A train strike made my trip to Amsterdam a very troublesome one, but eventually I reached Café De 2 Klaveren, where worlds was to be held. It was a great place by the way; an excellent choice, Arco!
After talking to some old friends and some new people, I participated in the Sealed Deck tournament (I had already qualified for the semi-finals by occupying third place at Dutch nationals).
Though the cards I got where VERY bad (no allies, the only factions where the once in the fixed pack, The White Tree but no Sapling, etc.) I still had a lot of fun. First round, I played Tommo (England), who, though he spent the whole game complaining about his cards, still managed to beat me without a lot of trouble by playing my two factions first and then recycling a Wizard's Laughter with Saruman to cancel all my attempts to influence them away. Next round, I played Dan (also from England) and lost again. Oh well. Then, I played Patrick Kubrat (Germany) who had the same fixed pack (so all our good characters bounced and we had to play with the losers). This time, I managed to squeeze out a victory. Fourth round, the North-american champ, Joe Bisz. Won again, don't ask me how, I don't remember. But it felt good to beat the finest player America had to offer! ;) Michael Forstrom (Finland) won the tournament, I got 10th place myself (so no prizes for me). After the game, I traded some cards and ended up with at about 20 rares I still wanted! If you want to trade cards (even Star Wars or Magic or whatever CCG you play), Worlds is definately the place to go!
Meanwhile, Oliver Hoffman (Germany) had won the open qualifiers. It was also good to see Wim (one of the finest dutch players) qualify - he hadn't been able to earn a place in the semi-finals at dutch nationals because he was in Japan at the time.
After the tournament, Arco, Joe, Christian (Germany) and Kees Schipstra ate something and went to a bar (The Sound Garden) with Angelique and some of the others Germans. There, Joe offended the dutch by drinking Guiness all evening, while the finest dutch and belgian beers where available!
I played my Elrond deck, with Vilya and Flatter a Foe. First round, I played against Luc "fruitsap" Schreurs (Belgium), whom I had earlier met in Antwerp. I started off rolling nothing but 2's, 3's and 4's and lost both Elrohir and Elladan during the first few turns, so I thought I was going to lose. Luckily, on my last turn, I could influence Luc's Aragorn II away, with Gollum and Return of the King on him! I was even able to play Aragorn myself (since Elrond had 10 DI available because of Vilya)... 5-1 victory for me.
Second round, vs. Oskar Silow (Sweden), who was wearing his "no cheeze" hat. He played a Fallen Alatar deck with lots and lots of wolf allies and Regiment of Black Crows, designed to do company vs. company combat (the Crows make their company overt). First round, drakes killed quite a few of Oskar's characters, which slowed him down a bit. I wasn't able to hurt him with my hazards after that though; even a Cave-drake aimed at two war-wolves just got turned into a kill point. Luckily, Oskar's hazards didn't really do anything to stop Elrond from gaining a lot of marshalling points in the east either and the game ended without CvCC, probably because of the big auto-attack at The Old Forest, were Pallando, Cirdan and Tom where staying during my last few turns. We had the exact same amount of marshalling points, but I had kept a Gildor in my hand, so I could lower his total amount by 1, thus winning the game 4-2. Phew... Close one.
Third round, me vs. Wim Heemskerk (Netherlands), who, much to his own chagrin, had been playing against other dutchmen only so far... He played a deck with lots of dwarves, scavenging around in dragon country. Since my hazards where mostly drakes, I was able to hit him pretty hard... On top of that, Elrond influenced Thrain II away (bearing the Emerald). We ended up having roughly the same amount of MP's (Wim's last turns were very successful), but I had kept the Iron Hill Dwarves, Orcrist and Wormsbane in my hand, so I could lower his total by 3 and win the game 4-2. (First time I ever beat Wim! Yay!)
Fourth round, vs. Heiner Viefhues (Germany). A balrog squatting in the Underleas. Couldn't do a lot to stop him from doing whatever he wanted to do... In a desperate attempt, I tried to get both the Elves of Lindon and the Iron Hill Dwarves on my last turn, but failed both influence checks. Damn! Afterwards, I realized I would have won if I had succeeded! 21-26, so a 2-4 loss for me...
