freedom-con-its-worlds

Title: freedom-con-its-worlds
Author: Andy "RexBanner7" Klema
Date: Nov 29, 2001

What FreedomCon was supposed to be for me was a final farewell to this game. I had always planned on riding it out until the end, and always thought the end was far away. But after going to college, I was playing less and less. Playtesting became non-existent, even if it was against myself like I always used to. And then Decipher Con was cancelled. While all hell was breaking loose, I was thinking to myself what a shame it was that I wouldn’t see all of my friends one last time, or meet some people in person for the very first time. With FCon, I was able to do all of that. And this is the tale of how.

As early as June, after Ramapo Con III, Justin Desai, Mike Gemme, Steve Baroni, Jeremy Oakes and I had been planning what we were going to do at worlds, who was going to stay where, etc. Plans really started to kick in after DPC Montreal, with Desai, Gemme and I rooming together while Oakes stayed at a timeshare and Baroni was kept home through his parents’ orders. But then DCon was cancelled and FCon put in its place. Now, it came down to the original plan, plus Oakes in Hayes and Bastian’s room since the timeshare situation had fallen through. And then Ben Rodriguez, one of Desai’s boys, fell in late. And then Baroni fell in at the next to last minute due to smooth talking, Gemme having sex with his mom, or something along those lines. And then Brian (not gonna bother) fell in at the last minute, and our room was set. Justin Desai, Mike Gemme, Ben Rodriguez, Steve Baroni, Brian C, and myself, Andy Klema, all staying in the same room. @#$%ing A.

Although travel plans were confused at first, it was worked out that Justin and Ben would catch the train to New Haven, be picked up by Jeremy, who would come down and pick me up in college, and then drive down to Virginia Beach, all on Wednesday. I get a call from Jeremy on Wednesday saying that they’ll be a little later than the original 2 because of traffic on the George Washington Bridge. Two and a half hours on the GW and some bad traffic later, Oakes shows up around 5:30. I am informed of all sorts of nonsense, most of it revolving around buttery butter and the gaseteria, and then we’re off. This part of the TR is unrelated to the rest in any way, but it needs to be said;

JERSEY ROADWAYS @#$%ING SUCK! LEARN HOW TO BUILD A GODDAMN ROAD!

Nothing of consequence happens until we hit Virginia driving. Ben and I are looking out the back window of the Alluminum Falcon (Oakes’ silver Integra), and notice how amazing the stars are. Back home, I live in a relatively small town, and you can see stars fairly clear, but nothing like this at all. We’re the only car on some road in the middle of nowhere, and we can see absolutely every single star. It’s @#$%ing amazing. When Oakes tries to catch a glimpse of this through the front windshield, we slowly drift off the road and hit the rumble strip, so that’s not the best of ideas. We decide to pull over, and there’s a rest stop coming up. Problem is, as we get into the rest stop, it’s completely lit up by car lights and lamp posts, so half the stars at least are no longer visible. Oakes keeps going through the rest area, almost hitting a pedestrian while trying to look at stars, and a car follows us out. We get off at the next exit, and the car is still following us. So, it’s either a cop, or a crazy guy who wants to kill us. Luckily (which is weird to say), I see it’s a cop as we make the right off the ramp. So Oakes does exactly the speed limit down this road as we look for somewhere to pull over, cop in tow. There are deer all over this road. And I don’t mean “Oh, look at the deer up in the woods, how pretty” type of deer, I mean “Slow down to 20 and get on the opposite side of the road because they look like they’re going to make a run for it” type of deer. After going about five miles on this road, we decide that there is no place to pull over, so @#$% it, let’s go back to the highway. Oakes tries to pull a u-turn in a golf course entrance and exit, but the way between the two is barricaded, so he pulls the entire u-turn in the “in” portion while the cop waits for us in the road. As Jeremy’s about to go by, he realizes that he should say something (and also that his high beams are on), so he flashes the cop his highs, turns them off, and then begins the dialogue;

Oakes: Officer, is there any place around here to pull over?

Cop: (waiting to use this line for the last 15 minutes) Well, you drove right through one back there at the rest area.

Oakes: (3 second pause and all with three other guys in the car) No, I mean someplace dark..........where we can watch the meteor shower that’s supposed to be happening tonight.

