coruscant-operative-reporting
Title: coruscant-operative-reporting
Author: Chris "Jank" Jank
Date: Oct 13, 2000
DecipherCon 2000
PRE-FLORIDA
I goto the tournament the previous Saturday looking not to play but to figure out what to play. Two or 3 nights before Reid Smith (Voice of Law on Decktech) and I try and figure out what to play. The first thing I do before making a deck is figure out what I expect to play against. At deciphercon I expected to see the following from the top tables:
Darkside: Bring him before me, Huntdown, TIEs, ROPS, or Court.
Lightside: EBO, Hidden base, Speeders.
So I put together this sweet deck based off of Alex Tennat’s (who is a very cool guy in person I find out later) Bring him before me/Myoom manip deck which went 3-1 at deciphercon losing to an Elom deck.
For the lightside, I throw together this big pile of Xwing swarm mess that has Luke, TK, and Boushh as it’s only characters with 13 xwings, AFAs, and Power pivot/Rapid fire combo (Joz tech).
I also have a version of Geoff Snider’s court deck which I can’t seem to play cause I’ve never played a court deck before since about 2 weeks ago.
And finally I have a my standard 4 luke 4 ben profit deck which I wasn’t planning on playing cause it loses to court and dueling huntdown.
So I leave Rochester, NY at 6am and arrive in Orlando around noon on Tuesday. I arrive on Tuesday cause I am scheduled to help set up on Tuesday and Wednesday and possibly run the registration booth on Thursday.
FLORIDA
Arriving in Orlando, I can say the following about the city:
1) The Airport is pretty cool if you haven’t flown into it before. There’s a cool shuttle from the terminal to your baggage claim.
2) There is like 1000 hotels in Orlando.
3) Disney World is like 1000000 times bigger since I saw it last in 1988 or so.
4) Orlando is too hot for me.
5) There are more hot chicks in Florida then Rochester, NY.
I take a cab which costs 45 bucks to the hotel since shuttle wasn’t available that early in the week. Ow.
The hotel sucked because:
1) It wasn’t near any nightclubs
2) A cold personal pan pizza with drink costs around 6 bucks.
3) The only restaurant near it within walking distance was the IHOP, McDonalds, and Denny’s. All of which aren’t high on my list.
4) The layout of the hotel sucked so that if you wanted to get food you had to walk a mile away from the convention.
So I check in and find my room which is pretty nice inside and the AC is pumpin but I turn it up to the setting "It’s too cold for speeders" and go downstairs to the convention. I start helping out with Yuri (prolly spelled wrong) who is a YJ finalist and overall a cool and quiet kind of guy compared to me.
We end up doing alot of work which should have been done before Decipher even got to Orlando like putting all the metal tabs on ALL the badges and putting together the volunteer, setting up the product room and finalist "care" packages.
However I do get to have some fun that day practicing card throwing which I have never even tried before. After the day is over, I can throw cards like a champ, NOT. Johnathan Queesenberry and Kyle Hueler are easily the best at throwing cards but they don’t even compare to who I later meet, Greg Keefer.
Eventually we finish and are treated to going to Juz’s favorite restaurant, The Outback steakhouse which consists of some great conversation and some funny stuff watching some of the decipher people drink these shots that smell like cough syrup. Of course, Mark Tuttle starts on me about wearing a college ring saying that I’ll never get chicks with that on and I immediately take it off which gets a chuckle from the table. The "Tuttle tech" for getting women didn’t work on me though cause I still didn’t get laid throughout the weekend. I raz Tuttle alittle about the listserv and some of the people like Joz, Mike Dalton, etc. and he puts his defenses up strong defending himself in his radio personality we all know and love. He later tells me of his plans for the listserv which I am not obliged to tell you all cause I promised I wouldn’t.
So anyway, we go back to the hotel and I try and see if I can find Mike Jozem. I ask some people in the hallway who look like SW players and they say he’s in the bar. Mike appears and he’s friggen tall and goofy looking, kinda like Juz. We split the cost of the room and playtest that night.
