Manager's Summer 2017 FtF Journal

Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2017 5:56 pm

The last time RSI held a FtF in Kansas City, it was sparsely attended. It was the late 90's or early 2000's and the Super Bowl was being held in Tempe. So they ended up having the Tempe FtF in April and Kansas City in July. The back to back faces ended up with KC being sparsely attended (despite the player base being much larger back then) and it was smaller than a modern day FtF, so much so that the entire FtF was able to go out to eat afterwards and sit at the same table.

I didn't think we'd ever return to KC (and I didn't think I would still be living in Omaha), but here we are, and here I am only 2.5 hours away from the FtF hotel! A decent number of players live in the area too so the midwest should be pretty well represented for this one.

I drove down Thursday but didn't think that anyone would be in early so I decided to just stay with a local friend in the area. There was a thunderstorm passing through the area as well so staying inside was a good idea anyway. It was actually Friday when I went to the convention center. Summer was a busy time for me this year so I'm a terrible manager and forgot to bust anyone out. (And by the time I did remember it was too late and I didn't want to be sub optimal. Eventually I'll remember to do it right) And I really didn't prep any first tier warriors either. I had a lot of 2nd tier warriors still timed from the past though so that was good. I didn't think I would be totally awful but it definitely was not the cream of the crop for my squad. Which I guess is ok. I'm still learning how to be ok with just being ok, but I am here for fun and for a (relatively) cheap time for me.

The hotel was not in a great area, but near the airport and was pretty nice. There was a Starbucks in the hotel lobby as well as a restaurant which (to me) was pretty good for a hotel restaurant. A little on the pricey side but that's to be expected I guess.

Anyway, so I buy roll-ups and they are pretty horrid. I buy more roll-ups and they are still pretty horrid. But I only had 48 warriors and that still felt pretty naked to me from a tourney squad stand point. So I forced myself to get another 20. I go over my mini-overviews and the really good bloodgames team I rolled-up in Tempe are not there. (Whatever happened to them? ) So I ended up rolling another team for the FtF and One for the Mail-In. (Rolled up 4 teams kept the best 2) So I guess I'm ready to go. Went with Chief, Anarchist, and Grimm to Q39 for dinner. It was actually a BBQ place in KC I hadn't been here before. It was actually pretty good! On my list to go again later. We return and things are mostly out and back and ready to be put in. I guess we're set to go in the tourney. Went to be kinda early'ish. Around 10:30 or so.

Saturday
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I actually woke up at like 4 AM still like a little kid waiting to open his Christmas presents. I debated going down early, but the convention center was a long walk from the hotel room and I thought it would take too much effort to walk down so I forced myself back to bed for another hour and I was just about to fall asleep again when the alarm went off to wake up. So, forced myself to get up and made the trek down to the convention room (which was nice and spacious) and ready to begin the tourney.
Round 1 was already pretty bad. My "best" warriors all had horrid match-ups or weirdo losses. Still I've been around the block enough to know that things turn around, so I wasn't too daunted. Round 2 was much better, but round 3 was bad again. Things were going pretty fast at this point.

We took a break for lunch for a big BBQ lunch that Floyd was awesome about organizing the catering for. (Speaking of Floyd, it sounds like he had a horrific time just getting to the FtF. He had to go to Detroit then St. Louis and then to KC and it took him all day. TUM finally arrived on Turn 2 after the same flight delays on the East Coast). It seems about 2/3 of the FtF was in on the action. They had fantastic burnt ends. Even Lee and Sandy stopped working and had a bite.

So early afternoon, things were moving smoothly. Not a single crash or technical glitch. Highlights were my Bloodgames AB starting 4-0-3 and my Primus PL starting 3-0. (Hello, stylemaster!) Low lights was a botched attempt to throw a fight in Champions and what I thought was my best warrior starting a measly 2-2.

Things were running really well on schedule and we ended up taking a dinner break at 6:30 as well. Not too much time to go out and grab something, but the hotel restaurant was also pretty good.

It was one more turn until the overnight. But this moment my tourney was pretty much a shambles and my only undefeateds were warriors that couldn't possibly TC, but at this point I had already come to grips with having a bad tournament so I was calm about it.

Sunday
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I actually didn't do the overnight turn. But randomly got up at 2:00 AM and thought about walking down to do it, but then changed my mind. Still didn't sleep well. Woke up early and then walked down--sat to read my Mail-In Bloodgames turn--and then threw it in the trash where it belonged.

Onward to the tourney. Things were going pretty fast and we were awarding TVs by noon. But then there was a minor breakdown with the Inits tourney that caused some things to stall.

My tourney was not good. I only had 4 TVs and no one made it past round 12. The only thing I had remotely close to drama was Turn 10 of Bloodgames where my Aimed Blow hung on to finish 3rd after a 10-0-3 finish. Despite numerous kill statements she was unable to put anyone else away in the last 6 rounds. And my newly maxxed Primus AB, Perfect Snotling (apparently not really maxxed because he had skills to learn I forgot about) got his first Primus TV! Now I'm no longer a "One-AB TV threat" manager! I just doubled my odds of winning Primus! (Look out, TMM!!)

