JDub said:

Fun times were had. Some highlights for me:

Getting a Chester's Backing in the prize support then getting 2 more off trading things that were not really worth a Chester's. =P

My playoff match with John Cheng. All 3 games were pretty epic and it was quite fun. I did lose but John made it fun and I feel like I made an impression on at least someone who qualifies as "competitive" in some way, especially with what was really a fairly budget deck. Killing him in the middle of his reversed Feline Spike chain right after he asked "can you even do anything?" (aka "is this game?") was pretty satisfying.

Arby's prices are less in Phoenix than they are in Tucson. =D

Realizing that I was actually enjoying hanging out with these people. There are times when it's disappointing to find out what people are really like and this wasn't one of them.

Playtesting the night before and losing over and over against any character Archimedes pulled out, then doing a quick match at the store and crunching him when everybody was watching . "Results not typical". =P

Thanks to all of y'all who showed up but especially to Archimedes who made sure I got there and didn't have to sleep in a drain pipe. I know a lot of people couldn't come at the last minute, yet one of them might've been me if I didn't catch his attention by whacking him in the face with the door of a taco shop. Our LGS might as well be the Bat Cave for all how easily it is to just stumble upon.

Apologies on behalf of southern CA.

Our playgroups are very small or dead.

Speaking for my close personal friends... two are pretty much out of the game; one is too poor drive to weekly tournaments most weeks; two more (including myself and our scout) had a surprise birthday party for a close personal friend to attend.

As for me, specifically, the birthday party + lots of homework + less than a week since returning home from N.O. = not happening. Were it a week later I and a one or two others might have managed.

Obviously Grant got ambushed by work. Huggie's playgroup is dead, last I checked (unless you count Jon and Chris, who seem to have made it, and good for them; congrats on making Tops, Jon!)

Yeah, we suck. But I thought it was worth breaking my self-imposed ban on visiting these forums to tell you I'm sorry.

How much did you charge? Did you pay the $135 personally or did your store assume the risk? I'd kind of like to try and run a regional event at our store... but I'm not sure I could get our store owner to consider it as our playgroup is fairly small. We might be able to get some folks from the next closest city but who knows for sure.

Also did you have a seperate judge, or did you run and play in the tournament? I'm confident in my ability to remember all of the crap I've read on the forums and rule unbiased if I ever did run a regional, but I am not sure I'd be happy with the possibility of being percieved as not acting that way.

TripsEX said:

Yeah, but you didn't have to pay $135 for it though. I'm just saying these regional events are suppose to be so special only 2 are run per region and they are selling the kit for $135 and there really isn't anything all that special in them apparently.

aslum said:

I think the people who would care about that either weren't there or were preoccupied with other things. And nobody wants to drive out to a Regionals to get a bye... Well, almost nobody.

Luckily, there were only like 2 rule callings that needed to be made, and they were handled pretty quickly and professionally. In fact, Truong was asked to provide rulings on anything uncertain, which was probably a good idea for diffusing any conspiracy theory toward Archimedes.

Archimedes

Did you have fun on Sunday At Showtime?

What Happen?

Good job. I'm sure it would be much better had you had control of the event further in advance, Arch.

To all those who are skeptical about the regional prize kit:
Yes, I think it's pretty bad to have to pay $135 for the kits and it not be promos that are very exclusive.. I too am disheartened to find that out, but realize that there are still some cool stuff in there. I'd love to get some Red Lotuses myself too but I'd most likely not be able to play in my regional event. Think about this.. 8x playmats valued at $10? each would already make the kit's value approx $80.. the rest of the stuff would add up as well. Not too bad compared to other prizes in other games out there, but compared to the free promos in the standard events it's overpriced. We've gotten spoiled by all the freebies. I personally will take the chance and get 2 regional kits for the GCC in addition to getting a custom trophy for the Drunken Master event.. it's all up to the TO to make it better and Arch just didn't have adequate time.

WTH DVC? I've been curious of whether you were legit or not but this is a low blow to the players at DWars. I hope you have a good excuse. Are you even a scout?

