ya-hott-kashyyyk-regionals

Title: ya-hott-kashyyyk-regionals
Author: Andy "RexBanner7" Klema
Date: Jun 6, 2002

I’ll never know why I decide to write these things when so much time has passed since the actual event. As the title should make perfectly clear, this is a tournament report from the Kashyyyk Regionals, which were held over a month ago. So, forgive this horribly late TR, but hopefully we will all enjoy ourselves somewhere along the way.

Kashyyyk Regionals were originally scheduled for April 27th with Kris Earle as the director, and was to be held up in Milford, Mass. The problem for me was that I go to school down in Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts was a bit of a hike for me. True, I could play in the Coruscant Regionals, but they were being held after school ended for me, so as far as the road trip was concerned, it was lose-lose. So I decided that I was going to make it up to Mass and play, since I was more familiar with the players there, and I’d have someplace to stay too, namely my buddy Justin Desai’s house. The original plan was for me to fly into Boston on Thursday and stay at Desai’s until Sunday, playing in the regional on Saturday. We ran into some problems when Kris Earle had to back out as the TD, and therefore the date of the tourney was up in the air. Luckily, Paul Laudenbach (sp?) stepped in to cover for him, so I bought the plane ticket as planned and was all set to go.

Desai and I had been talking tech online for a very long time, coming up with new decks, throwing ideas around, etc, etc. The problem was that I hadn’t actually played cards since.... Freedom Con. I knew what was going on still of course, current strategies, what the cards did, etc, but I hadn’t actually PLAYED, felt the cards in my hand, since sometime in November. As I said, this created some problems. We thought we had good decks, but we needed to test a LOT, just to make sure we knew the decks, and so that we could make sure that they were any good. I came into the weekend with a space strong DS Combat that I’ll explain more of later, and a HB Revo deck that I thought would be solid. And with those decks, plus more cards in hand, the trip began.

Thursday morning, I, being a lowly freshman in college who isn’t allowed to have a car on campus, got a ride to the Harrisburg airport from my girlfriend. This was the first time that I had flow since 9-11, so I wasn’t sure to expect of the security measures. Let me break down the restructured airports into simple pros and cons for anyone that hasn’t flown, or for anyone who has and would like to aimlessly reminisce.

Pros:

-Security at the gate isn’t as big a deal as I thought it would be. I got through the whole process in maybe five minutes. I was expected at least fifteen.
-Security to get into the parking lot is also simple. Get out of your car, open the trunk. Wheee. Difficult.
-Ummm, fewer explosions maybe?

Cons:

-People without tickets can’t go to the gate. Honestly, this is balls. It doesn’t take much longer to send another person through the metal detector. Maybe have a limit of one guest?
-In all honesty, teenagers get profiled like a mother @#$%er. I had my bag searched three times out of three flights. That gets annoying after a while.
-A definite lack of strip searches done by hot female security guards. Although the soldier that frisked me was kinda built....

In any case, the airport adventure really wasn’t that bad. I kissed my girlfriend goodbye (out in the main terminal mind you.... grrrrr), bought a pair of nice sunglasses for $7, and went on my merry way.

On the airplane, I get randomly seated next to this pretty hot chick, who immediately asks me if I can put my bad in the overhead compartment since she has like 200 pounds worth of carry on bags. I flash my “I Have No Game” smile, and tell her that it’s no problem, and she shouldn’t worry about it. We start to talk while we’re waiting to take off, and it turns out that she goes to the same school as me. Two dorms over from me. No joke. And my school isn’t exactly big either. 2000 people isn’t much. But somehow, I had never seen her. Freaky. So anyway, during this whole conversation, I’m laying down subtle game. And apparently, I do this a lot. I hit on a chick without really knowing that I’m doing it. My friends at school tell me this all the time. So anyways, I mention that my girlfriend dropped me off, because I’m honestly not trying to hit on the girl, and suddenly she’s visiting her boyfriend in Boston. It just amused me because it was the first time she brought it up, but whatever. She turned about to be a really cool person, and we talked the whole time into Boston.

We arrive in Boston right on time with no problems. I see Desai waiting outside of the gates, so I say goodbye to Sarah (girl that I was talking to on the plane) and greet Justin with the traditional “Yo werd?” Justin responds with “Word!” and it’s good to be back. We manage to take the wrong shuttle around the airport once, and then we get in the right one and head back to Justin’s place.

