so as we all know ross walked away champion of the first regional but i thought would be cool to post a little report on the day

I'd spent the weekened with smithers helping the play group up there with decks and stuff and help each other with our own decks so had had a little bit of practice playing around with block 3 which btw is really cool.

we ended up with 24 players which had both new and expericence players, i went with my brother craig (playing hanzo), sam (andrew olexia) and johno (felicia) with me playing akuma. All of us were hoping to do well and have loads of fun (can't remember the last time i played with full block deck). after all the players had put their names down for the event and stopped drooling over the prizes we sat down round one was plaired.

i found out then that there were 4 akuma's (knew i should have played rikuo lol) 2 basara'sand 2 chun li's and everything else was 1 of's. round 1 ended and we were me win craig loss sam win jonno win (all 3 games of his were over in about 5 mins). round 2 was then paired and the grouped looked like this me win,win craig loss,win sam win,loss johnno win,win. that was the cue for lunch and mc donalds(as nowhere else was open) had a chat got back for round 3.

After round 3 results were me win,win,win craig loss,win,win sam win,loss,win johnno win,win,win which left me and johnno the only ones on 3 wins at the time as ross and his opponant (another akuma) had drawn 0-0. so round 4 i had to face johnno and the spike of doom . i had some luck against him game 1 and game 2 he had a really bad start, which left us after round 4 me win,win,win,win craig loss,win,win,loss sam win,loss,win,loss and johnno win,win,win,loss.

Before round 5 we worked out that sam and craig had to win to stand a chance of getting in the top 8, johnno on his ties (and being the only felicia) should already be in and i still had to at least draw my next game to make it as the next akuma had only dropped a draw so far .

Round 5 i was paired against ross and johnno the other akuma (i now prayed lol). i managed a last 3 min 1-1 with ross and johnno had managed a brilliant 1-1 against the other akuma, craig and sam had also both won their game (craig finally beating jack after what seems like a million attemps) and so we waited for the top 8 to be called:

top 8 was:

me akuma

ross: vega

johnno: felica

---: mignon

sam: andrew olexia

---: chun li

---: raphael

craig: hanzo

we had all made top 8 and were given lots of shiny thing and a cool life counter wooo . sorry about the names i have a huge problem with names just really suck with them . out of the top 8 an akuma and chun li had been diversived out.

soooo top 8 was:

me vs craig

ross vs raphael

johnno vs chun li

mignon vs sam

i was against my brother which sucks but oh well i guess i always face him in tournaments why not this one, after a few minutes of starting i saw johnno walking around with his opponant and wondered what had happend apparently it was a turn 2 spike game 1 and a turn 1 spike game 2 which ment that he was ready before most had split decks lol. me and my brothers match was close getting me regularry down low before i got control and ultimaly won with an uppercut(fury)

so semi,s was up and here it is:

me vs sam

ross vs johnno

at this point i shouted my brother, my best friend who will i face next my mum, to which ross answered "no YOUR FATHER", bad times .

Sam is my biggest enemy in card games, always has come out ahead of me in every major event (bar sweden), now i have to say sorry and thank u to the store owner at this point because 5 mins before the end of round i had just gone 1 up in one of the best if not the best games i have ever played, game 2 however took sam 2 turns when time was called he had leathal on the table with spike and me unable to stop it. so we went to round 3,

45 minutes later:

we are still in round 3 i have had to draw my last 2 cards of my deck before milling to finally find a tiger fury. next turn i managed to win with the best single game i have ever played exhausted was an understatement.

now i had to face ross again.

game 1 i massifly misplayed and counted badly his r negate's and lost quickly after that.

game 2 i had a chance if i could draw a fury for 3 turns i milled them after playing my 2nd card and after that was just a matter of time before i lost.

So congrates to ross who at about 7.30pm went home with wood , thanks to the store owner as well he was great and overall it was fantasic and i will now try and make as many of these as possible wooooooooo.

Congratulations to Ross,

Sounds like there were some good matches, I was intrigued by Akuma was wondering if you could send me or post the decklist for Akuma as I have made an Akuma, and want to see if the decks are similar in any way..

I was playing top 8 Chun Li, my name is Ben lol. Unfortunately my 2 losses for the day were both against Johno's Felicia Spike deck of doom (yes swiss, then top 8 *sigh*). Justin was playing the Mignon deck. Dont know the name of the top 8 Raphael player though.

What can I say Mark, 'Friends and Rivals' sums us up perfectly One of your favourite cards to if i remember

Yea the Mignon deck (which with a bit of cheek sided into Chun-li), was ran by Justin, who I lost to in the final round, round 5 of the swiss. I went win win lose win lose. I was shocked I made it into the top 8 on my 3-2 performance but most definitly happy . It was funny that I had to face Justin in the first round of the top 8. However the tides turned this time.

It was quite fun using 'Andrew Olexa'. (Is he really 6'5''???) I've tried to drag myself away from the days of 6HS 30HP (Cough Astaroth Cough). Its just trying to get over the fact that i'm already pretty much dead with this kind of health. I still don't like it :S.

It was a fantastic day down at the good old Leicester store (my local). Thanks to Chris for holding the event! Congrats to Ross as well for getting wood

And then theres you my dear friend and rival. What can I say, that was one of the most epic matches i've ever had the pleasure of performing in. Sorry about the turn 2 kill at the precise moment that Chris called time Oh and sorry for exhausting you for another 45 mintues after time was called :D

Well you finally done it mate, congrats you finally beat me at tourny level But it wasn't a true victory now was it Where was the Astaroth

In loving memory of a good friend that took me to the top 8 last nationals (sorry not you Mark but the lovable Astaroth