[MidnightLich]

With a week to go before I arrive in Indy for GenCon, it's time to get some discussion going about the Second Edition World Championships!

As in previous years, this event will be broken up into two segments. The Qualifier (Day 1) will take place most of the day Friday, featuring 6-8 rounds of Swiss play with the Top 16 players advancing. As of right now, a total of thirty-one (31) players are pre-registered, including three (3) previous World Champions and the defending champion, Stefan Slaby. Aside from the champions, there are a lot of names that have been in final matches in previous years on this list - an impressive field.

The Finals (Day 2) will be Saturday afternoon, and feature a Modified MacIntyre bracket. This means that the top 8 will have the opportunity to "stay in" even after losing their first round, giving a big advantage to the higher seeds. The games will be single elimination, timed games, with the winner advancing (or the higher seeded player in case of a tie.)

For fun, I've attached a poll to see which affiliations people think will be the biggest surprise - it's up to you to define what that means. Feel free to vote for up to three (3) and post your thoughts!

What do you expect players will play for the Qualifier (Day 1)? What would you be surprised to see? Are there clear favorites? Who are the "dark horse" players? What about for the finals - how do you think the Final (Day 2) decks will compare to the Qualifier (Day 1) decks? Those of you that are playing, what are you thinking about in the week leading up to the event? If you're going to be at home, what are you looking to hear about during the event?

I'm eager to read your thoughts and opinions. Start sharing!

-crp

[bosskamiura]

I voted MotW. I know alot of players have been netdecking my San Diego nemesis, Nate Wineinger's build lately so I would expect to see that. It's chalk full of meta answers. He claims it's going to be Europe's next big thing after the Romulan love affair ends.

We'll see.

TK

[Ajnaran]

He claims it's going to be Europe's next big thing after the Romulan love affair ends.

You just disproved Nate's theory in that sentence. Nate's deck is smallish. Europe's winners don't do anything small. And they tend to love Romulan.

[KillerB]

Dirty Euros can't play anything under 60 cards. The more the game has allowed absurdly large decks, via downloading, the more success Europe has had in 2E.

[bosskamiura]

Dirty Euros can't play anything under 60 cards. The more the game has allowed absurdly large decks, via downloading, the more success Europe has had in 2E.

+1.

TK

[Latok]

I voted for , I've said this to Dan after our podcast a couple times but what happened to it? Maquis decks that Tobias and Neil won with weren't recurring Stalling For Time so the Defiant is the only thing that has changed. Is one less card on top of the deck a turn really something that takes it from Tier 1 to the same level of a deck? I doubt it, especially since the decks that were better than it before (even when it won stuff) have been nerfed even more. The real problem is that only top players ever really played and now they're all using , could easily get in the Top 16 if not much higher.

Dark horses, John Corbett, I'm not trolling, did he just throw NACC to put everyone off-guard? Brian Sykes, he ruined one of my Regional predictions earlier in the year when he came out of nowhere (didn't register) and beat Neil Timmons.

Clear favourites are Neil and Slaby obviously but Mike Harrington has to be up there as well after an undefeated Day 1 at NACC.

[Honest]

Will be a Johannes (TNG) vs Tyler (Cardassians) final, with Johannes squeaking out a win.

Neil (Marquis) and Michael Van Breeman (playing some insane Bajoran/X deck) will be the semi finalists

Will Hoskins will win the Biermeister, probably with Androids

Attendance will top 40, which will be a strong result for the committee

Everyone will have a great time

Honest

[KillerB]

40 decks Day 1 (lets just say), how many have Romulus?

That's the real question. Even factoring in people who like to go against the grain, I say 15. Which is a high percentage.

[KillerB]

Btw, what's this 6-8 round nonsense again?

You can't do 6 rounds when you hand out two round byes. That's crazy ridiculous. Just give out Day 2 byes in that case.

[KillerB]

I have a bad dream where Charlie polls the crowd before Day 1 on how many rounds to play and we do 6 because Minnesota players say they want to go sightseeing in Indianapolis.

[Naetor]

I don't know about the draw deck, but I'd put my money on ACEs.

[Honest]

Btw, what's this 6-8 round nonsense again?

You can't do 6 rounds when you hand out two round byes. That's crazy ridiculous. Just give out Day 2 byes in that case.

Its the WORLD CHAMPS, with a heap of players. This should be 8 rounds

John's point about the byes is made even stronger if you run less than 8 rounds

Honest

[Winner of Borg]

Dirty Euros can't play anything under 60 cards. The more the game has allowed absurdly large decks, via downloading, the more success Europe has had in 2E.

it's not absurd as long as you can hold it in one hand!

[nickyank]

Dirty Euros can't play anything under 60 cards. The more the game has allowed absurdly large decks, via downloading, the more success Europe has had in 2E.

Oi, I think you mean Dirty Mainland Euros, some of us can't be bothered sleeving decks more than 50 cards maximum.

[nickyank]

I think there'll be around 10 Romulan decks, and 15 ACE piles.

Is that enough to play Khan..? It's particularly good against ACE/ALC opponents, but I'm not sure there would be enough opponents using those cards to make it a good meta call.