April 2018 Teasers

Site Admin Joined: Jun 20, 2002 Posts: 1344

Enjoy!

One warrior in Apprentices got 3 kills.
7/11 of the warriors who killed 2 or more times came from DM 85.
No TCs were undefeated!
The second biggest tournament was Initiates.
71 participants were Home Guard qualified.
Over 50% of the warriors came from Jasper Gulch, but <20% of the TCs did.

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2018 2:03 pm

A Consortium mediocre tournament.
Sent 17
70-51-4-2 = .598 w/l
2 TVs
a TP in Rookies
a BA in Adepts (won the losers event at 6-2)
7-3 ST killed in the TV fight

all but 2 were "regular" arena guys.

Congrats to the TC Fellows.

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2018 4:45 pm

Got my tourney in the mail today, very fast turnaround this time! I usually get it about Mon-Tue a week after the tourney.

One TV out of 10 entries, haven't counted everything yet, but easily a winning percentage, and I didn't lose anyone!

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2018 4:45 pm

Got my tourney in the mail today, very fast turnaround this time! I usually get it about Mon-Tue a week after the tourney.

One TV out of 10 entries, haven't counted everything yet, but easily a winning percentage, and I didn't lose anyone!

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2018 5:10 pm

Good for you Buri. My post office wouldn't know an on-time delivery even if a FedEx plane landed on them.

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2957

HERE BE SPOILERS

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Coming off a weak performance in January, I sent everything I could rustle up for this tournament, which turned out to be 71 entrants. Overall, I had a great tourney with my warriors going 281-210-6-5 with 10 awards, for a 57% win percentage and a 14% award percentage.

The highlights:

Eligibles

I had no bust-out ready for Eligibles, so I ran two sandbaggers. One was a Bloodgames BA who went 0-3, the other was SPARE ANCHOR, a sponge TP who has battled his way through Freshmen and ADM for years. I listed SPARE ANCHOR as one of my long-shots in my tourney preview, but even if he had a good run, I expected him to lose out in the end to a bust-out.

He began life as a 13-17-13-3-21-6-11 TP, has a mix of bonuses and hosings (+1 Initiative, -1 Attack, +3 Defense, -1 Decise), and a mixed bag of favorites (SC, VL/VL, Riposte learn). While he doesn't look like much on paper, he has a long history of excelling in the ADM classes. Over his career he has picked up 8 awards in Freshmen, including 3 runner-ups and 1 TC, a runner-up and a TC in ADM, and most recently a 10-3 Eligibles TV last October.

Going into this tourney, he had 200 total skills and looked like this:

SPARE ANCHOR (18-9610) of SEA DOGS (1782) [108-43-2,132,292FE], will fight Eligibles.
He is a total parry with ST=25(12) CN=25(8) SZ=13 WT=11(8) WL=25(4) SP=6 DF=25(14).
He is right handed, is very slow, is highly coordinated, has awesome endurance, can withstand almost any amount of punishment, can carry almost limitless weight, is quick on his feet, does devastating damage, has an Advanced Expert in initiative, has an Advanced Master in riposte, has an Advanced Master in attack, has a Grandmaster in parry, has an Advanced Master in defense, has an Expert in decisiveness, favors the scimitar, favors a very low offensive effort, favors a very low activity level, and preferentially learns riposte.

I figured he was right on the line, but was probably saved from going over by his low Attack and Defense. For much of his career, he had a woefully low Attack rating, and even after learning skills up to the Eligibles line in the Primus arena, he has only 15 Attack learns.

Since his favorite rhythm is so weak at VL/VL, I was free to do whatever I wanted strategy-wise. I still incorporated VL AL in 6+ and VL OE in desperation, but for the bulk of the strategy (minutes 1-5), I ran him 8-8-6. He seemed to like it, dodging, parrying, and riposting frequently, always presenting his opponents with the danger of a Devastating damage SC crit.

SPARE ANCHOR didn't face many opponents who were obviously busting out early on, and went undefeated for quite some time. The only warrior who appeared to be training a money stat was BOB'S CELERY who hit a DF train on his way out in round 9. By round 12, SPARE ANCHOR was 12-0 and matched up with DANGEROUS CRIMINAL.

At 13-0, SPARE ANCHOR was matched up against an 11-2 5'1" WS named HONEY BOO BOO. I felt good going into the fight because I still had some losses to give, but my optimism quickly faded. In 4 minutes, SPARE ANCHOR couldn't land a SC crit, while HONEY BOO BOO was twisting BA attacks around my parries frequently. It was a dominating performance by HONEY BOO BOO, and she capped it off by getting a DF train.

