Worlds 2001 - A Report
Worlds 2001 were held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on Aug 24-26 (Friday-Sunday)
The info page of the organizing committee has now become the official
report page of Worlds 2001. You will (soon) find the reports of many people
there as well as a large archive of pictures of the event. For this site we have
selected the report of the fresh World Champion, Brian Wong from Canada. The
pictures we added mainly show the Dutch present. [Hover your pointer over each
picture for details.]
Brian Wong's Report
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
Saturday brought on the Semi-Finals for Worlds. All my room-mates made it
in except for Andrew because he showed up late from his professional baby
sitting stint. We decided to drive since the 20 minute walk estimation
from
Jimmy ended up to be 45 minutes the day before. We continued our tradition
of playing Crystal Method's "High Roller" song before we started
playing. <In a really poor German accent> It really pumps you up!
First round with Brian Satterly from North Carolina and his hero stuff:
I had the joy of playing Brian my first and only time at my first North
American Nationals appearance in Florida many moons ago. He was my only
loss in the semi-finals there when he influenced away Target-Boy in the last
turn. I remembered him. ;-)
Well, there was no Target-Boy for him to influence this time because I was
playing a Balrog burn deck inspired by Jason Klank's Nationals deck from two
years ago. I helped him test the deck a lot back then so I knew the deck
well and also what changes I felt it needed to be even more competitive and
reflect my own cheezeless style. Unfortunately for Brian, he hadn't
playtested against this style of deck and was pleasantly shocked when I
burned down Bree (very cheezy place) for 5 points (Tempest of Fire & Burning
Rick, Cot, & Tree) as well as discarding his Rangers of the North faction
for an 8 point swing. Soon enough, he decided to leave my massive trolls
alone and spend most of his time running and trying to get points where he
could.
My last turn is what Brian will remember best. I sent The Balrog to the
Under-leas with a few scrubs in tow to get the Ancient Black Axe. He
thought a long while about whether to play any hazards on that company. He
finally decided not to, even after reading the site card. He figured that
it wouldn't be worth it to let my guys beat up more creatures for the fun of
it since the site card only said that minor items were playable. I
shrugged
and said, "Ok". I knew that his jaw was going to drop when I
played my 4
point item during the site phase... and it did. He almost pulled out his
hair when he showed me his hand: 3 Nameless Things! The "Thangs"
would have
kicked my butt at the Under-leas. Oh well. I told him to blame James
Kight
for not teaching him the ways of the Rog properly. ;-) Regardless of
the
result, Brian and I had a great time. He's a great opponent and I hope he
doesn't retire from the game like he told me he planned to after Worlds. 5-1 for me.
Second round with Stephane P. from France and his big pyromaniac
Lieutenants:
This had to be one of the best games I have ever played of MeCCG. Stephane
is an incredibly fun opponent. We were laughing and roleplaying the entire
game in English and French. His artistically modified cards were
interesting to say the least. You haven't truly played MeCCG until you've
played Stephane. I'd clone him for a personal playing partner if I could.
The best part of our game was when he set me up for his big hazard beat
down. My trolls were quite big already with at least two I'll Report You's.
He first served up an appetizer of Dwarven Travellers. They were quite
tasty but wouldn't even fill up the loneliest corner of a trolls stomach. Fortunately, this bon garcon immediately followed up with an entree of filet
de Saruman. Mmmm.... He had a tasty prowess but the body was
difficult to
digest. Buthrakaur roared for another and the witty waiter obliged with
another fine cut of Maia. Again, quite tasty but too much gristle for
Ulkaur's liking, no tongue and all. Sweating from the fear of receiving a
bad tip from my gang of uglies, Monsieur Stephane came flying out of the
kitchen with the creme de la creme... Elf-Lord Revealed in Creme Anglais.
I
cried, "Mais non! How could I possibly accept such a glorious dish
after
all you've done?" Stephane cleverly replied, "Mais oui, Monsieur
Big and
Ugly! It is but WAFER-THIN!" With such sweet words, how could I
resist. After a little jealous jostling amongst my trolls, one of them earned the
right to indulge himself in Elf delicacy. Satisfying to the last drop.
I believe dessert consisted of Ent in Search of Ent Wife pudding. My
company of trolls wore most of their dinner on their clothes. This gourmet
meal concluded with me eating 5 tournament points worth of goodies and a 1
tournament point tip for my favourite garcon, Stephane!
Third round with Yasuhiro from Japan and his hero One Ring thingy:
Yasuhiro had an interesting starting company. Cirdan, Bilbo, another
hobbit, and Forlong. Forlong? Oh well, I suppose he had some special
trick
planned that I've never seen before. My trolls got big really fast again
so
I decided to pay a visit to Cirdan and the two hobbits at the Barrow-Downs. Luckily for me, he didn't play any big
Barrow-wights on me. That would
have
been really bad. I initiated CVCC but he cancelled with a Dark Quarrels. The same thing happened the next turn too.
So after a couple of stalled turns for us both, his hobbits decided to join
forces with the mighty Forlong while Cirdan became a card engine. My
trolls
did their pyro-thing while the mighty Forlong company discovered their
phobia of bears. After a couple of Beorning Skin-Changers, he finally
reached Goblin-Gate to find Gollum. The strange thing is, just before this
round, the Japanese contingent asked me at lunch, "What's the most
cheeziest
thing?". "Snowstorm/Roadblock", I replied. Well, a
couple of turns later,
Saruman arrived at Isengard. We all know that of all the wizards, he's the
one most afraid of bears. I tried to hide under my "No Cheeze"
hat's brim
as I recycled a few more examples of our great Canadian wildlife. All his
companies went running for cover from my hairy friends so I graciously took
my 6-0. Yasuhiro is a quiet player but very friendly. Too friendly
towards
Forlong I think. ;-)
Fourth and final round with Wim Heemskerk from The Netherlands and his hero
maybe One Ring thingy:
Wim and I have known each other since Worlds in Barcelona but this was
actually the first time that we had ever played each other in a constructed
game. We laughed about how Chad would be the only person who could make
rulings for our game.
Wim's starting party and tournament record had me worried about his dunking
prowess. I thought that it would be either him or me that would make it
into the finals depending on whether he dunked or not. I began the game by
sideboarding madly for anti-One Ring cards. Luckily, one of those cards
was
Rolled Down to the Sea. I was able to play it soon after sideboarding it
and figured out that he wasn't dunking. The MP race was on! One key
point
was when I was able to see his hand again for some reason. In it, I was
able to see a major undead beat down coming. My trolls were moving to get
another fix for their pyromania while The Balrog and his gang of losers were
going to the Under-leas again to get themselves a sharp play-thing.
Wisely,
I moved the big uglies first to draw out his hazards and weathered the rain
of undead with reasonable ease. The Balrog had clear sailing from then on
and I clawed a 5-1 victory from Wim. Bedunkt, Wim! =)
So, I made it to the final 4. I achieved my goal but since I was there, I
might as well go for it all the way. But first, Le Dragon Rouge medieval theme restaurant. After more than a little bit of being lost due to second
guessing our directions, we arrived to a small restaurant with a lot of
atmosphere enhanced by hungry Tolkien gaming fans. Wow! What a rush!
Food
and drink were consumed, new cheezy strategies were revealed, and waitresses
were ogled (not by me of course). A good time was had by all.
It was
another triumph by the Montreal Organizing Committee!
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
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