how-to-get-disqualified-at-worlds
Title: how-to-get-disqualified-at-worlds
Author: Steven "Sir Yoda" Lewis
Date: Oct 15, 2000
So its Wednesday before the big Deciphercon and Jim Sells, Jonathon Chu, and I are on our way to the airport to fly to Orlando. We’ve been talking tech for weeks. Decks are tuned and spirits are high. We all expect to qualify for not only Day 2 but Day 3 as well.
We run into Trek mogul Chris Swearingen at the airport, who teaches me how to play Tribbles on the plane while Jim flirts with some 13 year old hottie. And by the way, as terribly interesting as the Tribbles game is, I must confess I didn’t pay attention to a word Chris said. I still have no idea how to play that stupid game.
Anyway, we meet up with Scott Anderson in Orlando and head to the hotel for some last-minute deck alterations and some sleep when we find none other than Gabe Alonso! This guy is the most devoted player I have ever met. He comes up with this ridiculous story about how he had to drive to Orlando (from Miami) through a swamp and shows us all with a waiste-high maneuver of his hand how high the water was in his car. I’m like, "Whatever, you’re full of crap," and I go to sleep. The next day I ride with Gabe to the Con and shockingly enough, everything in his floorboard is soaking wet and half his electrical systems don’t work. He actually drove through a flood to get to Dcon. What’s more, he has gained a newfound pride in his piece-of-junk car which he now calls the "swampmobile." Every now and then we pass a pond or something on the way to the Con and Gabe points to it and says nonchallantly, "I could drive through that." I couldn’t stop laughing.
Anyway, we get to the Con and find about 600 people standing in the "preregistration" line and only 5 people in the other line (genius move there, Decipher, preregistering every single player in the world like it would move faster or something). So we all say, "Screw the foil," and get in the 5-man, regular registartion line. As soon as I step up to the window they tell me they’ve switched BOTH lines to preregistration so I get the foil anyway and I was only in line like 10 minutes. Then Gabe runs into Steve Turner (they had a "disgreement" a while back on Decktech) and they start yelling at eachother so the rest of us grab blank decklists and go to IHOP to eat breakfast.
Now this part is key. Five of us are sitting at a 4-man IHOP table and we are being served by the most annoying waitress I’ve ever seen. There are plates and glassess all over the table, so you can imagine the conditions available for trying to write out decklists. I scribble my two decks down as fast as I can so I can eat and I count my Light side cards (60) and say, "Screw it I want to eat," so I ignore the Dark side and put it away.
We turn in our lists at the con and about 4 hours later, the tourney starts.
WORLDS DAY 1, GAME 1:
My invincible DS Court deck vs. Joseph Floyd’s EBO
I absolutely wreck him. He is playing some nutty I’ll-start-Staging-Areas-and-deploy-lots-of-Mon-Cal-Cruisers EBO deck. I get out drains at the sites, cover 3 b-grounds for Honor, and start hitting him for Court and S&D damage. Eventually I put out a couple bounty-hunter ships at an empty system and he moves some cruisers over. I then drop two more BH ships and wreck him for some heavy force damage. He can’t recover after this and I win by 27.
FW 2(+27)
After the game I start chatting with other players and find out that a bunch of Trek players are getting disqualified for faulty decklists. A good friend of mine from Nashville (Ben Lacey) gets DQed for have 4 of a certain card in his Trek deck when his list said he had three. I start sweating like a fiend. I didn’t count my DS deck. What if they count my decklists? What if I made a mistake? Anyway, I voice concerns to some friends and the next game starts.
WORLDS DAY 1, GAME 2:
My LS HB/Squass vs. Adam Weinstein’s Huntdown
I get a great draw (HOTJ in my starting hand!) and think, "I’m going to wreck him." I put out Honor and Lando/Falcon at Endor my 1st turn while my opponent draws for Vader and loses to Visage a few turns. Eventually, though, to my dismay, Adam pulls out three (yes, three!) battleground docking bays with IAO and covers all 3 for Honor. He then drops Search and Destroy. I’m screwed. I’ve got nothing for ground battles, so I start digging for my Kessel Runs and hope the retrieval can save me. I finally spread to 4 systems for drains, and Adam drops Battle Order on his next turn (crap!). Then I set up a Kessel Run for 10 and Adam drops Secret Plans on his next turn (crap crap!). So Adam gets the perfect cards and I get jizzed on for 12.
FL 2(+16)
After the game I find out that Phoenix SWCCG beast Mike Girard got DQed. I am frickin terrified at this point. I find out that Decipher is counting EVERY SINGLE decklist and so all I can do is hope that mine is correct.