First order of business is to lay down the game on Mrs. Desai, who I haven’t seen since we picked up Desai for DPC Connecticut (writer’s note: ahahahahahahahahaha). Now before we all start drawing comparisons to Gemme and Mrs. Baroni, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about regular Mom Game. You know, where you act really nice and polite, and make someone else’s mom believe that you’re a really sweet person. So we’re giving Mrs. Desai a ride to school, and I’m wowing her with my tales on anorexia and how I’ll only eat when I’m hungry. Apparently, she’s a health food nut and seems to assume that I’m along those same lines, so I score major points.

We go back to Desai’s and start to test. My HB turns out to be absolute @#$%. Good idea on paper, but in theory it just takes to long to get running and doesn’t work as it should. So now I’m out a LS deck. Desai is playing the DS Senate beast and is running a mad high destiny WYS for LS. The way we figured, the DS would go 3-0 barring the end of the world, so we just needed a LS that would go 2-1. The WYS would do that for him, now I just needed one. I’m playing the DS Combat which has ridiculous amounts of space. Matching pilots with TIEs, 3 Cannons, and normal bounty hunter ships too. Barrier, Stunning Leaders and Force Field to protect Maul, with some EPP Vaders thrown in for beats. The deck is just a beast. So I have a DS that should go 3-0 barring the coming of the Four Horseman, but I need a LS deck. We take a walk down to a pizza place to get some dinner, Desai steals a pencil from an old lady doing taxes, and start planning. We put together a HB flip, but it just doesn’t have the speed I want, and it’s not something that I’m used to playing. So it’s a bad thing to put together two days before the tourney. I had a Profit put together, but I refuse to play Profit because I have a history of playing Profit in big tourneys and having it bite me in the ass. So now we’re still @#$%ed.

When we get back to Desai’s, I flip through the notebook of things I write in class when I’m bored, and I come across this LS Combat that me and Desai collaborated on earlier in the year. It plays really heavy space and uses Kessel to deal insane amounts of drain damage, while using Menace Fades to shut down whatever your opponent does. Evasion keeps the Jedi alive, and combat plus good old battling with high destiny and EPPs keeps people off Naboo. We tech it out, make a few changes, and put it together. It takes a game from the Senate, which should never lose space, so I feel pretty confident with it. We play a bit more, and then pass out for the night.

Friday rolls around, and we drive out to Baroni’s to playtest with him. On the way there, we hear Godsmack’s “I Stand Alone” about seventeen thousand times, so we started making up our own lyrics. Seriously, all he does is rhyme @#$% with “I.” It’s really not hard to do. Key words are “bi” and “pie.” Try it sometime.

Quick note here remarking on the abscence of Mike Gemme: Gemme was supposed to test with us too, but he was directing his first play that weekend at a festival, and he couldn’t make it to the tourney. As you all know by now probably, he took second at Coruscant Regionals, so everything worked out, but of course his presence was sorely missed.

We’re supposed to pick up Baroni from school, so we come up with the ingenious plan to blast random @#$%ty rap song as we roll up into the parking lot. So we roll in, see Baroni, and out of the bad @#$% Chrysler comes “What’s looooooooooove, got to do, got to do with it babe.” Baroni’s looking all embarrassed, so the mission is accomplished. We get to Steve’s house but alas, no Mrs. Baroni is in sight. Oh well, we’ll have to make due. We play some games, and although my DS loses to a horrible draw, my LS hangs with Baroni’s TDIGWATT, so I’m cool with both decks. Desai’s Senate is just a beast as we knew, and the WYS performs admirably too. Baroni is playing HB Flip for LS and This Deal for DS, and even though he talks about changing them, Desai and I talk him out of it because he really has nothing better to play. After a while, we decide to get some dinner at Wendy’s before heading back to Boston. So we get food, yada yada yada, and then Desai decides to call the Numbs from the car phone to tell them what’s up for tomorrow. So Baroni talks to them for a while and then hands the phone over to Justin. THEN, he decides to call them on his cell phone. So Neim Numb is talking to Justin and he’s like “Oh @#$%, hold on. The other line.” And then you hear Baroni: “Waaaaaaazzzzzzuuuuppppp!!!” We’re such @#$%ing dorks. It’s great.

