"Het Spellenspektakel" is one of the largest gaming conventions in The
Netherlands. This year, the Dutch MECCG council was asked by 999 Games (the
company that's responsible for Het Spellenspektakel) to man a stand, so we could
promote the game and hold tournaments. Of course, we agreed (GenCon had been
great fun and we even would get paid for our effort this time - unfortunately,
we spent all the money we earned on our hotel rooms...)
Our team consisted of
Wim Heemskerk, Simone de Ruyter, Eline Kattenberg and me. Ard van Kessel helped
us out on Friday and Sunday.
I was surprised to see so many people, of both genders and of all ages, were
interested in the game. I think the new Lord of the Rings board game drew a lot
of people to our stand (even though it has nothing to do with MECCG). We did
lots of demo's and introductions during the weekend. Simone, Eline, Ard and I
must've explained the game to *scores* of passer-by's who were willing to sit
down for fifteen minutes, and I managed to persuade Wim to do a demo or two
(when he wasn't fooling around in Pokémon Land).
We added tons of names and email addresses
to our Player List (I think the number of names on our email distribution list
nearly got doubled). If ICE had still been alive today, they would've been very
proud of us, I'm sure of it.
On Friday, we did a sealed deck booster draft style tournament. Eight people
participants, five of them members of the Leidenish Morgul-rats player group.
Thanks for showing up, guys! (Usually, Rogier and I are the only ones willing to
travel for more than fifteen minutes in order to be able to play in a
tournament...) The infamous Arjan Schipstra also participated - of course, the
guy managed to show up late.
The tournament was won by
Gerard-Pieter (GP) Gooiker. He got a Lord of the Rings board game and a few
promo cards (Dutch Test of Form, French Black Arrow). There were also many
prizes for the other participants, including Dutch Iron Crown promo's for
everybody. The LotR board game and the Iron Crown promo's were donated to
the Dutch Council by 999 Games.
On Saturday
there was a general opponent tournament. We decided to play one
deck games, because otherwise there wouldn't be enough time to finish a decent
number of rounds. Twelve people showed up, more than half of 'em from Belgium or
Germany. I didn't see much of the games (too busy answering rules questions and
demoing, I guess), but in the end Patrick Kubrat had acquired an impressive
grand total of 22 tournament points (four rounds!) so he won; he got another
LotR board game and a few promo cards. Michael Brocker (also from Germany) got
second place (Uvatha miniature), Wannes Vansina (Belgium) got third place ("The
Shire" MERP book). Luc Schruers attempted to grab some more
Dutch council prizes by playing Steve Cantens's One Ring deck yet again, but he
only managed to dunk twice (One Ring decks don't work that well in the one deck
environment) so he got fourth place.
Sunday: Limited edition METW sealed deck! One ltd. starter and three ltd. boosters plus prize support for only twenty guilders (less than $ 8)! Twelve people participated. Ard van Kessel coordinated and won the tournament (hm, I'm beginning to see a pattern here), he got the third LotR board game.
All in all, I am very satisfied with the way things went. As long as we are able to organize events like the ones described above, and as long as people keep showing up for our tournaments, MECCG won't die!
I'd like to thank the following people:
Eline, Simone & Wim for being
such great team mates! I had a lot of fun hanging out with you guys!
Ard for
helping us out on Friday and Sunday.
Arco den Boer for being such a generous
sponsor!
999 Games for giving us the opportunity
to be at the con, and for prize support.
Mithril Miniatures for
prize support.
And
finally, everyone who showed up at our stand to learn the game or to play in a
tournament! We hope you had a good time!