Has it really been 10 of them? Wasn't the first one 2003? Wow…I am officially old.

So, I think this has been #10. I used to be competative (6 top 16's, 5 straight top 4's, 1 win) but that was pre-kids and job with large responsibilities Now I just don't want to make a fool out of myself, and get a lot of drinking with friends in.

So that was 2-0. I went 4-2, missing the 4-2 cut - I think 4 or 5 out of 10 or so that were 4-2 made the top 16. Which was great actually, since a mighty thirst was a-brewing. I didn't have to get pulverized by Ram or Bruno or the high seeds, but it was respectible…and I still haven't lost a game to the Mizzou crew other than Dobbler

Theme for the weekend: 'Everyone is having fun…everyone is having a good time'. Which you say even if you are not.

Thursday:

Flew in - out of Omaha I had the hottest (female) airline pilot I have ever seen. I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing…you don't see a lot of 9.5/10 hot women as pilots…so I thought maybe her skills were not up to par. But got there regardless. Saw a ton of folks that I like, and started the drinking.

Actually first I went to True Dungeon, which is really cool. I am not a LARP'er at all, and haven't even played a RPG since I was 16…but this was fun. Basically you are in a huge haunted house but it is D&D themed. They give you a bunch of tokens for equipment, and you can bring them back year-after year to get stronger. I rolled a paladin and had a lot of fun. You use these little shuffleboard like token-holders to 'attack' the monsters in some rooms, and the others are puzzle-type rooms. The last room had a Draco-Lich and it was pretty well done.

After that, started the drinking. I had to catch up, and luckily the Sactowners and Mizzou crew helped me do just that. Erwo, Brooks (theKingg), and Darryl especially. Zeiler (last year's champ) did pretty well too, although he didn't enjoy the Irish car-bomb much. I thought I was fine until I got to my room at 3.30 and it was somehow put on an axis when I wasn't looking.

Friday:

Obviously after that night, Friday wasn't good. Luckily it was Melee day, so my only responsibility was to make fun of competative melee players. Especially Mathlete…but by the time I got there to chew him out, he had already dropped Luckily it was won without drama (that I heard of) by an Indy guy, so that was cool.

I ended up playing in Warhammer Worlds…I mean North American continentials. They only had 20 people (I think…maybe less), so I put my most fun deck out there (HIgh Elf) and went 2-1. Yes, they only had three rounds. Anyways, I got 6th and they cut to top 4…which was fine with me since I got a pretty cool playmat for making top 8. ~Suck on that, aGoT players who spent 7 hours playing, got 10th, and got the same cardboard box that 90th place got!

Actually took it easy on the drinking that day, which was nice. Playtested some decks with some folks, didn't feel any better about my chances (I was taking Martell Maesters to 5-7 turns, but not quite winning) so put some cards I thought would tech out a little more (Dissension, changing Bannermen for Venom Blades) and went to bed before 3 for once.

Saturday:

Go right to the tourney, hopefully you haven't read anything before now since it was all drivel. *Disclaimer - I am horrible with names, and the order in which these happened. I apologize in advance to all named and misnamed or not-named folks*

I was playing Martell no agenda (City plots). I just can't play Maesters. It feels too dirty, and even though some friends of mine were playing them, I couldn't root for them. More on that later.

Round 1: Sandy (Cleveland? Cincinatti?) playing Bara.

We both had okay but not great starts. However, I think drew into a ton of Nobles and Ghaston Grey. Turn 1 GG and Mrycella, Turn 2 I could affort two nobles. Not good for power-rush. 1-0

Round 2: the one Chilean guy I can't remember his name of playing Lanni Maesters

Lanni Maesters isn't all that cheezy, so I had fun here. He was always about one step above me, but it was always close. Fun fact about this game - we had the exact same first 5 plots. That hasn't ever happened to me before. But, that is City plots I guess. I kept losing initative, and it kept killing me. The only thing keeping me in it was my Doran vs. his GTM's. On turn 6, I feel I was just starting to feel the iniative changing, but he got his 15th power, and I killed his Maester the turn after he got his chains off. Fun game, great to see someone travel that far. 1-1

Round 3: Bara again…can't remember where he was from - Florida? Cleveland again? Anyways…

I think this was Bara Knights. He had an early Knight and I didn't, but it didn't matter. I also flopped Venomous Blade and started killing all his weenies so claim became good characters like KoF or Renly. Then GG came out with a 3-coster and it ended quickly. Nice guy for sure. 2-1

Round 4: Brett Zeiler (champ) playing some silly deck Lanni Brotherhood using Infamy

Brett sat down saying I was going to win this easily. Saying very loudly. Brotherhood really doesn't like GG, and other tech (Orphan, Scourge, etc.). However, I think he was trying to roll me, since by turn 3 he had 8-9 power on Beric and Joff's sword. Super-Beric was a problem. On the 4th turn, however, I drew GG, had a 5-cost Noble, and he asked if we were done. We were. 3-1.

Round 5: John Benton - aka the Silver Fox - playing Martell Maesters. ****.

I know this isn't a good matchup. But playing Mathlete the night before I was pretty close on repeated occasion. I thought the added cards could slow it down enough to recover - Dissension on some of the allies like Orphan and the refugees, Venomous Blade to help with the smaller Maesters to slow down putting out Conclaves and getting rid of Maester of War. We both flopped decent, his slihgtly better than mine.