When we were matched up again the next round, I figured out that we were the only two warriors left. I could only hope that SPARE ANCHOR would fight better this time. The second match between the two went identically to the first. SPARE ANCHOR couldn't land a blow, and HONEY BOO BOO eventually ground him down with BA crits over 4 minutes.

By our third match up, I had very little hope. Clearly I was facing a bust-out and a superior opponent, and I had no reason to think that this fight would go any differently than the first two. In minute 1, the two warriors traded attacks and parries and HONEY BOO BOO scored two hits with her BA. In minute 2, neither of the warriors connected with the other one. In minute 3, HONEY BOO BOO once again scored two BA hits. In minute 4, HONEY BOO BOO landed one more BA crit. In minute 5, one more BA crit connected, but SPARE ANCHOR struggled on. In 13 minutes over the past three fights, SPARE ANCHOR had been unable to hit his opponent. Minute 6 would bring a small ray of hope, as SPARE ANCHOR slipped a SC crit past HONEY BOO BOO's defenses and dealt a tremendous blow to the right knee. HONEY BOO BOO responded in kind, however. Minute 7 saw HONEY BOO BOO land yet another blow, but SPARE ANCHOR fought on. Minute 8 opened with SPARE ANCHOR riposting, throwing a SC crit, slipping past the parry, and dealing a massive blow to the right hip. With his second hit in three fights, HONEY BOO BOO went desperate, went into shock, and conceded the fight.

It was an improbable win, as HONEY BOO BOO surely had a huge skill advantage after busting out. However ordinary his stats look, SPARE ANCHOR clearly has a lot of chutzpah, fighting on past when other warriors would give up. That, combined with the differential in damage ratings and some good old fashioned luck, allowed SPARE ANCHOR to win an unlikely Eligibles TC. Following this achievement, SPARE ANCHOR is now the most successful warrior in my stable, with TCs in three different classes.

Freshmen

I had a single entrant in Freshmen, ZENSU LASAGNA, a 12-7-8-3-21-12-21 AB who had trained up to 14(2)-12(5)-8-4(1)-21-12-21 by the time of the freeze. After the freeze, he trained ST to 15, WT to 5, and WL to 22. He was set to train WL in rounds 1-5 and DF in rounds 6-10+. With average training, I figured he would get to 24 WL and 24 DF, but the potential was there to get lucky and hit a 25 in either.

The bust got off to a good start with two wins and two WL trains in rounds 1 and 2. Round 3 saw ZENSU LASAGNA matched up against a ST named TOY GOD. This fight was bizarrely interesting as TOY GOD had so much Initiative that ZENSU could do nothing but dodge. He couldn't take the Init away, but also wasn't easily hit. TOY GOD landed two blows early, but then the fight settled into a routine of attacking, circling, and dodging. It wasn't until minute 7 that ZENSU was able to get an attack in, but it proved to be irrelevant. In minute 8, TOY GOD collapsed from exhaustion. It was a pure scumming victory. ZENSU LASAGNA went on to pick up wins in rounds 4 and 5, and lucked into the WL train to 25, so he was in good shape to start his DF training in round 6 at 5-0.

The next two rounds saw wins and DF trains, so I was feeling good going into round 8. ZENSU was up against JANIS JOBLIN, a MS wielding WS. Against parry types, ZENSU LASAGNA was using his favorite weapon, the SH, instead of the FI/Dodge strategy that he used against pure offensives. This definitely made him more hittable. JANIS came out swinging and connected with 4 straight MS crits, ending the fight before ZENSU even got started. Both warriors got a DF train, and I hoped that someone else would eliminate JANIS JOBLIN for me.

Rounds 9 and 10 saw more match-ups with parry-types, although these appeared to be sandbagging and proved to be much easier foes. Round 11 saw a match-up with USEROUS MERCHANT, for an easy win and a DF train to 25. ZENSU LASAGNA now had 185 total skills and 1 loss.

In Round 12, ZENSU LASAGNA was matched up against a BA named YONDER ORPHAN. Because of ZENSU's weak damage rating, I had him use a SH against plate armor, even when using his dodge strategy versus offensives. With YONDER ORPHAN donning APM/S, we would see if that was a mistake. YONDER ORPHAN opened up with a QS attack to the stomach, which scared the crap out of ZENSU LASAGNA's manager. Spectators cringed as the horrific power of the blow struck home, and ZENSU was severely hurt. Thankfully, ZENSU was able to dodge the second attack, riposte, and pepper YONDER ORPHAN with SH crits, knocking him down.

