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Duel2 :: View topic - January 2020 FTF -- It's On Like Donkey Kong! SPOILERS!!
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Vladimer
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Joined: Jul 15, 2014
Posts: 191

PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 2020 6:38 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

Ok, so I ultimately might not go. Because upgrades. But if I do, I'll see you there. Either way, I won't be bringing a duffel.

My tourney crew distilled to only the finest, settling in on 60 warriors from 261 I had flagged as potential entrants. "Contenders" seems like a misnomer. A heated discussion on Chatzy, in combination with a couple immort challengers, caused me to reassess the squad, ultimately landing on 65 entrants. Interestingly, to me anyway, this is exactly where I landed a year ago though I hadn't set out to imitate, despite it being the sincerest form of flattery. This is, of course, in addition to a crapmaster crew and a mailer BG team.

65 warriors break down like so:

Style:

AIMED BLOW 12
BASHING 3
LUNGING 16
PARRY-RIPOSTE 3
SLASHING 3
STRIKING 14
TOTAL PARRY 4
WALL OF STEEL 10

No PLs or PSs because PLs and PSs.

Breakdown by Class:

Rooks 24
Apps 8
Inits 10
Adepts 6
Champs 6
Challs 5
Fresh 2
ADM 4

The 41 non-rooks include 16 award winners with 24 awards between them, including 3 TCs and 3 RUs*, with a historical tourney win record of 61%. These are also inclusive of 3 immortal challengers.

On the rooks side I have probably my strongest class ever. Across the 24, there are 14 ratings of one sort or another. 75% have at least one 21 in a stat. Of the 25% that don't, 100% of them have a 17 ST... Just sayin' Wink

Of course, I have felt in the past that I had my strongest class ever in the past. I know how THAT went. Sad

To be clear, while I speak to the relative strength of my crew, last year was severely humbling, achieving a mere 9-3 as my best showing. So, I am hopeful that careful attention to past lessons learned might enable to me to improve on last year's performance. I certainly don't expect this year's field to be any easier! I am tempted to post goals for the tourney but, at this juncture, I am not sure what those would be. Maybe later.

Good luck to all -- except when you face me, of course -- and, hopefully, I'll see you at the Craft bar!

* Inclusive of Dead Tourney
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One Armed Bandit
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Joined: Apr 15, 2004
Posts: 2954

PostPosted: Mon Jan 20, 2020 9:42 am Reply with quoteBack to top

I had the bright idea of holding out my Initiates from October, and running a whole mess of them in Tempe. I thought that this might allow me to better research styles in the class. Part of this plan was to skimp in other areas of basic in Tempe, so basically just do ADM classes, Initiates, and a sprinkle of other token basic warriors. That last part didn't work out so well, as I caught a serious case of roster creep and just ended up with a ton of everything.

Total entrants: 106
Breakdown by tourney class: 6 Primus, 6 Contenders, 10 Eligibles, 6 ADM, 4 Freshmen, 3 Challengers, 6 Champions, 5 Adepts, 26 Initiates, 19 Apprentices, 15 Rookies
Breakdown by fighting style: 31 AB, 8 BA, 18 LU, 3 PL, 6 PR, 3 PS, 10 SL, 13 ST, 4 TP, 10 WS

From the TC perspective, the tourney went great for me because I won one. From the award and win % perspective, my results looked pretty lackluster.

Record: 339-293-6-6
Wins: 54%
Awards: 8%

Primus

I was looking for my first Primus TV, but didn't get it. SNAKE OIL SALESMAN managed a 6-3 (his best performance so far in the class has been 7-3). I did sneak in a BA stylemaster with DECK SWAB, who went 3-3. Unfortunately, I beat out Mr Mojo's NO QUAM HERE for the second time on FE tiebreaks. Having had that happen to me plenty of times, I know that it is no fun.

Contenders

This class was my best hope going in. I had three warriors at the line who I felt would never TC by sandbagging, but had room to bust to essentially catch up to the warriors with super learning curves. This should give me a real chance at winning.

I thought that my biggest TC threat was SHARK BAIT, an 8-9-13-7-21-5-21 AB who is +4/+4 and FI favorite. Unfortunately, due to his poor favorite learn, he had to learn the entire 120 in ADM to get his Defense, so he was now 25-25-13-25-25-7-25 and at the Contenders line with 0 gateway skills learned. He eeked out a TV in the October MI but was clearly outclassed by Khisanth's and TMM's Contenders, so I decided to do a gateway skill bust for this tourney.

My second best warrior was another FI AB named CANNIBAL COOK, who began life as a 9-7-7-21-17-6-17 AB. He is a knacky fellow who TC'd Initiates and Challengers and TV'd numerous other classes, but he hit his ceiling in Contenders, it seemed. This guy is mostly mode, and while I learned 25 Att and 25 Def with him, I stopped at 23 WL to stay in Contenders. He had failed to TV for years as a 25-25-7-25-23-7-25 AB, so I decided to train WL to 25, learn gateway skills after that, and slap four +1 bonus potions on his Defense for good measure. I thought that this would get him over the hump.

The other warrior was a zombie named ANDORIAN SMOOTHIE, who began life as an 11-7-9-21-15-14-7 SL. He showed some spunk early on in his career by making it to the Adepts finals, where he was unceremoniously killed by TUM's genetically modified AB, MEAT. I used a Zombie potion to bring him back, give him max damage, boost him to +5 Attack, and he went on to runner-up Challengers and TV some other classes. I didn't expect him to TV, necessarily, but he was at the line with stats of 25-25-9-25-25-14-25 and had gateway skills to learn, so I busted him as well.

As everyone probably knows who followed the tourney, things went pretty well.

CANNIBAL COOK failed to impress, as he went 6-3. It was pretty disappointing for a warrior with such a knacky basic career (and whose clones have already earned 1 basic TC and are both still in basic).

SHARK BAIT and ANDORIAN SMOOTHIE, on the other hand, were much more impressive. They both learned their gateway Attack skills quickly, and their Defense not so quickly, but they learned enough to get the job done. ANDORIAN SMOOTHIE got his Blademaster in Attack in round 1, while SHARK BAIT waited until round 6 to get his. By the end of the tourney (and including the three post-freeze arena turns), both had learned exactly 25 skills.

SHARK BAIT started out 7-0 before losing one to TMM's SC wielding Lunger, SAMSARA. He then won a few more, and lost to TMM's sick Total Parry, BOSOMY GOLDMINE, in round 11. He beat a LU named NORAF in round 12 to reach the semi-finals.

ANDORIAN SMOOTHIE had a tougher start, suffering losses in rounds 3 and 8 to two TMM warriors, a LO LU named SPICY TRICEP and a FI AB named THE MONARCH. I wasn't sure he would TV, but he went on to beat a WS, two FI ABs, then eliminate BOSOMY GOLDMINE to reach the semi-finals.

With four warriors left, it was three of my warriors (the two above plus a sandbagging AB named DUSKBLOOD PUDDING) vs yet another TMM FI AB, JORMP JUMPER. I had given JORMP JUMPER his two losses earlier in the tourney with SHARK BAIT and CANNIBAL COOK, so I was glad that SHARK BAIT drew the short straw and had to face him in round 13. The fight was excruciatingly close, with my guy taking the early lead, but TMM's AB came back strong at the end of minute 2. After lots of back and forth and a surprising amount of hitting each other, SHARK BAIT squeaked out the victory in the 4th minute.

