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By Armus (Brian Sykes)
 - The Center of the Galaxy
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#582452
So apparently nobody is running pickem contests anymore, which is a bummer. I always liked Lucas's Road To Worlds pickem contests.

We missed NACC, but some fun is better than no fun, so we're going to make Kaiserfest more interesting for everyone not attending (and those who ARE attending if they choose to participate)

The game is simple: Pick the winner, and pick the person who you think will have the biggest gain in ratings points.

Here's who's currently registered:

Johannes Klarhauser 1934
Peter Ludwig 1927
Julius Melhardt 1749
Sebastian Kirstein 1669
Andreas Rheinländer 1615
Martin Hirschvogel 1570
Gerald Sieber 1564
Manuel Rupprecht 1491
Florian 1479
Jorn Engstrom 1446
Markus Eberlein 1413
Rafael Palenta 1316

My "Expert" Take:

Winner: I may be a bit biased, but the fact that a monkey like me could go 12(+300) against QUALITY competition with a Kaiser deck makes me think that Johannes can go next level with it. I'm calling for the Kaiser to defend his home turf this weekend and walk away as your 2022 European Champion

Ratings Gain: This field is top heavy, but there's some ratings arbitrage opportunities to be had. Julius and Seppel are top tier players, but are well shy of Peter and Johannes, and so present more ratings upside. Either would be a good play here, but I'm going with Seppel. His sub-1700 rating combined with his high quality of play strikes me as the optimal choice. And while it's hard to quantify, I'm sure his anger over the errata will drive him to show up and show out!

Dark Horse: Watch out for Andreas Rheinlander! He's been out of the game for awhile but this is a former World Champion we're talking about here! If he can shake off the rust, he's a plausible candidate to hit the double header of winning AND getting the biggest ratings gain. Dismiss him at your own peril!

Fade pick: Nobody can claim that Peter Ludwig is a bad player, but he seems to do most of his winning at World Championships. This isn't one of those, and I've been burned by non-Worlds Ludwig in these contests before. Combine that with his already-astronomical rating and there just isn't a ton of upside in that category.

So there it is... get your picks in before things kick off! Good Luck! :cheersL:
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By Armus (Brian Sykes)
 - The Center of the Galaxy
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#583074
Armus wrote: Tue Aug 02, 2022 12:42 pm Fade pick: Nobody can claim that Peter Ludwig is a bad player, but he seems to do most of his winning at World Championships. This isn't one of those, and I've been burned by non-Worlds Ludwig in these contests before. Combine that with his already-astronomical rating and there just isn't a ton of upside in that category.
Well this certainly aged well.... :P

Big Congrats to Peter Ludwig for not only winning, but going 16(+400) to completely dominate the European Continental Championship, winning all of his games on his first turn! :shock:

Also congrats to @KazonPADD @pfti @jadziadax8 and @Hoss-Drone for correctly picking Peter to win.

I'll update for the ratings gain after the Germans have sobered up and posted the rest of the results. :P :cheersL:
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By sexecutioner (Niall Matthew)
 - Gamma Quadrant
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1E World Runner-Up 2023
1E European Continental Semi-Finalist 2023
1E British National Second Runner-Up 2023
#583078
Congratulations to my boy Ludvig for bringing such a filthy, creative, crazy deck to Kaiserfest! :cheersL:
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By Armus (Brian Sykes)
 - The Center of the Galaxy
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Community Contributor
#583083
With a 3-1 day that only saw a loss to Johannes @Kaiser , and a Full Win over @Clerasil ToB Julius in the last round, your big rating gainer today is Florian!!

Congrats to Florian on a great performance!

Unfortunately nobody gets a point for picking Florian to gain the most rating points, leaving us a 4 way tie for the lead.

Meanwhile...
Seppel: -99 (1570)
And that's why they pay me the big bucks around here for my "expert" picks and takes, folks! I really went next level bad on this one! :P

Tune in next week for the 2e Europeans and see if anyone can call the 2e side!
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First Edition Rules Master
By BCSWowbagger (James Heaney)
 - First Edition Rules Master
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Community Contributor
#583084
What in the world did Peter do? I don't see a tournament report up yet so am currently in the dark.
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North American OP Coordinator
By The Ninja Scot (Michael Van Breemen)
 - North American OP Coordinator
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1E World Quarter-Finalist 2023
2E World Champion 2023
Tribbles World Champion 2022
The Traveler
1E North American Continental Champion 2023
2E North American Continental Champion 2023
  Trek Masters 1E Champion 2024
1E American National Champion 2023
1E Canadian National Champion 2023
2E Canadian National Champion 2023
2E  National Runner-Up 2023
2E American National Second Runner-Up 2023
1E The Neutral Zone Regional Champion 2023
2E The Neutral Zone Regional Champion 2023
#583085
BCSWowbagger wrote: Sat Aug 13, 2022 9:45 pm What in the world did Peter do? I don't see a tournament report up yet so am currently in the dark.
Quick version - STP drop 52 people, solve missions, win.

Long version - That'll probably appear tomorrow. You can watch the final at -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjSoQzZHarw (around the 5 hour, 20 minute mark, give or take.)

Michael
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By Armus (Brian Sykes)
 - The Center of the Galaxy
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Regent
Community Contributor
#583086
BCSWowbagger wrote: Sat Aug 13, 2022 9:45 pm What in the world did Peter do? I don't see a tournament report up yet so am currently in the dark.
You know your Worlds deck? And how after you pulled your trick you had dozens of personnel in play and multiple ships to just overrun everything?

That, only he didn't need to trap his opponent, and he did it on TURN ONE!
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