I pull out my bring him before me deck and crush his first deck. He makes a toshi station deck and does one of those one battle 200 destiny win decks.
He says my darkside deck is "cute" whatever that is supposed to mean.
My lightside deck beats his Rops deck easily so I figure my decks are pretty good or Joz is a bad player. Turns out the latter is true.
I turn on the TV while playing and listen to a James Bond movie in the background while playing SW:CCG and Joz can’t comprehend why I would want to just listen to the movie. He @#$%es about other stuff like "Why don’t Americans have colored money?" or "Why don’t Americans have coin dollars?". I explain to the aussie that no one likes carrying around coins in their pocket but he still doesn’t seem to understand. I ask him questions like, "Why is the womens indoor volleyball team the only team that wears bikinis?" and "What the hell is up with that song ’Walzing Matilda’ or whatever the heck it’s called?" (They played the song in the closing ceremonies).
So we goto sleep and get up and he decides to goto Universal studios with the guys from the UK while I go back to work. I work till lunch some more and then go to grab some lunch. On the way, I see TJ Holeman and Prasnatch sitting down playing. We talk alittle bit about what’s going on in Coruscant and who’s coming to Dcon and how we need to go get some t i t s at the local nude bars. With that said, I play him in a couple games.
I pull out my Hidden base Xwing deck and he pulls out ROPs. I beat him and I’m feeling pretty amazed cause I suck so bad and I just beat the infamous TJ Holeman. So I play him with my Bring him before me deck and he plays EBO and spanks me. Him and I both tell myself that I suck really bad and it was just luck that I beat him.
I go back to volunteering for decipher and then finally find Mike Girard who’s impatiently looking around for Greg Heisler who is letting us stay in his room. Eventually he arrives and we go up to the room. We go back downstairs and eventually see Gabe Alonso who is also staying with us. It seems there’s a lot of rain in Miami where Gabe is from and he tells us about driving literally driving through a 4 foot deep puddle of water to get to Dcon. I at first don’t believe him but later see that his car is all wet inside and smells like raw sewage. I can’t help but laugh.
Eventually we see Geoff (Pronounced Jeff but I call him GEE OFF to piss him off) Snider and Eric Olson (pronounced OOoooooooooooooollllson) and we decide to get some food along with Girard and Heisler.
We end up at the Sizzler partly because it’s close and partly because some of us have never been there before and have heard alot about it. Turns out it is like Ponderosa and the food makes you sick as I found out that night. Don’t go there. It is terrible.
I go back into the lobby of the hotel and sit down to play against TJ Holeman with my Geoff Snider Court Deck (modified jank style). TJ plays his EBO deck and Snider, Olson, Heisler, and others stand behind me yelling at me for playing like a dufus and telling me how to play a bounty hunter deck. I can’t bounty hunt worth sh*t but I am getting better or at least I think I am.
We go back to the hotel room, I feel sick cause I have a splitting headache and Snider, Olson, Heisler, and Girard are all testing decks and talking. I try and sleep but feel like crap and don’t get to sleep till around 3am. Waking up the next mourning, Gabe heads out of the room early cause he still needs to finish his decks off. I have my card lists done and I head down around 9:30 to register. I go downstairs to find a registration line the size of GenCon’s registration line and I think to myself "I told you so" cause I told a decipheren that 2 computers would not be enough to register everyone in a quick and orderly fashion. Heh, I guess I’m just a scrub though so they don’t listen to me. Anyways, I bypass the entire line, go behind the counter and print my own registration badge up, which saved me about 2 hours. So I head into the game center and start meeting old friends like Johnny Chu, Gary Carmen, Jim Li, Scott Lingrell, Yannic, Doug Taylor, John Dunn, Steve Brensten, the albany crew (twigs, sokols, wright), the nashville crew (hayes turner lewis) , the ghetto crew (ray brodie), some friends I’ve never talked to in person but online like, Joe Helfrich, Rapheal Assalsin, Martaan Loogee, I-Ming Chen, Mike Peterson, Greg Anderson, Doug Faust, George Gundry, Charlie Herran, and Jeremy Lemure (I probly forgot some of you but I’m sure I’ll remember later and shoot myself). Plus I met some new friends like Alex Tennant, Greg Keefer, Martin Akassin, Dominic Gauralt, and John Hawkins. (I don’t have time to look up all your names and learn how to spell them correctly so don’t kill me.)
