Black friday report... Targaryen opened my ass :-)

By Gualdo, in 1. AGoT General Discussion

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[Alicia Keys]

In New York,

Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,

There’s nothing you can’t do,

Now you’re in New York,

these streets will make you feel brand new,

the lights will inspire you,

lets here it for New York, New York, New York



In 2 weeks i met players from all around the globe and you definetevely are the reason why i love the game so thx a lot for great friendship moments you shared with me... Memories that will never be forgotten!!!


Tourney report:


1st round brian (stark knights)

I control all the game and he doesn't see knights so i win quite easily.

We make a friendly rematch and i win with some difficulties.


2nd round greyjoy maesters

First round i steal wendamyr with reek. Second round he plays search and detain to retake in hand themaester: great move.

Third roun i play brienne+greywind. He has wendamyr duped with some chain but thx to brienne the wolf eat the maester. From now on the game is for me quite easy since theon eat all his locations.


3rd round erick (lanni maester)

He plays only 1chain the draw one.

I think i played this game very well since i made some great decisions. I knew that only playing perfectly i could win against erick. I consider him in the top class agot players.

He know my deck cause i showed him my decklist the night before. I know his deck cause he showed me in the morning. Let's fight.

1st round he valar. I expected this so i played retaillation. Unexpectedly he refilled the board better tha me and with 2 kneel effects he won military stealing me a bolton army.

2nd round i valar. My best move i think.

I refill quite well. With reek i steal a steward. So from nowson gold are no more an issue. I have price of war in hand. He has 6 locations so i play fleeing. He discard gold improving loc to save brothel, tooth mine and alchemist. I use price of on golden and brothel.

That was game cause drawing same amount of cards advantage for sure stark.


4th round fatmouse (greyjoy winter)

Setup for me at 7 cards... So the game started very well...

I was in control all the game. He tried to choke me but starting was so good by my side. A frozen on river blockade, claim 2, theon pushing him to discard location made my game


5th round dan (targa)

What to say... Mulligan... Only robb in play... ;-) in a dech with 42 chars 4 events and 5 attach having 2 events and 2 attach inhand at start is not so great. I lose even if i tried to resurrect... Dan played also very well so no chance for me.


I finished swiss at first position very proudmost of all for having played without great errors. I arrived at stahleck without playing since lots of month and made lots of errors. Here i played at my best and this is a good feeling.


Top 4

Brian - stark knights

First thing i said to him: 'statistically after 2 losses you have great chances now'

He started far way better than me. I tried to slow him down. He had 2 cavalry in play and me none. I tried to take the rigt moment to make a desperate counterattack.


He had 2 cavalry and blacfish in play and no cards in hand. I had 3 no great char but 1stealth (carrion may rhe old gods bless you)

I knew his plot list and i knew he was playing power at arms 3-1-2. I played respect 2-2-2. I draw a cavalry. That was game from me. It was at 14 powers. But my claim 2 regained the field (he didn't draw char that round).

Brian told me he just started playing from some month. I will root for youin all tourneys where you will give honour to the wolves :-)


Final vs targarye maester Twndn

Nothing to say. He deserved to win cause played very well and had weapons to face me. Drawing and playing 3 narrow escape broke my strategie cause all claim 2plots get absorbed. He didn't drawn lot of burn but i had lots of no attachments in play so i think the game was solved by that event that i have to admit... I had forgot it was still in the enviroment ;-)


So congrats dan. You deserved the win!


Thx to all i met: bloodycelt, staglord, fatmouse, brian, dan and all other guys that was so kind and friendly... It is sooo good that everywhere i go and play there is always smile in tourneys and not stupid anger like in other games.


Thx most of all to twndn and erick to have gifted us (me and monica) a thxgiving night that had the best atmosphere you can hope.


By the way me and erick won the regional of a chinese traditional game... Confucio said it is the only game that matters... I always trust in confucio!!!


Quotes time


"i tried to be the first comunist winning something in USA"


"targaryen opened my ass... Heavily..."


"meera always is played against me and i never draw her... ******* little *****...ban please!"


"i'm focused on my goal... Stark deck box stark deckbox stark deckbox (at libitum)"


Sorry for miswriting but i wrote it viaipad and i suck using it


Keep on rocking in a free world
Posted at

Gualdo, it was great finally meeting you, and you are always welcome to join us for thanksgiving when you are in NYC. Also, my wife tells me the mahjong game we all played the night before takes more skill and strategy than Game of Thrones...so congrats to your (and Erick's) victory over Chinese and Americans :P Confucious also says "Competitor who travels great distance to represent House Stark is noble person, but doomed to lose many intrigue challenges."

