monteiro-goes-to-origins-2001
Title: monteiro-goes-to-origins-2001
Author: David "JWRP119" Monteiro
Date: Jul 14, 2001
Day 1 - July 5
This was my first con and first open so I really don’t know where to start. I arrived at the Hyatt on Thursday at around 9 am. I go over to the place where the pre reg line is and the first thing that hits me is a smell...it’s like undescribable, there is no one in that area besides the people in the pre reg lines but it freakin stinks. I walk around for a while looking for people I know and run into a few. Now I gotta find Ted Panczyszyn. I’m walking around the gaming halls and watching people play 93287643 different games because they wouldn’t let me in the Exhibit hall because I didn’t have an exhibitor pass. I finally go sit and wait for someone to show up near the pre reg line and I spot Ted and wave him down. We go check in and get settled in the room.
The Albanites are in the room attached to us and they’ve got like 15 people staying in there. We all start playing cards and I meet Joe "Jigga" Gianetti, Matt Sokol, Chris Twigg and Josh Paterniti. Me and Joe play a game and I lose on the 2nd turn because of @#$%ing 294765923 destiny adders and battle damage. What a bunch of jizz. Matt is tweaking his deck while Joe decides he is going to play it for the Open tomrrow. I lend Matt 2 Emperors and we do some trades. Everyone is hungry so we head down to the food court and get some Subway.
We’re back in the room and people want to goto the exhibit hall but since we didn’t buy exhibitor badges we can’t get in until after 1 pm. Me and Matt play a game to help playtest his dark deck and he schools me. I meet up with Erick Butzlaff (buttslap?) and we start talking and need to make decks for the Open. I meet up with Tom Heller from Alaska who is staying with us. I got my WYS that someone suggested and for dark I had a YMSYL deck but since I didn’t get Scott’s cards the deck was in pieces. I finally settled on a ISB space deck that started YCHF to pull Mob Points in hopes of tricking the opponent to not start DDTA.
We go down to the Exhibit hall and we head to the Decipher booth and Matt almost blows a wad while watching the Lord of the Rings trailer :-) I meet TJ and Clint face to face after only talking to them online and Decipher hands Matt a box of R2 and a sign that says Try your hand at Deciphers World Champ. If you beat Matt you get 2 packs of R2. I still only had a LS deck so I sit down and play Matt again. This time I win by 10 but still get @#$% in the packs.
Then I sit down and play TJ. I drain in space alot but lose the podrace cause I couldn’t find any of my @#$%ing interrupts like Step Backwards. Then Trooper Sabacc starts nailing me for 2 a turn cause TJ likes to be gay as hell :-) So anyway, then Shannon and Michael get on Deciphers little stage and I got my jank signed which was cool. Shannon is hot. After a while Dominic and Yannick come over and we introduced ourselves. Dominic looked like he just got back from a war and looked stoned.
Clint tries to get his 43 Aricas signed and she’s gonna do it but then Clint is gonna buy the oversized card of Arica but hes like "what am i gonna do with a picture thats 20 bucks?" and TJ said something like "your just gonna go home and beat off to it anyway" so that got Shannon offended, like no one has been looking at her breasts or anything, so Clint and TJ can’t go near her.
I head over to the gaming area where all the games are being played and go get decklists from Dan then head back up to the room and start making them out with Josh. Josh is gonna spend the night in our room so he says he has to go get something but then ends up in a closet sleeping I think. I pass out when I lay down so its all good.
Day 2 - July 6
Ted wakes me up after a whole 4 hours of sleep (who needs sleep anway?) and I go take a shower so I don’t smell like Magic and D&D players. I finish writing my ISB out on the decklist and go downstairs to turn them in along with a command card. I meet up with TJ at the gaming tables and Clint comes up and they go to play Raw Deal so I go watch cause I got nothing better to do. TJ wins like the first 2 games or something but who cares because Clint won the Raw Deal tournament the next day for tickets to Wrestlmania. I start spotting more people I know and go talk to some of the locals. I go back to watch the Raw Deal games and now Pete Flamini, who turned out to be one of the funniest people I’ve ever seen, is playing someone in Raw Deal too. Then Dom comes up with Penthouse and starts showing off his story that he wrote in there about Clint and Steve Lewis having sex and its all written in and its the funniest @#$% ever. The Open finally gets underway. Sorry about the little details on the games, it was a long con.