About Lord of the Makai:
I'm well aware of the power, but I don't agree in it being in the banlist. There are plenty of momentum hate out there that were just not used, though even with them the chances of OTKs would still be there for well-built decks and well-setup stages. I think having LotM in the pool brings excitement and suspense into the game since we're racing to see who's combo goes off 1st. Like two masters fighting.. the 1st to put in a deadly move against an opponent who've lost his defense wins. In a read fight a match can end in 1 hit or within 10 secs. I may be speaking for myself but I like this sort of competition. I'd rather fast games over long drawn out ones.

phamufs said:

Showtime, as usual, was an enjoyable tournament.

I rolled water R. Mika reversal/disruption shenanigans with only 6 attacks. 3 Darkness Blade and 3 Sardine Beach Special. Let me be the first to tell you that going second is actually good for the deck, because alot of people like attacking second turn and Darkness Blade can set up a huge disruption and a quick early ten damage.

Why no Feline Spike? Because I abused it at Desert Wars and didn't want to run it at a semi casual tournament. Went 2-1 with and, and TECHNICALLY should have been 3-0 but the way they decide what happens when time is called is bollocks and is one of the big reasons why I always have to think hard if I want to go to Showtime or not.

But yeah, 2-1. Got Zhao Daiyu and a bunch of trades done so it's all good.

Who be you Phamus?

Archimedes said:

THANK YOU! Thank you for saying this! Some positive behaviour AT LAST! Can I just say that everyone on these forums needs to be more like this man and look at the game from a positive point of view rather than darn well b****in' all the time? Good one, man

P.S. Totally agree with you on Lord Of The Makai

Lord of the makia, while ridicluously free, can just as easily be replaced by almost all of its symbols, to build the whole 2 momentum you need to kill someone with a spike.

Viewtiful_Joe said:

Give me something positive in this game and I'll be more positive. Oh wait, the UK gets shafted more. I guess that's a good point. Whee schadenfreude! But seriously (because I don't want to de-rail thread), people aren't positive because there's not a lot, for them, to be positive about. Is that so wrong? And unlike the prevailing thought in the community : Paul Bromen cannot fix everything. He can sure as hell try, but he can't.

* * *

Lord of the Makai? That E = busted beyond belief. Should it get the axe? Meh.

GraveLord said:

No DVC is not a scout for the record and tiger bear resigned earlier in 2008 .

But on topic for regionals ya if the prize support isn't up to par the TO can always help out I had CSI and Havoc chip in for the SAS which made for out standing prize support.

Homme Chapeau said:

I don't quite understand what it is thats so wrong about the game apart from the lack of more than 2 promos at a time, the sets are very well executed, the regionals have been put in place ready for them to be picked up and the game seems to be more balanced now than it has been for a very long time. It's all down to the players now. I've never, ever said that Paul Bromen will fix everything. All we can expect him to do is to do his job, which is probably more difficult than we may think it is. How can you expect people to want to play this game if they have nobody to play with? The whole point of playing these games is to socialise and have fun with your friends. I've been making ridiculous amounts of effort in order to pull new players into this game and perhaps if everyone did something similar to try and get new players, the doom and gloom approach wouldn't be here. The UK is hardly 'shafted' as you put it. We've got a whole lot of players who're really enjoying playing the game without expecting the game to build around us as opposed to the other way around. I've always gotten prize support when I've asked for it, league kits, promo support, questions answered, everything. So as I said, we're hardly 'shafted'.

All I was saying with my previous post was that it is very refreshing to see someone look on the bright side of a tournament with a less than perfect outlook. I commend Archimedes for his attitude toward it. I only hope that his future tournaments and all of the other regionals have more people in them.

Back on topic, I think that Lord Of The Makai is too powerful. When you think of a lot of the combos that people aren't keen on, like the Defender loop, the main enabler for them is Lord Of The Makai. The largest reason that people are able to run Feline Spike as their only attack in their deck is Lord Of The Makai. I think that it is the Shinobi Tradition of Block 3. I don't think it will ever see the b-word, but I think it should as it eliminates anything with a momentum cost as Shinobi Tradition did for foundation committal. Either way, I'm not majorly bothered, as the game isn't mine to control, so I'll play it if it's legal, I won't if it's not.

