Lasombra's Remembrances of DragonCon 2000
I will start of with saying a great Thanks to L. Scott Johnson and
Joe Churchill for running the tournaments this year. Without their
self-less devotion to this great game we would have been without a
great weekend.
Apologies here for any and all name mis-spellings.
Their were 3 tournaments, Thursday's was Constructed Deck, Friday's was
Jyhad Booster Draft, and Saturday's was Sabbat Rochester Draft.
On Thursday, the Austin contingent flew in at the last minute, our flight
was delayed an hour in Houston, and we almost missed the start of the
tournament. We arrived at the hotel at 6:00 straight up, called Todd
Bannister on his cell phone, ran with him thru convention registration,
and then ran down to the game.
There were 36 players in the constructed tournament, noticably missing the
Los Angeles players, and Sorrow, all of whom had requested a re-scheduling
of the constructed event to make their attendance possible. We did have
people from Quebec City, Austin, Las Vegas, Seattle, Lafayette Louisiana,
North & South Carolina, Georgia, and New Jersey so far as I know.
We played at 9 tables of 4 players each, with Steve Wieck playing in the
first round, and someone else taking his place for the next two. I played
my Lasombra Voting deck, and took victory points every round, making it
into the finals. The Austin contingent took 11 victory points in the first
round, so we started strong, but I was the only one to make it to the finals
on Thursday.
The finals consisted of Steve Coombs (Charlotte NC - Marijava Ghoul
Misdirection Bleed), David Tatu (Atlanta GA - animalism dominate),
Jeffrey Thompson (Austin TX - Lasombra Voting), Mike Perlman (Atlanta
GA - weenie presence bleed), and Jason Dawson (VEKN Prince of Seattle
WA - weenie presence bleed).
Mike and Jason contested vampires throughout the game, and unfortunately,
I was not quick enough to oust them both, Mike was able to oust Jason before
I got him. Steve was able to oust David without many trips to torpor, and
then it came down to the two of us, and he was able to oust me.
Steve Coombs 1st place 3 vp in final
Mike Perlman 2nd place 1 vp in final
Jeffrey Thompson 3rd place 1 vp in final
Jason Dawson 4th place 0 vp in final
David Tatu 5th place 0 vp in final
On Friday, we had 25 players in the Jyhad Booster Draft event, 5 tables of
5 players each. Everyone enjoyed the booster draft format, and that portion
went fairly quickly as we didn't start for almost 30 minutes waiting for
people who were expected, and because we wanted even tables if at all possible.
Unfortunately, after the drafting I went upstairs and had a hotdog which
was handled with the same tongs they were using to put Cheese on the
hamburgers. I played the first round poorly, and went to the White Wolf
merchandise booth, found that they were giving away promotional copies of
Lucita, took one, ran back to the hotel the gaming was happening in, ran
back with 4 people to get them copies of Lucita, then ran back to attend
the second round. All that running had caused me to sweat, and that
provoked an allergic reaction to the Cheese that had touched my food.
I ended up flat on my back for the next three hours and can't really report
much about the rest of the Jyhad Draft tournament beyond the following:
Ethan Burrow (VEKN Prince of Austin) and Greg Faulkner (Austin Gangrel
Newsletter Editor) both made it to the finals so Austin was again represented
in the finals. Greg ended up sitting as Ethan's predator, so Ethan didn't do
too well. Remy Auclair VEKN Prince of Quebec City, Quebec Canada did an
excellent job of making up for no victory points on Thursday with a
resounding win in the finals.
On Saturday, we had 40 players in the Sabbat Rochester Draft event, 8 tables
of 5 players each. We had 4-5 people drop out over the course of this event,
causing L. Scott no end of trouble in having to rearrange tables again and
again to prevent Predator-Prey relationships from reoccuring. Evidently,
the temptation to pay $10 for boosters of Sabbat and to pick the best cards
from 20 boosters and leave, was to great to keep people committed to playing.
Everyone had a great time at my table doing the draft, as people saw cards
they didn't have, wanted to have, wanted to deny others, and it was simply
enjoyable. I drafted very well, as no one else noticed exactly how much
presence I had managed to pick up. I drafted 8 Social Charm, 4 Media
Influence, 2 Pulse of the Canaille, and 2 Computer Hackings (which I didn't
end up using). Pool management is key in draft, so I also took 1 Blood Doll,
2 Short Term Investments, 4 Hunting Grounds (only 1 of which I could use),
and an Art Scam. For vampires, I was able to draft Jost, 3x Lachlan Noddist,
Matteus Flesh Sculptor, Lambach, Donatien, Victor Revell, Dodd, Sarah Brando,
Frederick the Weak, Angela Decker and 7 other vampires I didn't use. It ended
up being a very strong deck. I took 1 victory point against the people who
knew what I was drafting, 3 victory points in the second round, and 4 victory
points in the fourth round.
Throughout both draft touraments, contesting vampires and locations were
frequent happenings. Contestation pretty much decided the third round in
my favor as my prey, his prey, and my grand predator all contested at one
point or another, and when my grand predator became my prey, I was able to
contest Dodd with him and win the contest. In the final round, contesting
the Amusement Park Hunting Ground allowed me to determine who would take the
last two victory points on the table, and so ensure my victory.
At the finals we had two Austinites again, Ethan Burrow and myself. We also
had Matt Heslin (now moved to Pennsylvania, formerly of Charlotte & Dallas),
James Moe (Seattle, WA), and Conor Key (VEKN prince of Raleigh NC).
Ethan was once again prey to another Austin player in a final round, and he
was not able to take Matt out before being ousted. I ousted Ethan and Matt,
then Jost got sent to torpor by a Black Spiral Buddy controlled by James.
Jost got diablerized by one of Conor's many minions, and Sarah Brando wasn't
far behind. Eventually, all of us were down within ousting distance. I knew
that if Conor was able to take me too quickly, he would oust James as well and
win. I also knew that if James took Conor out and I was out of the game, I
would win. I stood up to Conor as long as I could, but I stopped taking actions
against James, and eventually ousted myself. After a long drawn out process
with many of Conor's minions visting torpor, James was able to oust him due
to his Blood Doll - Amusement Park Hunting Ground combo. James was more easily
able to gain pool every turn, just through that, and it was able to offset
the majority of what Conor was able to do.
Jeffrey Thompson 1st place 2 vp in final
(8 going in, 168 tournament points)
James Moe 2nd place 2 vp in final
(8 going in, 150 tournament points)
Conor Key 3rd place 1 vp in final
Matt Heslin 4th place 0 vp in final
Ethan Burrow 5th place 0 vp in final
In general, a great time was had by all, with few problems erupting from
misunderstandings of rules, all of which I believe were ably resolved by
L. Scott Johnson and Joe Churchill when appropriate.
These remembrances are by no means exhaustive, and others that attended are
invited to add to the information above.
I hope you all have an opportunity to participate in an event of this magnitude
sometime in the near future. Remember that Origins has 5 VTES tournaments from
July 13th - July 16th in Colombus Ohio (http://www.wizards.com/origins/) and
Gencon has 5 VTES tournaments including the US National Championships
(Saturday August 12, 2000 12:00pm - 8:00pm) from August 10th - August 13th
in Milwaukee Wisconsin (http://www.wizards.com/gencon/).
Carpe Noctem.
Lasombra
http://www.TheLasombra.com