qualifying-with-4th-lewis-at-ramapo
Title: qualifying-with-4th-lewis-at-ramapo
Author: Steven "Sir Yoda" Lewis
Date: Jun 25, 2001
So we get to Ramapo and we find Jon Chu (who just so happens to owe me a box of Tatooine) and the goofiest guy I’ve ever seen in my life (T.J. Holman) sitting on the side of the road. So they direct us to Ramapo and we find our rooms and start building decks. I come up with a HBX deck with podracing and have a SYCFA TIE swarm deck, but both seem kind of junky. Then Chu burst in and starts raving about a HB deck with SqadAss and we all jump on the bandwagon and take it to the DPC.
Summary of the DPC: First game, I get the bye. Second game I win with Light. Third, fourth, and fifth games I lose. So I drop and go hang out with my fiancee while Clint and Jim get wrecked and eventually drop as well. So Clint gets pissed. Meanwhile, Katie and I start playing some goofy Stratego variation but with Wizards and stuff instead of soldiers. So I totally wreck her because I kill all her guys and she’s left with nothing but bombs and the flag.
Now my hopes for the Open are dwindling and there’s no way I’m about to take the same decks, so I go back to the room and start building some more. After talking some tech with my Canadian ally, AJ Delisle, I decide eventually to go with the HBX/Podracing deck (what a beast!) and my old solid states champ Agents of Black Sun for dark (with one Seblulba’s Pod in it...the only DS Tatooine card I played with).
Katie also decides (after some encouragement from myself) to play in the Open, so I give her two fairly basic decks: Hidden Mains and a goofy Maul-based deck w/SAC and mains. She tweaks them to her own tastes and says her only goal is to win one game in the Open...
GAME 1: My DS AOBS deck vs. Chris Gogolen’s MWYHL Training deck.
I deploy Broken Concentration on my first turn and DOS doesn’t complete the first Jedi Test the rest of the game. So Xizor and Guri and Emperor park themselves at a couple docking bays and start doing damage while Chris scrambles for some characters to fight with. He finally deploys EPP Obi to the DS:DB who gets barriered. Then I Put All Sections him, deploy some more characters, hit him with Dengar, and draw a 5 for destiny. So that was game. FW +33
2 (+33)
GAME 2: My LS HBX vs. David Irvine’s HDADTJ with Podracing.
I was prepared for the podrace in the deck and set up a sparse scattering of X-wings for drains. After I flip, David can’t drain and Vader is stuck on some docking bay. So after the podrace, Qui-gon comes down to Tatooine to flip his objective and cover Battle Plan and retrieve with I Did It! David (without any ships in his deck) can’t hang on. FW +30
4 (+63)
GAME 3: My DS vs. Chris DeNoma’s WYS lockdown deck.
First off, Chris forgets to deploy his free Effect with his starting interrupt and wants to go back and do so after we had drawn our opening hands. I tell him it’s too late and he gets a little miffed about it, but when it comes to such a significant tournament (and sitting at the top table), I don’t let anything slide. So we both deploy our podracers and the race starts pretty even. We both play interrupts (A Step Backward and Podracer Collision) several times as the race takes off at a slow pace. Meanwhile, I set up some drains in the Cantina and the DS:DB while Chris goes to space. At one point, our race totals end up at 16 each so I use Sebulba’s text to stall him out. Then we both proceed with the race and play some interrupts and the race total ends up back at 16 again, so I ask a judge if I can stall again (argument: the race totals had changed since I stalled him last). I really didn’t know the right ruling (this being a new set and all) so I gave my argument and the judge sided with me, so I stalled again. Chris never goes for the insert lock that his deck is now famous for, so my drains keep me ahead most of the game. Eventually the judge calls time and I win by differential without the podrace ever finishing. TW +18
5 (+81)
GAME 4: My LS vs. Steve Brentson’s HDADTJ with Watto’s Box podracing.
