YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH BOOOOOIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!
So Team Tapout gathers at Chubbs' house. We have Shaneth, MickyD, Sontag, and Philly Cheese all at Chubbs' house for some mad games and Street Fighter 4. Omar and John Macek rolled in at about 1:30am, greeted by a Chubbs antic, and we prepared for another restless night with jokes and pranks. Seven people at Chubbs' house, ALRIGHT!!!!!!! We rolled out at 8pm, arriving there at 10pm, waiting for an hour for Game Parlor to open.
The turnout was THIRTY-TWO!!!!! HELL YEAH BOIIII!!!! First regional to hit that bag! Most played character was Chun-Li, obviously, at 3 ppl playing her. Otherwise, diversity wasn't a factor between the pros and the casuals.
I ran Seong Mina Spinta Lock. I really wanted to play Hanzo Kick but Hughes was going to play that and MickyD was gonna play a Sakura, but Hughes didn't go because of a family thing, so MickyD played the Hanzo. I really didn't think it would do well because it's really inconsistent a lot of times, but I knew the deck the best and felt like I could pilot it to victory.
Round 1 - vs Marty w/ Fire Zi Mei aggro
I lose the coin flip. He flips over Zi Mei and I immediately expect it to be based around Evil. When he played his first card pool, showing me it was Fire, I knew I had it in the bag. A couple turns of Melancholic had me a bit worried. If I didn't get my Assasination Arts out both games then I probably would have lose. A couple turns of rapid Spintas turns into Reppas sealed it for me.
2-0
Round 2 - vs David w/ Air Raphael
I lose the coin flip. The deck was nice cause He can throw Tiger Furys for 19spd 19dmg and the such. It had A LOT of neat tricks that you usually don't see in Air. It played the Chaos Seal for the momentum generation and it also gave him the Chaos symbol for Galactica Phantom. His deck was nice, but didn't stand a chance against the Spinta Lock.
2-0
Round 3 - vs Rob Waters w/ Air Temujin
I lose the coin flip. Rob is BALLLLIN!!!!! And his deck was even more ballin. It's a usual Air deck but Temujin offers A LOT more in terms of Spike damage. When Spikes come at you for 14dmg each, that's something to worry about. He had me a couple of times at low life, but Spintas locked him up and I was able to finish him off game 1 and even more quickly game 2.
2-0
Round 4 - vs Voldomar w/ Tri-Victorzzz
I lose the coin flip. I finally get to play against my buddy Omar, who I hadn't played since Worlds 2007 in Top 8 Teams. Victor is pretty nasty with his loops and Reanimated tricks. The first game went for like... 30 minutes. Omar got out plenty of things to stop me, one of the best being Evil-Doer Destroyer. My control was just better as I could commit Evil-Doer with Amy's and hardcore Spinta lock his Victor into submission. Experienced Combatant on his Reanimated and Defender was pretty hot too. It took awhile, but I finally sealed game 1. Our second game went a little deep. I remember Spinta-ing quite a bit, but they called time on Omar's turn and he couldn't take a game from me.
1-0
Round 5 - vs Chubbs w/ Air Olexa
No coin flip. I hate facing my own teammates. We draw anyways and get some Subway. We know we're both in top 8.
0-0
Top 8 - TT= Team Tapout | NY = New York | VA = Virginia
4-0-1 (TT) Shane Duckworth - Order Seong Mina
4-1-0 (NY) Omar Chavez - Tri Victor
4-1-0 (TT) Bryan McDermott - Evil Hanzo Kick
3-0-2 (TT) Chubbzinator - Air Olexa
3-1-1 (VA) William Howard - Water GALFORD!!! <- it's hot tech
3-1-1 (TT) Philly Cheese - All/Earth Hugonaut
3-1-1 (NY) John Macek - Air Chun-Li
3-1-1 (TT) Adam Sontag - Earth Leona
I get Chun-Li and Bison toys for being swiss champ. Totally hot.
So let's get this right. SEVEN people total spent the night at Chubbs' house on Friday. Everybody who stayed at Chubbs' house made top 8. Chubbs' house is now officially the campout of choice for events. Hanover also dominated this event with all 5 Hanover players topping. Two NY pros topped, no surprise, and my newfound buddy Will running some GALFORD HOTTNESS!!!! It probably was the expected rouge deck to top 8.
