freedomcon
Title: freedomcon
Author: Scott "CRingwell" Lingrell
Date: Nov 21, 2001
So I was originally supposed to drive down with Kim Caton on Wednesday afternoon to get there in time to meet up with the UKers and have seat at the bar with them chatting. After my job refusing to give me off it was up to me to drive down alone on Thurday around 12:30 pm. I take a nice drive, meet some strange people on the way down and get there around 6ish. I get the key from Kim, bring all of my cards to the room (just a note, when I travel I bring every single card I own ugh) and take a minute to unpack my clothes. My green Mercer baseball tshirt included. 2 things I forgot to bring with me my RamapoCon shirts to give away and I forgot my JK rares.
So after I get settled, I go and drop off a few things to Akers to use for whatever 3 Episode 1 DVDs, all my YJ, JK (minus the rares doh), ST, posters, and other random cool stuff I thought would help out because hey, this was just a chance to see everyone, prizes were an unneeded bonus that I thought I would help out with. Why not.
So I decide to play in a tournament that night and start what would be the worst game play until Friday at 3am, when Alex Tennant and Mat pushed me out :). For the tournament I run my Boomrace with the OOCs and such and a Tatooine deck that was crap. In a nutshell here are the highlights
Gm1 vs Brian Rippetoe FL by 43. Lets just say my dark was pretty bad
Gm 2 vs Jeremy Oakes FL by 26. At this point I am wondering where to find my clothes because I was just beaten and left out back to bleed to death
Gm 3 vs Efridge Engel FW by 19. Nice guy, cool name I almost said it
Gm 4 vs Ben Wachter FW by 20. Good player also had fun.
So I end 2-2 but get hammered by good players not beaten, pounded.
I decide to not play that dark and on Friday it becomes, find Scott a dark deck to play day. I built watto after initially taking with Brian Hunter (who by the way was a good guy I dont understand the crud he gets I know he gets focused during games and that is where his rep comes from but it was cool meeting him.) David Irvine, Don (DPC Dan) Kitzman and someone else cannot think of it right now. The deck was ok, but got hammered badly. I did nothing this day but lose, lose, and lose. So that night I hung out, did my thing and started to playtest. After talking to Klema around midnight and finding out he didnt qualify I told him I need a deck since my Watto was horrible at best. I got his deck and tested the watto a few more times against Kessling and Tennent. After getting beat by Tennent, I scrapped it and went with Klemas MKOS mains deck that was solid. I tested it one game, put it in the box at 3am and went to bed. I also changed about 10 cards to the boomrace adding in Edges, Podrace Interrupts, Epp Han, Epp Quigon, and pulled all the OOCs, Gen Solo, and Midge for more power potential.
Saturday Morning, I build finish my decks and have Greg Shaw and Bill Kafer help me with my decklists. Greg was able to qualify and it was great to see him do it in day 1!
So we go onto the games..
Game 1 My RST vs Kitzmans Watto Objective.
He flipped early, I won the podrace, blew the bunker, edged, beat on a lone ability 4 character after he had to drop his hand from The Shield Is Down. This did not help him. Taking like 20 damage from those 3 things in about 1 turn will kill you everytime.
Highs: Great fun playing Don but this game wasnt fun for him. I was hoping to get a townie game 1 I get someone that won $1,000 instead?!?
Lows: Playing Don early when I wanted the people I know to do well
FW +29
Game 2 My MKOS vs Team Vegas Matthew J. Bertas um LS deck LS Combat maybe?
This went great for me first turn play of Gailid, Jabba, Scum, Xizor at 2 JP sites with barrier and NSP on my first turn. The quick drains and Super Boba with other aliens were amazing. Scum was awesome in the retrieval I dont think I ever flipped.
Highs: Berta is cool as heck! It definitely was fun playing Matt, he even gave me his Swingers card!
Lows:Why did I go from Kitzman to another good player Berta?!?
FW 2+19
Top table baby!
