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European Continentals, or "how to exhaust up to 15 volunteers"
by Peter van Vliet, aka Lightner Saturday, August 3rd 2002 The first day of the European Continental Championships. I got up at 5.30, showered (it's not only for tournament players you know :-), got dressed, got into a cab and headed for the train station. If everything went well, I should be in Amsterdam at 08.20, and at the venue at 08.40. Well, I had a slight delay, but got to the RAI at 09.00, where I got to meet fellow judges Tristan Marsman, Thorsten Wanek and Stuart Lauder, and a bunch of LotR volunteers. Joeri Hoste and Marcus Shepard were present for Decipher. Registration started at 09.30, so all volunteers were working hard to get the venue in order, and to build up the Decipher Store. At 09.30 exactly the tickets-booths opened up, and I was stationed at the door to check if everyone had a ticket. After about 45 minutes, the crowd was thinning, and we decided I should go get ready for the side-events for that day. The main tournament started at 11.00, and the side-events at 11.30. So I waited for players to show up for the Voyager Starter/Enhanced Premier Pack Warp Speed tournament. At 11.00, I had 3 players signed up. I wasn't very happy, especially because registration for Lord of the Rings was going at quite a better pace. Luckily, some players showed up a bit later, so we could start the tournament with 13 players! Fun was had by all (it's quite a combination, Voyager and Premiere), and at the end, I was happy to tell Tessa Kortleve she had won her very first tournament ever. Prize support consisted of 4 foils and a box of Mirror Mirror boosters, so everybody went away happy. In the meantime, the main event had drawn in 23 players from all over Europe, trying to get into day 2 of the EC. Since 16 players were going to qualify, competition was stiff for some of the weaker players. During the tournament it became clear that you needed at least 5 points to get into day 2. More on that later. We had one more side-event for the day, a player's choice 1st or 2nd Anthology Sealed deck. We managed to get 8 players for this one, with a split of 3 1st, and 5 2nd Anthologies being played. This was also a fun tournament (seeing a lone Rogue Borg Mercenaries being Amanda-ed, a Kivas Fajo being Mirror Imaged (!), mission attempts getting Fair played :-), and lasted for 3 rounds. The final round saw Tessa going up against Helge Blohmer (aka Wesley Crusher), with Helge taking the win, meaning he won the tournament. Tessa still came in second, though. Both of them were playing with a First Anthology, which surprised me a bit. For this tournament, prize support also consisted of 4 foils and a box of boosters. And again, everybody walked away happy. Over at the main event, 16 players qualified. These were the standings
after 6 rounds of play:
So, after cleaning up, we went to dinner with all the volunteers. After trying to arrange a few hotel rooms (and failing miserably) for a few people who didn't have a place to sleep (or couldn't get there because their car gave up), Tristan and I decided to share a cab to bring him to his room for the night and me to my hotel. People, if you're ever in Amsterdam, try the public transportation first! I had to pay 35 Euro (approx. $35 ,-) for a cab ride that didn't even last 25 minutes. Anyway, I got to my hotel at 1.00am, set my alarm for 6.30am and went to sleep. Sunday, August 4th 2002.
The Netherlands: 12 players
At 11.05am, Tristan started pairing the players, and then turned to me. His voice couldn't get the attention it needed. Mine could :-) (If you were there on Sunday, chances are you heard me announce the rounds). Walking along the tables, answering rules questions, I was happy to notice quite a bit of different decks at work. Vic Fontaine showed up in quite a few decks, as did Cyrus Redblock. There were also quite a few Delta Quadrant decks, though it was good to see some Klingon (without any holograms), Federation, Borg and Romulan decks as well. Olav's "Holy Hexany" was, surprisingly, only seen in a few decks. A lot of games went to time. After 6 long, long rounds, the standings were:
As you can see, every player who started the tournament also finished
the tournament! After round 6 we gave out prize support, with the
exception of 1st and 2nd
3 uncut sheets (Blaze of Glory Foil sheet, TMP Rare Sheet and TMP common,
uncommon sheet)
After everyone received their prizes, we set up the playing area for the final confrontation between Alex Roos (NL) and Markus Rass (Ger). People could watch it if they wanted to, and they did. I think the final confrontation drew in about 20 spectators. After everybody settled, we announced the final as an untimed game between Alex and Markus. Their previous match (in round 5) had gone to a True Tie at 0-0. Both players were playing Hirogen/Non-Aligned/Armada/Outgunned decks. Markus had seeded Liberation and 5x Patrol Neutral Zone (in the final, they were all foiled, as he borrowed them from everybody who got them as prizesupport :-) Alex had an all DQ spaceline. Everybody was in anticipation of a great match, between 2 great players. Unfortunately, we didn't quite get it. The game was virtually over after turn 2 of Alex, when he had 74 weapons in play, and Markus couldn't get his deck to work as it should. Nobody doubted Alex would win in a turn or 2 more. Alex had different plans. He made Markus suffer. A lot. It almost backfired. Alex had only 10 dilemma's in the deck, and had seeded 9 of them under Markus' PNZ's. There was one PNZ (at the end of the spaceline) with only one dilemma, all others had 2. Markus dropped a ship, wormholed over to the PNZ next to the one on the end and attempted. He hit the Dead End everybody was expecting to see under the mission next to it ;-). On Alex's turn, he loaded everyone and every ship onto his Kazon Warship, wormholed himself to the Neutral Zone and Outgunned the lone ship there, capturing a crew of 4. He then attempted to steal one of Markus' PNZ's, but Markus could stall Alex by revealing HD: Defensive Measures. And then the blooper of the day happened. Remember, Markus was the current European Champion at that time and is ranked number 7 in the world. He got another Ship drop at Caretaker's Array, wormholed himself to the Alpha Quadrant and attempted the PNZ on the far end of the spaceline. Alex quietly pointed to his 7 ships in the Neutral Zone. Markus was not happy at that time. The crowd couldn't help laughing ;-). And all the while, Alex was chasing Markus' ships and personnel all around the spaceline, gaining points through Relics of the Chase. He then took his ships out of the Neutral Zone, back to the DQ, and captured another lone personnel at Liberation, which was left there by Markus after trying to help Alex get rid of a few dilemma's, so that Alex would finish the game. Alex didn't attempt. With Alex's ships gone from the Neutral Zone, Markus made one last effort to get some points and attempted the same PNZ again, only to hit a Whale Probe. A turn later, Alex blew away the ship, and Markus decided to call it quits: he called Devidian Door, giving Alex an official 100-0 win, making him the new European Champion. It was now approximately 22.00pm, and we had another round of prizes to give out. Alex got the 1st place Trophy, a flight to DecipherCon, a binder with 9 foils, and an uncut sheet of TMP rares (his own choice). Markus received the 2nd place Trophy, the Blaze of Glory uncut sheet, free entrance to Gencon UK and a foil card. After cleaning up, there was a small volunteer's summit, where Decipher gave us some information on things happening with Lord of the Rings and on Star Trek 2nd Edition. At 23.00pm we (Tristan and me) left the Rai, got into the car and drove home. At 01.00am I finally went to sleep. Thanks to all players who attended any of the events at the EC, and to all the volunteers for making the 2 days an unforgettable experience. Peter van Vliet, aka Lightner.
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