WORLDS DAY 1, GAME 3:
My invincible DS Court deck vs. Matt "World Champ" Sokol’s pile of jizz HB mains deck.
Matt gets a great start. I put Jabba in the JP:AC first turn and draw the next few turns looking for aliens. Matt, in the meantime, gets out Daughter+Saber+Madine at one site, Ben+Saber+Blount at another site, and General Han+Chewie of Kashyyyk at a thrid site, all draining for tons and all I have down is Jabba. But I have everything in my hand I could ever want, so I know I am going to win. I drop Fett with gun, 4LOM with gun, and some other guy (Mara, I think) in front of Ben and Blount (I didn’t go after Han beause he was sitting at Tat:JP and I feared Fallen Portal). I attack, Hidden Weapons Ben (captured), shoot and hit Blount, battle damage of 13 or something. I then move my guys around to disrput Matt’s Force Drains and I win by 27.
FW 4(+43)
I am wrecking and any doubt that I would make Day 2 is now gone. I march confidently over to Clint and start talking tech for Day 2 when Juz (Justin Pakes for the layman) comes up to me and says, "Steve, I need a word with you." Two drops of pee come out. I fear the worst, but act as cool as I can. I say, "What’s up," as Juz and I walk toward the judges booth. Juz then says, "Why are you doing this to me, Steven?" Everything seems to go silent and the room blurs. My internal organs suddenly stop functioning. I say, "What are you talking about?" And Juz hands me my DARK SIDE decklist and there’s a big "58" written on it circled. Juz says, "I’ve counted it about 50 times and there’s nothing I can do. I have to disqualify you." I sit down and pull my deck out of my deckbox. I count it--60 cards. So I go over the decklist card by card and find out that I forgot to put down the "x2" multipliers on Dr. Evazan and Disarmed. My decklist had one of each and I had two of each in the deck. My hopes of Worlds were dashed. All the work that drove me to the Con was now down the toilet.
After sharing the news with me friends and getting LOTS of sympathy from a bunch of great players that I had never met, Clint and I go to Denny’s and get the Brownie and lament over failed hopes. We then talk mega-tech for Clint on Day 2 to make sure he gets to Day 3.
Eventually Clint makes Day 3 (placing first place on Day 2, I might add) and he, Matt Sokol, Jon Chu (who also got disqualified after 7 games!), Scott Anderson, and I go to Denny’s for the Day 3 Brownie. Clint says some extremely rude things to Matt which really pissed me off, but all-in-all it was a fun night. Matt ended up forcing down the Brownie and then puking it up in the Denny’s bathroom. And by the way, he won Worlds the next day, so if there’s any doubt as to the necessity of the Brownie tech, just ask Matt.
So my wrap-up for the weekend (after 3 games of Worlds and tons of sealed decks) is that Decipher has problems. They’ve never checked decklists as thoroughly as they did at Worlds this year and they rushed us for the decklists in the first place. I’m not saying it was their fault that I had 58 cards on my list, but if I would have known how strictly they were going to study the lists, I would have made SURE mine were correct.
As for my spirits, they couldn’t be better. I don’t play Star Wars to win tournaments. I play so I can meet people and hang out with a bunch of players from around the World and always make new friends. Did I do that at Worlds? ABSOLUTELY! So it was a great weekend tainted by an itty-bitty disappointment.
PROPS:
Juz for apologizing about 300 times for having to DQ everybody. I know he really hated to do that.
Jim for achieving his goal and becoming a World Qualifier.
Matt for forcing down the Brownie and winning the thing.
Gabe for driving through a river to get to Worlds.
Chu for help fixing our LS X-wing deck before Day 2.
Bane Malar for being a JPSD sealed deck beating!
Me for going 4-0 in the team tourney with the same decks I was playing Day 1 (see, I would have qualified!).
Everyone who lamented with me over my loss.
SLOPS:
Clint for losing with my best decks.
Clint for treating Matt like a scrub both before and after Day 3.
Me for not counting my frickin Dark side decklist.
Matt for playing the worst LS deck I’ve ever seen and winning Worlds with it (No Luke!?!?!? Are you drunk!?!?!)
Decipher for the sudden desire to ruin Worlds and disqualify a bunch of top players (including one Trekker from Australia).
Gabe for playing my decks on Day 1 and Day 2 and getting wrecked with them.
So from last year’s 2nd place finisher, getting DQed at Worlds is not that bad as long as your perspectives are in the right place.
Steven "I Can’t Count" Lewis