Fifth round, vs. another German gentleman (Jörn Licht) playing another Balrog deck... This time it was a huge company with three leaders that burned down border-holds and free-holds. Even Cave Worms didn't hurt him after he'd played three (!) I'll Report You's and a Swarm of Bats on his company. Meanwhile, lots of corruption cards slowed down my deck a lot, and on top of that, Buthrakaur and his pals went to the Iron Hill Dwarf-hold and played People Diminished (without any trouble), so I lost my 4 point dwarves faction and Alliance of the Free Peoples got discarded... Strider went to Bree on my last turn to get the Rangers, but got corrupted by Alone and Unadvised on his way there. Pallando did play Tom (on his own), but that didn't help me much. 1-5 loss. Because I was very tired (fifth game in a row!), and because I couldn't do anything but watch my opponent gain tons of MP's, I have to admit I didn't really enjoy this game.
Georg (Germany, last years world champ) won (Balrog deck), Patrick Kubrat (Fallen Gandalf), Wanja (German, Balrog) and Jörn also qualified for the finals on Sunday. Steve Cantens (Belgium, One Ring deck) came in 5th, I got 11th place (and turned out to be the best dutch player!).
After the game, we walked a very long distance through Amsterdam, being very hungry, until we finally found a place where we could get something to eat. I ended up eating steak with the English group (Tommo, Dan and Paul). After dinner (at twelve, I think...) the English decided they wanted to see the red light district. I went to the railway station, but just missed my train (by one minute, dammit!), so I had to wait for a full hour, while keeping all the bums and junks at Amsterdam Central at bay... After a while, the English (not having found the red light district) joined me again, and we chatted about various subjects until the train arrived.
When Steve's wizard was killed in CvCC everyone thought this game was going to end in a 6-0 victory for the German, just like the first time - after all, Steve hadn't tested yet and now he couldn't use Wizard's Test anymore. But Steve didn't give up; he sideboarded in his only Test of Form. He had already exhausted his play deck, so the chances of drawing it were very small. But he drew it! Yes! And rolled an eight for his test! Yes! And went to Mount Doom, and, with only wounded characters left, dunked the one ring with Cracks of Doom! Talk about luck!
This changed everything of course, Steve now had 14 tournament points, so he became the new world champion, instead of Patrick. Which, by the way, made me feel very sorry for Patrick, since he wasn't the one who had made a mistake with his deck listing but he was the one who had to pay for it! But anyway. Steve won the replica of The One, as well as a Frodo action figure and a poster, all the other participants got action figures as well, and some more neat prizes.
First round, vs. Michael Forstrom. A Fin! First time I played the Drinking Game, I had to play a Fin! Great! Anyway, he had this huge company and sent it to Dol Guldur. Then, he didn't play anything, which kind of confused me. Surely, if he had nothing to play, he could have gone to a less dangerous site? Next turn, all became clear: he went down to the Sulfur-deeps, and played Aiglos, The Arkenstone and Rescue Prisoners, all in one turn! Meanwhile, I had played a Dwarven Ring on Gimli and had stored the Book of Mazarbul at the Iron Hill Dwarf-hold, but a Long Winter tapped the Hold before I could play the Dwarf faction. Gandalf went to Isengard (Gimli and Annalena went there too but got bounced back due to that same Long Winter) and, in a last, desperate attempt, tried to get a ring (I had a Beautiful Gold Ring, a Test of Form and a Magic Ring in my hand). Unfortunately, Michael revealed a Cave-drake played on-guard and Gandalf (who didn't tap) got himself killed... 1-5 loss, but a fun game, although we didn't drink an awful lot...
Next round, vs. the legendary card-exchanger Arco. Arco's wizard travelled to the Dunnish Clan Hold but encountered a Cave-drake on the way there, with Dragon's Blood! He beat the Cave-drake easily, but I rolled an 11 for the body check and eliminated his wizard. (2 shots, -5 MP.) After that, some more of Arco's characters got killed while I did OK and the game ended in a 6-0 victory for me.
Third (and last) game, vs. Luc Schreurs, who drank bacardi-cola instead of beer... (He must be the only Belgian who doesn't like beer...) Luc had managed to get both Smaug and Scatha and two Dragon's Desolations! I got beaten up pretty badly and lost 1-5 (I think), so Luc mixed me a nice drink consisting of beer, coke and bacardi rum... (Which actually tasted quite good!)
Oskar won the tournament (of course) and I think he got a binder with a complete set of German promo's. Again, no prize for me... The non-drinking multiplayer boosterdraft was won by Erwin (Germany), who got a Rangers of the North shirt. There was also a raffle, where some very nice prizes were given away at random. Didn't get anything, tough...
After the tournaments, we ate something at a nice, little restaurant-slash-bar Arco had picked, and after that, I went home with a few liters of beer and a bit of moroccan honey-cinnamon chicken in my stomach. All in all, I had a really great time and I will definately try to attend next year's worlds!