This game proceeds much like the game against Irvine. I flip my objective and start canceling drains while playing interrupts like mad to win the race. Eventually, I pull it off and retrieve 11 while Brentson loses 11 (devastating!) and then retrieve with AWRI for a bunch more and with I Did It! For a bunch more. Brentson can’t seem to hang after losing the race and folds after a few more turns. FW +23
7 (+104)
GAME 5: My DS vs. Ross Littaver’s HBX swarm deck with hit-and-run EPP’s.
Ross is a 1400 ranked player who had somehow managed to squeak into the top tables and now I was facing him with my AOBS deck against my most feared opponent: Hidden Base! I don’t have Security Precautions or Search & Destroy (in fact, I have only 1 site and 2 ships total) so I don’t stand much of a chance. I do my best and hang with him for a while but the Kessel, Kiffex, and Coruscant drains eventually do me in. FL -18
7 (+86)
GAME 6: My LS vs. Bastian Winkelhaus’s Big Blue ISB.
I win the race and start gaining early ground while Bastian assembles his Star Destroyers at Fondor. Something Special is a major pain in the but in the midgame (paying +2 to move away from his destroyers!) and I have a hard time playing cat-and-mouse with him. He probes my base on his first try and starts slowly catching up in the drain race. Since we are both draining for so little, the game takes unusually long and time gets called while I am still ahead. TW +18. Bastian does his best to convince me that he was going to win, and I am not so sure so we play it out after time and Bastian wins by about 5 or 6. But it was a heck of a game! Well done, Bastian!
8 (+104)
So now with two timed wins and one loss, I have the scored equivalent of two losses. I have to win my next two games to have a chance. Meanwhile, Katie has struggled all day and managed to lose every game she played (after all, this was her first tournament), so she’s getting a little worried about achieving her goal to win a game. Then, fate steps in and gives her a bye into the next game. Now she only has one game left (GAME 8) to win one, but while she’s waiting she decides to watch my next game...
GAME 7: My LS vs. Chris DeNoma’s SYCFA Lockdown.
I set up early with the X-wings and win the podrace while Chris assembles his characters and starts dealing damage with inserts. And since Katie is a new player, she asks a question or two during the game and sort of upsets Chris (understandably) because it may have seemed like she was trying to point things out. Thankfully her comments weren’t that significant, and nothing much came of it, but she felt bad after I told her what she did, so we both apologize, Chris. Sorry about that. Anyway, he never gets the insert lockdown off but slows down my drains with Battle Order. The game stays pretty even until Zuckuss tries to probe a few times (by himself!) and misses and I end up winning by 6! What a game!
10 (+110)
GAME 8: My DS vs. Pete Srodoski’s (sp?) RST M&T deck.
Chris starts with an RST start which makes me think "Bunker destruction!" so I go to Endor pretty early with the Emperor and others to prepare for combat. But on my second turn, the Emp gets lost at the Endor:DB and I have to move Xizor and company over to look for him. I dominate most of the game by outbattling his mains (he never goes after the Bunker) and battle him out in the end. FW +36.
12 (+146)
I needed a huge win to make it in the finals, and I got it. So now I had to wait and see if Scott Lingrell lost (which would have to happen) and if Bastian won by 27 or less (which would also have to happen). But Scott wins his game against Hayes Hunter and Bastian wins by over thirty, so that gives me a solid 4th (better than second!). Then after Hayes wins the duel, I find out that both he and Bastian had already qualified for Day 2, so the bye goes to me in fourth place! Moral of this tournament: second (or fourth) isn’t always bad.
I then go sit down and start watching Katie’s last game. She is playing her Maul deck against some guy’s QMC. I look at the table and she’s got Maul, Vader, and Mara (all with sabers) draining all over Cloud City and her opponent has nothing on the table. I then find out that earlier in the game, she had beaten down Ackbar and Hash’n in a huge battle and taken over Bespin. She ends up winning by twenty-something and achieves her goal of winning a game!