Game 3 My MKOS vs Andy Mclures Senate
Again, god draw (read see first sentence of game vs Berta) This game became him using Hit and run EPPs, Lando, etc and me sending Myo into the senate to keep retrieving with scum. The Senate Effects were killing me along with Colo Craw Fish, getting 8 and 9s for destiny all the time sick! He was tracking with naked 3po the entire game too and OOCing everything he could but never got anthing important. The game was called time and I was able to recycle a card to make it 8 card for each in lifeforce as the game ended. We then went to the first tiebreaker cards in lost pile. Since he OOCd about 15 cards from it, I had less whew. I got the timed win to stay undefeated.
TW+8
Highs : Getting revenge on him beating me in the team tournament at DCon last year :).
Lows : timed wins
Game 4 My RST vs Clint Hays Endor Ops Tie Bombers.
What? Clint Hays? I am friends with Clint and all but never played him in a tournament so this was going to be fun nerve racking, but fun.
The game goes like this, he drains in space, I drain on the ground, I win the podrace, blow the bunker. The best move was me Double Agenting U3po at the back door so I could drain right as I blew the bunker. The game would have been his but then I was able to draw I Hope Shes Alright and starting hitting him for damage every turn. This added up since he didnt play a character on the ground. Very non-interactive but hey, that happens :).
FW +13
Highs: Beat Clint, one of the nicest people I have met through SW, no kidding. He really is a good guy.
Lows: Ok, as if playing Clint isnt enough I now get.
Gm 5 My RST vs Hayes Hunters HDADTJ
Ok, so I am 2-0 with light against Hayes and 0-1 with Dark from RamapoCon. Can I win this one? Hope so. I really do not remember this one in great detail because this was the most I have had to think in a game, ever. We would sit there and just look at each other thinking and smiling. It was fun as heck. I would ask him how many cards in his hand and he would laugh knowing I never ever play Grimtaash. Plus when I would try and track, he knows I cannot so we would smile when I pretended to know what the top card was. Its amazing that after a few games we knew each others play style very quickly or at least he knows mine :). I won the race, never blew the bunker, but won somehow. We both thought he had won it since he owned a site on endor and the system while I had a drain of 1 at the D* DB, and two drains of 2 at Executor sites, but I was paying and he wasnt. I somehow won by 3. A late game edge for a few cards, helped make sure I could pay to drain enough. This in my opinion was the best game of SWCCG I have ever played. Amazing.
FW +3
Highs: Beat Hayes too 5-0 with a timed win. This was starting to be a whos who in SWCCG
Lows: the grimtaash I actually did play didnt help. No Lost in the wilderness.
Hayes actually asked me if I played LITWilderness after the game and I said No, not realizing it would be a huge factor in the final 8. :)
Before this game, I mentioned to Bastian that it was only a 3 game tournament for me now. I needed to go 2-1 to make sure I made it in
Game 6 MKOS vs Martin Akessons LS LS Combat Deck.
This was a quick game for me Goo Nee Tay, Epps killing my characters, me getting a whoop from my buddy Martin. Ouch. Looks like the glory days of 1st turn god draws were amazing luck that I would never have again.
FL -26
Highs: At least I was still 5-1.
Lows: Ok, the people have played is ridiculous. Could this get any harder?
Oh yeah, it just did.
Game 7 MKOS vs Bastian Winkelhaus QMC
Ok, this game was worse for me that the last one. Klema let me know early in the day that the way to beat this type of deck is to get my space and go get the system. I tried, he played Alternatives to Fighting. I smiled and said thanks :). At one point Bastian and I were laughing like heck about taking back actions and making sure we were kidding it was cool as heck! We had a blast in this game even though I was getting whooped. Oh yeah, as for after he played that interrupt to cancel my battle, down came some xwing cannons, the outrider, and lots of battle damage. Pretty much ended the game. Scrabble King beat me.
Highs: Fun with Bastian. The people really are why I was here. I played 7 top knotch players this is sick.