So I’m inside the big tourney room and I’m walkin around waiting for the tournament to start but it never does. I walk around some more and practice my card throwing and Mike Girard tells me to go watch Greg Keefer throw a card. So I walk up to him and give him a card and he throws it like 40 ft like a ninja star. I almost s h i t my pants. I give him another card and he throws it so high that it lands in the chandelier, I s h i t myself. This guy is amazing.
An hour goes by and I try and go find out what’s up and the tournament directors try and shoo me away but I don’t give up and find that Juz’s computer has not been cloned onto a ibook yet. So Juz is pulling his hair out cause he spent like a couple months on developing tournament software using Filemaker Pro. The software is supposively pretty good but not user friendly so he won’t be releasing it to the public, but I could probly hook you up with it. So we wait for literally 3 hours to start the tournament.
TOURNAMENT
Ok, here’s the deal with the tournament, it was a relatively boring tournament for me cause I was playing NOONE I know with the exception of Jim Li. I went 4-4, lightside went 1-3. My excuses for losing are that I’m a bad player now since I started playing other cardgames like Doomtown, Magic, Shadowfist etc. and I had a bad lightside deck. I have truely degraded to a scrub and therefore I think as a service to you I will skip the general boring tournament summary because noone wants to hear about scrub games. I really have blocked the tournament portion out of my mind too cause I just didn’t have fun playing as much as watching my friends play and hanging out and around the hotel.
Tuttle asked me, are you happy you played in Day 1 and would you do it again knowing you’d go 4-4? Well I was happy I played in Day 1 cause I think I’m happy that I now know how much I stink and I know how much work I have ahead of me if I choose to become a tournament player again. Would I play in day 1 though if I knew I would go 4-4? Of course not.
I would like to say Jim Li is one of the coolest players to play against and would make a great world champion. He is a great player and a great sport.
POST TOURNAMENT
So I scrub out, the tourney ends around 2am like I expected cause decipher isn’t prepared again. I’m pretty relaxed now since now my weekend is over and I can just play sealed deck tournaments.
So it is pretty late and I goto Dennys with Ray Brodie, TJ Holeman, Arthur Rhodes and his wife. TJ starts talking about Mexicans that live around him and we all die of laughter. Ray tries to act like a little kid and all "ghetto" by trying to make fun of me to get a laugh but it doesn’t work and he just looks like an a s s. TJ and I both agree that Arthur’s wife has one of the best personalities and he wishes his woman was that cool. So we head back and TJ decides to nock on someone’s motel door and run, we all take off like crazy fools back to the hotel. All in all, a fun night.
Wake up the next day and the same old same old happens, I walk around, meet some new people, talk to some friends, relax, play a couple games, play a sealed deck tournaments, go eat, sleep.
Here’s my list of people you should find and talk to if you get the chance to at a tournament:
Steve Brensten: Very professional, very calculating, very good and very cool person. Smart move not bringing your girlfriend downstairs Steve, she would have jumped on me.
Johnny Chu: Fun player to play against, tried to get him to sign my Japanesse Takeel but refused. Was upset that he is not the top Asian player anymore. He would have been in the top 12 had he counted his deck right. =(
Jim Li: Gets the sportsmanship award from me, I was having so much fun playing him I forgot how to beat him.
Mike Josem: I was pretty disappointed how he pussied out on me and refused to let me introduce him to Mark Tuttle. Australians, sheesh.
Scott Lingrell: Great guy, ask him about Ramapo. I’m the one who did in the video on Decipher.com. hehehe
Doug Taylor: This man is the greatest squadren member around, the things he tells me he does for his tournaments makes me wanna move from Rochester. He is so cool and gets my most valuable squadren member award. Way to go Doug.