As for Hugo, Philly Cheese has the best Hugo deck I've seen. It's pretty hot, and was proud that he built something by himself that made top 8. Adam Sontag's from Team Tapout, and he loves the Earth symbol, so I was forced to build something Earth for him to play for the event. Earth doesn't work right now because of the jank characters it has, so I decided to build him Leona because of the 8HS. Vitality really doesn't matter right now because all the decks run loops or OTKs, so Leona was the greatest pick. 8HS fuels Ways of Punishment, Inhuman Perception, and Rev's Calling very nicely. People think a single Spike will kill her, but can defend her own very easily with Assassination Arts, Holding Ground, Battle Prowess, and other niceness. Leona is hot stuff!!!
Top 8 pairings:
Shaneth (Seong Mina) vs Sontag (Leona)
Voldomar (Victor) vs Centipede (Chun-Li)
MickyD (Hanzo) vs Philly Cheese (Hugo)
Chubbs (Olexa) vs WillHow (Galford)
Top 8 - vs Sontag w/ Earth Leona
I lose the coin flip. We played this matchup many times back at the house, and I knew I had this one in the bag unless I screw up or don't get Spintas. Both games went exactly my way, although the second one was slower. The best moment ever is when Sontag played a Tiger Fury for 19dmg, used Leona's ability, and revealed a Plasma Beam for +16dmg. 35 DAMAGE TIGER FURY!!!!!! That was enough to one shot my ass.
2-0
And I get to press the Easy Button.
Top 8 results:
Seong Mina over Leona
Chun-Li over Victor
Hanzo over Hugo
Olexa over Galford
Top 4 pairings:
Shaneth (Seong Mina) vs Chubbzinator (Olexa)
MickyD (Hanzo) vs John Macek (Chun-Li)
Top 4 - vs Chubbs w/ Air Olexa
So I get to fight Chubbs again, but we can't draw this time. Depending on what the situation was with MickyD and Macek, I was going to give the win to Chubbs because I know for a fact that I can't beat MickyD's Hanzo, but Chubbs would beat MickyD because he sides Air Base which completely neutralizes Hanzo. So I would play Macek but not MickyD. We play anyways, obviously. I lose the coin flip.
Game 1 - He wins by double Spike.
Game 2 - I win by double Reppa.
Game 3 - I botch out for the first time in VA and Chubbs wins by double Spike, even after he mulliganed FOUR out of his SEVEN attacks. Screw the swiss champ curse...
Top 4 results:
Olexa over Seong Mina
Hanzo over Chun-Li
Finals:
Chubbzinator (Olexa) vs MickyD (Hanzo)
Game 1 - MickyD takes it very quickly with the Kick loop. Chubbs sides in Air Base and MickyD sides in Lynettes.
Game 2 - Chubbs doesn't draw Air Base, but double Spikes for the win.
Game 3 - MickyD thinks for about 3 minutes on whether or not he wants to mulligan. He doesn't mulligan. Chubbs drops an Air Base turn 1. MickyD looks at his hand to find 0 Yoga Adepts. Enough said.
Congrats to Chubbs for winning the NOVA regional. It's about **** time Team Tapout did something. Chubbs deserved it too. He gets the plaque, the Evil Ryu trophy, some artwork, and other ballin prizes. Better watch out Steve, he's gonna order 22 lobsters and 49 steaks at that championship dinner!!!
Overall great tournament. I think it proved that Tapout is among the best teams in the world. I'm really proud of my teammates for all doing so well. Chubbs picked the Death life counter, MickyD picked the Evil life counter, I picked the Water life counter, and that's all I remember. I know Philly got the Life life counter and I think Sontag got a Life one as well. Both myself and WillHow wanted the Water one, but I took it first. He seemed a bit disapointed with the Void one, so I swapped him and I think he was very appreciative. Friendship points +2, eh?
Props:
- Chubbs finally is recognized as a top player rather than just a crazy fund00d.
- First time ever being swiss champ!!!
- Team Tapout for dominating the regional.
- 2-0ing lots of ppl although losing all my coinflips.
- Amazing-ass trades all around.
- Ian Firth for showing some love by selling Team Tapout 4x BRTs for $40. We LOVE that boi.
- Craig Roberts for running a hot regional.
- Getting my 4th Flames of Fame out of the free pick box.
- MickyD for pulling one of the two BRTs in the free pick box. That's now 6x BRTs that Team Tapout has got for free.
Slops:
- Losing EVERY coin flip of the day. It was still 2-0 mania tho.
- Swiss champ curse.
- I never knew people could get so pissed for losing...
Next stop ------- FALLSTON MARYLAND REGIONAL!!!!!!! I just want that dinner so I can eat with Chubbs.