Cop: (disappointed as all hell) Oh, well, the only place around here is Colonial Downs, but that would be trespassing.

Oakes: Would it be alright if we pulled over on the side of the road?

Cop: No sir, that would be illegal.

So, Oakes says goodbye and we drive back toward the highway, doing 20 and keeping an eye out for deer. We get back on the highway. The cop tails us for about a mile, and then passes us. @#$%. We drive for a while longer, and then Ben, all of the sudden, says “You know what really pisses me off? Those neutron stars?” Have you ever seen three looks of utter disbelief all cast at the same time in the exact same direction? Then you should have been here. This became the running theme for the weekend; screaming “@#$%!” as loud as you could, and then saying “Those Goddamn neutron stars!” Thanks Ben.

We arrive at the hotel with no further problems, and then go up to see everyone on the second floor, where the convention is being held. As soon as we get up there, Hayes Hunter stands up to his full six feet whatever and greets us. Baroni yells at us from the corner, and we know he’s there too, so the crew is solid. But wait, Brian C is nowhere to be found. Hayes says that he hasn’t seen him all day, and Baroni says he asked at the desk, but he was nowhere to be found. So we decide to just chill out on this floor for a while, stashing our stuff in Hayes, Bastian and Oakes’ room for the time being. Desai and I play random game with my old Senate Space deck vs his WYS. Senate wins because that’s why I built it; to beat WYS, but it’s close at the end because of Legendary on an empty Falcon. I know I have to change my DS, but I also know what I’m going to play; MKOS and QMC. As I said before, it’s been a while since I’ve played seriously, but I have experience with both of those decks, and I’m familiar with the basic playstyle. It was just a matter of learning random tech and the new additions. Before, during, or somewhere after, I’m really not sure, I run into Matt Berta. Vegas Baby! Awesome guy and one of the cooler people I’ve met playing the game. Definitely someone I’ll miss if I stop travelling to play, or if the game dies like it seems it will. We talk a bit about decks and life in general, and then I make a phone call. While on the phone, Matt comes over to me and introduces Justin Warren, an awesome guy who I knew from Decktech, but never had met in person. I talked to him a lot over the weekend, and he’s very chill. Good taste in movies too. For the most part. Heh.

The rest of the night is basically seeing people again, or meeting people for the first time. I saw Bastian again, was introduced to Alex Tennet (very cool guy who held Hayes’ vigil - more on that later), and met Evan Fitzgerald (or maybe met again, I’m not sure if we were ever introduced before that), who was responsible for my alcohol for the night. Icehouse or not, I’m very gracious. Heh.

About this time, someone (I honestly don’t know who) said they thought they saw Brian earlier in the day. So me and Justin go down to the front desk, and they put us on the phone to Brian’s (read; our) room. We tell Brian we’re here, and he comes down to give us a key. You suck Baroni. :) We throw our stuff into the room, and head back down to the second floor, where we would stay until it was time to sleep. I drink enough to get a decent buzz, and me and Baroni make a 7-11 run sometime in the late am, before I go back to the room and fall asleep.

The next day, we wake up around 9 or 10 in the morning. Let me explain a little something about Thursday; there is absolutely nothing happening all day until 5 pm. Yet, we wake up at 10. Balls. But at least we go to IHOP because of it, which is good because IHOP is @#$%ing King. Hayes, Bastian, Oakes, Desai, Ben, Baroni, Brian and I all make the trip. Hayes hears the story of my love life while sharing his, tries to hit on the waitress (dude, who the @#$% calls a waitress by their real name?), and eats two Goddamn waffles. Ridiculous. We get back to the hotel and Gemme is there waiting for us. Awesome. We get down to making decks after that so we can play in Last Man Standing at 5. I become furious at my friend Cody since he has my original QMC deck, and I have to borrow ridiculous amounts of cards for that deck from everyone in the room. The night before, I got a set of shields and the like from Brian C (appreciate that very much), so I’m set as far as that goes. The MKOS takes much less time to build, and we’re all ready to go.

Last Man Standing

Basically, the deal here is that if you lose once, you’re done. If there’s a bye, the person with the highest diff gets it. They actually do try to keep a balance of the sides as best they could, and it worked out pretty well. I apologize in advance for knowing almost no one’s name, and possibly for screwing up the order of my games.

