Still in holland, 9 am, sitting in an internet cafe on Kalverstraat writing my worldsreport and catching up on the list activity (didn't take long... ;)
I had a great time, and to be honest, I had even more fun this year than last year. The reason? We'll get to that part later...
I arrived Friday and got picked up by one of the ME "wizard" who had disapeared from the face of the earth for a while, yeah that's right, Daniel Spronk. He drove me and Josh Grace to his brothers place and after getting unpacked we drove downtown to meet up with some of the other players. I have to warn you all. If you ever meet Daniel, do everything you can to avoid getting in a car with him! That dude drives like a freakin' maniac...
We barely survived the ride, I got my face smashed against the netting that separated the front and back seats, and finally met up with some other players (George, Wanja, Christian, Patrick Laxander (all Germany), Brian and Arco, Daniel, Josh and myslef. We went out to dinner and hade a great laugh.
Since I was already qualified for the semis I played in the sealed deck side event. As always when playing sealed I had a lot of fun! I came in 4th in the tournament who was won by Mikael Forsstrom from Finland. I played with Joe Bisz, a game which I won (always nice to win against "dunk-boy"). I also played Tommo from UK. Always nice to play you, dude! Cheers! I can't remember who else I played right now, I only slept 3 hours last night and I'm too tired to think :(
I entered the semis as a representative of the CoL (got pushed up since Jason and Ed didn't show up), Thanks guys!!! ;)
My first round I got paired up against the Swedish Champion. I played my F-Alatar deck from Gencon and he played a hero underdeep deck. His hazards slowed me down quite a bit in the beginning, but eventually things started to go my way and I won 5-1. Unfortunately no CvCC since he was down in the deeps or at very nasty free/borderholds. I can post my deck later if anybody wants me to since I'm done playing that deck anyway. The main idea is to get a couple of weapons and a bunch of wolf allies and the crows and then go and attack your opponent (hero). The allies allows you to assign lots of -1 since my company is usually a lot bigger. Also, most players don't "remember" that crows make you overt. I never leave RaL's and I move only in w and c (only once i costal).
My second game was against Jean-Paul. I finally got to meet and play this fine dutchman. After our little "dispute" on the list where I went over my head and said I was going to misdarfer him at worlds, I kinda wanted to win... Jean-Paul played a kewl hero deck in dragon country. At council we were tied 36/36 MP. He revealed Gildor I at the council and I dropped 1 MP to a 2-4 loss. Thanks for a great game Jean-Paul! and "thanks" for whopping my a** :)
My third game I played with Erwin Aaman (germany). A really nice guy and he was a lot of fun talking to! My hazards have never worked better and I got a 6-0 against his F-Rad.
At 13 TP after three rounds and "up there" I heard that they were announcing the start of the Middle Earth the drinking game... I failed the corruption check and dropped out of the semis to go play Middle Earth at its best!
This was a great tournament! Three rounds, 5 half-liter beers and lots of re-named cards later *wink wink* I'd won the tournament! I finally got to play Arco and unfortunately he beat me in a close and fun game. Second round I played Christian from Germany. A great guy who went to worlds just to play casual games and side events. He was a pretty new player and not a big drinker so I won 6-0. Last round I played against Daniel Spronk after adding another rule to the MEtDG. CRF vol2: (correct wording later): "you may chose to consume half a litre (big mug) of an alcoholic beverage of choice and lower your tournament points to select an opponent for your next round". Daniel drank a beer and dropped down from 12 to 8 TP so we could play :) (he got a 6 TP bye first round). It was one of the funniest games I've ever played. We gave all the cards new names and I've never seen that many cards played on one character. Boromir (controlled by Daniel) had three corruption cards, 2 minior items, one major item, and three "trophies" played on him... *L*. I won the game and the tournament!
In the evening we went out to eat, drink some more beer and took a walking tour through Amsterdam with the locals.
Middle earth the drinking game side event and the finals.
Since George didn't feel well, he dropped out of the finals and Steven, a one ring player from Belgium got pushed up. Sorry George, even though your deck was REALLY cheesy you are the worthy champion. I'll let somebody else write about the boring stuff ;/
Having barely recovered from the day before I entered a second drinking game at noon this Sunday. This time we did it "draft-style". I got Tom B, Gwaihir, a noble hound, orcrist and the thranduil fixed pack so a pretty good deck I'd say! First round I played Cheeze-Wong who is no longer a worthy bearer of the "yellow cheeze hat of power"... Jean-Paul was right about Brian not beeing a big drinker and he was an easy 6-0 ;) (you actually don't have to be a big drinker to play the drinking game as long as you avoid CvCC with a fin).
My next game I played against Markus (germany). Don't remember much from this game but I won 6-0.
My last round was against the "heavy" finn Mikael Forsstrom. First turn he goes to Dol Guldur, and the second turn he drops down to Sulfur-Deeps and plays (you won't belive me) Aiglos, Hau of Bright Mail, Vein of Arda, and Rescue Prisoners. 11 MP turn in a draft, not bad eh? The same turn I go to initiate CvCC on his lonly wizard at Lorien. For those of you not familiar with the rules you have to drink a zip of alcoholic beverage to do that. Your opponent can cancel the initiation by taking a zip and so it goes on until someone gives up... After half a beer (half liter size), Mikael asks me how much time is left (20 minutes) and how many points I have. His suggestion was to drink the rest of the game until the time was up, sicne he was pretty sure his wiz was going to end up wounded or dead. We were tied at 14 and he needed a 5-1 win to win the tournament. For the fun of it he let me drink 1,5 beers before he finally gave in and let me beat on his wiz. Unfortunately I failed the body check. We tied the game and once again I was the winner of a ME the drinking game tournament! A very funny game! And Jean-Paul, when you play a finn in the drinking game, you can get drunk! I drank 2,5 beers that game (half liter size).
Thanks Brian, Arco, Wim and everybody else who helped in making this great event take place! The price support was excellent thanks to Arco's Card Exchange, Joe Bisz, Badali Jewelry, Cheeze-Wong, Tommo and the council of Bree, the cafe "de 2 klaveren", the Tolkien shop (www.tolkienshop.com)!
Daniel Spronk! You are a great guy and an excellent host! Thanks for everything!!!
I got to hang out some great guys this weekend. Except for the ones mentioned above it was really nice to meet Patrick Laxander (funny guy who actually made it to Mt Doom with the ring and played cracks in Sundays drinking game. failed the cc-roll of 8 or more though...). I hope I haven't forgot anybody. If I have, it doesn't mean I don't like you ;)
Rawk on dudes! I hope I see you at next years worlds, okido (another cool dutch word *L*)
Oskar Silow "the ultimate drinking game champion and a worthy bearer of the yellow cheeze hat of power"