rochester-mn-directors-report-3-24-01
Title: rochester-mn-directors-report-3-24-01
Author: Peter "jeeps" Jacobson
Date: Mar 24, 2001
Greeting Fellow Star Wars Fans...
It’s been a while since I wrote one of these Director’s Reports... In the time since my last one, a few things have changed for me in the SW:CCG world. I became a Squadron Member for Decipher’s Product Champion team. All this means to you guys is that I basically have to run events monthly and know my rules really well... for me, it means I have a few ... member benefits which I won’t go into here. Anyway, I am excited about the "appointment" to this position. I wasn’t the only one in MN to get this honor. Nick Kolnik also received his "wings" to the program. I wish to congratulate him and to thank Dion Erbes and Dan Meyer for the nomination and help in getting this. Thanks guys.
On to the tournament...
Today’s tournament went very well and I would like to thank all you for coming. The number of participants (20) was high and the game play exceptional. I was surprised to see many old faces of those who drove quite a distance to play this GREAT game (a big "shout out" goes to the Brainerd crew who forwent the St. Cloud tournament to drive here! Thanks guys!). I was also pleased to see many of the Dodge Center gang who seem to be sticking with the game (or at least, around it). Ben Pischke gets the unofficial "He’s a True Fan" Award for coming "in costume." Ben spent some time at this. He painted his face and neck in remarkable detail to Darth Maul, brought his whooping stick and a dozen random cards he called his "charms of luck," and battled with the best of us. Although, Ben didn’t place as high as he would have liked, he won the style portion of the tournament. Pictures will be on Nick Kolnik’s web site soon of this event.
Speaking of which, a HUGE thanks goes to Nick Kolnik and Dan Meyer. Nick helped me immensely with keeping time at this event and even helping to "confirm" the rulings I made (it always helps to have another person to agree with you on something.). Also, Dan drove up here by himself, in spite of a tragic situation that occurred a few days ago in his town of Forest Lake. A student’s mom was killed in a car crash. Dan attended the wake the evening before and will be attending the funeral tomorrow. This is why he chose the closer location of Rochester, instead of the "high octane" event in St. Cloud. I am sure I can speak for all of us when I say, our thoughts and prayers go to the family. (Continuing, on a lighter note) There were also several local Rochester players here today, which is always great to see. You guys are what keep these tournaments going. If there wasn’t a steady base of players, I am sure we wouldn’t be holding monthly events like this. Thanks a bunch!
The fact that we had a Star Trek tournament of 9 players going at the same time caused a little bit of space problems, but Matt Zander did a great job in running it. Together, we were able to co-habitate in the same location with no problems.
The games were fun to watch and the sportsmanship was positive. Above the usual clarification rulings I had to make, a few rulings got a little... warm, shall we say. Nothing out of control, but one game in particular hinged on a matter of a few actions and on being able to take back actions. As a director, I can’t interfere with games as they are being played (even if I see something going wrong). If a player asks for help or for a ruling, even then, my responsibility is to not change the course of the game, only straighten in out. In this case, the players were concerned about a series of actions, to which I could only back up the fact that the opponent can "choose" to let a player take back ONE action. Other than that, nothing can be done, even if a mistake was made. As it turns out, the outcome of the game didn’t really hinge on this event, and the tournament went on rather smoothly.
There were NO undefeated players at this event and NO totally defeated players, which for me is always a great thing to see. I like the fact that everyone got a taste of victory and the agony of defeat. It was a battle to the very end, but when the dust settled, Rochester’s young Andrew Stenson defeated veteran Dan Meyer for, hailing from Forest City, IA the unanimous champion of the tournament. In Andrew’s own words, he was playing a Hunt Down deck that was "high risk, no retrieval. All bounty hunters in ships except for Dengar, Chimera and Thrawn. [The deck was] bent on dueling with always an emergency card like Ghhk. 4 vaders." This seemed to work well for him as well as his There is Good in him deck, which went 3-0 today. Eric Pearson of Waterloo, IA, strangely enough snuck into the 2nd place spot without even playing, Andrew, Dan, or Garrett Larson. Had Eric not had a timed win in the first game, he would have had enough differential points to push him over Andrew. As it is, here are the results of today’s tournament:
1) Andrew Stenson 10 (57)
2) Eric Pearson 9 (96)
3) Daniel Meyer 8 (69)
4) Garrett Larson 8 (60)
5) Bryan Casey 8 (-1)
6) Ben Steines 7 (56)
7) Aaron Kurtzhals 7 (39)
8) Matt Scherger 6 (25)
9) Caleb Grace 6 (21)
10) Ian Hubrig 6 (0)
11) Jeff Warne 6 (-6)
12) Karl Kaliner 6 (-17)
13) Larry Egeland 6 (-20)
14) Dan Albright 4 (-13)
15) Josiah Benedict 4 (-23)
16) Joel Kurtzhals 4 (-48)
17) Ben Pischke 4 (-54)
18) Isaac Hedberg 4 (-57)
19) Joshua Laplander 2 (-71)
20) Ryan Trogstad 1(-91)
LS Full Wins: 29
DS Full Wins:24
LS Timed Wins: 1
DS Timed Wins: 2
Bye Wins: 0
Largest win (Diff): 36 (Matt Scherger)
Smallest win (Diff): 1 (Larry Egeland)
As usual, Face the Music provided handsomely to the prize support. Along with the two foils Decipher sent me (The Signal/Imperial DECREE:)), Face provided us with TWO Japanese Darth Vader Foils, a Leia w/ Gun (foil), Obi w/ Stick (foil) and two boxes of EPP... This always helps spread the prizes fairly and lavishly to all the participants. It is truly appreciated by all. I want to give Craig and his staff at Face the Music a big thank you for this.
The deck types were truly something to marvel at. At this event, I asked the players to record the decks they brought on the back of their command cards, so I can see what decks were played and what seemed to be trendy. Here’s what I found.
Light Side Decks: 20
You Can Either Profit By This/Or Be Destroyed- 5
Echo Base Operations 4
There is Good in Him- 3
Mind What You Have Learned- 2
Quiet Mining Colony 1
Rebel Strike Team 1
Hidden Base- 1
Throne Room Mains 1
Docking Bay Deck 1
Watch Your Step 1
What I find most interesting is that Watch Your Step, arguably the most discussed objective out there now, was hardly existent. I have no explanation for this strange phenomena. It will be interesting to see what was being played in St. Cloud for Light Side.
Dark Side Decks- 20
Bring Him Before Me- 7
Court of the Vile Gangster- 4
Hunt Down and Destroy The Jedi 2
Dark Deal (no objective) 1
Carbon Chamber Testing 1
Endor Ops (Flip) 1
My Kind of Scum 1
"Squishy" ISB 1
Walkers (No Walker Garrison) 1
Seinar Fleet Systems/Space Deck 1
BHBM seems to be the deck of choice in this area. There weren’t many DS2 Emperor Palpatine’s to trade, so I assume the Reflections II Emp, made it easier for this deck to be made by newer and older players alike.
Well, that is it. Thanks for reading this. Look on Nick’s web site soon for images of the event at:
http:///www.angelfire.com/mn2/ustbluethrawn/index.htm
I am not sure when this will be up, but Nick’s very good at updating his site, so be sure to check it frequently. I know I will :)
Presently, I am planning on trying to get another tournament set up for the first weekend of April or possibly the third or 4th weekend of April. I know that Dion Erbes’s tournament will be the 3rd weekend, so I will try not to book another one on the same day. I need to check my other responsibilities to see what the situation is.
Until next time...
Peter "jeeps" Jacobson
Bravo 62