Game 1: LS vs ???’s Senate

This was a fairly easy game (no offense meant, but it was). Set up at the system with ease, then just put out people on the ground to drain while Celebration was up and running. He’s barely draining me because of Battle Plan, and when he does, it’s retrieved by Celebration. Maul comes down, but I Dodge or Path the battle, and Maul just kind of chases random people around. Pucimir comes down, and the game ends pretty quickly after that.

FW by 33
2 (+33)

Highlights: The game.
Lowlights: Non-interaction.

Baroni and Oakes were paired game one (balls), and Oakes won $5 from Desai by beating Baroni because of Monnok and Senses. Huge. Desai wins his game, and I don’t remember how Gemme did. Moving on.

Game 2: DS vs ???’s Combat (maybe? I don’t really know)

This was a standard MKOS game really. Decent enough draw, got Jabba down with Scum out, flipped with an Abyssin, and went for the beats. Again, this is a blur because of the rest of Thursday night (more explanation later), but there was one beatdown for about 22 cards, and then the rest of the game was me draining in the Palace and retrieving with Scum. Imagine how a Scum deck is supposed to work. Put that into this game.

FW by 36
4 (+69)

Highlights: Textbook game.
Lowlights: None really. An inexperienced opponent maybe.

Oakes loses this game, Gemme is out by now, and Desai loses this game or the next one to Evan Fitzgerald’s Sith Fury BHBM. So I’m the only one left, and because of my massive diff, I have a bye for this round. So I go up and chill in the room with Brian, then come back down and play the next one.

Game 4 (technically): DS vs Evan Fitzgerald’s Boomrace

Before the game detail, let me say some things. Evan played this game very well, and I played very poorly. But usually, MKOS wins this by 30+. You flip while draining in the palace, then beatdown on anyone who goes into the Bunker. The podrace will be retrieved by Scum, so it’s no big deal. None Shall Passes and Barriers keep Hit and Run EPPs at bay, and can also set up beatdowns. But, that’s not how it goes this game because I suck and Evan is good.

We both start out pretty standard. Then, on the second turn of the game, I lose. How you ask? I have Jabba, Dannick Jerriko (anti EPP Qui Gon), and two NSPs in my hand. So what do I do? Put down Jabba by himself. Mind you, this is second turn and not everyone has an EPP Qui Gon. Besides, I’ve got 2 NSPs for anyone else. But instead, EPP Qui Gon comes down and hits Jabba up for 8 battle damage. Game. 8 damage that early plus the podrace, plus losing Jabba so I don’t have the +2 to my destinies means game. The rest is just a formality. The chamber gets sealed off a turn or two later, but it doesn’t matter. The podrace is won, and the Bunker is blown after my one attempt to stop it. New Fett, Dengar, and Dr E goes down against Blunt, Madine, General Solo, and perhaps someone else. I miss both shots on General Solo and then don’t have enough destiny left to draw all 3 because I’m a scrub. I lose Dr. E, he loses Madine. Next turn he comes down with two EPPs and I get cleared out. Well played by him, and I suck.

FL by 32.

Highlights: Evan’s an awesome guy. I don’t want it to seem like he was a @#$% or anything, I’m just mad at myself for how bad I played.
Lowlights: The game. Except Evan. He’s a good guy.

So now I’m out, and we resolve to get very drunk for the rest of the night. “Someone” bought some Buds earlier in the day, and I drank about 4 of those before going (along with everyone else in the hotel apparently) to Hayes’ room. Oakes is there, and he’s pretty buzzed, and he also has spice rum. Mix that in with Dr. Pepper and I’m all good. Two Buger King size cups of Dr Pepper mind you. After that, Berta, Hayes, Justin Warren and I go out on the balcony to partake in the darker side of smoking (use your imaginations, and not in a sexual way), which sets me up fine. There is much insanity happening inside, so I’ll break down what it involved;

Hayes and a blow up doll
Hayes with a beer bottle on his finger, both of which are protruding from his crotch (I have pictures Hayes - heh)
Jason Kilby being an all around hilarious guy
The Brits drinking us all into oblivion
Oakes mooning Baroni
Hayes passing out on a bed, nearly crushing Baroni in the process
Baroni booting over the balcony, landing some on Mike Kessling’s pants and Justin’s arm.
Hayes booting like a mother @#$%er.

