On week from today I should be on the road to Indianapolis, just an hour or two from arriving.

So I figured I'd start a thread for us to offer our guesses as to the happenings at Gencon. Here are mine:

1) For the first time in 3 years, the attendance at the Joust championships will exceed the attendance at the Melee Championships.

2) Stark will be the most played house for Joust. Greyjoy will be the least played house for Joust.

3) Martell will be the most played house for Melee. Lannister will be the least played house for Melee.

4) Rings will pre-mix his drinks prior to entering the convention center.

5) The buzz going into the Melee championships will be "pre-made alliances". It will not be the buzz AFTER the championships.

6) An ex-Gencon champion will win at least one of the events. We will likely have 6 in attendance (Me, Rings, Luke, Casey, Erick, Jonathan).

7) The TO will make a rules ruling in a game. A player will disagree and quote a previous ktom response from the message boards. Chaos will ensue.

8) The Joust championship event will hit an attendance of 50.

9) The 2 vs 2 tournament will attract alot of players, but will be ruled a bomb after a couple pairs of broken combos/decks create massive amounts of NPE.

10) Rings will offer to pick up the tab one evening at a bar with a group of Throners. Several players who had previous abstained from eating/drinking due to financial tightwadedness suddenly start ordering like mad.

11) I build a broken deck for classic highlander. I still lose two games due to not building in a win condition.

12) Jonathan Benton becomes the new golden boy of the game filling the role previously filled by Mathlete. Super competitive, willingly humble, extremely nice, and generally respected as one of the best players and overall ambassadors of the game. I'm too much of a jerk, Erick isn't humble enough, and Rings is too rich. None of us can fill that role.

13) I will build my Joust deck the night before.

14) I believe the winners from both the Melee and Joust event will come from Stark or Martell.

15) Lannister will not be as represented as last year, but will do very well anyways.

16) Lars will have Men With No King in one of his decks.

17) Top 8 at Joust: 1 from the GA, 1 from TN, 2 from DC, 1 from MO, 1 from IL, 1 from NE, 1 from Boston

18) Top 4 at Melee: 1 from TN, 1 from DC, 1 from MO, 1 from IL

19) One of the winners will complain of crappy prizes

20) FFG will not hold a Wednesday night event due to championships starting Thursday. Instead a draft event will take place late Friday or Saturday night. Most participants will have a low level of sobriety.

21) There will be two females who play in the Championships.

22) Erick will make it to the final game in Joust, then prior to the game he will proceed to take an hour long dinner break, a 30 minute bathroom break, and briefly take up smoking for smoke break with Casey. Then he will lose.

23) The buzz after the Joust event will not be Fear of Winter, nor will it be Lannister draw, or any other previous buzz issues.

24) Gencon will be considered a huge success!

Dobbler said:

Do you mean this the other way around? More people registered for and played in the Joust championships than the Melee championships in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Joust has always outdrawn Melee.

ktom said:

Last year we had 23 for Joust, and I distinctly remember we had 24+ for Melee

and in 2008, I'm pretty sure it was the same. The LCG era had just been announced. I thought it was 35 for Melee and 31 for Joust. Do you still have the computer records?

Ugh, lets hope my future predictors are better than my history telling.

Last year we had 20 for Melee and 24 for Joust. Ktom took the final position in each to give us even numbers.

You know, I'm a little disappointed that you didn't predict me finally having a title to my name....

Dobbler said:

2007: 62 for Joust, 18 for Melee

2008: 36 for Joust, 35 for Melee

2009: 24 for Joust, 20 for Melee

Sorry.

Dobbler said:

~Dang it, Greg, I told you I wasn't going to join your melee alliance, no matter how much you butter me up!

longclaw said:

~Spoken just like Bruno...wow!

~ Whoah! No one told me there'd be butter. Is there wrestling involved as well?

Kennon said:

~ Now THAT was spoken just like Bruno.

Kennon said:

That's because you won't.

1) Your going to 0-2 the joust, and make final table at melee with no reset resulting in your loss.

2) I predict Zeiler will have at least 3 bells in his hair before being forced to cut them out.

3) I agree with Greg in that a former champion will win at least one of the events.

4) Rings will not succeed. Again.

5) The most underplayed house throughout GenCon will be Baratheon.

6) The most overplayed house will be Stark or Martell.