We drop Baroni off, while hearing this one DJ on the rap station use the word “Chedda” far more than any self-respecting black man would EVER use it, and then we head back to Desai’s. On this trip, we decide that the new Celine Dion song will be “our” song, and we swoon in the car a little. We get back into town, and we call my friend Cody, who goes to Northeastern, and tell him to come down now. So we play some games and then Cody shows up. We quickly make him two decks, a QMC and a MKOS. Cody is even more out of practice than I am, and he was never into the game as much as any of the rest of us. So we refresh him on some cards, show him all the shields, and teach him how to play against LSC and Senate. He’s more down to have a good time and hang out than to really try to place, but he’s dangerous regardless. He’s a damn good player, especially when he knows his decks. He play a little more, and then sleep for the night in anticipation of the big day.

We get up at some god awful hour and wait for the Numbs to show up at Justin’s house. There is some last minute card swapping and all that jazz, and then we head out. Stop at Mickey D’s for a quick breakfast, and as we step over the hose that is watering the plants around the place, Ten Numb is clever enough to point out that “We almost got hosed.” This makes that clay mation Mountain Dew commercial one of the theme’s for the day. We show up to the store in plenty of time to get the last few cards that we need, and then chat with some players. Steve Brentson is of course there, as is Karl Sundberg, Paul Maholik, Eric Hunter, Michael Hawley, Steve Colucci, Ross Litteur (sp?), Michael Shiemer (sp? again), and several other notables. A little chatting takes place, and then we start up the games.

Game 1: LS vs Random Scrubs DS Pile

I don’t mean to sound condescending at all, but this was just a random collection of 60 cards. Qui Gon and Yoda came out quick to drain for 4, and then the ships went to Kessel to drain for 7 total. It was a quick and painless game, and one that he really couldn’t challenge me in. I reminded him of things like extra activation, force drains, having enough ability to draw destiny, but you can only do so much. After the game was over, I went over his deck with him and tried to show him some basic strategy that he should look for. Also, at the end of the tourney, everyone gave him packs, so hopefully that should really help him out. I hate to get wins like this, but I suppose you have to.
FW by 39
2 (+39)

Highlights: A big win?
Lowlights: I hate games like this.

Quick note on diff: I have since forgotten exact numbers for diff, so excuse any mistakes that are made. The end number will be about what it should be, but I make no promises about the game to game numbers.

Well, Desai’s a bastard and he got the bye for his first game, with LS. So he basically got a low diff LS win, which is pretty huge. Baroni lost to Sundberg pretty bad, Brentson won, etc etc. On to game duece.

Game Duece: DS vs Michael Sheimer’s Hidden Base Celebration

Sheimer’s a former 2000 ranked player and pretty damn good, but he’s been out of the game for a while, so he’s a step or two behind. He’s also playing a deck that Brentson played for forever, so I know exactly how to beat it. Maul comes down almost right away to do four a turn, and I just build my space hand. He starts to set up in space, and then down come Zuckuss, Baron with a Cannon and the Flagship Executor. I take the system and never look back. After that, I just drain for 6 a turn and make sure Maul stays alive. A much easier game that perhaps it should have been.
FW by 24
4 (+63)

Highlights: Deck worked to perfection. Maul did constant damage and I took space.
Lowlights: None, I suppose.

Desai won his game, Baroni won his, Karl won his, and Brentson won his by a lot. So that sets up the inevitable confrontation that takes place at any tourney with both me and Steve in it.