Now, most people have been hesitant to talk about Hayes’s state that night. I’m not one of those people. :) Hayes drank way too much beer and way too much vodka (straight mind you) together throughout the night. After passing out on the bed for a minute or two, he, Berta, Oakes, Desai and I took on a covert operation which involved stealing around 8 rolls of toilet paper from an employees only section of the 1st floor. Oakes departed after this, so the rest of us went up to our room and the 8th floor where Hayes threw the rolls of tp off of the balcony. Then we kind of went our seperate ways. Berta and I walked with Kessling back to his hotel, The Thunderbird, which was next door. After that, Berta tries to run away from me since I’m trying to take a picture of him, and I end up with this weird pic of him covering his face in a patch of reeds. Most humorous. We come back to Hayes’ room, and he’s passed out on the bathroom floor. He threw up...a lot. Tennet kept watch over him all night, which was such a good move. Thanks to Alex for that. We went to our respective rooms after that, and I just passed out/fell asleep. Good times.

The next morning, I wake up, come close to throwing up, and then don’t. Some water and IBprofin later, and I’m fine. We write up decklists, run them down to the deck check place, and get mad. They won’t take any abbreviations, such as EPP Luke, or even 4-LOM with Gun. I understand only so far, but whatever. After that, we’re stuck waiting around for the tourney to start, so of course, we play Hardcore. I beat Gemme a couple of times the day before, and maybe Desai once too, so I was doing good. Oakes hadn’t lost either, so we played. He beat me in the first series, but then I went on the tear. I ended the weekend with only the one loss. I apologize to anyone who was looking forward to Hardcore Worlds, but drinking ended up being more entertaining. Next year, if there is a next year. I promise. Somewhere around here, I meet Brad Reinhold for the first time in person. Awesome guy, and very cool to hang out with. Hopefully I’ll see him over Christmas if I can make that trip to Albany. Eventually, we get everything together, and we start. I apologize for the complete lack of detail and lack of names (for the most part). This is all a blur, and I didn’t take notes.

Game 1: LS vs Mat Allen’s Lightsaber Combat

Bah. I got some bad luck this game, and played bad too. I put Wedge in ship up at the system first turn with an X-Wing Cannon, but can’t save enough force. I have Elyek Ryue or whatever in hand, and the system is mine next turn. He puts down Zuckuss on his second turn after drawing only one card, and draws a 5 to get rid of Wedge. Well balls. Not much I can do about that. Horrible luck for me, good luck for him. I shoot down Zuckuss, but he No Escapes him back into hand. Basically, we fight over the system for a couple of turn until I win, but that is enough to lose me the game. I suck at tracking all weekend, and I couldn’t pull off a On the Edge for the life of me. Again, I suck, but very well played by Mat.

FL by 11
0 (-11)

Highlights: It was a good game, I just lost it early. Mat. He’s good people.
Lowlights: Rusty playing. Early bad luck.

I realized how much I forgot about this weekend, so I’ll skip to 3 games that were important. In the other 3, I beat an ISB space, beat something, and beat a Hidden Mains played by a really cool guy named Cameron. Had a blast playing him, but I don’t remember all the details, so I’m skipping it. No offense meant dude. One game was against Chris Googlen’s Brangus. Now, I’m friends with Gemme, and as most of you know, there is a feud going between the two of them, Gemme and Googlen. I’m really not involved in that at all besides being friends with Gemme, but I’ll give my comments. My game against Chris was one of the best games of Star Wars I’ve ever played. An absolutely excellent game. And from talking to him during the game, he was a really cool guy too. But this seemed to be obvious to Gemme as well, who got along with Googlen pretty well when the two played each other (both times actually). So I don’t know whether it’s a feud for the sake of being a feud, or whether they put it off to play a serious game or two, or whether none of it really matters. But what I do know what that I played a good game with Chris, and he was nothing if not a gentleman to me, so I have no issues with him. Here’s the game;

