tx-state-championship-director-s-report
Title: tx-state-championship-director-s-report
Author: Brian "Red 81" Guthrie
Date: May 8, 2000
I am pleased to report that Martin Boehm of Houston is the 2000 Texas State Champion for SW:CCG. Martin was the only undefeated player of the 63 that converged on the Austin Sci-Fi Expo on Saturday, May 6th. Matt Lush of Killeen came in 2nd with a record of 5-1. Matt's only loss was to Martin in Game 4. Congrats to Martin and Matt for a job well done. For those of you wondering about a final confrontation, we were unable to have one due to unexpected time constraints at the Expo. I know there is some controversy and bitterness about this, but the fact of the matter is that there was one player undefeated after 6 games. A final confrontation may have changed the outcome, but I think 6-0 in a tournament this size speaks for itself. Furthermore, a final confrontation is completely optional for states since the top 2 players advance to Continentals. I wish we could have had a final confrontation too, but it simply wasn't a possibility. 'Nuff said. Moving on to the team competition, Venerable Team Houston beat out 13 others for the team crown. Kudos to Eric Berger, Joe Horbey, Ross Lillie, and Ty Turner who lead VTH to victory by virtue of three top 10 finishes.
Before continuing I would also like to thank everyone who helped me through one of the most exciting and stressful tournaments of my life. In particular, I want to thank Chris Gregg (Rogue 36), Charyl Perry (Red 60), Mike Patterson (Red 94), Jeff Weitkamp (Gold 40), my wife Melissa (honorary member of Red Squad), Chris' wife Christa (honorary member of Rogue squad) and everyone else who pitched in during the long day. I would also like to thank the players, who traveled from all over the state to converge on Austin and put their decks to the test.
Now on to the analysis!!
DECK VS. DECK COMPARISONS
Before I provide all the results and game statistics, I thought it would be interesting to take a closer look at the decks of the top 8 players and how they fared over the course of the day. All 8 players were either 6-0 or 5-1, suggesting that their decks certainly deserve closer attention.
DARK SIDE (20-4)
On the DS, 3 of the top finishers played HDADTJ with no dueling, and 3 played with Raltiir Operations (2 typical, 1 using sleens). Vile Gangster Skrilling Odds and ISB Space were the other two decks selected. HDADTJ went undefeated in the hands of the experts, while all the other deck themes suffered 1 loss each. Here is a detailed look at what the decks beat, and what beat them:
HDADTJ No Dueling/Drain (x3)
RECORD: 9-0
Beat Yavin IV Force Choke (x4), Yavin IV Odds, Tatooine Celebration, Tosche Station mains, and HB X-Wing Swarm
Raltiir Ops (x3)
RECORD: 7-2
Beat Profit (x3), Yavin IV Force Choke, Yavin Odds, HB X-Wing Swarm. CC Lift Tubes, and Tosche Station. Both losses came against a Yavin IV force choker
Vile Gangster Skrilling Odds
RECORD: 2-1
Beat MWYHL Test to 5 (x2), but lost to Tatooine Celebration
ISB Space/Undercover
RECORD: 2-1
Beat Yavin IV Force Choke and X-Wing Swarm, but lost to Tosche Station
I found it particularly interesting that the Raltiir Ops decks were the only ones to face Profit, and the Skrilling deck faced Test to 5 decks twice! (I think there were only 3-4 such decks in the entire tournament!)
LIGHT SIDE (21-3)
On the LS, 4 of the top finishers played a Yavin IV force choker with no revos but lots of SAC. Two others used Careful Planning to get a force jump on Tatooine, and the other 2 tried Dagobah X-Wings and Alderaanian Speeder Ops respectively. Speeder Ops and Tosche Station went undefeated, and all the other deck themes lost once. Here is a closer look:
LS Yavin IV Force Choke (no revo) (x4)
RECORD: 11-1
Beat HDADTJ No Dueling (x4), Mains and Toys Defensive Perimeter start (x3), This Deal is Getting Worse, Tight-arse ISB, Coruscant Clouds, and Raltiir Operations. Only lost once to HDADTJ.
LS Speeder Ops
RECORD: 3-0
Beat HDADTJ (x2) and Big Blue Space
LS Tosche Station Mains/SAC
RECORD: 3-0
Beat Raltiir Ops, Court of the Vile Gangster with Sarlacc, and HDADTJ
LS Dagobah X-Wings
RECORD: 2-1
Beat HDADTJ and Big Blue Space, but also lost to HDADTJ
LS Tatooine Celebration (mains, careful planning start)
RECORD: 2-1
Beat Endor Operations (space drain, no flip), and Skrilling Odds, but lost to HDADTJ
The common key to virtually all of these LS decks is achieving an early force jump over the DS and pressing the advantage with lots of mains and toys. For space, the super falcon with Capt. Han and EPP Leia was the ship of choice. A few people used Lando in Falcon or the Leaders with Tantive IV and Spiral, but the vast majority preferred to have the Super Falcon patrolling the skies.
OVERALL
The top 8 players went 21-3 with their LS decks and 20-4 with their DS decks. There is no question that many of these players could have won the same amount of games using completely different decks; however, it is clear that LS Force Jump (Yavin IV or Tatooine) and DS HDADTJ/Raltiir Ops are the dominant deck types in the current Texas tournament scene.
