I only ever met Brian Rempel once.  I was at the last tournament he ever played. Ferenginar regionals 1999 remains the largest tournament ever in the province of Alberta. Forty people from across the province came out one fine summer's afternoon for the chance to compete for glory and a trip to DecipherCon.

    Brian Rempel, Decipher rating 1701 was the man to beat. I had heard a lot about Brian, and seen his name poised above mine in the rankings. In the entire region, he was the only one ahead of me.  He was the best player Edmonton had to offer, I was the best Calgary had to offer.

    Before the regionals in '99, Calgarian STCCG players and Edmontonian STCCG players had never met. It's not a huge distance between the two cities, but most players weren't willing to put in the effort.

    I'd always wanted to meet this Brian Rempel who was ahead of me in the ratings. I'd also always wanted to play a game against him.

    Regionals '99, was huge. People who hadn't played the game in years were there.  Sean Smallman was there. Two ambassadors were there. It was my first look at  the larger player community.

    Brian brought a PNZ deck. I brought a Dominion smackdown deck. I want to point out that was an unusual choice for me-- no one expected me to play something that didn't win first turn. No one expected anyone to play Dominion. Before Rules of Acquisition, they were a poor affiliation at best.

    After four rounds, I was sitting at 8 +400. I was feeling good about my chances. Brian hadn't fared as well, and we had yet to play. He was at 4 +30. I went over to him, and spoke to him.

    "I've heard of you," he said, "Patty Gillard said you are pretty good."

    "She's right," I gloated, "A lot of people have told me the same about you. What went wrong this tourney?"

    Before he could reply, Sean Smallman patted me on the shoulder. I almost fainted with the pain. [footnote1]

    "Olav," said Sean, "you are a brave man. I have never seen a Dominion deck do this well... in fact I haven't seen a Dominion deck played at any regional championship to date."

    After thanking him, I turned around to continue my conversation with Brian, but he was off, talking to Allen Gould, the Edmontonian ambassador. I figured I would speak to him again later.

    I never did.

    The rest of the tournament went predictably; I faced Alex Free in round five and screwed things up big time. This was followed by an embarrasing defeat when I faced David Hyttenrauch.

    A moron named Mike McLeod managed to eke his way above us, blatantly cheating as he did it. [footnote 2] I never got to play Mike either, though if I had, I would have had him disqualified in a moment.

    Mike went on to place last at Worlds that year, he quit the game within the year, but sort of hung on the fringes socially. Brian Rempel disappeared. He never played another tournament, I never saw him again, and I never got to hear his reply.

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[footnote1] He only patted me lightly, but I had four broken ribs from going to "the Phantom Menace"... though that's a story for another time.

[footnote 2] This is not an accusation I make lightly, more a statement of fact. As Sean Smallman put it recently, "I looked on in horror, unable to make a ruling, as none of his opponents called him on it." His cheating included, but was not limited to: illegal attempts to suspend play, playing cards without their activating conditions (I.E. playing a Crosis when there's no RBM to play Crosis on) and moving a Calamarain through the Bajoran Wormhole.