Number of people at start: 108
LS Deck: WYS
DS Deck: ISB Space
Game 1 - DS vs. James Booker’s RST
He’s not racing so it’s not going to hurt too bad when he blows the bunker.....but he never does. I’m draining in space right off the bat because I know the deck doesn’t have many ships and all you need is a SD with an Admiral and Imp Command. He starts to set up ground troops and I’m holding Vader and Tarkin in hand with some ORS thinking if I should attack. I just set up more drains in space with Chiraneu now and he’s hurting. He needs to blow the bunker or he’s screwed. He gets out Electrobinoucs and starts searching but I use Omni Box/It’s Worse to stop it. He’s searching the rest of the game but can’t line up more than a 2 and 3 and he only has 2 charges on the bunker. He moves and tries to spread out to drain then EPP Obi and a scout get pounced by Vader and Tarkin to clinch the game.
FW by 20.
2 (+20)
Highs: I won
Lows: Had to play a local.
Again sorry about the short details on the upcoming games. I remember most of the people but not differential at all.
Game 2 - LS vs. Nathan Martin’s AOBS racing
He starts his stuff and Presence to get an auto flip. He starts the race on his turn, and flashes Anakin. I say I draw 3 next turn and chose 2 then play Step Backward to send his destiny to used pile. Dash is at Kessel draining for 3 the whole game and I’m losing force for a while but still cycling with Naked 3P0 and Mirax. He deploys Emperor, 4Lom and Dengar to Cantina so Jedi Luke and his stick come to Tat dbay to flip him back. I play Step Backwards from hand and 2 from lost pile to make sure the race never ends. I drop Melas in the cantina and stop 2 turns of drains with It’s A Trap! and play On The Edge for 5. I win shortly after.
FW by 17?
4 (+37?)
Highs: 2-0
Lows: Early damage and drains
Game 3 - DS vs. Kim Caton’s Dago-boring racing deck
She doesn’t start DDTA again so my deck will get rolling fairly quicker than it does. I get a god hand and have Piett and Merrejk at Exec docking bay right off the bat pulling systems while I command for Chiraneu. She starts to test on Dagobah and get her stuff out. Ozzel and Devastator goto Yavin 4 followed by POTF to start drains. I’m not going to bother with the race cause there’s nothing I can do anyway but lose 6. She loses landing claw to an early drain so bye bye. The race ends and Qui Gon goes to the arena but followed by U3PO and Yoxgit comes to get back claws. I land Vader and Tarkin on Dagobah to chase Daughter around and drain. I break U3POs cover so I can start losing ORS from hand to retrieve them. I eventually drain her out and she can’t retrieve force after training because of Secret Plans.
FW by 19
6 (+56?)
Highs: I wouldn’t be writing this if I lost to her. 3-0
Lows: Test 1....
Game 4 - LS vs. Clint Hays’ SYCFA Brangus deck
Due to faint memory of the game and opponents request to not delve into details the game summary will be brief. I drained at Kessel with Dash and at the Death Star with Melas in Red 10 with X Wing Cannons for almost the whole game until Dash met up with Fett and a Lateral Damage. Direct damage killed me and having my grabber earlier would have been huge. He was never rude or obnoxious and offered a handshake at the end of the game. (Just so you Clint-haters know)
FL by 18
6 (+38?)
Highs: Got to play someone good. Only losing by 18.
Lows: Losing.
4 more games to go. I’m 3-1 so I know I have to play someone good again next round. I’m hoping the game will be short so I can haul @#$% to the food court which feels like its a mile away from the con center.
Game 5 - DS vs. Chris Terwilliger’s Hayes’ Pile deck
We played this match twice in the room last night so we both know who will eventually win. He starts DDTA and something else. I get Piett and Merrejk at the Exec: dbay fast and start pulling systems. He Senses alot of stuff but it all goes to used pile and Honor sucks up the damage..yep Honor sure does suck. Lando w/Ax comes to Exec dbay and is followed by Qui Gon but I Ghhhk the damage away. He gets Tantive 4 with Chewie, Han, and Leia aboard and pounces on Ozzel, ORS, and Devastator. I Imp Command to restrict his destiny but he has Savrip out so it doesn’t matter what I draw. I try to MM the Savrip away but he Senses. He’s draining in space and the Exec docking bay and I can’t seem to keep up.
