They had come from everywhere. Star Trek players from all across the vast continent of Australasia, all shapes and sizes, to compete for all the marbles, the big one, the seat at the 2000 Star Trek World Championships. Players from all across Australia and New Zealand showed up, many spending hundreds of dollars just to attend, all hoping to walk away from the weekend with a plane ticket to Miami in hand, and grin on their faces. And in the middle of all of that was little ‘old me! I had previously only really played in two tournaments, so experience wasn’t exactly on my side, but, well, we can all dream can’t we?
   With the new qualifying system in place, any player can show up on the first day of a National Championships, with the top 16 going through to the second day along with all the state champions to playoff for the trip to the Worlds. It was my goal of the weekend to do two things. I wanted to qualify for the second day, and I didn’t want to finish last on the second day, so I figured that if I managed to get through the weekend with those things intact, I’d be fine. So I packed my things up on the Friday night prior to the tournament, making sure that everything was in its right place, and made my way to the first day of the Australasian Championships.
 
Day One
With a scheduled tournament start of 9am, I had aimed to turn up at around 8:30am just to be sure, and courtesy of a parental ride into the city, I found myself being the first person to get there at 7:30am, so I had some time to kill. I spent the hour and a half waiting patiently, checking deck lists and just being generally sure that everything was in its place. I also spent the time wondering if fellow player Jim De Vries had brought that Seven Of Nine with him so I could use her in my deck. I was taking a Borg Dual-Icon solving deck, so speed was a key for me, and with the Seven Of Nine, well, she just makes the deck all the quicker. So it was with slight disappointment when I learned that Jim didn’t have the Seven, though I must give him credit for trying. Ultimately, another player. Brad Aitken leant me his Seven, so my deck was complete anyway, luckily. So it was onto the tournament, with 18 people turning up on time, so there were sighs of relief from most people, as they realized there would only be 2 unlucky ones not to qualify. It was just a matter of whether or not it would be me……
 

Game 1 vs Luke Falvey’s Romulan Process Ore Deck
I started my championship campaign against Luke, who traveled about an hour to get to the tourney, from the nearby city of Geelong. Quietly confident to make it through my first game with a win, I drew my seven cards and went to work. I downloaded Seven early with an Awaken, and many other drones with other Awakens, as well as dropping the Queen with my card play. As Luke put it “it’s the fastest Borg deck I’ve ever seen”. With a cube scouting 2nd turn, I tripped a self-seeded Ooby Dooby to draw some cards, picking up Bareil of Borg on the way. I then churned through the dilemmas to score a 100-0 win without Luke having the opportunity to attempt a mission.

Full Win 2 (+100)
2 (+100)

Highs : Good way to win first game up, getting everything set up early.
Lows : None.
 

Game 2 vs Tim Read’s Federation VCM deck
Up next was Tim, who I had played a version of this deck against the week before, so he essentially knew what was coming up. Knowing my deck well, he used his strong Anti-Borg dilemmas and Amanda Rogers’ to slow me down, and in the end, he just outgunned me in a speed race, taking the game 100-25.

Full Loss 0 (-75)
2 (+25)
Highs : Getting a cube out fast again, always a good laugh against Tim.
Lows : Getting beaten rather comprehensively.
 

Game 3 vs Simon Schwind’s AMS Klingons
Previous World Championships qualifier Simon Schwind was my next opponent, and he also had a pretty good idea what I was packing, courtesy of speaking to his brother who had also played the deck the week before. With seven Awakens for an opening hand though, I knew it was going to be a fast game either way, and once again I was on the spaceline second turn. I then proceeded to make my way through plenty of dilemmas as he continued to AMS for his personnel and reported his Androids, though in the end, my speed just got me over the line for a 50 point win.

Full Win 2 (+50)
4 (+75)

Highs : Seven awakens to open up with.
Lows : None.
 

It was then a break for lunch, so Jim De Vries, myself and Tim Read went down to KFC to get some lunch and talk about how we had been doing. Tim was at 2-1, as was I, and I can’t remember where Jim was, but we were all well in contention, especially considering only 18 had turned up, so we were all pretty relaxed. Much Seinfeld was spoken of, as per usual, but it wasn’t long before it was back to the tournament, and game 4.
 