Round 13 saw a relatively easy match-up with a sandbagging PIEHOLDEN SWEET, and round 14 was a rematch with YONDER ORPHAN. This fight went much better than the first, with ZENSU LASAGNA dodging the first attack instead of the second.

By round 15, ZENSU LASAGNA was 13-1 and facing JANIS JOBLIN at 12-2. Thankfully someone tagged a second loss on JANIS, so ZENSU would have two tries to get one win. JANIS opened with a MS normal to the kidneys, but ZENSU was able to dodge the MS crit that she followed it up with. Five SH crits later, JANIS JOBLIN was on the ground and one more SH crit after that saw ZENSU LASAGNA as the last warrior standing in Freshmen.

Going into the tourney, I thought ZENSU LASAGNA was my best chance to TC. I'm glad I wasn't off the mark on that prediction.

ADM

I entered two warriors in this class, a sandbagging BA named HORTATOR and a crispy busting LU named PULLED ORC. I had low expectations for them, and they exceeded all of them.

PULLED ORC trained very well and finished the tourney and his career with a 10-3 TV. Its nice when you spend the time setting up a warrior and he has a good bust-out, even when it doesn't result in complete victory.

After my previous BA sandbagger SURLY DECKHAND got kicked up to ELIGIBLES, I reactivated my old BA sandbagger named HORTATOR. They are different animals, really. SURLY DECKHAND is a sponge like SPARE ANCHOR, while HORTATOR is a puncher with no CN. His entire game is about connecting Superhuman damage HL crits, and it turns out that he still does it pretty well. He had a great run and ended up with an 11-3 TV. He is pushing the envelope of ADM classification with 184 total skills, so I think there is a good chance he'll get kicked up to Eligibles with this TV. Maybe I'll get lucky and SURLY DECKHAND will drop back down to replace him.

Initiates

Basic is not my strong suit, but I threw the kitchen sink at this tourney. I entered 16 Initiates, 14 Apprentices, and 23 Rookies. I basically ran everything that I had timed.

Apprentices was a disappointment with 0 TVs. I managed 2 TVs in Rookies, which was acceptable by my standards. Initiates was the stand out performance in basic for me. Out of 16 Inits, I managed 4 TVs and one 7-3, with two of the TVs going pretty deep at 12-3 and 11-3-1. No finals fights, but its better than my usual basic performance.

Hopefully a few of those TVs make for good Adepts in July.

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I couldn't have asked for anything more from this tourney, bouncing back from my 1 TV performance in January. I will be attending the summer FtF and will try to add another win there, although my Eligibles and ADM cupboards are looking pretty bare.

Congrats to all the winners in this tourney. I enjoy the competition, win or lose, and look forward to crossing blades again in July.

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 11:28 am

Great Tourney, OAB. Kudos.
See you at the FTF.

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 11:29 am

Great Tourney, OAB. Kudos.
See you at the FTF.

Advanced Master Poster Joined: Sep 30, 2006 Posts: 473

It was as expected........under .500 (I really need to stop sending in sentimental fighter to the tourney and just let them take their beatings in regular arenas). I sent in about 20 but I figured only about 5 had a decent chance at a TV. The ones in Freshman and ADM failed miserably after decent showings in previous tourneys, and same classes. Lost a 15-9-5-21-13-10-11 striker, but since her replacement is 9-9-12-16-5-10-9 it could have been worse. A lunger went 5-3 in adepts and is now actually timed to fight there again (another bad habit of mine). Did manage a TV at 12-3-1 with a size 17 striker in Initiates who originally was designed as an experiment (low ST/DF), but since she showed promise in the past and was actually timed, what the heck. After losing her first fight to a PR on her first fight, she went on a 12-0-1 streak, but lost her final to fight to the runner-up.

I haven't gone through everything yet, but I can't complain. The biggest killer for me is my sentimental favorites, and the 6 I want to graduate with a 0-0 record, just so I can cross that one on the bucket list.

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2957

TC style/manager list, as compiled by Assur on Chatzy:

Primus AB/TMM - AB/TMM
Contenders AB/TMM - AB/LHI
Eligibles TP/OAB - WS/Mannequin
ADM WS/HowlinWolf - LU/HowlinWolf
Freshmen AB/OAB - WS/HowlinWolf
Challengers PR/LHI - PR/TMM
Champions LU/HowlinWolf - TP/TMM
Adepts AB/HowlinWolf - ST/HowlinWolf
Initiates LU/DMobster - LU/DMobster
Apprentices ST/Vlad - LU/DMobster
Rookies AB/Mannequin - ST/Floyd

Advanced Expert Poster Joined: Jul 15, 2014 Posts: 192

Welcome to Monday Morning Tourney Quarterback (MMTQB)! I spent some time reviewing the team’s performance and I am generally pretty pleased by the results. While there will certainly be floggings, by most objective measures it was successful. I achieved the two goals I set prior to the tourney on the forums, though it took a technicality on one of them. Let’s go to the tape!