7) Fox will be forced to make a tough call, the result being who is in top 4.

8) One person will try to wheel and deal their way to final table, and will be socially outcast. (Okay.. I'm actually just hoping for this one personally. Nothing like a group of people shunning one of their players at GenCon. I predict it being much like the UFS kids last year. You guys know who I'm talking about...)

9) Nate will be asked to sign more than 6 house cards this year.

10) Ktom will at some point, tear out some of his hair, due to the repetition of stupid questions. (In the event Ktom is not there, this prediction may still happen.)

EDIT: 11) After GenCon, there will be someone from a different country complaining about no worlds anywhere else. jk, jk.

Dobbler said:

~ Anyone for an alliance to hogtie Jonathon so I have a shot as the distinguished represenative from TN? :-)

Should I be worried that the two prognostications (btw I had to look at the title 6 times to spell that) had me and alchohol involved? Proud? Ashamed? Calling AA? Calling AAA?

Good thoughts, and to be honest I agree with most of them. ~Except the ones already proven false by Ktom's watchful eye

I would add:

100. Someone uses a really unknown/underused card to go very far in the tourney.

101. I don't make top 4 for the first time in four years - too much talent and not enough playing on my end. Stark doesn't make it. Dobbler, Eric both make it for sure. Jonathon I can't tell...since I don't think we have ever played in all the years! Great beard though...

102) Bloodycelt will NOT lose his draw deck or plot deck. However, after the fourth round of swiss he will magically misplace his house card. It will create a huge scene with bloody muttering something about karma, Luke's thieving ways, headless Barbie dolls and uncooked hamburger meat. Nobody knows what all that means, but after someone lends him a replacement house card, he sits down and beats his round five opponent in 8 minutes to make the final cut.

rings said:

So was my play so bad that you had to wipe from your memory our game last year where you crushed me in the fourth round? ~Hmm, maybe it was all the alchohol...

longclaw said:

Those do seem to be the hardest games to remember. ~Longclaw, have you and I played before? I can't seem to remember.

longclaw said:

I still was recovering from wiping Dobbler's board on the 2nd turn...and still losing.

Seriously I have almost no rememberance of last year, other than my losses (and one game where I 1st turn Valor'd and my opponent couldn't stop talking about it the whole game). I do remember repeatedly saying congrats on the Melee win, and now you mention it I think I remember your playmat (since it was so cool)? *blush*

I am hoping for no drama. I thought there was going to be a cat-fight last year, and not a good one

rings said:

And don't think I've forgotten!

By Grabthar's hammer, by the sons of Worvan, I shall be avenged!

Count yourself lucky, Rings. I wish I could forget games against Longclaw!

Dobbler said:

~ I guess I shouldn't bring my stone house card this time round. And look up some lines about headless dolls I suppose. But Dobbler, why would I make rude comments about Tauren... they've never done anything to me... and I used to play one in beta.

longclaw said:

Jonathan, I'm pretty sure any crushing above and beyond the call was his payback for making him wait so long to before having his deck crap out against me in '08. I'm not sayin' your a deliberate player, but I know I didn't get close to time in any of _my_ other games... and I was playing control too. I'm pretty sure we can blame the quarterfinals on Will though.

Gosh I'm looking forward to seeing everybody, ~even rings... I feel like I've been on AGOT hiatus for most of this year... with several small spates of intense exposure.

Watch jon play a rush deck this year. Remember one of the fundamental laws is irony... life just loves kicking you in the ass with it. My prediction is Jon is going to beat you in under 8.261 minutes.

Surgeon General's Warning: Heeding bloodycelt's predictions may be hazardous to your health, and considering where they come from may also be offensive to both smell and taste. Ingesting such material runs the risk of infections such as e.coli.

Maester_LUke said:

Wait, what?

Kennon said:

This does not surprise me.

Ya know... I'm starting to think Targ may steal the win this year. The big IF is dependant on how many Stark decks it faces.

If from what I hear, everyone is going anti-attachment, anti-rush.... this means the deck types that hurt Targ the most are basically entering a killing field (this is why Bara and Stark will never win Worlds... everyone sees something strong from the houses and targets them... unlike Lanni they are not THAT strong yet.), so if a Targ deck gets into the top 8 this year it might win since... its unlikely that a rush deck will.