Game 5(?): LS vs Chris Googlen’s Brangus

This was basic Brangus vs basic QMC. I put out the podracing shield and the grabber shield early. The podrace does me all of 3 damage, which doesn’t really matter because of retrieval. What did matter was that Emperor and Janus went to his Cantina very early and drained the whole game. The reason no EPP run was made was because I feared Barrier, and I had seen a Vader’s Obsession pulled for race destiny. That’s not something I want to @#$% with. He drained me for 3 constantly, and if I had gotten out Menace Fades, then I would have won the game. But there were too many things that I had to do. Save force for the X-Wing Cannon, pay for retrieval, tunnel, moves characters on Cloud City, lose force from drains, etc. I might have done better if I was in the habit of playing, but that’s neither here nor there. He hit me for perfect Trooper Sabaac 3 times, which I could have grabbed, but didn’t because I saw a Endor Occupation/Masterful Move floating around. If he played that, then he could have Janus’d it back and cancelled any attempt at Celebration. I needed to save the grabber for that, but once he lost track of the Occupation, and after the third perfect sabaac, I grabbed Sabaac. The game came down to one last turn. I got Chris down to 3 cards, then it was his turn. I payed the upkeep on Lando, then On the Edge’d for 2 force (no more because of Secret Plans). He drained me, etc down to 2 cards, one in hand (Dodge), one in force pile. He initiates against Pucimir. First Strike forces me to lose a force. @#$%. I have to lose the Dodge from hand and he hits Pucimir for enough overflow to end the game. If I had let Lando die and retrieved one extra force, I would have won. But hindsight is 20/20 and I’ll accept that loss. What an excellent game.

FL by 4

What the next part comes down to is that I’m 4-2 with mad diff going into my last games. I only need to win one and I’m in. I play Kevin Shannon’s WYS Choke that starts the Camp in my first game. And I lose. I just couldn’t get enough force, and he did me too much early damage. The thing is, if we played it the other way around, I probably would have won, his MKOS to my QMC. That’s the way the matchups role though, and there’s not much you can do about that.

My last game was against Chris McClure. Going into this game, I had just played 7 straight, tough games of Star Wars after playing 4 in an entire 3 month stand, and I was beat as @#$%. Chris was playing HuntDown, and he got a decent jump on me, but I had space, and if I was playing hard, I would have pulled it out in the end easily. Menace Fades comes down with Battle Plan and Celebration out, and that’s game. He had no system to go to, and His characters would have been taken care of by hit and run EPPs. I’m not guaranteeing victory, but I’m coming pretty damn close. The other side of this is that Chris is an annoying little bastard. I’m sorry if that sounds harsh, but it’s true. Andy McClure (Chris’s brother obviously) is a hell of a guy and a hell of a player. I don’t want it to seem that I have a problem with him. But Chris is just too @#$%ing annoying. Sorry, but that’s how I see it. If I spent some more time with him, maybe I’d feel a different way, but I highly doubt it. So what it comes down to is that Chris beats me and moves on. That’s fine. I’ll take 4-4 in my first major tourney in 3 months after not playing at all, and giving up in my last game. Besides, it let me drink like a mother @#$%er on Saturday.

The rest of the night was kind of tame. I drank a little socially, but nothing more. Baroni qualified in Day 1, and, since I forgot this before, Evan qualified as the last man standing, beating Joe Olsen in the final game. That was definitely good news considering Evan being a good guy, so congratulations are in order. Congratulations. And before I forget, Brian C took second at Jedi Knights, which means a Game Cube for him. Huge. Congratulations to him too. I see Scott Lingrell, one of my favorite Star Wars people, at some point in the day. He needs a DS for Day 2. He looks at my MKOS, tests some other stuff as well as that, and then settles on MKOS. Alright. At this point, I kind of forget what else happened, so I’ll end Friday here. In bed.