Game 4 vs David Hamilton’s Cardassion Mission Solving
Things really started to look astray here. Once again, cube on the spaceline early, and I began scouting, and made my way through dilemmas, but in the end, my Adapt: Negate Obstructions were nullified so many times, and I ran out of A Change Of Plans, and Regenerate, so I was essentially locked out, while David went along and completed his missions to my dismay. A good game though, as David deserved his win with a good set of counters.

Full Loss 0 (-100)
4 (-125)

Highs : Getting the cube going yet again.
Lows : What a long, painful game.
 

Game 5 vs Luke Watkins’ Federation Mission Solving
It was at this point that our tournament director Terry Lyons so wonderfully informed us that there were in fact 22 people present, which sent a buzz through the lower placed people, and a panic began to set in with many of them. Myself included. I figured if I could pick up a win here, I would be fine, and I could relax in the last game. As it happens, it wasn’t to be. With a cube on the spaceline on turn 3, I tripped over Paxan Wormhole, and my opponent sent me to my outpost, next turn closing my Transwarp Network Gateway. Unfortunately for me, by the time I figured to ask whether or not it was legal to do so, it was too late, and I was locked out of my deck once more (just for the record, a ruling was asked for from Decipher that night, and it indeed was legal anyway). In the end, an easy win for Luke, and boredom for me, as I continued to report drones, at one stage sharing the Queen’s skill of Barbering with all 15 drones…..

Full Loss 0 (-100)
4 (-125)

Highs : Sharing the Queen’s Barbering.
Lows : Yet another long and painful lockout.
 

Game 6 vs Lynden Verrier’s Dominion Colony
So, it all came down to this. A win, and I’d qualify (at least, I thought I would) and a loss, and I’d be spending the Sunday helping my dad with backyard work. Considering the situation, this was the most fun, and the most relaxing game I had all day, and all props have to out to Lynden for creating such a fun atmosphere. In the end, it was a speed race, with my Borg racing through dilemmas and making double turns with a previously earned Horga’hn, and his Dominion doing the same with his colony. With one turn to spare, I probed correctly with Assimilate Planet, and secured the win by 50 points, but one more turn, and I would have been toast.

Full Win 2 (+50)
6 (-75)

Highs : Such a good, fun game, always nice to see people relaxed for a change.
Lows : Knowing that somebody had to win, and that Lynden couldn’t instead win.
 

Then began the tense wait to see if I had finished in the top 16 to qualify, and at 3-3, I figured I would, but with a lot of people also finishing 3-3 in what proved to be a very close contest overall, I just didn’t know. As it happened, I finished 14th, so I just got through, and what I sigh of relief it was. I had achieved one of my goals for the weekend, that of qualifying, so for the next hour or so, I was just relieved and relaxed. The tournament was won by Andrew Rowse of Dunedin, New Zealand,  who to his credit, had survived the trip over from New Zealand to take the tourney, as well as qualification through to the second day of the championships.

It was then on to Brad Aitken’s house, along with Jim De Vries, for some deck building, sleep and some dinner. Thanks must go out to Brad (and his mum) for being such graceful guests, especially considering the company that they already had. It was a happy group that arrived though, as Brad had finished in 15th and Jim in 12th, so we had all qualified, and were all rather pleased with ourselves. But we all knew that we had bigger fish to fry the next day, so we got down to building our decks for the second day of competition. As it happens, I changed my deck from a Borg speed deck to a different type of Borg speed deck  =), and I was hoping that it would hold up, though I wasn’t too confident. But waking up at 6:30, we were ready to go, and it would be a day that would be memorable for many, for sure.
 

Day 2
Once again arriving right on time, we all got down to our deck lists and in the end, many of us had to hurry through them just to get them in on time. After a quick briefing from Terry though, it was down to business to see who would take the crown of Australiasian champion.

Game 1 vs Sarah James’ VCM deck
Frought with nerves, I entered this first game against Sarah, who had, like most people, qualified the day before. She was playing a Federation VCM deck, and I knew that I wanted to be fast to get out and beat her for speed. In the end, some rookie mistakes on my part, and some good moves by her won the game for her. She came away from the first game with a 50 point win, and I was left to rue all of the cards I had left out just hours before….

Full Loss 0 (-50)
0 (-50)

Highs : Not many. Deck came out alright…
Lows : Learning all of those cards I took out.
 