That left a finals fight between my FI AB, SHARK BAIT, and my zombie SL, ANDORIAN SMOOTHIE. I decided to let them fight it out using real strategies and randomized attack/protect locations as I was genuinely curious who would win. In historic fashion, ANDORIAN SMOOTHIE came out on top in a close 3 minute fight to become the first Slasher to TC Contenders in at least a decade, and possibly ever.

No matter what happened elsewhere in the tourney (and plenty of losing happened elsewhere), I knew I was going to be happy with this Contenders win. Not only did I TC, but I have three new Primus warriors to max who might be competitive. Of course, my Contenders crew is now depleted, so I'll have to find a different class to go after in April.

In case anyone is curious, I decided to re-randomize and grudge these two against each other after the tourney, and SHARK BAIT won that fight in 1 minute. I figured SHARK BAIT was the favorite all along, but a finals win is a finals win and ANDORIAN SMOOTHIE got his fair and square.

ADM

Nothing much happened for me in Eligibles and Freshmen, but ADM was a different story. I had two weak bust-outs in the class, a single-21 SL named ORC TENDERLOIN and a double-21 Bloodgames ST named KRILL SOUP.

ORC TENDERLOIN puttered out at 5-3, but KRILL SOUP exceeded my expectations. KRILL entered the freeze as a 25(8)-10(7)-3-21-21-8-11 ST with 180 skills and some sweet favorites (SC and Slash tactic). I was fully prepared to not TV with him, because he is a ST in ADM, but I can't let a pair of 21s go unbusted.

KRILL SOUP took a loss to MC SHAN in round 3 and then another to BACKBEREND in round 6. At 4-2, my expectations were pretty low for the rest of the tourney. But he went on to win four more matches, some of them against solid ABs, to secure a TV.

At 8-2, he was matched up against PRADUS, who was 10-0. PRADUS was another Bloodgamer... but this one was a busting Jalon AB managed by Floyd. I joked before the match that this would be a battle of the Bloodgames greats, knowing full well that I was probably going to lose. And this was despite having had a very successful bust so far, having gotten WL and WT to 25 and DF to 13 for 40 extra skills.

The match started out with my Striker landing SC crits on PRADUS, before he is finally able to dodge and attack back. But for whatever reason, KRILL SOUP was a dodging machine this fight. He would dodge, rip, and then start throwing more SC crits. This happened a few times and KRILL SOUP eventually won in 3 minutes after hardly being touched at all. It was a crazy result. For a moment, I was starting to think he could go all the way!

That lasted about as long as it took me to defeat my next opponent, KHADAAAN, as I saw that I was matched up against RUTH, an ancient Parry-Riposte managed by Assur. And that was all she wrote. KRILL SOUP looked pretty good in his loss to RUTH, but lose he did.

Still, it was an amazingly fun 10-3 TV run for a Striker in ADM. And my warrior managed to stick the only loss on the eventual TC. Pretty cool.

Basic

74 of my 106 entrants were in basic, and they earned me 4 TVs. Eww.

I picked up a TV in Champs, a TV in Initiates, and two TVs in Apprentices. I won nothing in Challengers, Adepts, or Rookies.

----------

I'm definitely not going to run this many warriors next time, as it doesn't seem to help my results. I probably need to be more selective about my basic entries. I'm not sure if this means running far fewer basic warriors, or buying more team roll-ups to get a higher quality of warrior. Or maybe just concentrating on the ADM classes where I'm clearly dialed in and using basic to feed that pipeline.

Despite my poor results in most of the tourney classes as well as Bloodgames, my success in Contenders easily made up for it. I feel like I fought TMM every other round, and I have to wonder if the results would've been different if he were there paying closer attention.

I am already thinking ahead to the April MI, and figuring out which ADM-level classes to target. It should be fun!

It is very cool that Doc Steele has returned to the game, and I hope that reinvigorates TMM and TUM and gets them back to the next FtF.

Congrats to all the TCs and all the Bloodgames grads! I enjoyed seeing and competing with everyone, and I look forward to fighting you all again in April.
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Otto_X
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Joined: Jan 09, 2003
Posts: 721
Location: Moline, IL

PostPosted: Mon Jan 20, 2020 2:42 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

Otto’s Tourney recap

Everyone seems to like to read recaps so I’ll take a crack at one.

The theme of my tourney is.....”almost”.

I got in to Tempe about 5:30 on Thursday after some smooth flights. Went to dinner at Rustler’s Rooste with Den, Deeders, Madwand, Kharadmon, Studcraft and Paladin (it whatever he’s called now), and a couple of significant others. Den picked up the whole check, which was really nice of him. I *almost* feel bad about killing all your guys now Smile

Friday the tourney room was open early, and I grabbed a spot at the closest table, which was again with the AA & Associates, plus Darkheart and me, to cut down on the amount of walking involved. I bought 30 teamsheets and got a nice 21-21 guy and another size 3. I entered 7 guys from that batch. With the crapmasters it brought my total to 60, making this my 2nd biggest tourney ever.

Primus

I had decided to give up on Primus recently, but Doc Steele’s return got me wondering if things might get shaken up, and I entered ROCKWELL, my maxed +4/+4 AB. He found a way to do worse than 0-5 by getting killed in round 3.

Contenders

One entry, who did his usual 3-3. I may have to creep closer to the line to be competitive.

Eligibles

I busted a 21 WT/DF AB called SIS BOOM BAA. He hit all his freeze trains but lost all 3 fights — not a good omen. He hit a couple more in the tourney but it’s apparent his physicals were not up to snuff, and finished a disappointing 4-3. I also ran my sandbagged size 21 lunger HOLY SCHLITZ. He hit his 15th and 16th con trains in the first two rounds and had his best Eligibles run yet, going 5-3. So my eligibles bust *almost* outperformed my non-busting lunger.

ADM

I thought this was my best shot at a TC. I was busting SKINNY PETE, a natural 21-20 lunger. He started out 10-0, which got me excited about my chances, but lost to a fist AB, Assur’s freakshow RUTH, and his lunger SERVED, finishing 10-3. He just stopped hitting trains, so thst was disappointing. *Almost* got to the finals.

Freshmen

Scene of my thirst busting warrior — KERN. He started life as a 7-x-14-21-21-x-7 striker, and had about 10 ST & CN trains by tourney time. He’s a WH fave but I stuck with SC or LS for much of the tourney. After ten rounds he was 8-2-1 and had trained to 25 WT & WL and 11 DF, and was out of stuff to train. Won two fights and then matched with TMM’s fist AB, DEE DAA. I decided my best shot was to go for a knockdown, so I ran with LS. I did manage to hit him in the face with a crit, eventually, but he failed to go down. Finished 10-3 in third place, *almost* making another final.

Challengers through Adepts

Nothing exciting here.

Initiates

My pre tourney favorite was my VIRUS twin 11-10-5-21-21-5-11. I added three other guys at the last minute as wingmen. Well, the star went 3-3, while the wingmen went 6-3 and 7-3, *almost* getting me a TV.