Saturday I sleep in until about 11 or 12, which just feels so good. This is a bit of a blow off day since only Baroni qualified, so Oakes, Gemme, Desai and I are free to do pretty much anything. Wendy’s will do for lunch, and then it’s just a lot of talking to people and doing random @#$%. Gemme and Desai jump in on a random 4 game tourney with a director who has no idea what he’s doing, but it’s all good. I talk to Scott, Berta, Brad, and Justin everytime a game ends, as well as Steve Brentson who I’d consider a friend from back in CT. Really good guy, and a good player too. As it gets closer towards the top 8, Scott realizes that if he wins his last game he’s in. And he does. Awesome for Scott. MKOS went 2-2 for him, but considering that his Boomrace went 4-0, that’ll do. Brad makes it as well, and all is good. The top 8, in order, is Martin Akesson, Bastian, Brian Hunter, Hayes, Scott, Andy McClure, Kevin Shannon, and Brad. So I can move onto other details, Martin beats Brad, Bastian beats Kevin, Brian beats Brad, Hayes beats Scott. Then Martin beats Hayes, and Bastian beats Brian. Then, as we all know, Bastian wins both games of the final against Martin and becomes the 2001 World Champion. That’s right WORLD CHAMPION. To anyone that says Freedom Con wasn’t worlds, then why didn’t you go to Decipher Con? Oh, that’s right, they cancelled it. Whenever a group of players can organize an international event like this in less than a month, when Decipher can’t even do it in half a year, give some @#$%ing respect. David, Neal and everyone else did a hell of a job putting together a World Championship and, for some people, one last big tourney. The least you can do is recognize it. @#$%s.

And now, for what happened the rest of the day; somewhere around 3 pm, I become so angry that I need to drink. I storm up to the room, and when Brian opens it, I storm past him, grab a Bud, and say “I need such a drink right now.” Brian, confused as hell, asks why. The @#$%ing Elevator. I get on the elevator at the second floor with Brentson, Joe Olsen, and someone else. Random guy gets off at the fourth floor, Joe gets off at the fifth floor, and then the elevator completely skips the eight floor. I am furious already. I thought I pushed the button, and on one of the elevators, the light for the eigth floor doesn work, so I thought I was set. Guess not. The elevator goes up to the eleventh floor where Evan and a friend of his (I think) get on. We get to the eigth floor, and the doors open...a @#$%ing inch before they close again. I am cursing up a storm and Evan and his friend are laughing their asses off. They get off at the second floor, and we try this again. The elevator goes down to the lobby. No one’s there. The elevator stops on the second floor. No one’s there. The elevator stops on the third floor. No one’s there. The elevator stops on the fourth floor. No one’s there. The elevator stops on the fifth floor. No one’s there. The elevator finally gets to the eigth floor and decides to let me off. @#$%ing Elevator. I am so angry, and I drink a Bud in about two minutes while Brian tells me how the college football games are going.

After this, I go back downstairs to see what’s going on. Justin and I decide to go buy some beer, but just as we’re leaving, TJ Holman walks through the lobby doors. We tell him how the tourney’s going, and walk back up to the second floor with him. We stay long enough to listen to him tell us and all of Ghetto Squad about the cop who stopped him and searched his car for pot, before we go out to buy beer. I’ll say this about TJ; he’s cool as @#$%, and he’s funny as hell. Despite what you may think, he’s a good guy.

So Justin and I head down to 7-11 to buy some beer. We decide on a 12 of Michelob (yes!!!), and take it up to the counter. Justin gives the lady working his ID, and then she asks for mine. I tell her I left it back at the hotel (being 18 and all), and she won’t sell us the beer. @#$%ing Goddamn Blue Laws!!! Whatever. We walk back to the hotel, and later on I drive out with Oakes to the grocery store to buy an 18 of Michelob, six more just because they wouldn’t let us buy it before. @#$%ers. I stay in the car this time, and it goes off without a hitch. Then we go back to the hotel. Before this, I was drinking socially again, finishing off the Buds that were left over. Desai, Kessling and I all went down to the beach to enjoy some beer and a beautiful @#$%ing evening. But now, I want to get drunk. So I’m killing Michelob up in Oakes’ room with Desai, Oakes, Gemme, and probably some other people, and then we go downstairs to see how the playoffs are doing. I run into Evan who’s doing the exact same thing that I am; pouring beer into the water glasses they were using during the weekend. They’re basically cheap wine glasses, and I’m doing it just because I want to be able to say cheers and look dignified. I ask Evan why he’s doing it and he says “Because if it’s in a glass, you really can’t tell how many you’ve had.” I ask him what number that was, and he says “I don’t know. It’s in a glass.” I love alcohol and people.