Game 3: LS vs Steve Brentson’s Senate Beats

I will say this about Brentson’s deck: you cannot avoid the beatdown. You will be beatdown at least once per game. It’s unavoidable. I don’t know if he wants the deck to be spread around, so I’ll be sparing with the detail, but the game basically game down to one turn. I knew that Maul would come down at some point, and I also knew that my evasion probably wouldn’t hold up. So I stacked Qui-Gon, Obi and Caldera Righim at one site, so he couldn’t come down with Dr E as well. So of course Maul comes down, but Sideous also comes down one site over! So I’m thinking “@#$%!” I can’t lose both Jedi this battle or I’m done for. I’m hold another Qui Gon in my hand, so I need him to stay alive. He battles, and I play A Jedi’s Concentration to stop him from swinging. Steve gives me a really weird look, and then starts to shuffle through his cards, all worried. Then he says “Oh. Sense.” And I go “@#$%.” He senses it, swings and misses Qui the first time, then hits the second time and draws a 5. I draw enough to get rid of Maul, but the damage is done. Sideous OOPs both Obi and Qui, and I’m done for. I set up at Kessel quickly enough, but he just tracks a senator around and cancels the drain every turn. I lose. Not much you can do.
FL by 19
4 (+44)

Highlights: A well played game I suppose. Steve’s a good man.
Lowlights: First loss. Sensing the tech.

Well, that sucked. But Desai wins again, so he’s 3-0, and he’s definitely in the hunt. I still have a shot, I just can’t lose again.

Game 4: DS vs Michael Hawley’s WYS

I’m still angry about this game, to be honest. I made one mistake this entire game, and I still couldn’t win it. This DS is designed to beat WYS, and it couldn’t. The game started off beautifully. Maul came down with his saber to start the early damage, and I started building my space hand and started tracking. Eventually he went to space and I’m sitting there with a loaded hand... but not even one of my THREE cannons. And I’ve been checking my reserve every turn with TPM. I just can’t find them anywhere. I make my one mistake somewhere around here. I grab his Control/Tunnel Vision. Normally, this is the right move versus WYS because that card is just brutal. But I was playing Combat. He can’t exactly cancel my drains. So that was stupid, and it, in part, cost me the game. So I battle in space anyway, with a 5 on top of the deck. I’m furious because I’m drawing 3 destiny, but I can’t shoot anyone down, and Artoo, Brave Little Droid, who’s sitting on the Millennium Falcon with Captain Han, which I want to shoot down, will cancel one of those destiny. I draw and he draws, and we each lose ships. But he can lose them to the docking bay because of I’ll Take the Leader, and he has such high forfeit that he’s not making much progress. I’m losing a lot after a couple of battles, even though I’m slowly winning the system. So I have to deploy my other TIEs there, and, after finding my cannons, blow away everything but the Falcon because by now he has his A Few Maneuvers. The Kessel comes down, the Outrider goes to Kessel, and now he can satisfy both Battle Order and Menace Fades. If I had the cannon, I wouldn’t have had to over deploy to Tatooine, and I could have dominated everywhere in space. But instead, ships are still running around, and I have nothing to fight them with. Then It Could Be Worse starts being played on the Maul drain, and he can track it every turn because he’s so low on force. If I hadn’t grabbed the C/TV, I could have stopped it, but I @#$%ed that up. He’s doing barely more damage than me, and eventually he just wears me down. I’m still angry, not at Michael at all. He played a brilliant game. But at my deck for not finding the cannons and for me for grabbing the wrong card. Oh well.
FL by 8
4 (+36)

Highlights: An absolutely great game.
Lowlights: You know. I already said them.

Well that sucked, because now I’m out. And it was the DS that lost. Watch out for Pestilence, Famine, War, and our good pal Death. They should be making an appearance soon. But on the other hand, Desai won again, so he’s 4-0 and in great position. So I’ll just do my part and beat any contenders that I play.

Game 5: LS vs Stephen Colucci’s MKOS Abyssin Swarm

I really don’t know what to say about this game. Stephen’s a very talented player, but I know MKOS like Cody knows the back of my hand. I set up on Naboo of course, and I use evasion to keep out of big battles, and the ability of my objective to kill his characters so that he can’t draw battle destiny the next turn. Qui Gon and Obi kill scores of aliens over the course of the game. I eventually set up at the system with Wedge in ship and Luke in ship. His attempts to win back the system only result in Legendary Starfighter being put on Red 5. He makes some small mistakes towards the end, such as not canceling my Kessel drain with Den of Thieves because he thought it was uncancellable, like the Naboo drains, but nothing that would have cost him the game. I drain him out in the end.
FW by 18 (?)
6 (+54)

Highlights: Controlling ground and space. Pulling Legendary off (not that it’s hard to do).
Lowlights: Low diff for the deck maybe? That’s about it.