Anyway, here's a recap of things as I remember:

Primus: TMM dispatched the last Primus TV in Round 12, leaving him with the final 8 Primus competitors. However, at this point, the 2nd Chance Primus sweepstakes began. 8 Lucky Managers (DMob, JE, Grimm, Chief I, Anarchist, Dameon Darkheart, Howling Wolf and Floyd) got to adopt a TMM warrior (drawn at random) and input strategies for that warrior the rest of the way with the following rules: No Fist, and No Dodge. Some managers tried to get their weapons broken ASAP, others ran like a Lunger, and others tried to win quickly with something heavy. In the end, DMobster, (who drew Marv Jr) was able to bring Marv back from the bubble and defeat Dameon Darkheart (who drew Neosphincter) in the finals.

Contenders: Seemed to be a pretty standard Contenders tourney with lots of AB's and Lungers in the end. TMM wins with a pretty impressive performance where it seemed he wasn't in much trouble. Anarchist is the runner-up.
Eligibles: I admit I was away proxying at the run-offs for this class and all my warriors were out early, so I don't have any idea what happened except Anarchist was able to go even against TMM and win it. Anarchist is on a roll lately it seems.

ADM: I remember looking at Round 8 and seeing a Basher and a PR at the top of this class and going "WTF". I kept waiting for the Aimed Blows to take over and they kind of did, but not after Rippers and Bashers made very respectable appearances. In the end though, the PR probably made a good wing man for TMM's Aimed Blow to come in and sweep the field. LaGuillotine's basher made the final 4.

Freshmen: Was kind of the same perennial TVs along with the bustouts at the end here. Wednesday Addams was my pick to win from the middle rounds. One of the contenders, Eeriest Expectation, suffered his first lost to Dangerous Criminal in Round 10, which opened things up a little bit. Some solid showings by Parry-Ripostes in this class too. PR's won the most TVs in this class I believe.

Challengers: Khisanth's big hopeful was 7-2 after 9 rounds and he was considering throwing the fight because he was in danger of going over the FE cap for Challengers and have one more chance. But his Round 10 fight was against Dangeous Criminal--and the fight throwing plans became aborted and he decided to go for it with Shardavan. Fortunately, Shardavan fought a lot better later in the run-offs than earlier (a couple of well timed trains helped) and he was able to run the gauntlet in tourney. I did think he was the best warrior after Round 10 but he was going to have to beat a lot of SL's to TC, thus the hard decision.

Champs: I fought both warriors in the tourney and probably wouldn't have picked neither (in the early rounds) to be in the TC fight, so this was some crafty management there. Always a challenge to win with a PL these days--but this is the right class and the right format to do it. Mannequin knocks PL off his 2nd time around round robin list with a TC win here.

Adepts: Of the 10 Adepts TVs, there were 4 Strikers and 1 Aimed Blow, yet a scum Total Parry that was on the bubble was able to navigate himself into the TC fight! That was pretty amazing. Also great timing for Mannequin's SL to win the TC fight!

Initiates: Kind of the underdog class of the tourney featuring Vlad and Kharadmon. (Though I'm not sure Kharadmon is the underdog type anymore) Two exciting fights with the result ending up even--but the last one is what matters and Vlad wins.

Apprentices: DMobster was dominating this class early, but then almost blew it and ended up having to take out Floyd's Lunger twice in order to win it. It still ended in dramatic fashion. Congrats to DMob for pulling it out!

Rookies: I didn't really follow this but was keeping tabs on this tourney through TDO through private messages. To my surprise, TDO ends up in the finals with a warrior I probably wouldn't even have bothered to roll-up against Floyd. To my non-surprise, that warrior fought like how his numbers looked in the TC fight. Floyd's warrior looked like a winner and won the tourney. :)But kudos to TDO for advancing so far with that warrior!
I don't have my final numbers right now but they were pretty terrible. 4 TVs out of around 70 sent or so. It might even be a losing record (but I had a lot of 7-3's and not a lot of 0-3's so maybe not). Overall, it was about what I expected so I can't complain. Usually when I feel like I'm going to have a bad tourney it's bad (and vice versa). I'm a firm believer that you get what you deserve in terms of preparation for the tourneys.

After that, me, Grimm, and Otto once against defeated Consortium, Crip, Mannequin in the Grudge Matches Challenge (6-3) overcoming their huge TC advantage. Otto was the MVP going 3-0 against the competition. A lot of people retreated to their hotel rooms after the FtF so they could watch the season premiere of Game of Thrones. I'd call you all nerds, but that would be a little hypocritical. The rest of us had dinner and drinks at the hotel. Lee and Sandy joined us for awhile.

Looking forward to the Mail-In and next FtF already! I'm actually not sure I can make Tempe yet due to a previous commitment but I should be there in the summer, barring disaster. I know I was a little introverted this time out, but it was good to talk to and see everyone once again! Thank you for a wonderful time!

Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 5:14 pm

Thanks for the glimpse into the fast-paced, adrenaline-filled world of the FTF tourney! Seems like you had a good time, overall. Wink