Awards of the week

I sent a total of 75 live warriors and 63 of them came back with itemized 8283 forms for Noncash Charitable Contributions for Alastari tax purposes (it was a tax tourney … Um. Wasn’t it?). Five of them didn’t come back at all. Six, however, came back with 1040EZ forms indicating a REFUND as well as autographed Day Dream Believer ™ brand bobbleheads for achieving Tournament Victor status.

One warrior – that’s his name – returned with a coveted Tournament Champion trophy but the moment was bittersweet as it was accompanied by a “Selected For Audit” letter, which is understandable when a manager like me manages a TC.

At first, it looked like I just missed my second goal of the Cool Manager litmus test of 10% awards again, but OAB pointed me to the obscure provision of the Alastari tax code where it says a TC counts as a minimum of 1.5 TVs, so I just squeaked it out. Being a Cool Manager doesn’t feel any different.

The six TV’s consisted of 3 strikers, a total parry, and two aimed blows. The TC was a striker. Breaking a two-tourney streak, two warriors came back with seven wins, three losses and tears in their eyes. The tears, of course, in anticipation of the inevitable beatings that would follow. One was a WS, making the second time I came this close to an inaugural TV for this style. He’s going to the DA as an example to anyone else who wants to come home 7-3.

Quotes of the week

"Sometimes you just need a hard-hitting lame striker" – Howlin Wolf.

ONE is 17-9-7-21-9-10-11, P/G, and started his Apps One Run with ADEX DEC.

The One Run almost didn’t get out of the gate when ONE run into RYAN GRANT, a FI AB with a dodge complex, on the first fight. An initial dodged swing and RYAN was all over ONE, driving him desperate. But the desperation strategy worked and One regained the initiative, taking two full minutes of swings to put RYAN down.

Then began a series of fights where One got the jump and seemed to have enough initiative to put down his offensive opponents. He picked up his EX ATT in round 3 and EX INI in round 5. Nature abhors a vacuum, particularly a misspelled one, so ONE put down VACUMUM in round 6.

Two of his next three fights were TPs, but both were lightly armored offensives, with the second, HIP HOP TRUMP, being the typical DMobster frightening offensive TP. HHT got the jump on ONE – just sayin here – but ONE took a smack to the head and regained both his senses and the initiative.

ONE’s first loss came in round 11 to a DMob lunger, ISAAC. ONE hit him once, ISAAC dodged the next swing, and that was that. It wasn’t really a contest.

ONE won the next four, picking up his ADEX ATT, ADEX INI and MAS DEC, the latter two against a tDO SL. I’ve had zero success against tDO in later rounds in my very small later rounds career, so this one vs. his SL OCCAM’S RAZOR, which put him out, was pretty sweet. Likewise, ONE bested a HW LU in the 15th round, picking up his EX RIP, and that felt just as good (beating HW, not the EX 😊 ).

Round 16 brought ISAAC back around and this fight was even worse. ONE swung once, missed, and ISAAC taught him to respect his betters. So now ONE is 14-2 with both losses coming against ISAAC.

As soon as I saw ISAAC at the top of round 17, I knew two things. One, it was the finals. Two, ONE was screwed. But for whatever reason, ONE’s normal swing started and ended both the match and the class. Props once again to DMob for a great run by what was probably a better warrior.

“I've had a lot of really good 17 or 15 WT Rookies not TC because someone out-learned them by round 15...” – theDarkOne

I suspect ONE’s learns rate of 3.36 skills per FE made the difference in the apps run.

Stats of the week

Overall, we managed 237-218-6-5, or 52.09%. I think this is the third time we’ve managed greater than 50%, hopefully indicating a trend in the right direction. That said, the five deaths included a 21/21 stat switch LU, a 9-6-9-21-17-9-13 ST, and a 15-13-9-21-7-4-15 PR.

Best class(es): Apps and Adepts, both at 63% with Adepts being a repeat 63% performer.

Worst class(es): Rooks and Inits, both about 46%.

Best style: ST’s at 71%.

Worst style(s): PL’s at 32%, followed closely by BAs at 33%, both of which came back home proudly displaying their “Thank you!” cards signed by all the other managers.