Well, Desai lost his last game to Karl by 3, but now Karl and Brentson are going to play again. Karl is undefeated, but has absolutely wretched diff, while both Brentson and Desai are sitting in roughly the same position. So if Desai wins his next game, he’s in with no doubt, as his diff will kill Karl’s if Karl was to lose. Without further delay....

Game 6: DS vs Michael Pistone’s HB Mains

This is more than I could ask for in a matchup. Maul comes down very early with his saber, and starts hammering away with drains. Jedi come down to battle Maul, but some simple evasion and battle interrupts help to clear them out, if they aren’t combated away instead. I make a mistake at one point, battling with EPP Vader when I had no business doing so, but it only costs me 6 or so force, while I’ve been killing him with a combination of drains, combats, and battle damage. Once he starts running out of power characters to throw at me, I just pick and choose my battles at will and dominate the ground, while nothing is happening in space. In the end, it’s a relatively easy win.
FW by 24 (?)
8 (+78)

Highlights: Absolutely perfect matchup for this deck, especially since his deck was lacking SAC.
Lowlights: The one mistake with Vader. But it wasn’t a big one.

Desai does indeed win his last game while Brentson beats Karl, putting Brentson in first and Desai in second! So even though I pull in fourth with Karl coming in third in front of me (with less than a third of my diff too - that’s just weird), my boy does his job and qualifies for day 2. That’s just mint and a half. Baroni and Eric Hunter both finish 4-2, but out of contention for the most part. Cody finishes the day 3-3 with some close games, but a respectable showing, which may be surprising or usual, depending on your knowledge of his skill. I’d lean toward usual. He’s good. No final duel is held because neither Brentson or Desai really wanted to, and I don’t think we had time for it anyway. So we all go our separate ways, with Baroni stealing Eyeore from Brentson. Sigh.

So we pile into Desai’s car, with me beating out Cody for shotgun in a bum’s rush. He claims to this day that I cheated, but he’s a liar and he’s near albino. You know who to trust. So Cody gets to share the backseat with both Numbs and Baroni, who is sitting on the laps on the Numbs, as we take off for Worcester to drop Baroni off. At one point, Baroni becomes worried that he’ll go flying through the windshield if we get into an accident. So the Numbs link arms, effectively creating a seatbelt! Wonder Numb powers activate!!! We make it to Worcester without much fanfare, excepting maybe the near accident with the old guy in the Caddy, but who cares. He’s old. And to quote my good friend Dave, “Andy, if I ever live to be 65...... kill me.”

After we drop Baroni off, and sufficient room is created in the back seat, we begin the trip back to Boston area. Along the ride, the truth comes out that Baroni could have gotten a ride from his dad back to Worcester, but declined, saying that he’d just get a ride back with Desai. The bastard! That would have saved us about an hour of travel time, not to mention some uncomfort in the back seat! So we’re none to happy with him. As we go to drop the Numbs off, Desai becomes increasingly sick of driving, and at one point, threatens the life of random cabbie before laying on the horn for a good ten seconds. So we come to the conclusion that we should hurry up and get somewhere. We drop the Numbs off and then head up to Northeastern so that Cody can grab a shower and change of clothes before we go out for the night. We get very close to the school, then Cody leads us down a side street so we can make a turn, but the street was a one way street! Blah! Because it would take much sidetracking to get back to the school, we, mainly lead by Desai, decide to @#$% that @#$%, and just go back to Desai’s place. Somewhere along here, me and Desai’s song came on, and we clutched each other closely. Details, details.

As we pull into our parking space, I look down at my side and see Baroni’s CD player. Desai isn’t happy because he knows that Baroni will want him to drive it back to Worcester at some point. Then I throw Justin the wallet sitting on the seat and say “Dude, don’t forget your wallet.” Desai then comments on how this isn’t his wallet. Baroni again. @#$%ing hell. But we are still slightly peeved about the excess trip to Worcester. So Desai ganks a 20 dollar bill and says “@#$% it. Beer money.” Oh, and Baroni: 021 66 4048. That’s all I’m saying.