FL by 20ish?
6 (+18?)
Highs: Not many. 3-2
Game 6 - LS vs. Jared Lockwood’s Corulag Ops
This took me as a surprise. I didn’t really know if he was playing Ops or just using some weird platform. My 1st mistake was not starting with Menace Fades. He gets an Op and Emperor out super quick and starts early pressure with a drain of 2. I start battling off his characters and ops but he has alot of sites out. I’m still draining 3 at Kessel but he’s out draining me with Ops, EPPs, and ATSTs. He got a super quick set up and there wasn’t much I could do.
FL by ??
6 (??)
Game 7 - DS vs. ??????
I can’t recall this game at all. I seem to have blanked. I know I played someone near the sea of jizz. I think I played some kids WYS deck but I’m not too sure. All I know is that I won be a hefty amount.
FW by ??
8 (??)
Game 8 - LS vs. Michael Rhodebeck’s TDIGWATT
This game was fairly easy for me. I get a quick flip and start beating him off of Cloud City. I drain 3 at Kessel almost the whole game and took control of Cloud City sector right off the bat. My quick drains and faster set up helped me win, not to mention the force he gave me 1st turn. Sorry about the crappy details.
FW by 20ish?
10 (+11)
Highs: Finishing at 5-3
Lows: Playing a guy I played at States.
TJ finishes the tournament at 16 (+215) and right behind him is Clint at 7-1. They play pretty much a rematch of the 1999 Finals. Clint and TJ both used the same decks in the Open so it all came down to skill and the draw. Clint won the first game by 26 which would make it hard for TJ to contest who only won by 18 making Clint Hays the 2001 Origins Open Champion. After the final they collect their glass and other stuff, throw on their Raw Deal shirts and go play in some tournament.
I play in Ted’s tournament and end up going 2-2 beat Klammrodt and random guy and losing to Rich Haman and Chris Gogolen. After a while there’s not much to do so me, Butzlaff, and Grubbs go back to my room and Butzlaff keeps trying to make love to his glass while Grubb just sits and laughs at everything.
We’re flipping thru the channels and I put on some porn but it’s the 19.99 one and we wanted the 9.99 but no one wanted to pay for it except for jack-happy Grubbs who couldn’t stand up. So we cancel it but it’s still on and Grubbs just wants to turn it on and watch. Whatever.
After a while Grubbs leaves and me and Erick do some trades and stay up until 4 am making new decks for the Team Tourney. He wanted to make some destiny 7 madness deck with a BHBM platform but he has like a 200 card deck so he sticks with what he was using. I make a high destiny Throne Room Revo deck and it completely rapes Butzlaff’s deck cause I get a Revo off every time 1st turn. Then I switch to a verson of Sokol/Srodowski’s DLS Mains deck.
Day 3 - July 7
We try to sleep late but the Team Tourney is at 10 and I get like 4 hours of sleep which sucks. I take a shower and get my decks together. We go down to the gaming hall and sign up. Grubbs decides to be gay and tells Nathan we’re Team Bus. Our team isn’t very good. It consists of me, Buttslap, Grubbs, and Lee Fisk. We all go 1-0 except for Lee who loses his first game and then Nathan says we have to play our teammate so we all drop and go play in the constructed tourney that has a bunch of prizes.
I play some random 1900 rated guy first game. First off he left his decks in his hotel room. So that takes 10 minutes out of the game. Then he doesn’t have Luke’s saber and he’s playing TIGIH. Bojo comes over and asks if he wants me to have the guy DQed but I say it’s cool.
Game 1 - DS vs. guy’s TIGIH
I get a load of force because of DLS and all the Jabba’s Palace sites I pull. He moves over Luke to Endor docking bay and draws for a while. I come down with Aurra Sing and ECC 4 Lom , drop First Strike and battle. Weapon Levitate the saber, swing...miss. Cancel his text and draw a 4 for destiny. He flips a 6, great. I gotta lose both but he loses his only Luke. The rest of the game consists of him winning the podrace, but not getting back Luke and me chasing all of his characters around Tatooine while I’m draining. He deploys Kiffex and Liberty late game but I follow with Zuckuss in MH, battle retrieve 1 and now have any extra drain of 2.
FW by 15ish?
