Dameon Darkheart - for arranging both Friday dinner and the Royals baseball game. Very nice to go the extra mile for us visitors!
Spirit - for being willing to drive me and Otto to the game and back
Floyd - For the fantastic BBQ lunch
The rest of you - for fun discussion over $2 sodas, drinks and more drinks!
My entries:
I honestly didn't have very high hopes going in to the weekend. There was no standout favorite like Ruff that I could honestly think "this guy might go the distance..." The crew consisted of 2 Champs, 6 Adepts, 12 Inits, 13 Apps and 41 Rooks. Some of whom had done well in previous tournies, others I had been waiting to do well in a tourney. I did think that my rooks class, where I am usually abysmal, was pretty strong (relative to my earlier rooks classes). The acquisition of a number of team sheets during the stat switch effort and rolling all but a handful of the crappiest of them gave me a nice pool of candidates. I also tried to be more selective than usual for those rooks I entered.
Willie's Shack, of New Orleans fame, brought me my 2nd TC, this time in Inits. A 21/21 LU like Ruff, he had gone 0-2 in Rooks and squeaked a TV in Apps. He entered Inits at a tolerably round 100 skills with Adex's in INI / ATT / DEF. Starting off 5-0, he got scummed by Sepia Squid in Round 6. He won the next fight and then entered his 8th fight with... a DA. He still came close to taking out a mean PR in Savannah Mama. The entry error was credited and I submitted an entirely new sheet for Round 9... which got entered incorrectly. Now this fight, vs. Dr. F's Nat Nat, Willie lost pretty handily. And the entry error was relatively minor but, in the end, Willie was using the incorrect weapon and the loss was removed. Once he entered the runoffs, Willie seemed to settle down and find his rhythm, defeating five quality warriors in a row including Severa, Kharadmon's mean ST, in a one sided Round 14 match. By this point, I was feeling reasonably comfortable Willie could beat either of Kharadmon's STs -- he had defeated Kensith a couple rounds before Severa in a similar fight. But Round 15 paired paired Willie with Nat Nat while Kharadmon's STs fought each other. I dreaded the match with Nat Squared because of the poor showing in the earlier fight. But this time, with the right weapon, Willie put down Dr. F's warrior in a very close fight.
The potential Finals fight brought Severa back around and, given the earlier fight -- and one extra loss to spare -- I was reasonably hopeful. I thought long and hard about what Kharadmon would do differently this fight, given the earlier pretty convincing losses with Severa and Khisanth. So, I changed my protect location figuring he had been going for the arms previously (resulting in a critical dodge and deciding riposte by Willie) and protected the BD this time. And waited in The Chair for the inevitable dodge / riposte for the crown as the fight was read by Floyd. And waited. And waited. Four swings and two hits by Severa later, Willie was down for the count.
Now it was panic time as the score was even and the next fight would decide the winner. What the hell had Kharadmon done? I agonized and decided that changing the protect location had been an error (I had made plenty of those this tourney ) and went back to protecting the AMs. And prayed. Mannequin read the second fight and Severa's first swing hit. Then her second swing was a critical (and I thought, "F me!") which Willie critically dodged and... failed to riposte. Then she swung again and Willie dodged... and failed to riposte. Then another critical swing (I'm getting ready to stand up at this point) but a critical dodge followed and finally a riposte ended the match.
My sincere congrats and condolences to Kharadmon, who also had his first time in the chair and a great run with not one but two STs.
On Sunday, I was mildly pleased with the rest of my tourney (being ecstatic, of course, about the TC). I had a rook go deep at 12-3 and had a couple TV's as I recalled. That was tempered by losing my sentimental favorite at 30FE prior to entering the tourney and another 21/21 on the first round.
But I didn't get a chance to tally anything until today and the numbers were much better than I had thought:
Overall: 218-208-7-4 for a 51.2% W/L. My first time over 50%!!
Awards: 1 TC (Inits), 4 TVs (Apps/Rooks), including a PR, which was another first for me (many thanks to Manne, tDO, Assur and others who had provided guidance on this style that had plagued me thus far).
Was a great time overall and really fun to see everyone again. With luck, I'll see some of you again in January!
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) and went back to protecting the AMs. And prayed. Mannequin read the second fight and Severa's first swing hit. Then her second swing was a critical (and I thought, "F me!") which Willie critically dodged and... failed to riposte. Then she swung again and Willie dodged... and failed to riposte. Then another critical swing (I'm getting ready to stand up at this point) but a critical dodge followed and 