By the way (for those who didn't attend), the Dan that beat Gualdo in round 5 was a different Dan, from the DC meta. We faced off in the semi-finals, as a sort of rematch of his regional win over me in June. He is a very good player, and I was only able to stay in the game thanks to shadow parasites and an early Rhaenys hill. Nevertheless he dominated me the whole game, and I was fortunate that we had decided to run this game untimed...a grueling 1.5 hour slaughterfest where no attachment lasted more than a phase and characters frequently died or discarded en masse. Props to him for playing Targ and doing so well.

Fatmouse should also be mentioned...he was the 5th 4-1 player but didn't make the cut to the top 4 due to strength of schedule. His only loss was to Gualdo, but he had a first round bye (given the odd number). It definitely felt unfair to deprive him of a chance to win just for losing one game. He graciously accepted, but in hindsight I think we should have broken top 8 with an odd number of people. I'm still new to running events, and have a lot of room for improvement. Double thanks to Fatmouse, as he also acted as the TO/rules judge.

On the topic of turnout, I was originally shooting for 30+, but as we got closer it looked like only 25 would show. We had a few last-minute no-shows. I received a lot of feedback from those who made it (and some who couldn't) that the day after thanksgiving is difficult. Despite the name, going forward it is VERY clear that we are going to have to consider moving Black Friday to Saturday, but likely having a side event the evening of Black Friday...possibly a melee or cube draft. Still, the group we had was a great mix of players.

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Sounds like an amazing event (as it always seems to be). Congrats to the host and the winner (who seem to be sharing the same personage). Special kudos to Dan for winning with Targ in an environment that hasn't been considering them strong. Especially in a final over one of the greatest Stark players in the world. I will be curious to see if Narrow Escape sees a bit of resurgence, since I haven't seen it many decks recently. Much like your "Confucian" quote, NE is at the very least the equivalent to a successful INT challenge. Out of curiosity, did he dump his hand to cancel any of your NE plays?

Looking forward to a decklist and report Dan... way to make out like a Parasite.

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Sounds like a great tournament, wish I could have come down for it.

Twn2dn,

I was wondering if you considered having the 9th and 8th (or 5th and 4th) play for the last spot in the quarter/semi finals when you cut down to the elimination bracket after the swiss? If there were two people with 4-1 and the first round bye was being a (or the) deciding factor in the strength of schedule that knocked one out it could be an option. We run a tournament at christmas locally and we will probably field around 8-10 players (fingers crossed). Not really enough for too many swiss rounds and a cut to top 4, but I was thinking about running it the way a curling bonspiel is put together (sortof) if not enough people show up for the ordinary tournament bracketing.

If you don't have enough people to run a standard swiss breakdown, run a round robin (or modified round robin so you get 4 or 5 rounds pre-cut based on time constraints). If you have 6 players, everybody gets to play everybody. If you have 7 players, have everybody play 5 games and does not get the chance to field against one opponent. You get the idea. Then after the round robin your going to have a cut to top 4, but it isn't the normal elimination bracket we have at top 16 or 8 or 4. The 1st place finisher plays the 2nd place finisher, winner advances to the finals . Whoever wins 3rd vs 4th will play against the loser of 1st vs 2nd in the semi finals (winner advancing to finals and loser playing loser of 3rd vs 4th for 3rd place).

Its just an idea. That way if you go 5-0 losing one game doesnt eliminate you, you can still make it back into the finals, whereas if your say 4-1 in third or fourth seed, losing a second game will. On the other hand if you are that 3rd or 4th place finisher you have to win two games to get to the finals, not just one.

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That links probably a little clearer.

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It truly was both an honor and a pleasure to meet you Gualdo. I was thrilled to watch your semi final match with Brian – and your incredible rally forma huge deficit. I truly hope to get the chance to see you again.

Dan – major congratulations on your second Black Friday win and for keeping the trophy in New York. I couldn’t be happier for you and thought you did a great job marketing, organizing and judging this tournament.

As always it was a highlight of the holiday weekend to see old friends and meet new ones and enjoy and afternoon of high level Thrones to kick off the winter season.

And seeing us come up one player shirt of tying the 2007 attendance record of 22 (something I never, ever though we’d approach in the LCG era) has me open to the possibility of moving the tournament off its traditional day – though I’d want to discuss this with letsgored and twn2dn further and I would insist on some sort of side event happening that Friday. I also really want to go back to four rounds of Swiss and a Tope Eight cut if we are over twenty – I’ve gotten feedback (and I basically agree) that the fifth round is unnecessary and draining and I think a Top Eight cut keeps things interesting for more people (obviously) We used oy organize a melee on the side while the cut rounds were going on – something like that would be workable – but we’re a year off so we can discuss later.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody and thanks again to all who came and made this event a special and memorable one and congratulations again to Dan and Gualdo for their stellar play.