At around 2 in the morning, I make a drunken phone call to my girlfriend, as I promised her I would. In the process of a @#$%ty phone system and me being very drunk, I run out of time on BOTH of my phone cards while Berta sits against the wall and laughs his @#$% off at me. Bastard. I finally get through on some AT&T phone card that probably shouldn’t have worked, and proceed to leave the most random, stumbling phone call that you have ever heard. It was great. After I get off the phone, Berta signs one of my expired phone cards, and I sign the other one “Andy Klema’s Drunken Phone Card” and give it to him. Awesome. I go in to watch the final confrontation, and between watching that and Brain Hunter playing a very tired Baroni, I fall asleep on the floor. I stay awake long enough to see Bastian win it all, and to congratulate both him and Martin, but then it’s all downhill from there. After about a half an hour on the floor, I wake up to Oakes kicking me telling me we have to pack. I stumble upstairs and put everything away. Then Baroni and I get into Oakes car, as he drives down to the airport. Baroni says goodbye, and then me and Oakes take off for a 6 hour odd drive. I sleep for about an hour total, then stay up and talk to Oakes for the last 3 or 4 hours. We get back to my college around 1:30. Oakes comes in for a bit to use the bathroom and talk, then he takes off. I promptly take a four hour nap in my own bed, thus ending the odyssey that was Freedom Con.

And now for the time honored tradition of Props and Slops:

Maddest Possible Props

Jeremy Oakes, for driving my @#$% practically everywhere, being a good Hardcore player, and being one of the best damn guys I’ve met playing this game. IHOP is King!

Quite Mad Props

Justin Desai, for being my boy, drinking buddy, and all around great friend. I’ll see you around for sure, but this should still be written down. Take care.
Mike Gemme, for being one of the funniest bastards I have ever known, as well as the smoothest. It’s been great.
Matt Berta, for being a great guy, a good smoker, and for signing my phone card. You better make a trip out here.
Steve Baroni, for vomiting on Mike and Justin. Heh. Also, for being a funny kid, and a better player than me.
Hayes Hunter, for throwing up a lot, for providing me with many humorous pictures, and for finishing third. Awesome @#$% dude. I’ll be talking to you.
Scott Lingrell for being one of the coolest guys that I’ve ever met while playing this game. And for making it to the finals with my MKOS. Rock on.
Justin Warren, for being a very cool guy that I just met. And for complimenting me on my Fight Club pin. At least you can appreciate the pin, if not the movie. :)
Brian C, for not knowing who bought the beer. :) And also for taking second in JK. You’re a good man.
Ben Rodriguez, for neutron stars. Enough said.
Mike Kessling, for drinking better than Baroni, and for being cool. If I don’t see you again, I’ll be talking to you online.
Bastian, for winning it all, lending me a Path, and for tolerating being called BW. You’re a funny German.
Brad Reinhold, for being a really cool guy, and for liking Hardcore. That’s good enough for me. Might see you and Mike over Christmas.
Alan Sagan, because I just realized that I forgot to mention you in this TR, but you’re still cool. Sorry about that.
Joe Olsen, Charles Hickey, Jason Kilby, for all being really cool people, Joe for playing Hardcore, Hickey for raping Oakes with Watto, and Kilby for the blow up doll. Good times.
Evan Fitzgerald, for beating me, making it to Day 2, and for drinking beer from a wine glass. The man’s way. Heh.
Steve Brentson, for being a really cool guy throughout the three odd years I’ve played, and for everything you taught me, directly or indirectly. I hope to see you in CT or elsewhere.
Alex Tennet, for holding a vigil over Hayes. That was a really cool thing to do. Also, for being cool yourself. Glad to finally meet you, and I hope to see you again.
Chris Googlen, for being a good guy and for giving me a great game, feud or no feud.
TJ Holman, for being so damn funny.
Brian Hunter, for being cool for the 5 seconds I talked to him in person.
Anyone else that I forgot. It’s a lot of alcohol and time later, but it was a blast.

Slops

Anyone who says Freedom Con wasn’t Worlds. See above rant.
No one else. Annoyances or grudges are behind me. It’s been a blast.