Apprentices

I ran 15 or 16 here, and thought it was my strongest class. No clear favorite, but a lot of good solid warriors. The 0-2 eliminated half of my field, leaving me only 3 going into round ten. Only BONIVAN won, with the others going 7-3. BONIVAN was a garden-variety 21-9 striker, but managed to win his way to round 15, where he got outmatched by Floyd’s TC striker. Once more, *almost* got to another final.

Rookies

Another big class, maybe 25 guys here. Lost a nice 21-21 striker early, and several guys were doing well, including a 7-0 scum. Then came the AB waves and I got three more 7-3s, *almost* getting me more TVs.

I think it was a good not great tourney. 60 entries with only 3 TVs and like 8 7-3s. All 3 TVs went deep, but not deep enough. One final chair or 4-5 more TVs would have made it a great tourney. Almost.

_________________
Homestar & Co (3), Technology (5), Order (14, 36), Ottobahn (31), Ottoman Empire (32), Bad Bread (33), Ottodrome (47, 84, 85), Otto's Diner (81), Rock Ridge (84, 85), et al.
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Otto_X
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Joined: Jan 09, 2003
Posts: 721
Location: Moline, IL

PostPosted: Mon Jan 20, 2020 2:43 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

Otto’s Tourney recap

Everyone seems to like to read recaps so I’ll take a crack at one.

The theme of my tourney is.....”almost”.

I got in to Tempe about 5:30 on Thursday after some smooth flights. Went to dinner at Rustler’s Rooste with Den, Deeders, Madwand, Kharadmon, Studcraft and Paladin (it whatever he’s called now), and a couple of significant others. Den picked up the whole check, which was really nice of him. I *almost* feel bad about killing all your guys now Smile

Friday the tourney room was open early, and I grabbed a spot at the closest table, which was again with the AA & Associates, plus Darkheart and me, to cut down on the amount of walking involved. I bought 30 teamsheets and got a nice 21-21 guy and another size 3. I entered 7 guys from that batch. With the crapmasters it brought my total to 60, making this my 2nd biggest tourney ever.

Primus

I had decided to give up on Primus recently, but Doc Steele’s return got me wondering if things might get shaken up, and I entered ROCKWELL, my maxed +4/+4 AB. He found a way to do worse than 0-5 by getting killed in round 3.

Contenders

One entry, who did his usual 3-3. I may have to creep closer to the line to be competitive.

Eligibles

I busted a 21 WT/DF AB called SIS BOOM BAA. He hit all his freeze trains but lost all 3 fights — not a good omen. He hit a couple more in the tourney but it’s apparent his physicals were not up to snuff, and finished a disappointing 4-3. I also ran my sandbagged size 21 lunger HOLY SCHLITZ. He hit his 15th and 16th con trains in the first two rounds and had his best Eligibles run yet, going 5-3. So my eligibles bust *almost* outperformed my non-busting lunger.

ADM

I thought this was my best shot at a TC. I was busting SKINNY PETE, a natural 21-20 lunger. He started out 10-0, which got me excited about my chances, but lost to a fist AB, Assur’s freakshow RUTH, and his lunger SERVED, finishing 10-3. He just stopped hitting trains, so thst was disappointing. *Almost* got to the finals.

Freshmen

Scene of my thirst busting warrior — KERN. He started life as a 7-x-14-21-21-x-7 striker, and had about 10 ST & CN trains by tourney time. He’s a WH fave but I stuck with SC or LS for much of the tourney. After ten rounds he was 8-2-1 and had trained to 25 WT & WL and 11 DF, and was out of stuff to train. Won two fights and then matched with TMM’s fist AB, DEE DAA. I decided my best shot was to go for a knockdown, so I ran with LS. I did manage to hit him in the face with a crit, eventually, but he failed to go down. Finished 10-3 in third place, *almost* making another final.

Challengers through Adepts

Nothing exciting here.

Initiates

My pre tourney favorite was my VIRUS twin 11-10-5-21-21-5-11. I added three other guys at the last minute as wingmen. Well, the star went 3-3, while the wingmen went 6-3 and 7-3, *almost* getting me a TV.

Apprentices

I ran 15 or 16 here, and thought it was my strongest class. No clear favorite, but a lot of good solid warriors. The 0-2 eliminated half of my field, leaving me only 3 going into round ten. Only BONIVAN won, with the others going 7-3. BONIVAN was a garden-variety 21-9 striker, but managed to win his way to round 15, where he got outmatched by Floyd’s TC striker. Once more, *almost* got to another final.

Rookies

Another big class, maybe 25 guys here. Lost a nice 21-21 striker early, and several guys were doing well, including a 7-0 scum. Then came the AB waves and I got three more 7-3s, *almost* getting me more TVs.

I think it was a good not great tourney. 60 entries with only 3 TVs and like 8 7-3s. All 3 TVs went deep, but not deep enough. One final chair or 4-5 more TVs would have made it a great tourney. Almost.

_________________
Homestar & Co (3), Technology (5), Order (14, 36), Ottobahn (31), Ottoman Empire (32), Bad Bread (33), Ottodrome (47, 84, 85), Otto's Diner (81), Rock Ridge (84, 85), et al.
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FLOYD1
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 20, 2020 5:15 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

My tourney started off on the wrong foot. Travel snafus turned my 10pm arrival into a 2:30am arrival. By the time I got checked in and settled it was 4am. Not the way I wanted to start my trip into Tempe. I got a few hours sleep and it was off to the races on Saturday.

I ended up running 97. Styles as follows/:

23 Strikers
18 Aimed Blows
17 Walls of Steels
15 Lungers
10 Total Parries
8 Slashers
2 PLs
2 PRs
1 Basher
0 PSs

I went 332-241 for a 58% W/L .. I was able to get 15 TV's and 2 TC's for an award rate of 17.5%.My best w/l was in apps at 69% and my worst was in eligibles at 43%.

The TC's were in ADM with an Jalon AB named Pradus... started the round 1 looking like 23-25-3-3-24-3-21 land ended 23-25-3-8-25-3-25. Pradus was a Dagger fave and I used it for all but one of my fights. My one loss was to Krill a BG striker run by OAB.

My second TC was with a Striker named Tower Records. He was ST=10 CN=10 SZ=7 WT=21 WL=15 SP=10 DF=11. N/N and had expert init and decise going in. He did the usual striker type things and learned very well during the run. I also was the runner up in this class with a Lunger named Rodeki Rabbi. He was ST=11(1) CN=9 SZ=8 WT=21 WL=21 SP=10 DF=5.

I was also able to squeak out a 3rd place finish in Champs with an Aimed Blow named Cat Scratch Fever. He is the 7-14-3-21-17-5-17 set up. He was +4/+4, immortal and had a max damage potion already on him. I had high hopes for him going in but wasn't able to beat either Worth the Effort or Billabong. Both handled me easily.