OTHER GAME OBSERVATIONS
With so many games going on simultaneously, it was difficult to spend much time with individual games; however, there were a few classic moments that deserve special mention:
Shannon Baksa was SO COOL! She personalized cards for the State Champion and runner-up, and during Game 4, came over to all the tables and signed cards for players who did not have time to stand in line. Jeremy Bulloch also came over to say hello. Having the celebrities there really made the tournament special.
One of the JT#5 decks completed the 5th test with a 7, dropped an EPP Hit Squad down against Vader, Tarkin, and Iggy, hit all 3 with blasters/lightsabers, and 'drew' 28 for destiny. Game over.
A clever CPI deck managed to blow away Dagobah. Yoda and apprentice Luke managed to evacuate the planet just in time, and the LS still managed to pull out the win (despite very little force generation after the explosion!)
In a key Game 3 matchup between two undefeateds, a Yavin IV force choker was unable to deploy any Nudjs on the first turn because BOTH of them were in his force pile. As a result, the DS managed to deploy Vader to the farm on the first turn. The game ended fairly quickly after that.
I'm sure there were other cool game moments, but sadly I was unable to observe them all.
FINAL RESULTS AND STATISTICS
If you've made it this far, you're almost done!!! Here are the final game statistics, as well as individual and team results:
Total Games: 183
True Ties: 1 (first time I've ever seen a true tie!)
DS Wins: 98 (54%)
LS Wins: 84 (46%)
Games called on time: 7
Individual Standings:
1. Martin Boehm 12 (+130) - Houston
2. Matt Lush 10 (+98) - Killeen (only loss to Martin)
3. John Sneed 10 (+90) - Fort Worth (only loss to Matt)
4. Ira Babb 10 (+69) - Bryan
5. Micah White 10 (+69) - Bryan (only loss to Martin)
6. Eric Berger 10 (+52) - Houston
7. Joe Horbey 9 (+65) - Bacliff (only loss to Matt)
8. Michael Sneed 9 (+57) - Fort Worth (only loss to Joe)
(Congratulations again to Martin on a fine tournament. He not only went undefeated, but took out 2 of the top 8 in the process!. Matt also deserves kudos for taking out 2 of the top 8. WELL DONE!!)
9. Ross Lillie 8 (+88)
10. Jesse Smith 8 (+67)
11. Rich Glass@#$% 8 (+61)
12. Justin Warren 8 (+49)
13. Sean Scheiler 8 (+46)
14. Ty Turner 8 (+45)
15. Norman Hall 8 (+42)
16. Jacob Mayer 8 (+35)
17. Leland Simmons 8 (+24)
18. Ted Woodward 7 (+69)
19. David Pieper 7 (+23)
20. Kevin Martilla 7 (+7)
21. Sam Pavlak 6 (+43)
22. Chris Fudge 6 (+40)
23. Michael Fudge 6 (+31)
24. Nathan Schutz 6 (+26)
25. Keya Saleh 6 (+25)
26. Ricardo Martinez 6 (+25)
27. John Bowles 6 (+16)
28. Don Ewalt 6 (+11)
29. Russell Carmon 6 (+9)
30. Jason Green 6 (+8)
31. Todd Benard 6 (+3)
32. Daniel White 6 (+3)
33. Eric Clegg 6 (+0)
34. Daniel Stephens 6 (-3)
35. Joe Hurley 6 (-8)
36. Ryan Lillie 6 (-9)
37. Patrick Chick 6 (-11)
38. Greg Tuck 6 (-13)
39. Jason Haritos 6 (-18)
40. David Stephens Jr. 6 (-29)
41. Jerrod Smith 6 (-39)
42. Joseph Amaya 5 (+42)
43. Todd Slater 5 (-19)
44. Craig Ostriyznick 4 (-7)
45. James Harris 4 (-9)
46. William Zobac 4 (-25)
47. Michael Richards 4 (-28)
48. Jim Sharp 4 (-31)
49. Brendan Scheiler 4 (-33)
50. Jared Morris 4 (-49)
51. David Stephens Sr. 4 (-60)
52. Burt Yaroch 4 (-95)
53. Nick Fehring 4 (-100)
54. Michael Smith 4 (-112)
55. James Maloy 3 (-82)
56. Chad Rushing 2 (-65)
57. Nathan Friedman 2 (-75)
58. Isaac Smith 2 (-92)
59. Chris Matta 2 (-100)
60. Brad Bourque 2 (-110)
61. Joseph Jenkins 2 (-115)
62. Matthew Wied 0 (-34) (only played 2 games)
63. Andrew Ortiz 0 (-97) (only played 3 games)
Team Results
1. Venerable Team Houston - 22 pts (6th, 7th, 9th)
2. Texas Jedi - 28 pts (1st, 10th, 17th)
3. FTB - 32 pts (4th, 5th, 23rd)
T4. Team Killeen - 35 pts (2nd, 12th, 21st)
T4. Simple Sith - 35 pts (3rd, 8th, 24th)
Other Teams:
Team San Antonio - 48 pts
Team Tusken - 57 pts
The Exterminators - 84 pts
Team Lubbock - 99 pts
Team Galaxy - 105 pts
Team Sandcrawler - 119 pts
Strangely Shaped Objects - 125 pts
Snufalafogus - 139 pts
That's all I've got. If you made it this far, thanks for reading!
Regards,
Brian, Red 81
Brimel@aol.com