So after the tournament, Katie and I get a game of Fluxx going with like 6 other people, and Bastian wrecks us all with the Brain. Then we play some more with Matt Sokol and Chris Twigg and Sokol wrecks us all because he’s the champ. Then we play some more with Bastian and Jim (who hates the Hand Limit Zero) and bunches of others and Bastian wins again because he is the Brain. Moral of the post-tournament: I suck at Fluxx.
So as the area is clearing and everyone’s getting geared up for the team tournament, Katie and I buy a bunch of raffle tickets and win some foils and stuff as well as the Arlington Road DVD (which megasucks). So Katie grabs it from me and runs off while I’m talking to some other people and then she comes back with the Gladiator DVD! She did some crazy trading and ended up turning Arlington Road into Gladiator! Isn’t she amazing? Then Katie and Jim and I all go to some goofy restaurant and order some grilled chicken. So the most horrible waitress in the world brings me half a roasted chicken (holy cow!) and I can eat about three bites before I want to puke.
Clint ends up winning the Team Tournament (along with some other Ghetto mopes as Team: "Shhh.... Grandma") so he’s not pissed anymore. Then we all drive back and I lose the dice game some more (as usual) while Clint drives and Jim sleeps.
PROPS:
Scott Lingrell for a rockin’ Con!
My wonderful fiancee, Katie, for winning a game!
Clint for being pissed off all the time.
Jim Sells for driving.
Brian Rippetoe for being a frickin’ pro at the movie game.
AJ Delisle for being a super cool guy to hang out with.
Bastian for being the coolest German there.
Ray Bordier for threatening to beat up anyone who won a game against Katie.
Ghetto Squad for no reason.
Fluxx for being a fun game that doesn’t require brain cells.
My podracers for going undefeated at the Open.
Zuckuss for probing 4 systems by himself against my X-wing swarm deck.
Endor for being the best Hidden Base.
The Brownie for being with me in spirit.
Fourth place.
SLOPS:
The chicken that died just so it could be thrown in the garbage.
Me for getting wrecked at the DPC.
Me for getting wrecked at Fluxx.
Me for getting wrecked at the dice game.
Brian Hunter for no reason.
..........
POST-TOURNAMENT
A week or two later I find myself reading Hawkins’ TR within which he accuses me of pulling some "rulings stunt" on his friend Chris DeNoma at the Open. I don’t know why he said this or what perception they got as a result of the games between Chris and myself, so I feel the need to set the record straight for anyone who cares. The only thing I did that could possibly be perceived as unsportsmanlike was refusing to let Chris go back and deploy his starting effect. Most players realize that if you make such a mistake (especially at the top table of a high-stakes tournament), you are stuck with your folly, so I don’t feel bad about this. It was Chris’s mistake, not mine. Then during the game, Chris wanted to play A Step Backward while his podracer didn’t have any destinies on it, and I made the argument that it should be interpreted like an Evader (targets ALL podracers) and can’t be played. So we called the judge and gave our arguments and the judge sided with me. Then (as I outlined in our game report), I wanted to stall Anakin a third time with Sebulba, but Chris and I disagreed on the interpretation of the cards. So we called the judge over and gave our arguments and the judge sided with me again. Then in our second game (my LS vs. his DS), we played the entire game without any rulings disputes and never having to call over a judge. I think at one point I tried to play Neck and Neck while our race totals were zero and Chris seemed perturbed, but I had no idea why. Now I find out that he thinks I went against the earlier rulings by doing that, but nothing in our first game had anything to do with the race totals being at zero, so I don’t know where that comes from. Anyway, I was sitting here pondering what on earth I could have done to deserve so much hatred from Hawkins and DeNoma and I have no idea. If I have done something that I don’t realize, I apologize. But if the judges sided with my arguments and you have a problem with that, you should take it up with them, not me.
..........
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you at Worlds!
Steven "I Qualified with 4th" Lewis