It was a great time seeing everyone. I had 2 great dinners with Destitute Noble , Bubba , Vlad , Riff Raff , and Kharadmon. The flight home was blissfully uneventful and I eagerly await the April Mail In.
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The Consortium
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Location: on the golf course, in the garden, reading, traveling, and now Consulting

PostPosted: Thu Jan 23, 2020 12:51 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

OK, I will make mine "short" on DM stats and longer on "otherish stuff"

My non-immortal classes (Actually one was a 7-9-10-21-21-5-11 LU immortal Challenger) were to partly overcome the lousy (make that really lousy) 1-19 upper start in Primus/Challengers, yielding a 159-134-5-3 54% overall.

TIDBITS
a. The one primus win was my Mortician TP vs OAB's Sushi Slinger SL allowing me to say :I had Sushi for lunch."
b. Only 3 TVs - all Rookies AB, ST, TP
c. A great fun table with Mannequin, Papiaz, OAB, and The Consortium. (Thanks, guys.)
d. Had the #1 best Crapmaster warrior at 10-3-1, (11-16-10-8-21-9-9 TP)
e. Was impressed with Prez Trump's TWO TVs in Crapmaster, allowing him to be the new Crapmaster. (I always knew he had it in him!) Congrats on your crapping ability, Prez.
f. Was even more impressed with tablemate Mannequin's #1 and #2 warriors in the FTF Blood Games. Wow!
g. Was really glad to see Doc Steele back.
h. Sandy and Lee did a "slick" job running things smoothly. Kudos.
g. But the surprise two-loss elimination threw a little bug into the Crapmaster event, which RSI nicely compensated by giving everyone entered a random rollup team. (I know whenPapiaz looked at his, he announced he had just won Crapmasters!)

OTHER NON-DMmy TIDBITS
1. Don't know who designed the renovated Embassy Suites rooms, but a TV on the wall in the corner was cumbersome, and the chest-of-drawers had fake bottom drawers. Ugh!
2. Mannequin and I stayed over to play 4 rounds of golf on Mon/Tue (But one got rained out.) and had a great time on the links. I didn't let the fact that he hits the ball far, far, far (maybe even 5 fars) longer than me bother me too much as our scores were something like 102 to 92, 94 to 81, and 92 to 85 with me getting shut out. (BUT he lost 10 balls in the water and I only lost 2, and he had to buy a box of Pro-V1's since he ran out, so I really won. See?)

_________________
The Consortium: Crapmaster 2013, Crapgiver 2014; 1213 ADM graduates (40+ manager IDs) including 176K+ fights and 118K+ wins plus 4 teams with 1500+ wins (Animal Farm DM11 @2085; Bulldogs DM11 @ 1976; Lenpros DM30 @ 1792; Fandils DM46 @1727
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Philthball
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 11:28 am Reply with quoteBack to top

I like your 102, on the Golf course...that's where I usually am, too! If I could get low 90s, or even high 80s, i'd be hooting n hollerin at the clubhouse, theyd prolly kick me out!

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Stik
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 12:48 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

Wondering about the whole Doc Steele thing. Did he just show up and surprise everyone? Did he run all his old greats? Is he going to start playing in regular ADM and/or basic arenas again?? Very curious. Good to have him back one way or another.

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Stik
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The Consortium
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 2:46 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

Stik wrote:
Wondering about the whole Doc Steele thing. Did he just show up and surprise everyone? Did he run all his old greats? Is he going to start playing in regular ADM and/or basic arenas again?? Very curious. Good to have him back one way or another.


No surprise - he recently chatted on Chatsky and announced it.
I think the answers to your questions are:
no. some. both
Yes, it is great to have him back.

_________________
The Consortium: Crapmaster 2013, Crapgiver 2014; 1213 ADM graduates (40+ manager IDs) including 176K+ fights and 118K+ wins plus 4 teams with 1500+ wins (Animal Farm DM11 @2085; Bulldogs DM11 @ 1976; Lenpros DM30 @ 1792; Fandils DM46 @1727
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The Consortium
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 2:47 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

chatzy

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The Consortium: Crapmaster 2013, Crapgiver 2014; 1213 ADM graduates (40+ manager IDs) including 176K+ fights and 118K+ wins plus 4 teams with 1500+ wins (Animal Farm DM11 @2085; Bulldogs DM11 @ 1976; Lenpros DM30 @ 1792; Fandils DM46 @1727
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Assurnasirbanipal
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Location: San Jose, CA

PostPosted: Sun Jan 26, 2020 11:10 am Reply with quoteBack to top

I had a spectacular tourney. I had registered 66 in advance and had planned to enter 3 Crapmaster warriors and realized a couple days before the tourney that I was supposed to enter another Rookie for a trial run. On Friday, I got an overview for a Rookie who rolled poorly so I pulled him from the tourney.

My total record was 203-182, with 8 TV's (including 2 2nd places and 2 3rd places). Saturday, in particular, was fantastic. I kept waiting for my tourney to start heading sour and I wisely chose to go to bed before the overnight turn printed, so my tourney never turned at all sour until Sunday morning. I had 7 undefeated warriors when I went to bed on Saturday.

My primary hopes before the tourney were Champs - ADM

Primus & Eligibles
Standard disappointment.

ADM
I busted a 22(13)-11(3)-5-21-22(1)-10-10 LU. His manager messed up with a will train earlier in his career or the physicals would have been higher. I was surprised he stayed ADM when he got great damage and was 182/17. I didn't hesitate to say "GO!" This was NOT one of my undefeated warriors. He started 3-2. Given the number of busts I saw in the early rounds of ADM, I did NOT have very high hopes. He exceeded my expectations for the rest of the tourney, riding the bubble up until he faced the evil Pradus on round 14 and was mostly unable to touch this nasty thing with 51 attack running on faves. Meanwhile, I apparently forgot to notify Ruth that she was sandbagging against a very tough field of busting warriors so she decided to flaunt her prowess and sandbag to a Runner Up. I fully expected (and had my expectations met) to be trounced in the actual TC fight.

Freshmen
I busted a 23(13)-21(10)-7-7-21-7-21 PR. This one worked exactly as expected. My only real fear was AB's. Sure enough, R14 was Ice Wind vs. Dee Daa. Ice Wind needed 3 wins, Dee Daa needed 2. Fight 1 was by far the best fight of the 3. Dee Daa refused to drop after taking parry damage 13 times and finally took down Ice Wind in 7 minutes. The second fight Ice Wind won in 4. The third fight Dee Daa won in 3. Ice Wind entered T14 with 25 will and 24 deftness. He did get the final deftness train and two wit trains in those three fights, but the end result was a 2nd PR Runner Up to a highly physical busting AB. Fantastic results, but just short of the prize!

Challenger
My hope here, was Moses, who RU'd in July. On the bubble R10, I debated throwing the fight, but couldn't bring myself to do it. Moses must have overheard my discussions to punt this tourney and lost on R10. My expectation is Moses graduates with another TV. However, my long time sandbagger and former Apprentice TC Spills had an incredible run and finished tied for 3rd place.

Champions
This was mostly a development class, but I was running my Virus clone after a 9-3 TV in October. I also knew Champs was as stacked as ADM. Another 9-3 and Priscilla will be headed to Challengers where hopefully she can get past her early struggles.

Adepts, Initiates, & Apprentices
I had low expectations and had them met.

