Canadian Nationals Tournament Report by Jonathan

I guess tournament reports should be reserved for people who made top eight or won the tournament, however, other than Toronto AoP, this was my first big tournament. I met a lot of cool people and had a great time so I really want to share my experience. I'm playing Turn It On Sakura

(1-0) Round 1 vs Don – Tira
IMPORTANT LESSON: GET LOTS OF SLEEP. Maybe it was excitement for the tournament that only gave me two hours of sleep last night, whatever, sleep is important. Sakura is a 6HS character, how I had seven cards in my hand round one i'll never know. Don calls the judge and I lose the first round. I deserve this loss. Round two i'm playing away and I get my combo, however, I forget to do the enhance (idiot, idiot, idiot). Tira only has 20 life though so I manage to peg away and use fight or flight for the win. Round three the combo goes off and I manage to win 2-1

(2-0) Round 2 vs Tanner – Astrid
Tanner was a very fun person to play. It's refreshing to play people who don't take the game too seriously and can chat/joke around. Don't get me wrong, this is a big tournament so i'm not expecting everyone to be so easy-going and casual about the game. It seems everyone runs Astrid off of Order but me – I should convert from Fire. With Sakura I was healing after everything thrown at me and I win 2-0. No Tanner I will not block your Pommel Smash =P

(2-1) Round 3 vs Danny – Rock Howard
Oh boy. Well, at least Danny was kind enough to tell me what I should have done after he destroyed me. I manage to Turn It On, however, the combo ran out of juice and I was put in a difficult position where I had to pass, letting Danny play out his gigantic hand. I will know better next time! I came close to winning, but not enough, Danny takes both rounds

(2-2) Round 4 vs Matt Kohls – Chun Li
Before the tournament I asked Shajir if there were any big names here. He looked around the room and pointed out Andrew Olexa, Matt Kohls and Jonathan Herr. Wow, I remember seeing their character cards, very intimidating – I hoped I didn't have to play any of them, haha oh boy. Maybe from playing Magic the Gathering i've come to see that a lot of high end players can be cocky/rude, however, Matt was the exact opposite of this stereotype. It was a great experience playing against someone as polite as me in regards to asking to see the opponents cards. When I made a mistake gameplay-wise he would correct me and explain it to me. Not having played much in a competitive environment, this was the first time I played against a really good Chun Li deck. I scoop turn one when I learn what an iSpin loop looks like. Game two I manage to pull off the combo and Matt scoops. Game three I have an amazing hand, drop two BRTs first turn and Matt comments i've been lucky getting them out. He attempts to iSpin me so I BRT it to eat a Willful. The other BRT hits a 3check attack then checks a 5 or a 6 which he easily passes. He later Feline Spikes me for the win

(2-2-1) Round 5 vs Sebastien – Chun Li
This was my favourite match of the day! At this point Sebastien says that even if he wins he's not going to catch up to the other Chun Li players. I tell him I don't think i'm going to hit top 8 either so we have ourselves a casual game and joke around the entire time. Gameplay-wise there isn't much to say other than I miraculously blocked a feline spike while tapped out needing to check a six (Only have a few in the deck). We each win a round then it goes to time, unfortunately we weren't sure if that last feline spike would have killed me or not. We both learned not to use life counters and to stick with pen and paper.

(3-2-1) Round 6 vs Andrew – Akuma
This game ended uber quickly. I baited Akuma a bunch of times playing threatening foundations but playing BRTs, Chesters after he used CC hax. I messed up a bunch of checks on his turn and he decided to scoop, saying that he had enough and at this point neither of us were going to make Top 8 anyways. It was a long but fun day.

Shoutouts:
Kin – Thanks very much for lending me this deck and teaching me how to play it. It's a lot of fun, next time i'll be sure to run my own creation!
Shajir – It was nice meeting you, i'm sure we might've seen eachother at Toronto AoP but after chatting dozens of times on MSN it was good to chat in person.
Andre – It's been a while! From Toronto AoP to Ottawa and now here. I`m looking forward to the next major thing, I might pop by Ottawa again sometime though
Brian – Cheers for being a friendly person, i`ll have to visit Winnipeg now! Sorry I kept forgetting your name Friday night
Jonathan – I never got to really chat with you other than to shake your hand. I did hear you try to take my Boston Pizza order though
Matt – Thanks for being a respectful player, not everyday I get to meet a former world champion
Oshawa scene – Pleasure playing with you guys, i`ll definitely pop by with whoever I can gather sometime
Platinum, Mike – Forgive me Mr Platinum I don`t remember your name. Thank you both for running the tournament
Calgary scene – I don`t think i`ll be heading out there anytime soon, but we`ll find some major tournament to hit up
FFG – Thanks for making a great entertaining game. I`m a big fan of fighting video games and card games, so UFS is a dream come true.

Pictures:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v726/ultimo1234/DSC00171.jpg Shajir, Platinum, Brian, Mike

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v726/ultimo1234/DSC00172.jpg Prizes

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v726/ultimo1234/DSC00173.jpg More Prizes

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v726/ultimo1234/DSC00174.jpg Kin planning something evil!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v726/ultimo1234/DSC00175.jpg Ottawa Crew

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v726/ultimo1234/DSC00177.jpg My friends who play UFS casually - I will force 'em all to join next time! (oops, picture fixed)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v726/ultimo1234/DSC00179.jpg Boston Pizza and not looking at the camera =P

FINALLY! A lot of players didn't know what to do with the Kairi promo cards they were given. It was quite simple really, in fact when you went to report your game, the answer was right in front of you. We love you FFG but please don't send us stuff to recycle =P

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v726/ultimo1234/DSC00180.jpg Step 1

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v726/ultimo1234/DSC00181.jpg Step 2

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v726/ultimo1234/DSC00182.jpg Step 3

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v726/ultimo1234/DSC00183.jpg Voila

Thank you all for a great time

- Jonathan

Curse you Ultimo you misleading trickster, making me think FFG had acquired the SF EX series license. Ah well, nice report, sounded like a fun day.

Cascade said:

ultimo said:

Glad that you had fun against Tanner (my younger brother) but why won't you block the pommel smash? at least its not a 15+ damage weak slash ^^; what other silly things did he suggest?

I think Seb mentioned that game when I called him last night.

we are trying to get a regionals, so maybe you could try that one?

Good stuff Jonathon, keep up the good work and don't be afraid to come to the dirty shwa and play with us. Bring your freinds too

@kiit: Haha it wasn`t pumped, just coming at me for one damage =P He also suggested I keep doing the combo till I mill myself, funny guy hehe. I`m going to talk to my friends. I want to make some big tournament this year. I figure if we`re going to do a road trip maybe make it Worlds?

@Shajir: Cheers! We'll definitely come by, I know Beard/Kanji etc have been wanting to for a while now too.