Factoids that may only interest me

I. My TC knocked out DMob’s three kill App mentioned in the teasers and was pretty darn proud of it.

II. DMob’s Apps RU above, ISAAC, knocked out my Apps AB TV at 11-3.

III. HW’s Adepts TC knocked out my other AB TV at 13-3.

III. 12 of my warriors, or 17%, came back from the tourney just a few minutes after they left for it, looking like Rosie Ruiz after a marathon; i.e. their hand was stamped but you couldn’t tell that they had actually done anything. This is consistent with the last mailer and half of them were rooks, giving lie to my proclamation that this was my strongest rooks class ever. Now some of these were the “concept” folks I mentioned before the tourney but others, including a 17-14-4-17-7-10-15 PR and a 13-6-14-21-9-14-7 BA, were head scratchers.

Mr. United Global Services Member Travel Note

Politely but firmly requesting that the flight attendant stop bothering you while you’re on a conference call at 37,000 feet has little to recommend it.

Brief truths

A. Speaking of flights, United flight 988 from Frankfurt, Germany to Washington Dulles on Saturday, with the tourney sitting in a Fedex box on the porch since Friday, is the longest. nine. hours. ever.

B. Having multiple warriors with multiple TVs isn’t so much satisfying as it is a catalyst of hope.

Ten things I think I think

1. I think that when the same manager gets TC AND runner up, he ran too many of his good warriors in the same class.

2. I think that when the same manager gets TC AND runner up, and your warrior comes in third, your warrior should get runner up under TMM’s well established Diversity of Accolades ™ principle.

3. I think prize warriors do better than non-prize warriors but that you don’t need a prize to win.

4. I think fighting the same warrior on round 14 that you fought on round 13 and not having it be the finals should be outlawed. I think this is especially true when you beat the warrior on round 14.

5. While I think Doing Unto Others is better than them Doing Unto You, I still think the kill routine has the potential to detract from one’s success. Of my 6 warriors getting kills, none went further than the 7th round.

6. I think scanning and recording my tourney as I read it is really heightening my enjoyment of it. There’s something about going to bed without yet knowing how you did in some class(es).

7. I think prepping for the tourney is almost as much fun as reading it.

8. I think you won’t get good at, or tourney well with, any class that you don’t commit top notch warriors to.

9. I think I need to experiment more in the arena and less in the tourney

10. I think these are the other things I think this week:

a. I think it’s a good thing if your average wins per TV trends up from 8.5 to 9.7 to 10.6

b. Coffeenerdness: It’s frightening how easy the barista in the German canteen makes latte art look. Almost as easy as HW makes winning TC’s look.

c. Winenerdness: If you get a chance to try out Martin Estate out of the Rutherford Valley, you won’t regret it. Their Bacchanal red table wine is silly good.

d. I still think riposte learns are generally for losers in the same way “just pay extra processing” and extended protection plans are. Thankfully, I didn’t notice an inordinate amount of riposte learns this tourney.

e. I think I should learn more about Jalon-esque AB’s before I refer to them in tourney posts, as apparently the use of “-esque” doesn’t give me complete artistic license to ignore critical aspects of the namesake design.

f. Obit of the Week: One of my stat switch warriors, a 13-5-8-21-21-5-11 LU, Obit-it early in the tourney.

Who I like(d) in April

I called out a handful of warriors in my primary classes, so here’s how I prognosticated:

ADM: Ruff Ruff went 3-3.

Champions: My sole champion was hoping for a break even record of 3-3 and smashed expectations by going… 4-3.

Adepts: The stupendous LU I called out only managed a 3-3. Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t very fuzzy, was he? On the other hand, the ST and AB both TV’d going 8-3 and 13-3 respectively.

Inits: The LU I put my hopes behind pulled together a 6-3 but, like my Adepts LU, was never in the hunt. The ST I mentioned TV’d at 8-3.

Apps: I mentioned an AB and a ST. The AB went 11-3 and the ST went 9-3. But prognosticator points penalized for not mentioning the ultimate TC.

Rooks: This train wreck of a class… I picked a ST, TP and PR. The ST went 6-3, the TP went 7-3 and the
PR went 0-3.

Adieu Haiku

Fun One run won one
Grats to the other TC’s
Here comes Arlington!

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2018 11:32 am

Once again, we Consortium fellows must admit to the great pleasure in reading a Vlad tourney summary. For that he earns the blue ribbon. (searching around for a Pabst Blue Ribbon, but may have to settle for some fine brewed Costa Rican coffee)

Kudos, Vladimer.