Rookies
Was running a fairly big group (23) and no real favorites going in. Ok, my bashers are always my favorites, but I meant favorites to win fights. Entering Sunday I still had 5 warriors left (all of whom won that overnight turn where I saw so many lose their first fight). Three of them made it to the runoffs. The highlight, by far, was the 9-14-13-11-7-9-21 AB who after an 11-1-0 start finished 12-3-1. I entered the warrior because of the potential hidden +3/+4 bonuses, I was running other warriors on the team, and it met minimum Rookie standards for me. It is mode attack and only learned attack and riposte skills and is now completely retired. But it makes me want to start running more 11-7 wit-will warriors in Rookies. It is too much fun to win with these jokers. Oh, and that guy I entered on Friday to give a trial by combat? He died at 3-2 giving a spectacularly decisive result and clear guidance to his manager!

The fantastic results listed above overshadow the almost complete failure of my bashers and pikers (26 entered, 46-68 with 0 TV's)
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Vladimer
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Joined: Jul 15, 2014
Posts: 191

PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 2020 9:23 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

Welcome to Monday Morning Tourney Quarterback (MMTQB)! After a smashing time in good old Tempe, AZ, there were highs, lows, laughter, tears, reassurances and exhortations of better performance next time. And that was just in Dense’s hotel room. Let’s go to the tape(s)!


Awards of the week


I sent a total of 65 live warriors and all but four of them came back. But, wow… Two prized warriors were slaughtered where they stood, and one, my biggest hope for a TC, by the warrior of a manager I was proxying! There ought to be a rule! I seem to have pretty bad luck for 3 ADEX / 1 EX LUs in Inits, so will vigorously avoid them in the future. Three warriors came back with Tournament Victor status.

No one sauntered back with the coveted Tournament Champion trophy, an autographed Terminus Lifetime Tour Bus™ pass. No one got near it. Remotely. I mean, dayum. On the plus side, I did manage, albeit by a split decision, to get a Blood Games warrior out, my first, and, at 4am on Sunday, that made for much rejoicing.

Let’s not discuss the award % except to say it was consistent with my Live side Halloween tourney. And that’s a real problem.

In the spirit of diversity, which I support and practice, the three TV’s consisted of a waste, an AB and a slasher, this latter being a first for me and tremendously exciting. To boot, they were across three different classes. Two fine strikers came back at 7-3 and, more on this later, were Normal endurance / Good damage.


Quotes of the week


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.” – Yours truly


Once again, in the classes of Apprentices, Adepts, Contenders and Primus, we had the same manager as the TC and Runner Up. Ridiculous. Should any aggrieved warriors wish to change managers or consider legal action – completely understandable! – please just reach out via diplo or 1-800-TEABAGS.


2. “It was the Conga line to death after that” – Trump


To say I’ve been fantastically unsuccessful in Bloodgames is an understatement; however, this time I struck gold and, by the blood on Verra’s floor, it was a fun read at 4am on Sunday.

I had realized that I simply don’t have the skill for FTF BGs. Much like I have no shame playing from my handicap appropriate tees on the golf course, I felt it was best to leave FTF BGs to the big boys and roll my dice on the mailer where no one could Bloodfeud me and I couldn’t compound my losses by Bloodfeuding others.

Carnation was a standard – as I am given to understand, anyway – BG Striker design at 17-3-3-21-21-8-11. I’ve always been dubious about 3 con designs… As Verbal Kint would say, “What if you miss?” Well, despite matching up with a stylistic nemesis Parry-Ripper named Romulus Gwelt on round 1, Carnation never relinquished the initiative. Sixteen attacks later, he had the win but not kill. What raised my eyebrows, and had me scrambling for his overview, was his getting an expert in defense on the first turn after two defensive learns. For those following along at home, that put him at +2 DEF.

A kill and two more defensive learns on round two, and a standby kill on round 3, along with two more defensive learns and an ADEX, put him at 3-0-2 and seemingly a defense learn. Interesting. I was always rooting for decise so wasn’t sure if a DEF learn would really help.

Round 4 brought a win and an expert DEC against Nudge. Round 5 against a One Armed Gobbler scum gave him his first loss. Interestingly to me, my 3 con ST took a SC hit and kept fighting. I wouldn’t have bet on that.

Now about that defense learn…. Round 6 brought a nasty 4-1-3 Itch and the first time Carnation lost the jump in a fight; however, he dodged that attack and scratched his itch. Round 7 was back to a comfort zone, getting the jump on a Serpents Hold Venomous slasher for a win and expert attack. The next round gave Serpents Hold revenge as a mean unarmed AB beat the crap out of my striker but didn’t kill him. Of note, Carnation dodged an attack following a death intent. It probably saved him.

That left Carnation at 6-2-2 going into the final two fights. Not really looking good. However, Rabbit was forced to say “Uncle!” as he took a dirt nap in round 9 and, to my extreme luck, round 10 brought about a stand-in who was quickly dispatched to leave my flower standing proud at 8-2-4. I turned over that last fight, fervently hoping to see a graduation overview but, sadly, no dice. Drat.

Given that everything was just being printed and sorted, I scrambled around for the Turn 10 newsletter to see who beat him out. Sure enough, 3 warriors were ahead of him. But wait, better check the style masters. Woo hoo ! Looks like two of the three warriors above Carnation were of the same style so my warrior managed to back in to my first BG success. I’ll take it!

Overall, I was much more successful this BG attempt, with two 8-2s and a single 7-3.


3. “I told that boy about the ice.” Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders. “These people! You have to keep after them all the time.” - Myrtle Wilson, The Great Gatsby


The blatant classism I saw at this FTF was staggering. On my right hand, Trump randomly mutters “It’s nice to see attacks slipping parries in Inits.” On my left, Kharadmon opines that “it’s nice to see Adepts LUs dodging crits.” When did we start assigning milestones of performance to particular classes? Was there a meeting or a memo I missed? Is this a thing? It never occurred to me think about capabilities generally developing within particular classes. I guess I ought to.


4. “Look around the poker table; if you can’t see the sucker, you’re it.” – Warren Buffett


The more I compete in tournaments, particularly face to face tournaments and particularly Tempe, the more this quote becomes apropos for me. It is not without reason that we see the same 4 – 6 managers winning tourney after tourney after tourney after.. well, you get my point. I’ve been the sucker at the table. Imma fix that.


5. “A Philistine on the sidewalk.” – Hobbes
“Genius is never understood in its own time.” – Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes


There was a great pre-tourney conversation on Chatzy where I proffered that I don’t run Poor Endurance / Good Damage offensives as a rule. Much like the derision and mockery I faced when I mentioned I don’t run 17 WT/WL tourney warriors because I’m not successful with them, some chuckleheads took umbrage at this position as well. As a number cruncher, I posted compelling data from my Striker tourney records to support my position in terms of P/G vs N/N vs N/G or N/R. Note, I was not suggesting others follow my rule but that point seemed to get lost, as points are wont to do with innumerate cretins.

Of course, my data isn’t perfect, so when I mentioned one data point being invalid due to the warrior being in ADM with several trains since his P/G tourney record and then another who also had improved endurance or damage since his P/G tourney, the hecklers set in.

