I know I've said it verbally many times, but I must give thanks once again to everyone at Sheffield Regionals (especially Ross for holding the event and bringing all the extra prizes) for giving me such a great time. I feel sorry for those who felt the wrath of the abused ***Hanzo*** - Fei-Long's Forward Kick loop, as it's not my usual playstyle, but all the games I had were tense and most were down to the wire.
While I'm here, I'll give those not in attendance a little report of my trip all the way across the country to Sheffield, for the UFS Regionals.
After a week of changing my mind over wether to come, I finally decided on the Friday to head up to Sheffield a day early to avoid travelling in the early hours like the Colchester players usually do. I booked a room at the Riverside Court at the last minute, paid out of the nose for train tickets, and found myself on the train on the way. The journey up was really smooth, actually, and upon leaving Sheffield station, I followed Ross's directions to Patriot Games. Fortunately for me, the shop was literally across the road from the hotel!
Patriot was open late that night for the people who were preparing for the YuGiOh Nationals on the Saturday - an event that had apparently pulled a few UFS players away from the Regional. I found Justin, 'Random' Phil and Ross doing some last minute deck preparations for the Regional, with Justin testing his Defender Loop Sogetsu/Seong Mi-Na deck. Seong Mi-Na was stronger in practice against my deck that night. A little while later, I checked into the hotel, then went back and gossiped with UFS related talk until closing time.
Saturday morning I woke early, and I'm still not sure wether it was due to nerves or excitement, or both. So I grabbed an early breakfast, and got back to the shop to help Ross set up the prize display. Shortly after opening, the players entered, and in total we had 18 players. There were a wide variety of characters, including 2 Mignons, and 2 Hanzos. Diversity was in effect here.
Round 1
- Justin (Seong Mi-Na)
Justin must have decided to go ahead with Seong Mi-Na after all, and it proved useful as I kept getting Ira-Spinta'd till I had no foundations left. Fortunately an early Forward Kick pushed through both games easily, leading to a swift 2-0 win for me.
Round 2
- Rob (Hanzo)
This was the mirror match I was looking forward to, as the inspiration to play Hanzo came from Rob's appearance with the deck at Colchester's League Final a month or two back. However Rob's lack of dual symbolling and my Billiard Player speeding things up for my Air-Evil build helped me set up and loop faster than him. Another 2-0 for me.
Round 3
- Kevin "the Brit" Beadle (Mignon)
It didn't take me long to figure out that Kev's deck was playing Feline Spike, as he attempted to throw one out at me in the first game. I blocked and Rejectioned for survival, and proceeded to Forward Kick an over-extended Mignon. Fortunately for me Kev scooped when he figured out the loop, then realised he had two Tira's Contract which would have saved him. The Second game brought more Spikes than I could handle, and Hanzo's tiny 18 vitality was crippled. Third round I managed to get an early setup and loop going, this time without Tira's in the way. 2-1 to me.
Round 4
- Matt Hewitt (Chun-Li)
I had heard the rumors about this Chun-Li build. It was a maniacal deck with 8 1CCs, being 4 Feline Spike and 4 Darkness Blade. The idea was to Darkness Blade using Chunners's R on their turn to commit their board, and Feline on his turn for game. The rest of the deck was a ton of Air-Water Control, which Chun-Li ended up getting faster than Hanzo could. With no control to push Forward Kick through, Hanzo fell down twice more. 0-2 to Matt.
Finding myself at 2nd after swiss was amazing - I was one who usually ended in the middle of the road. I was still getting over the buzz when the top 8 was called.
Top 8
- Jim (Promo Alex)
Jim was borrowing a version of Ross's aggro Alex which played an array of punches and proceeded to boost them to high heaven. After a few Bitter Rivals wars, and leaving me on 7 life on turn 2, I managed to get a Forward Kick through for game. The second round proved a little tougher, with Alex getting more punches in hand and pummeling away. Luckily on game 3 I drew into some Tag Alongs and kept Alex's hand size at bay. With less cards, I could ditch them all to The Ways of Punishment and Glare from the Abyss, and Kick away for another victory.
2-1 me and into the Top 4!
Top 4
- Jason (Sakura)
There's always the one deck that falls under your radar when scouting out what to look out for, and this deck was it. I was a bundle of nerves when I saw the face card, as I had no idea what was heading my way. I soon found out though - A Feline Spike, followed by Sakura's F into High Plasma Beam. Ouch. Second game I revealed my deck's power, by looping away with only 2 minutes left on the round. I decided to call First Blood, as soon as we ran out of time, as we were running out of time before the shop closed. Sadly a Feline Spike with only mid blocks met to my demise, and left me on 3rd place overall. I only wish we had time to finish... ah well. Well done to you Jason, and after I heard how long you had been playing, I am impressed at your progress so far. Let's hope you can make a name for yourself in future UFS events!
I was busy making phone calls and trades with people while the finals took place, so I didnt see the details, but Matt won over Jason in the end, crowning him Sheffield Regional champ with a plaque and a huge poster to prove it!
My prizes for coming 3rd were a lot - as specified on the info thread. I got: 1 of each Asset of Power, a load of Block 3 promos (including Endiku the Valiant), a Chaos Patch, a Chaos Vitality counter, an enlarged picture of the artwork from Inner Turmoil (framed too), and a bonus prize for coming highest without using Feline Spike or Blood Runs True - a Plug in and Play Street Fighter II game! (then again, I was running the next most annoying thing)
After leaving the shop, Ross, Matt and myself went for a delicious meal of noodles, over which we discussed the differences and similarities in our playgroups, which was rather interesting. I was convinced of the power of Akuma, despite the fact no-one in Colchester currently plays him. I was also told of the legend that is Ross's winning Vega deck at Leicester, which in fact he wanted to back up his words. So I accepted the challenge by coming in on the Sunday, before it was time to catch the train home. Yep, that Vega's a pain. In the... neck. I also got a chance to see the new sets in action, via Justin's Yi-Shan and Phil's Nightmare.
So until next time (which is hopefully the Path of the Master finals), see you Sheffield players another time! And once again, thank you!