James Lafferty: Funny guy, almost goofier then me. Check out that video of him on Decipher.con, hilarious stuff.
John Dunn: I didn’t get the chance to talk to him much this weekend but I just want to say it sucks he was disqualified from YJ. He would have had a VERY good shot at winning the whole thing.
Twigs: Loud as usual but I’m getting used to them. They are fun players and great for the game. I will definitely have to prep to beat them in November. Was disappointed to hear Martin say that he didn’t know how long they could keep going to tournaments for cause the twigs are growing up and going off to college. That’s alot junk Martin, don’t let age bring you down. SW:CCG has no age limits on it. =)
Matt Sokol: Great guy, congrats on winning, thank god we have another cool champion like Gary Carmen. See you at the con’s.
Gary Carmen: This man is the IRONMAN. He will always be the IRONMAN. Great guy and a great champion.
Steve Lewis: Cool player, starting to look like a country singer though with those wacky glasses. Was waiting for him to pull out his guitar and start singing. Just kidding, Steve is another person who I would have liked to have seen win the world championships. I was disappointed when he was disqualified.
Clint Hayes: Great player but still takes the game alittle to seriously whereas I don’t take the game serious enough. Cool guy once you get to know him. Was looking for him at Denny’s to get some brownie tech off him. Did you have time for brownie tech? If not, that’s why you lost. Don’t beat yourself up so much if you lose. We all know that if there wasn’t that extra 38 players, you would have been the number 1 seed from the USA.
Jim Sells: Dude, be proud you won your regional, deciphercon wasn’t a joke cause they let 38 people in. We all know you regional winners worked your arses off to get there. Good luck and see you next year when decipher pays for your trip again after being a 2 time regional champ.
Steve Turner: Gets my sportsmanship award for GenCon when I played him there. Very cool, keep workin on Dalyntr, Steve, you got a good thing going on there. Good luck, I expect to see you both married when I see ya next time. =)
Ray Brodie: Good luck with the kid. Wish you well.
Greg Heisler: Very cool guy but he makes fun of me too much cause I’m goofy. Thanks for the room and board, you da man. Sucks you didn’t win YJ world champs, would have been cool to have someone to stay with again for all the cons.
Erik Peterson: Next time you hear someone say, "Are you a sense kinda guy? An alter kinda guy? Or a Control kinda guy?" look around and you’ll find Erik Peterson saying it, else it’s someone trying to be like him. You da man Erik.
George Gundry: Kept staring at my pelvic region all the time I was talking to him. Freaked me out. Just kidding, he’s a great guy, look forward to seeing you again at Ramapoocon.
Charlie Herran: Very laid back, cool, chillin, kick but player. We left your CD case with Bruce. Hope you find it. Glad your stickin with the game.
I-Ming Chen: I am not paranoid ya bum. Was disappointed that he sees me as some paranoid psychopath. =(
Doug Faust: He is the coolest tourney director in Coruscant, nuff said.
Jeremy Lemure: Solid player and a solid deckbuilder, knows a good deck when he sees it.
Alex Tennant: Hope you found your stuff. Coolest dude from the UK. Such a great deckbuilder that I couldn’t help but play his darkside deck. It’s amazing and the dude behind the deck is even more amazing. I plan on getting some more UK tech from him.
Greg Keefer: Wow can he throw cards, I mean WOW. You have to make him throw a card for you when you see him again.
John Hawkins: WOW, I saw him play Steven Lewis with his lightside sabbacc deck in the best game I saw all weekend. He gets my award for the best original deckbuilder playing 2 sabbacc decks for the team tournament and doing well with both. He is AMAZING.
Mike Peterson: Coolest player I know from Texas.
The Italian player: I played the Italian finalist twice in sealed deck, fun games, cool guy. Felt bad cause he didn’t have alot of people to hang out with.