Since Mannequin was kind enough to remind me to “give credit to those who talked you into it, Vlad”, here they are:

“Hello wheelhouse!!: Good » Great » 25 » 15 » 63%” – Howlin Wolf

“I'm going to start training up my P/N guys to N/G to tank my N/G statistics.” – OAB

Ultimately, to pad the haters’ records and prove a point, I threw a few P/G ST’s into the FTF mix at the last minute. And now that the FTF tourney results are in… Survey says?!

Poor / Good strikers: 8-8 W/L with best showing being a 4-3.

Normal / Good strikers: 21-15 W/L with best showing being two 7-3s.

Not sayin’, just sayin’.



6. “He has a mace, plate armor and patience” – Trump


It was a real thrill sitting next to Trump round by round as he monitored his Crapmaster basher. And props to him for winning the Crapmaster title! With a basher, no less. Criminy! I have yet to TV with some really nice BAs and here he wanders by taking a Crapmaster tank stud to the house. Grats!



Quotes that defy expounding



“I mean, I had to be honest. So I called Sandy and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got two balls.’” – Papaiz

“I can’t keep track of all the teams, what is it, Big Lake Not-Good-At-Duelmasters?” – Howlin Wolf

“Hello, Security Man.” – Deeders, Honorary Mention: “There are two kinds of problems in this world, those that are yours and those that are not mine.”

“He’s getting his master’s in porn.” – Dameon Darkheart

“It’s not xxxxxxx until your xxxxxx touch.” – Den

“I don’t think I like your tone.” – Trump

“I don’t think I’m going to run a hundred again because I didn’t do any better.” – OAB

This exchange:

Woman on phone: “If you’re not seeing anyone and not busy, would you be interested in going out sometime?”
Kharadmon : “Yes, I could be persuaded. One question.”
Woman on phone: “Yes?”
Kharadmon: “Who is this?”



Stats of the week


The crew landed at 195-180-7-5 for an overall 52% win rate.

Best class(es): Adepts at 57%.
Worst class(es): Freshmen at 40%.
Best style(s): Slashers ( Shocked ) and TPs at 57%.
Worst style(s): Parry Rippers at a laughable 31%.


Factoids that may only interest me


I. Eleven warriors, or 17% of those I entered, went winless. Looking at them, I can understand a few. I mean, the ST I intended to enter as a Freshman that had been classed ADM. A strong, physicals WS who had managed 12-3-1 in rooks with whom I tempted fate and ran in Inits – well past his learn rate. But others remain a mystery.

II. I lost some outright silly nice prized warriors this go-round. Adding to my “never-run-a-three-ADEX-one-EX-Init-LU” motto, I lost my TC clone on round one to Levi’s warrior. Yes, that Levi. The one I was proxying for. On round two I lost my DYO rookie from last April’s TC. Finally, on round 7, I lost my Little Crow rollup to a stupid verb. Thankfully, in this latter case, he had just gotten his invite and, like the Highlander in that pistol duel scene, he shook the death off.


Mr. United Global Services Member Travel Note


Few things aggravate me more than someone who insists on helping me and makes me worse off than before they “helped” me. God forbid they are being paid to “help” me.

Case in point: Friday morning in Tempe, I woke up, showered, and made my way to the game room. In the course of this series of events, I used the shampoo and bath towels provided by the hotel. Saturday morning, I woke up anxious to go read some tourney results, went to shower, and discovered that whomever had serviced the room had not only taken the half-full bottle of shampoo and not replaced it but also taken the bath towels and not replaced them. Had (s)he never entered the room to “help”, I would have had some unused shampoo and slightly used towels, one of which I had actually placed back on the towel rack.

As I thought about it over the tourney weekend, it reminded me much of when I try to “help” with my own strategies. Though I haven’t crunched the numbers, I am strongly of the impression I do better in mailers – where I cannot change my strats – than I do at a face to face. My mailer Bloodgames grad reinforces this. Watson has enabled me to adjust my warriors’ strategies earlier and earlier in a face to face tourney based on opponent styles or fight history. I am convinced that a lot of the time I try to “help” my original strategy I wind up making myself worse off than if I had never touched my original strategy at all. And, to be clear, I am just as aggravated with myself at that juncture.

But it put the shampoo and towels in a different light.


Brief truths


A. It’s bittersweet to have your tablemate put out your rookie who started 11-0-1.

B. Sometimes you get the best light from a burning bridge. In this case, a throwaway 17-4-11-21-10-8-13 rookie ST who died on round 3.

C. The Otto giveth, when I knocked out his 7-2 warrior, and the Otto taketh away, when he, in turn, knocked out my 9-2 warrior.

D. Dismissing losses to TMM because his warriors must obviously be tricked and prized out will, at some point, begin to feel hollow.

E. It’s nice to: a) have your scum waste beat two 4’11” rooks LUs; b) have your LU consistently get the jump on STs; c) put losses on multiple undefeated Assur PS’s; d) put losses on people’s DYOs, busts and RU warriors; and e) kill someone who put a loss on your guy.


Ten things I think I think


1. I think I need to find a way to approach the turns rack so that I see neither a) a rollup as the last page or b) the “was eliminated” line that sits at the bottom of the fight. I think this is sort of like avoiding someone’s gaze in a long hallway.

2. I think I should run some APM Parry Strikers.

3. I think Jump of Adverbs was a one verb wrecking crew to my Challengers squad. That said, I think adjectives > verbs. In either event, I think TUM.

4. I think someone (*cough* Studcraft *cough*) consistently getting my warriors’ fights mixed in with his, adding graffiti to them, and then anonymously dropping them off at my table was hilarious.

5. I think there were a lot of Pam Andersons. I think there is nothing wrong with that.

6. I think Trump’s 7 DEC monster LU with 5 SP and 7 DF getting the jump on my 11 DEC ST without contest was absolute Beeee Esssss.

7. I think defeating a “Vladimer” on Round One set the tone for the tourney.

8. I think my proxy-ee Levi owes me a beer or three.

9. I think the next time Dense wants to show off his first non-ungulate companion ever, I hope I’m around for the steak dinner he buys everyone.

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

a. I think Sup Forces were particularly hard on me this tourney.

b. I think I ran into an inordinate amount of DA wielding STs in Adepts.

c. Coffeenerdness: SBUX’s cold brew coffee is pretty good but has nothing on BoV’s.

d. I think TMM’s Worth The Effort was ridiculous.

e. I think I killed a lot of Wrathmen while Kharadmon eliminated a lot of my deep contenders. I think I am not sure who won that exchange.

f. I think physical WSs with no ratings have no business in Inits. That said, I think after a 52 skill scum went 4-3 in Challengers, that, contrary to my earlier think, scum have a place throughout basic.

g. I think your chance to riposte is tied to a roll of their INI vs your RIP, rather than INI vs INI, which some have espoused.

h. I think Otto’s CN Johnson plagued my existence. I think I hope I won’t be CN him again any time soon.

i. Obit of the Week: 11(3)-8-5-21-21-10-11 Init LU with Adex INI, ATT, DEF and EX DEC


Who I like in April

Let me go out on a limb here… TMM, Howlin Wolf, Floyd, TUM, tDO, Assur. There ought to be a Superfecta I could buy cause it would be money.