After he Art of Seduction-locked me, he ended up playing 9-10 characters, 7-8 of them were Maesters (the other two were Oakheart who hit Craster, and a Messenger I think). Two of them were Conclaves. The last card in his hand was a Game of Cyvasse (my Craster would have helped there). He ended the turn at 5-6 power and I was Art-locked so To the Spears would have ended it with two Conclaves, much less the Beric he drew with one of the chains before standing phase. I conceded probably 90 seconds into the round. Fun times!!! 3-2

So…Maesters are stupid. Big surprise. They are not close to unbeatable, but they make the meta VERY less-fun, and remove a ton of potential from the game. If you have been erratta'd and restricted already…you probably are not a well-designed card and need to leave. Just my 2 cents.

Round 6: Another guy I have forgotten the name of…playing Greyjoy saves w/ Maester agenda as well (3 of 6 rounds with Maesters - woo-hoo!)

I started out with Venomous Blade which did help until he got rid of it finally with a chain. However, the City plots and GG were burning through his characters and his saves, and I drew another Blade. Finally he ran out, and I had the income to lock him out of anything further. Didn't look good for me early, but I had a ton of control. 4-2.

So, finished 4-2 and a few places out of Top 16. I was pretty happy (again, not making a fool out of myself, and drinking were the priorities), so found the liqour store. At one time I think we had 25 aGoT players in our hotel room. It was a riot, can't belive we didn't get a knock on the door.

Also walked to the con a couple of times (with a cup of 'coffee') to watch Fox and some others play. But, when Fox lost in top 4 (AGAIN…just kidding, contrats Fox!) he needed drinks fast (as Fox usually does) and we went back to the room. Finally at 11pm we kicked everyone out of the room to the bars. I broke my earlier 'no drinks in other drinks' rule with another couple Car Bombs, but overall didn't sweat it too much.

Without Luke to organize, the Drunk Draft didn't go off for the first time since '06 I think (we are running out of CCG stuff - the hall had like three sets). But we went to the bars until they closed down, and then went to the Omni and stole into the basement conference room and drank the rest of our alchohol. I mean every drop. Even the crappy Admiral Rum that Speck bought (which in spiced rums, the higher the rank of the navy, the worse the liqour is?). A few people (no names here) might have drank TOO much and left it in the bathroom or in their bed, and a few people were making out when I left. All-in-all a great time as always.

Sunday:

Bleh, nothing here. Had to stay in Detroit another night after getting bumped. Bleh.

I can't thank FFG enough for a great game. Other than the Maesters Agenda I think the game is very balanced right now. They need to do better prizes, but that is a small thing compared to a well-run tourney. Ktom was the best TO as always.

Other thanks:

Jesse Wyndwalker for the travels.

Jesse Complord for approximately 1,000 hugs.

Indy for putting awesome street food right outside the center.

All the meta's that adopt me (SoCal, NoCal, Mizzou, Iowa, Chicago).

All the new friends. All the old ones (special props to Erwo for his first one!)

I am running out of time - there a tons more to thank. I had a great time as always. On to Worlds!

Always a pleasure Rings. Thanks for hosting the drunk draft (minus the draft) and for being one of the people my fiance' met who helped convince her there are (relatively) normal people at GenCon.

We adopted you? I hope this doesn't end up with me paying some form of child support…

Thanks for hosting the Drunken. Saturday night was killer and you hosted most of it, so thanks again! We'll have to top it next year though…

Thanks for teaching us youngun's how to part, Rings! It's not really a GenCon with you. As in, I remember everything and my ass doesn't hurt if you're not there!

Wow, Staton. Im guessing that post is missing a couple letters. And Rings, don't worry a picture is forth coming. Maybe at some point we'll actually play a game….(or we can just keep drinking together)

Haha….it was fun!!

Rings, Staton, other guys i don't remember their names…..thanks for the drinks and for taking us out to party with you. I still can't believe you were drinking vodka with coke….xD

"people that can be named"….hahaha

Thanks for posting Rings! Wish I could have been there drinking with you, Mizzou and the Cali crews. And you don't have to play it coy about the "True Dungeon", by D+D themed we know you mean Domination & Submission theme

Its okay to admit that RyanSD is your master

Francisco - don't judge us by Complord (who I assume you were talking about on the vodka/coke), ~most of us don't have that bad of taste in booze

Jim/LaughingTree - would have been fun for sure, albiet missing the abnithehe (I can never spell that word). Not sure how you get Domination and Submission from D+D, but you San Fran guys would know! Ryan JOOONNNNEESSS would certainly be the master though…

One day I will win it all Rings, one day. And you will be there with a cup of "coffee" for me. Until then, just wait till I lose horribly, and then don't speak until I get some drinks in me quickly. Then all is well once again. Great report Rings.

rings said:

You know you love the Green Fairies buddy!

And RyanSD….

He serves pie and the Frey's ask please serve me more

Jeppedo said:

Seriously I hope so! Then Z won't be QUITE so insufferable

Until then, I will have drinks ready. Take soloce in the fact that you beat the odds and tied TheKingg in a drinking contest. I would have lost money on that bet!

I told you, and the MO guys told you. I had already lost once that night, it was not happening again.

Great Job Fox…in my defense though drinking 13 shots/drinks in 20 minutes to catch up does puts you at a disadvantage. Still had a great time meeting all the new people and hanging with the old. Might have to make it a yearly tradition .