Joe Helfrich: Cool guy, knows the rules better then Mark Tuttle but I guess that’s not hard.
Rapheal the Assasin: The assassin almost made his appearance as the first 2 time world champ. Was rootin for ya man. Always comes through with original stuff.
Yannic: Confident, cool, and collected opponent, if you make a mistake against him, you lose, nuff said. I think he had his girlfiriend there too which must mean she’s cool cause not too many girls are into starwars. She wanted me of course like all women do.
Drebble from IRC: I’m sorry but when I write this, I can’t get yer name in my head. You are the only person who fell victim to my lightside deck unfortunately for you. Congrats on the kid. Are you gonna name him chewie?
Nat Lei: Busted my Gamorian Guard box with his fist on purpose, I was appalled. Sheesh, no respect! He redeemed himself though when he gave me another box. See you next year punk!
Martin Akesson: Another tough opponent. He got stuck with a lousy deck for the Japanese sealed deck and I beat him luckly but not without a fight.
Martin Lougghe: Didn’t get to talk too much with him but he somehow managed to make fun of me as well. Girard is a bad influence on him.
Mike Patterson: Got to meet him by accident when we were both at the top table in the Japanese sealed deck on friday night. I conversed with him on email and it was cool meeting him for the first time. Look forward to seeing you in Dcon 2001 Mike, good luck.
Dominic Gaureault: This kid comes up to me Thursday with a pokemon sticker saying, "You want to trade this for your Jedi Luke". And I laugh. This guy definitely had the coolest haircut at the con, all the Americans could not figure out how he got his hair to stick up like that.
Chris Prasnatch: You do look like an alien, but I didn’t say it, TJ did.
Arthur Rhodes: Toughest Southerner I know. Prolly could beat up Gabe Alonso cause Gabes a wuss.
David Atkers: Very cool guy, laid back, got to chat with him about improvements for decktech that he said he’d probly consider. So look forward to alot of cool changes with Decktech for the better as always. Great site Dave, nice meeting you.
Gabe Alonso: No one better buy anymore cards from Gabe cause then he can’t leave the game if he can’t sell his cards! Plus, Gabe will verify that I’m the only one who can kick his @#$% and actually tried 4 times over the con. Gabe killed me once but I got him the other 3 times. He almost put my head through the wall in the hotel room, literally. But he’s a big poosy and a cool guy. =)
Kyle Craft: Cool guy, look for the guy with the hiking backpack on and you’ll know it’s Mr. Craft. I sat and watched him make new cards like "Swamp with Nudjs" by cutting out the nudj and sticking it on a swamp. It looked cool and it is copyrighted tech so don’t even try to do that at home. I think he sells them now for 10 bucks a piece.
Joe Alread: Can piss me off like no other sometimes and sometimes can act cool. Tends to piss me off more though. Grrrr.
TJ Holeman: The coolest guy all convention, definitely gets my award for the most valuable player. Just watch the video on the decipher site of him and tell me you could not help but laugh when you saw it. This is the funniest player I know of.
Geoff Snider: Sniiiiiiiiiiiderrrrrrrrr. See ya at RamapooPhil. Hey did you know that Philadelphia has a con called "PhilCon"? =)
Mike Girard: He’s a bum.
Eric Olson: The only person I can beat in a game anymore cause he plays goofy decks like Tauntaun Bone decks. Still the one and only Oooooooooolson.
I will give a pack of SW:CCG to anyone I forgot next time I see ya. But I doubt I forgot anyone that I hung out with alot and didn’t make the list. I could be wrong, in fact I probly AM wrong.
People that will be flown to Dcon next year free (courtesy of "Jank Enterprises") because they missed it this year:
Marco Habert
Reid Smith
Wojtec Janowski
Brian Hunter
Preston Hunt
Dan Sokol
Randy Eddy
Stuart Jones
Clayton Atkins
Ray Brodier Jr. (Ray’s kid)
Angie Everhart
Tiffany Amerthesee Smith
Christopher Janiak
Coruscant Operative, out.