Adieu Haiku

Hands washed? Check! Hooray!
Covid-19 dangerous
First fall face-to-face!
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Vladimer
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Joined: Jul 15, 2014
Posts: 191

PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 2020 9:28 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

Welcome to Monday Morning Tourney Quarterback (MMTQB)! After a smashing time in good old Tempe, AZ, there were highs, lows, laughter, tears, reassurances and exhortations of better performance next time. And that was just in Dense’s hotel room. Let’s go to the tape(s)!


Awards of the week


I sent a total of 65 live warriors and all but four of them came back. But, wow… Two prized warriors were slaughtered where they stood, and one, my biggest hope for a TC, by the warrior of a manager I was proxying! There ought to be a rule! I seem to have pretty bad luck for 3 ADEX / 1 EX LUs in Inits, so will vigorously avoid them in the future. Three warriors came back with Tournament Victor status.

No one sauntered back with the coveted Tournament Champion trophy, an autographed Terminus Lifetime Tour Bus™ pass. No one got near it. Remotely. I mean, dayum. On the plus side, I did manage, albeit by a split decision, to get a Blood Games warrior out, my first, and, at 4am on Sunday, that made for much rejoicing.

Let’s not discuss the award % except to say it was consistent with my Live side Halloween tourney. And that’s a real problem.

In the spirit of diversity, which I support and practice, the three TV’s consisted of a waste, an AB and a slasher, this latter being a first for me and tremendously exciting. To boot, they were across three different classes. Two fine strikers came back at 7-3 and, more on this later, were Normal endurance / Good damage.


Quotes of the week


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.” – Yours truly


Once again, in the classes of Apprentices, Adepts, Contenders and Primus, we had the same manager as the TC and Runner Up. Ridiculous. Should any aggrieved warriors wish to change managers or consider legal action – completely understandable! – please just reach out via diplo or 1-800-TEABAGS.


2. “It was the Conga line to death after that” – Trump


To say I’ve been fantastically unsuccessful in Bloodgames is an understatement; however, this time I struck gold and, by the blood on Verra’s floor, it was a fun read at 4am on Sunday.

I had realized that I simply don’t have the skill for FTF BGs. Much like I have no shame playing from my handicap appropriate tees on the golf course, I felt it was best to leave FTF BGs to the big boys and roll my dice on the mailer where no one could Bloodfeud me and I couldn’t compound my losses by Bloodfeuding others.

Carnation was a standard – as I am given to understand, anyway – BG Striker design at 17-3-3-21-21-8-11. I’ve always been dubious about 3 con designs… As Verbal Kint would say, “What if you miss?” Well, despite matching up with a stylistic nemesis Parry-Ripper named Romulus Gwelt on round 1, Carnation never relinquished the initiative. Sixteen attacks later, he had the win but not kill. What raised my eyebrows, and had me scrambling for his overview, was his getting an expert in defense on the first turn after two defensive learns. For those following along at home, that put him at +2 DEF.

A kill and two more defensive learns on round two, and a standby kill on round 3, along with two more defensive learns and an ADEX, put him at 3-0-2 and seemingly a defense learn. Interesting. I was always rooting for decise so wasn’t sure if a DEF learn would really help.

Round 4 brought a win and an expert DEC against Nudge. Round 5 against a One Armed Gobbler scum gave him his first loss. Interestingly to me, my 3 con ST took a SC hit and kept fighting. I wouldn’t have bet on that.

Now about that defense learn…. Round 6 brought a nasty 4-1-3 Itch and the first time Carnation lost the jump in a fight; however, he dodged that attack and scratched his itch. Round 7 was back to a comfort zone, getting the jump on a Serpents Hold Venomous slasher for a win and expert attack. The next round gave Serpents Hold revenge as a mean unarmed AB beat the crap out of my striker but didn’t kill him. Of note, Carnation dodged an attack following a death intent. It probably saved him.

That left Carnation at 6-2-2 going into the final two fights. Not really looking good. However, Rabbit was forced to say “Uncle!” as he took a dirt nap in round 9 and, to my extreme luck, round 10 brought about a stand-in who was quickly dispatched to leave my flower standing proud at 8-2-4. I turned over that last fight, fervently hoping to see a graduation overview but, sadly, no dice. Drat.

Given that everything was just being printed and sorted, I scrambled around for the Turn 10 newsletter to see who beat him out. Sure enough, 3 warriors were ahead of him. But wait, better check the style masters. Woo hoo ! Looks like two of the three warriors above Carnation were of the same style so my warrior managed to back in to my first BG success. I’ll take it!

Overall, I was much more successful this BG attempt, with two 8-2s and a single 7-3.


3. “I told that boy about the ice.” Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders. “These people! You have to keep after them all the time.” - Myrtle Wilson, The Great Gatsby


The blatant classism I saw at this FTF was staggering. On my right hand, Trump randomly mutters “It’s nice to see attacks slipping parries in Inits.” On my left, Kharadmon opines that “it’s nice to see Adepts LUs dodging crits.” When did we start assigning milestones of performance to particular classes? Was there a meeting or a memo I missed? Is this a thing? It never occurred to me think about capabilities generally developing within particular classes. I guess I ought to.


4. “Look around the poker table; if you can’t see the sucker, you’re it.” – Warren Buffett


The more I compete in tournaments, particularly face to face tournaments and particularly Tempe, the more this quote becomes apropos for me. It is not without reason that we see the same 4 – 6 managers winning tourney after tourney after tourney after.. well, you get my point. I’ve been the sucker at the table. Imma fix that.


5. “A Philistine on the sidewalk.” – Hobbes
“Genius is never understood in its own time.” – Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes


There was a great pre-tourney conversation on Chatzy where I proffered that I don’t run Poor Endurance / Good Damage offensives as a rule. Much like the derision and mockery I faced when I mentioned I don’t run 17 WT/WL tourney warriors because I’m not successful with them, some chuckleheads took umbrage at this position as well. As a number cruncher, I posted compelling data from my Striker tourney records to support my position in terms of P/G vs N/N vs N/G or N/R. Note, I was not suggesting others follow my rule but that point seemed to get lost, as points are wont to do with innumerate cretins.

Of course, my data isn’t perfect, so when I mentioned one data point being invalid due to the warrior being in ADM with several trains since his P/G tourney record and then another who also had improved endurance or damage since his P/G tourney, the hecklers set in.

Since Mannequin was kind enough to remind me to “give credit to those who talked you into it, Vlad”, here they are:

“Hello wheelhouse!!: Good » Great » 25 » 15 » 63%” – Howlin Wolf

“I'm going to start training up my P/N guys to N/G to tank my N/G statistics.” – OAB

Ultimately, to pad the haters’ records and prove a point, I threw a few P/G ST’s into the FTF mix at the last minute. And now that the FTF tourney results are in… Survey says?!

Poor / Good strikers: 8-8 W/L with best showing being a 4-3.

Normal / Good strikers: 21-15 W/L with best showing being two 7-3s.

Not sayin’, just sayin’.



6. “He has a mace, plate armor and patience” – Trump


It was a real thrill sitting next to Trump round by round as he monitored his Crapmaster basher. And props to him for winning the Crapmaster title! With a basher, no less. Criminy! I have yet to TV with some really nice BAs and here he wanders by taking a Crapmaster tank stud to the house. Grats!