Game 2 - LS vs. guy’s Speed DD
I revo some sites but he cancels with Evader and I grab it. He get set up super quick and uses Kiss a wookie on all my guys so no one is coming down and there’s nothing I can do.
FL by 20ish?
So I drop and go get some food cause I’m really hungry. I take the stuff to my room cause I want some peace and quiet so I’m watching tv for an hour or so. It’s around 3:00 and I decide to head back down to the gaming area and see whats going on. The quebecers are going around picking up and winning all these demo games and are playing their little hearts out for no damn reason but Yannick is winning like every game anyway.
I go back outside and walk over to Clint and TJ and theyre playing this game called Fluxx. Steve Lewis asks me if I want to play so I’m like sure and we introduce ourselves and I meet his fiance Katie. Basically everyone starts out with 3 cards and you draw one from the deck in the middle and play one. As the game goes on you deploy Keepers to try and win and Goals to help you win. All the time new rules are being played like Hand Size 3, or Draw 4, or Play 3. It keeps the game goiing pretty smoothly and I don’t know what I’m doing so the first couple of times I make Steve and TJ win. Steve is always trying to be tech and playing @#$% but loses and when he pisses off Katie she starts calling him names.
We’re sitting at some table and the people who own it come over and tell us we need to move so they can set up. TJ is like why? The sign says Gathering Place and we’re all gathered in this place. We keep on playing and they tell us to move again and Clint just looks at her and still plays. We finally move into the gaming area to play and I start winning a bunch cause I kick @#$% at this game. Clint starts complaining about how good players never win games in Fluxx and TJ admits he has a small penis. Katie wins but I win more. Making me the master of Fluxx.
TJ and Clint go get their tickets for the Raw Deal Championships so they can win tickets to Wrestlmania. TJ ends up a little above halfway and Clint wins it.
All the while I’m just wandering around with Dom and he’s teaching me how to play Raw Deal even though he only knows like 30 words in English :-) We play some pickup games in SW and he beats me with his MWYHL lock deck. Then he whips out a card called Put Your @#$% On The Table. Its a used 6 that makes the opponent put their @#$% on the table. This card is huge unless you’re playing against Kim Caton or some girl, then you can’t use it. I go show it to TJ and he busts out laughing and so do the people around us.
After an hour or two there’s nothing much to do so I go around saying bye to everyone I met over the weekend and go turn in for the night. But no, Ted decides to whip out Apples to Apples which turned out to be a pretty damn fun game. Tom Heller ends up with the most cards won with Ted in 2nd, me in 3rd, and Nathan in last :-P
We finally goto sleep cause everyone is leaving tomorrow.
Day 4 - July 8
Ted wakes me up at like 10 am and everyone is gone but him. I take a shower and get dressed. I go down to the gaming area with all my crap and stop to talk to locals along the way. I say later to everyone I missed yesterday and go wait outside for my ride. Some guy who knows like 4 words tries to get me in his taxi because he’s "supa cheep" but I quickly walk the other way and wait for my ride. This ends my Origins experience. Next stop should be GenCon but that’s still up in the air. The Open in Michigan is looking good and I’ll definately be at DecipherCon.
--Props--
Dan Bojanowski and all the SMs that ran the Open.
Ted for the room.
"Someone" for the WYS deck idea.
All the people I met over the weekend
Dominic Gaudrealt, Yannick LaPointe, Clint Hays, all the people I played in SW games, Alex Klammrodt, TJ Holman (Ghetto Douche), Matt Sokol, Joe Gianetti, Tom Heller, Nathan Brown, Erick Butzlaff, Jon Grubbs, Pete Srodowski, Josh Paterniti, Chris Gogolen, Kim Caton, Steve Lewis and Katie, Mike Girard, Michael Stackpole, and anyone else I forgot. Sorry
Me for going 5-3 at my first Open...not bad when you only lost to people Top 20 in the world
People who let me borrow cards.
The handfull of actual good looking women at the Con
Dom’s porno.
Bunch of other stuff I can’t remember.
--Slops--
The food for being so damn expensive
Minimum sleep.
Losing 3 games in the Open.
Most of Albany for being so damn loud. Who brings video cameras to tournaments anyway?
The fat guy for trying to pull a Jedi Mind Trick but can only do it with $5....what a @#$%
The goth chick who would look good if she got rid of the fat. You can’t live off drugs and beer alone you know.
That’s all for now.
See you in Michigan,
-David Monteiro