We get back to Justin’s place, where we (not Desai of course) are introduced to the elder of the Desai boys, who was a pretty damn cool guy. We then promptly left the house to go to Justin’s friend’s apartment, first picking up beer (with Baroni’s money - heh). This was made even more funny by the fact that when we were in Worcester on Friday, Baroni was bugging Desai, being like “C’mon dude, buy me alcohol. Come on dude, just this once.” And so on and so forth. So then Desai did use Baroni’s money to buy alcohol. Muahahahahaha.

We get to Justin’s friend’s place, and Justin comes in carrying the case of Busch, or whatever @#$% beer it was. Now, Justin Desai is not know as either “Justin” or “Desai” around BC parts. Here, it is “Homes,” due to his living conditions. So we come in, and everyone’s like “Holy @#$%, Homes bought beer!” Cody and I are confused as to why this is a big deal, so “Homes’” friend Jeremy explains it like so: “You know that commercial where hell freezes over because that guy buys a round for the table? That’s kinda what this is like.” Funny as hell. Then Cody blows it though, by saying that he actually stole money off of a 16 year old kid for the beer. So Desai loses even more credibility.

We then go down to the basement to play some games of beirut. It’s Cody and I versus Jeremy and Justin, and Cody and I dominate the first two games. That’s right, two freshmen dominate two juniors in beirut. That should never happen. Ever. But then as we get more drunk, they come back and win the next two. Then some people who have no respect for the rubber match step in and take the table. Oh well, we split two games and were beginning to get good and drunk. We had bought a disposable camera when Desai went to pick up the beer, so we got some good shots of our various antics. We then headed out to a party that random one of Desai’s friends was holding. Before we leave, I take a swig of Southern Comfort, my favorite drink ever, from a flask that one of “Homes’” friends. Damn that’s good @#$%. I’m already pretty buzzed, and when Desai demonstrates how to do proper bush diving (minds out of the gutter people), I decide to join in. I, being the inexperienced novice that I am, manage to @#$% up my left leg, but I’m drunk so I can’t feel it.

We get into the party and immediately have a beer or two from the keg. Desai is introducing me to mad people, but I can’t really pick out names or anything at this point. He and I steal some hot cocoa mix at one point, which seemed like an absolutely brilliant idea at the time. At this point, I just lose all focus of what happened. I was so out of it it it’s just unreal. Cody and Desai are drunk, but happily so, and they don’t understand why I’m so @#$%ed up. I honestly don’t know either. I won’t make excuses, because I know they won’t hear it anyway, but it was surprising. So I’m just going through the motions of the night. Desai gets in a dancing contest with some fool, and Desai humiliates him, both verbally and.... dancily. @#$%ing non-words. Me and Desai then beat some fools at beirut on the smallest table ever. Seriously, I could reach over and drop the @#$%ing ball in. But then Cody teams up with Random Chick and knocks us off. After a while, we take off, mainly because I’m just out of it. I compound this problem by smoking with one of Desai’s good friends from school. After this, pizza is in order. Cody buys me a slice, and I steal an orange soda, which I very vaguely remember. After this, we go back to Desai’s, and I just pass out. Apparently Justin and Cody stayed up eating pasta for a while, but I had absolutely no knowledge of this. I was out cold.

The next morning, I wake with a slight headache, but no other problems oddly enough. So I take some IBprofin and am raring to go. We chill out at Desai’s for a while, and then we decide that it’s about time to go, since I have a plane to catch at 5. We leave Desai’s around 2, after saying goodbye to his mom, thanking her for the lovely time and working the game. We ride the T or whatever for a while, then Cody goes his separate way. We say goodbye and continue on. Get into the airport at about 3, which apparently is good time. I pick up my tickets, and we make our way towards the gate. It’s about this time that I reach into my hoodie and find the cocoa that we stole the night before. Although we have no way to make it, we develop a craving for hot chocolate, so we have lunch at Dunkin Donuts. Desai chills with me for a while, then he takes off. I say goodbye, and head through security. Again, security is mad easy to get through, even at Logan where two of the planes were hijacked from. But then again, it wasn’t that busy, so you never know. I find my gate, sit down, and pull out Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, one of my favorite books, and start reading. Then, hell begins.