Quotes that defy expounding



“I mean, I had to be honest. So I called Sandy and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got two balls.’” – Papaiz

“I can’t keep track of all the teams, what is it, Big Lake Not-Good-At-Duelmasters?” – Howlin Wolf

“Hello, Security Man.” – Deeders, Honorary Mention: “There are two kinds of problems in this world, those that are yours and those that are not mine.”

“He’s getting his master’s in porn.” – Dameon Darkheart

“It’s not xxxxxxx until your xxxxxx touch.” – Den

“I don’t think I like your tone.” – Trump

“I don’t think I’m going to run a hundred again because I didn’t do any better.” – OAB

This exchange:

Woman on phone: “If you’re not seeing anyone and not busy, would you be interested in going out sometime?”
Kharadmon : “Yes, I could be persuaded. One question.”
Woman on phone: “Yes?”
Kharadmon: “Who is this?”



Stats of the week


The crew landed at 195-180-7-5 for an overall 52% win rate.

Best class(es): Adepts at 57%.
Worst class(es): Freshmen at 40%.
Best style(s): Slashers ( Shocked ) and TPs at 57%.
Worst style(s): Parry Rippers at a laughable 31%.


Factoids that may only interest me


I. Eleven warriors, or 17% of those I entered, went winless. Looking at them, I can understand a few. I mean, the ST I intended to enter as a Freshman that had been classed ADM. A strong, physicals WS who had managed 12-3-1 in rooks with whom I tempted fate and ran in Inits – well past his learn rate. But others remain a mystery.

II. I lost some outright silly nice prized warriors this go-round. Adding to my “never-run-a-three-ADEX-one-EX-Init-LU” motto, I lost my TC clone on round one to Levi’s warrior. Yes, that Levi. The one I was proxying for. On round two I lost my DYO rookie from last April’s TC. Finally, on round 7, I lost my Little Crow rollup to a stupid verb. Thankfully, in this latter case, he had just gotten his invite and, like the Highlander in that pistol duel scene, he shook the death off.


Mr. United Global Services Member Travel Note


Few things aggravate me more than someone who insists on helping me and makes me worse off than before they “helped” me. God forbid they are being paid to “help” me.

Case in point: Friday morning in Tempe, I woke up, showered, and made my way to the game room. In the course of this series of events, I used the shampoo and bath towels provided by the hotel. Saturday morning, I woke up anxious to go read some tourney results, went to shower, and discovered that whomever had serviced the room had not only taken the half-full bottle of shampoo and not replaced it but also taken the bath towels and not replaced them. Had (s)he never entered the room to “help”, I would have had some unused shampoo and slightly used towels, one of which I had actually placed back on the towel rack.

As I thought about it over the tourney weekend, it reminded me much of when I try to “help” with my own strategies. Though I haven’t crunched the numbers, I am strongly of the impression I do better in mailers – where I cannot change my strats – than I do at a face to face. My mailer Bloodgames grad reinforces this. Watson has enabled me to adjust my warriors’ strategies earlier and earlier in a face to face tourney based on opponent styles or fight history. I am convinced that a lot of the time I try to “help” my original strategy I wind up making myself worse off than if I had never touched my original strategy at all. And, to be clear, I am just as aggravated with myself at that juncture.

But it put the shampoo and towels in a different light.


Brief truths


A. It’s bittersweet to have your tablemate put out your rookie who started 11-0-1.

B. Sometimes you get the best light from a burning bridge. In this case, a throwaway 17-4-11-21-10-8-13 rookie ST who died on round 3.

C. The Otto giveth, when I knocked out his 7-2 warrior, and the Otto taketh away, when he, in turn, knocked out my 9-2 warrior.

D. Dismissing losses to TMM because his warriors must obviously be tricked and prized out will, at some point, begin to feel hollow.

E. It’s nice to: a) have your scum waste beat two 4’11” rooks LUs; b) have your LU consistently get the jump on STs; c) put losses on multiple undefeated Assur PS’s; d) put losses on people’s DYOs, busts and RU warriors; and e) kill someone who put a loss on your guy.


Ten things I think I think


1. I think I need to find a way to approach the turns rack so that I see neither a) a rollup as the last page or b) the “was eliminated” line that sits at the bottom of the fight. I think this is sort of like avoiding someone’s gaze in a long hallway.

2. I think I should run some APM Parry Strikers.

3. I think Jump of Adverbs was a one verb wrecking crew to my Challengers squad. That said, I think adjectives > verbs. In either event, I think TUM.

4. I think someone (*cough* Studcraft *cough*) consistently getting my warriors’ fights mixed in with his, adding graffiti to them, and then anonymously dropping them off at my table was hilarious.

5. I think there were a lot of Pam Andersons. I think there is nothing wrong with that.

6. I think Trump’s 7 DEC monster LU with 5 SP and 7 DF getting the jump on my 11 DEC ST without contest was absolute Beeee Esssss.

7. I think defeating a “Vladimer” on Round One set the tone for the tourney.

8. I think my proxy-ee Levi owes me a beer or three.

9. I think the next time Dense wants to show off his first non-ungulate companion ever, I hope I’m around for the steak dinner he buys everyone.

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

a. I think Sup Forces were particularly hard on me this tourney.

b. I think I ran into an inordinate amount of DA wielding STs in Adepts.

c. Coffeenerdness: SBUX’s cold brew coffee is pretty good but has nothing on BoV’s.

d. I think TMM’s Worth The Effort was ridiculous.

e. I think I killed a lot of Wrathmen while Kharadmon eliminated a lot of my deep contenders. I think I am not sure who won that exchange.

f. I think physical WSs with no ratings have no business in Inits. That said, I think after a 52 skill scum went 4-3 in Challengers, that, contrary to my earlier think, scum have a place throughout basic.

g. I think your chance to riposte is tied to a roll of their INI vs your RIP, rather than INI vs INI, which some have espoused.

h. I think Otto’s CN Johnson plagued my existence. I think I hope I won’t be CN him again any time soon.

i. Obit of the Week: 11(3)-8-5-21-21-10-11 Init LU with Adex INI, ATT, DEF and EX DEC


Who I like in April

Let me go out on a limb here… TMM, Howlin Wolf, Floyd, TUM, tDO, Assur. There ought to be a Superfecta I could buy cause it would be money.


Adieu Haiku

Hands washed? Check! Hooray!
Covid-19 dangerous
First fall face-to-face!
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DonaldTrump
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Joined: Jun 19, 2014
Posts: 120
Location: Livermore, CA

PostPosted: Sun Mar 22, 2020 8:16 am Reply with quoteBack to top

I'm surprised there was no mention of the SWAT team at your door Sunday morning ... Shocked
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Otto_X
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Joined: Jan 09, 2003
Posts: 721
Location: Moline, IL

PostPosted: Sun Mar 22, 2020 8:38 am Reply with quoteBack to top

Vlad — in the late rounds I’ve learned to take off my glasses when picking up fights from the rack. That way, “has been eliminated” is indistinguishable from “will fight SOME DUDE”.

P.S. CN JOHNSON is now a challenger and probably retired, but....never say never Smile

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