Game 2 vs Bernard Ching’s Federation Q-Bypass
Bernard was our state champ, and I just knew from the start that it was going to be a tough game. And as it happened, I got my deck out fine, and started down the spaceline, but it was then that he hit me with his Q-bypass, and won the game in one turn, with a Distortion of the Space-Time Continuum. Not much I could do against him, except once again rue those deck changes that I had made.

Full Loss 0 (-100)
0 (-150)
Highs : I managed to get the deck to come out well.
Lows : I still got beaten!
 

Game 3 Bye
As it happened, our other state qualifier Kevin Chi’ng, turned up late to the tournament, and in his wisdom, Terry let Kevin play in the tournament with a loss in the first round. This added a bye which was passed onto me in the third game. This would be the last bye of the tournament though, as Brad Aitken was disqualified for having 31 seed cards in his deck, which he gracefully pointed out himself, and essentially disqualified himself. It was a true moment of sportsmanship, one that gained Brad much respect, not only from myself, but from many others at the tournament as well. It was especially disappointing, because I knew how much Brad worked on his deck (and as he would tell you, I fell asleep during the making of) and I really thought he would have done well with it.
 

Game 4 vs Simon Schwind’s Romulan AMS
With my bye giving me 2 points, I drew Simon Schwind for the 2nd time this weekend, and he was playing virtually the same deck with Romulans replacing the Klingons. Once again I got out fast, and begun scouting the first planet before he slowed me down with some counters and I was forced to use A Change of Plans. I managed to pull off 2 objectives, though in the end I wasn’t fast enough, as he made his way past my dilemmas for a 50 point win.

Full Loss 0 (-50)
2 (-200)
 

Highs : A good competitive game that could have gone either way in the end.
Lows : This day was sliding further and further….
 

Game 5 vs David Knight’s Klingon/Romulan Mission Solving
David and I both knew each others decks inside out in what was later dubbed the “Battle of the Basement” as neither of us had won games during the course of the day. It would prove to be a long game, almost going to time, and it was close all the way, with my deck assimilating a few of his personnel with the Borg Cutting Beam, and his deck whittling away at my dilemmas. In the end, with one turn to spare, I probed correctly for Assimilate Planet, and pulled of a 20 point win.

Full Win 2 (+20)
4 (-180)

Highs : Its always nice to play David, and this time was no exception, plus I did win my first game of the day!
Lows : I knew Dave was disappointed, plus he was losing his voice too, so I felt pretty bad.

Game 6 vs Ian Graves’ N/A and Rommie Mission Solver
With a win on the board, I was pretty relaxed and just  wanted to have some fun for the last game, and by drawing a Black Hole, I thought I’d have some fun and played it first turn. Without Examine Singularity on either side, the Black Hole slowly began to eat away, and it would prove to be my own downfall, as it ate my Borg Cube =) In the end, I didn’t really do much, but I did manage to pull of one objective, but essentially, Ian was just a better player, and he deserved the win.

Full Loss 0 (-75)
4 (-225)

Highs : The tournament was finished.
Lows : The tournament was finished.
 

In the end, the second day was rather disappointing, as I only pulled off one win, but I did complete my objectives for the weekend, finishing 17th out of 20 for the second day, so I wasn’t too disappointed. Actually I was too tired to be disappointed anyway, so that wasn’t too much of a problem =) In the final confrontation, Steven Livanes came against Neil Martin, and they had apparently played each other in the 5th game, so it was set to be a close tough encounter. In the end, Steven came away with the win, and a second trip to the Worlds, so all congratulations must go out to him for that. Playing partner, Jim De Vries finished at 18th, so it was a rather disappointing weekend for our playing group, but we all resolved to come back next year a stronger group, and I’m sure we will.

Tournament Props :-
Terry Lyons – For running two great tourneys, and just generally being a great TD for the weekend.

Brad Aitken – For putting up with me for the weekend, as well as lending me the Seven of Nine on the two days, as well as half of his collection for the second day, not to mention putting us up in his house for the Saturday night. Thanks Brad =)

Anyone who came from outside Melbourne – Especially Andrew Rowse, but anyone who came down from outside Melbourne, thanks for making for a great tournament weekend.

- Sean ‘I won’t be touching Trek for at least two weeks now’ Mackin