-sanctioned Regional tournament in Northern California. This playgroup only started holding tournaments in December last year, but a decent turnout looks assured with five players already pre-registered. Rich Joakimson (Outsider) has a 100% winning record so far. Can anyone stop him from taking the title of Risa Regional Champion?

Galaxy Comics and Collectibles: This is the first Continuing Committee-sanctioned Regional tournament in Canada. Of the four players pre-registered for this Virtual format tournament so far, Keith Morris (Foreman) has a 70% winning record in constructed events. Matthew Hayes (karonofborg13) is currently ranked 50 places above Keith, however. Will one of these two players take the title, or will an underdog surprise us? Only time will tell.

Olivers Sickbay: In a day of firsts, this is another new Regional tournament location. This time it is the turn of Dessau, Germany. There are only three players pre-registered so far, but two of those have lots of experience to their names, and should ensure a tough challenge for anyone trying to beat them.

Restaurant "Peking": Delft, The Netherlands plays host to yet another new Second Edition Regional tournament location! The three local players pre-registered are currently outnumbered by the four players pre-registered from Germany. All four played at Hotel Hamm in Koblenz last weekend, but each suffered at least two losses. Will traveling 175 miles (280 kilometers) to this tournament have an effect on their game? We'll find out on Saturday.
Please note that there are a maximum of 20 places available at this tournament. Pre-registered players will have priority entrance over players that have not pre-registered.

Conference Room / Avalon Riverview building: The second Virtual format Regional tournament of the weekend is being held in New York City. So far, only one player has pre-registered, but don't let that discourage you from attending. Previous tournaments in the city have been held in a location less than two miles (three kilometers) away, and usually attract five or six players. It is interesting to note that there are only two Second Edition Virtual format Regional tournaments scheduled this year, and they are both being held on the same weekend. Who will come up with the best Virtual format deck? Or, will the same deck win both events?

Next Week

A review of the results from week four, more statistics, and a preview of week five's events. Following two weeks with six tournaments each, things ease up for a week with only three tournaments taking place on May 1st.

Have an opinion about this article? Post it here, or contact the author!

-djl-

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