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Stag Lord said:

And seeing us come up one player shirt of tying the 2007 attendance record of 22 (something I never, ever though we’d approach in the LCG era) has me open to the possibility of moving the tournament off its traditional day – though I’d want to discuss this with letsgored and twn2dn further and I would insist on some sort of side event happening that Friday. I also really want to go back to four rounds of Swiss and a Tope Eight cut if we are over twenty – I’ve gotten feedback (and I basically agree) that the fifth round is unnecessary and draining and I think a Top Eight cut keeps things interesting for more people (obviously) We used oy organize a melee on the side while the cut rounds were going on – something like that would be workable – but we’re a year off so we can discuss later.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody and thanks again to all who came and made this event a special and memorable one and congratulations again to Dan and Gualdo for their stellar play.

:)
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Twn2dn said:

Stag Lord said:

And seeing us come up one player shirt of tying the 2007 attendance record of 22 (something I never, ever though we’d approach in the LCG era) has me open to the possibility of moving the tournament off its traditional day – though I’d want to discuss this with letsgored and twn2dn further and I would insist on some sort of side event happening that Friday. I also really want to go back to four rounds of Swiss and a Tope Eight cut if we are over twenty – I’ve gotten feedback (and I basically agree) that the fifth round is unnecessary and draining and I think a Top Eight cut keeps things interesting for more people (obviously) We used oy organize a melee on the side while the cut rounds were going on – something like that would be workable – but we’re a year off so we can discuss later.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody and thanks again to all who came and made this event a special and memorable one and congratulations again to Dan and Gualdo for their stellar play.

My goal next year is 30-35 players, and I think we'll get there. We will have to change the day to do that though, so there's some items to work through. As far as rounds go, I imagine we'd keep it 5 swiss, but cut to top 8. We'll have to work out the details, but cut to top 8 makes more sense to me anyway. It was only for time considerations that we restricted it to top 4. If I have to find another venue though, I'm open to the challenge :)

That's awesome. :) I do actually like that venue - they have some tasty food and for some reason beer - but it even seemed a bit tight this year.

Just wanted to say thanks to Stag again - he was like the friendliest person alive. When he came in, he was shaking everyone's hand despite not having any clue who they were (I assume), and one guy said, "Hey, it's the mayor of New York!" I dunno if anyone else heard it, but I'm still laughing about it, because it should be true!

I have nothing to fantastic memories from this past weekend, despite being sick, and despite being so thoroughly punished for bringing a deck I tested purely against myself. I'm hoping I didn't get anyone else sick, though I've had one report I may have. :(

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I'm curious as to why the day would have to change?

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WolfgangSenff said:

Just wanted to say thanks to Stag again - he was like the friendliest person alive. When he came in, he was shaking everyone's hand despite not having any clue who they were (I assume), and one guy said, "Hey, it's the mayor of New York!" I dunno if anyone else heard it, but I'm still laughing about it, because it should be true!

I have nothing to fantastic memories from this past weekend, despite being sick, and despite being so thoroughly punished for bringing a deck I tested purely against myself. I'm hoping I didn't get anyone else sick, though I've had one report I may have. :(

~I'm glad you only suggested that he's _like_ the friendliest person alive... that being me. > :D

And I'm sorry to hear that you had no luck playing with yourself. I consider that my fault for not setting up OCTGN. Or maybe just that I've had too much to drink this evening. :/

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bloodycelt said:

I'm curious as to why the day would have to change?

We'll take all this into account when we begin finalizing plans, but the thought is that if we push it to Saturday, people can travel on Friday. We could then hold a separate event on Friday afternoon/evening (side event) for people who can make that, but the main joust portion would be the next day.

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Twn2dn said:

Wouldn't necessarily have to, but based on the feedback I've received, it seems the most likely scenario. Basically, for people to attend for any distance further than a few hours drive, they have to travel the day before. How it stands now, that requires some players to miss Thanksgiving with their families, which is definitely not optimal.

We'll take all this into account when we begin finalizing plans, but the thought is that if we push it to Saturday, people can travel on Friday. We could then hold a separate event on Friday afternoon/evening (side event) for people who can make that, but the main joust portion would be the next day.

I think for out-of-towners the 1 and a half day event would be preferable. That might be the way to go as "Black Friday" becomes a bigger and bigger event. (I mean, it was an international event this year!) But it just depends what you want it to be. If you want it to be a traditional event for the NY meta, but open to all - the Friday day seems to be popular. If you want it to be easier for others to come and are open to making it more, I think you may eventually have to adapt it. Neither is "right", it just depends on what you all want.

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Congrats to everyone who played, especially the people who traveled so far.

Great to read, and hear that it went so well.

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Hey all, this is Brion. You know... Stark knights, 4th place... Gualdo's personal punching bag. When it comes down to top-decking, his Northern Cavalry Flanks out-slugs my Bay of Ice + Narrow Sea.

The tourney was a ton of fun. Actually when planning the trip I thought the tourney would just be a sideshow for me while being in NYC would be the big thrill and that was completely flipped. And yes, Chris is the nicest person in the world. I really hope to be able to make the event next year.