Lows: I now needed to win to have a shot at getting into the top 8.
So I figure, maybe now I will get some random guy that was near the top being at 9(+23) Um no, I get Rippetoe, wtf!!! I did not want to face him. He is one of the players that is a great guy but for some reason, I get overwhelmed from playing him.
My RST vs Rippetoe HD Deuling with Wattos Box
After a long debate of the rulings in the beginning about the starting of the podrace (which we both later realized was wrong) I won the race, and beat up on maul for 14 cards or something. I won the game, but felt like utter crud the whole time after because of a timing issue. Brian and I talked after and I felt better but I still feel icky about it. I hoped more than anything that he would make it after this game into the top 8 still.
FW +20
So I end up at 11+43 and after 30 minutes of not knowing if I even got in, I made 5th place to get into the next round. After hearing support from everyone between each round as I was winning and losing during the 8 games, it kept me psyched that I might get into the top 8 and I did. I was so relieved to make it in.
After being relieved and finding out who I would play (Hayes) I started to wonder if he would take the chance with MKOS or play against what he knows. I had an hour to think about it so I went back to the room, showered, relaxed and took off the Shawn Valdez black shirt to expose the Green shirt I had on all day went down they took pictures then we sat down and played.
The game was 1:25 worth of time and I really will not go into detail but I will say while everyone was serious and playing, Hayes and I were joking around for at least 20 minutes. Our first 3 turns must have taken 30 minutes. It was great. We had fun and played another great game. In a nutshell, I won the race, but lost to huntdown the entire game because I never found obi, lost a luke early, and had to hold onto Quigon for a possible beatdown I never got. Near the end I pulled I Did It out of my lost pile and said it to him while 10 people watched out game and giggled. Once again a Champ playing Hayes. Not as close as last time but a great game none the less. Oh yeah, ask Hayes about my phone ringing during out game again.
FL -14
After the game, I went out and told everyone playing scrabble. They congratulated me, and Gemme told me he had me in the random $20 finals pool. He was proud still :).
So I slept, woke up said goodbye to everyone, watched the top 3 SW celebration with Martin, Bastian and Hayes Hunter. Brian Hunter got 4th so he still won a whole bunch of stuff. I got 5th and had fun but didnt get anything like them. No biggie to me. :).
All in all, an amazing weekend. Kind of amazing to me that I was able to play 4 of the 8 finalists and still make it into the top 8.
Props: (In no order)
David Akers and his volunteers for putting on an awesome show!!!
Kim Caton and Bob Caton - for the room and for always listening to me ramble.
Hayes Hunter The best game of my life, and for being one nice guy.
Bastian what more can be said scrabble champ.
Brian Hunter- nice to finally meet him, the rep doesnt fit.
Hays, Lewis, Rippetoe, and Mrs Katie Lewis. These Tennesee Folks I have grown to know for a few years now. Always good to see them.
Berta one heck of a slick fellow heck, hes a swinger.
Tennent nice to finally meet the guy.
Hickey (not the one on Hayes neck), Joe O, Kitzman, Sagan and the rest of the UHaul buddies from RamapoCon. Always a pleasure.
The rest of the UKers these guys just know how to have a good time.
Klema for the deck!
Irvine for the watto help and for being from Florida.
Desai and the rest of the New Englanders (I would like you all, but I am too sleepy :))
Team Ghetto Praskac, Hodur, Flamini, Holman
Yannick, Maxim, and Raphael (sorry man!)
Gundry, 3CG, and the rest of the Jersey Squad.
Bill, Greg, and Jonathan for getting to come down from Jersey and splitting the box of Tattoine for the no errata tournament.
Greg Shaw for getting into day 2!
Brentson, Oakes, Shaut, Martin Akesson, Mclure, and everyone else I cannot remember
Jet fighters flying by every now and then
Slops
The breakfast milk on Saturday that was chunky.
MKOS :)
Scott Lingrell
crngwell@aol.com