The prize packs are not a secret, here is the link to everything about regionals including what the prizes are:

http://app.fantasyflightgames.com/ufs-regional-champs-08.shtml

If you don't want to click through here are the prizes:

• 8x Custom UFS vitality Counters
• 1x Card Plaque Trophy for the winner
• 60x Foiled league promos available only to regional participants
• 8x Regional Promo Packs for Top 8
• 1x 2008-2009 UFS Regional banner
• 4x Regional Exclusive UFS Art Prints

Admiral Ren said:

FFGSteve said:

Psst, he meant what those contained - (Foiled League Promos - Foil Red Lotus, what are the contents of the Regional Promo Packs, what are the Exclusive Art Prints, etc.), not what they are. ;p

Viewtiful_Joe said:

Oh, getting new players isn't the problem. We've those in spades (as testified by me over and over in other topics) due to constant efforts (from me and others) to get these players. It's just that over here, we seem to be penalized for getting new players, and honestly getting penalized for new players is kinda dumb. This, however, is a problem our scout's gonna have to take up with Mr. Bromen.

As far as a positive look : Again, yes set 11 was awesome. We know this. Why is it not discussed? Is it because people are fearing that very same negative outlook on arguably one of the best sets (albeit a bit boring character-wise, and I'm not even talking about fluff here - talking about character effects) to be released ever? Is it because people simply aren't playing with the new stuff, only putting what improves their deck without even evaluating the damned thing? No idea.

As far as regionals are concerned, I'd be more positive if, y'know, regionals had even been looked at over here. No news = no news, as opposed to no news being good news. Again, I understand the workload of FFG here, but seriously we're planning to have one in March and create something huge out of it, but with no confirmation, we can't go forward.

But hey at least it went off without a hitch, number of players be damned.

FFGSteve said:

While I hate to be one of the ones sounding skeptical, my players have been asking constantly about what the "regional promo packs", "exclusive art prints", and the "custom ufs vitality counters" are. The way it is posted sounds as if they are special promo packs for regionals, and whatnot. Adding to the mentioning that they got playmats (Awesome bonus) as well, but no mention of what kind they are.

This is the kind of thing that will help hype a regional, and I want to put on flyers and on our calendar to get people excited.

For the Set 11 pre-release, people didn't care about "a playmat" until they discovered it was Morrigan. Then we had people that had previously passed on the prerelease show up just on the fact it looked cool. Knowing what kinda stuff they can win will excite players immensely!

Jypsy said:

Exact. This is what i'm asking for a while but looks like i failed (was it me?)

Also: French nats 08. Never Forget...

I think I'll snap a picture of the regional prize kits when I get them. I might as well try to get them now to help ease the mind of players going into a regionals event.

The GCC is next so just wait a bit and I'll try to get a pix up asap.

Sounds like a plan Thai I got a email from paul today about the kits if i get some before you will post them up as well .

Jypsy said:

We didn't get playmats.

Not once anywhere did I mention playmats.

But with that said, though, what about the other stuff? The plaque, counters, foils, etc? I, too, am most interested in hearing about them.

Archimedes said:

Gravelord mentioned them in this post:

To all those who are skeptical about the regional prize kit:
Yes, I think it's pretty bad to have to pay $135 for the kits and it not be promos that are very exclusive.. I too am disheartened to find that out, but realize that there are still some cool stuff in there. I'd love to get some Red Lotuses myself too but I'd most likely not be able to play in my regional event. Think about this.. 8x playmats valued at $10? each would already make the kit's value approx $80.. the rest of the stuff would add up as well. Not too bad compared to other prizes in other games out there, but compared to the free promos in the standard events it's overpriced.

I apologize, I took that as meaning there were playmats in the kits or Gravelord was at your event.

Archimedes said:

THIS! THIS RIGHT F'IN HERE! WHY IS NOBODY PAYING ATTENTION TO THIS?