Around 4:30, the announcement is made that the flight will be delayed until 5:45 due to weather at both La Guardia, where I’m picking up my connection to Harrisburg, and there at Logan. So @#$%. But I still have enough time to make my connection. Around 5:30, they come on the loudspeaker and say that they weather has cleared up, and that we are free to depart. Mad cool. So we get on the plane, yada yada yada, and take off.

We’ve been flying for about 20 minutes, when the captain comes on the loudspeaker and says that we’ll be circling over La Guardia for about an hour because of planes trying to land. @#$% again, but it still gives me JUST enough time to pick up my connection. So we get to New York. As in, right over La Guardia. Then the captain comes on again. “Folks, I don’t know how else to tell you this, but La Guardia has been closed due to weather, so we’re going BACK to Boston.” @#$%ing stupid @#$%! This is @#$%ing wretched because I’m probably going to end up staying in Boston again, and I have a paper to turn in at one of my morning classes the next day. I convince myself that I’ll try to find a direct to Harrisburg, and if I can’t, I’ll have to go back to Desai’s for the night. So we get back in Boston and land, but we have to wait an extra five minutes or so because all the gates are full since so many planes are returning to the airport. Then when we do finally get a gate, we have to wait another five minutes for someone to wave us in. @#$%ing hell.

I finally get off the plane around 7:55, and look frantically for a direct to Harrisburg. All the attendants are busy giving people free passes for the next shuttle to New York, but I can’t do that @#$%, so I look on the departures board. Harrisburg: 8:15. I run my @#$% down to that gate and get there a little after 8. I ask the guy if there’s anyway that I can get on the flight. He says that it’s a full flight and that I might be able to fly standby. I say that’s fine, just give me a chance to take it. It’s about this time that the guy’s boss comes over and says “You know what, these people are here and it’s the proper 20 minutes to boarding time. Why don’t you just give one of their tickets to him?” I thank this guy more times than I can even count, get my ticket, and finally relax. At this point, I see Sarah sitting down. She’s waves me over and asks me what’s going on. I tell her my whole story, and she’s horrified. I use her cell phone to call Amie and tell her what’s changed and when I should be getting into Harrisburg. Sarah and I talk about our respective weekends as this flight is delayed from 8:15 to 9:00 to 10:00. We finally leave at 10:00, and I’m in this cramped @#$% front-most seat, and it’s horrible but who cares because I’m going home.

I get into Harrisburg and Amie is waiting for me there. Awwww. I make sure that Sarah has a ride back, and then I say goodbye to her. At this point, I have read 300 pages of Neverwhere. 300 @#$%ing pages. Anyway, Amie and I make it back in to school at around quarter after 12. What absolute hell. Ten hours of traveling. Worst experience with flying ever. But all is well, and that brings my tale to an end.

Now for the time honored tradition of props and slops:

Maddest Possible Props:
-Justin Desai, my boy, for giving me a place to stay, picking me up, taking me out to parties, testing with me, and most of all, for qualifying for Day 2. Congratulations Qualified.

Near-Equally Deserving Props:
-Cody for retaining much of his Star Wars skill, for being a great guy to party with (although I knew this), and for @#$%ing up Desai’s reputation. Atta boy.
-Baroni for being cool as usually, providing some good playtesting games, and not doing so bad himself.
-The Numbs for making horrible jokes, both losing to Brentson, and for saving Baroni’s life with your awesome powers of Numbness.
-Mike Gemme for being an amazing writer, making your directorial debut, and just because.

Normal, Old Fashioned Props:
-Steve Brentson for being the same cool guy I remember, for beating me for the first time in a long time, and for winning the damn thing. Congrats.
-Eric Hunter for being cool, not getting into fights with Baroni (this prop goes to Baroni as well), and for doing pretty decent yourself.
-Michael Pistone, Stephen Colucci, Michael Hawley, Ross Litteur, Paul Maholik, etc etc, for all being great guys, and cool competitors too.
-Celine Dion for making a love epic specifically for Desai and me.
-The store (can’t remember the name) for being a respectable place to play.
-Paul Laudenbach for doing a very good job of running the tourney. Thanks a lot.
-Matt Berta

Slops:
-The cheater that got DQ’d during the second game. Karma dude.
-Flying on the second day. Holy @#$% what a giant piece of garbage that was.

That’s about it for me everyone. Next stop is the NYC Mini-Open. Hope to see some people there. Late.