October 2020 Mail-In

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2957

News has reached us from the RSI secret underground production facility:

The October Mail-In will be held on October 31.

OoooOOooo... Very spooky.

This makes the likely ADM Freeze date September 19. As a reminder to recently returned players: there is no basic freeze. Your warriors in basic will be assigned tourney classes based on their FE on the day of the tourney.

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2957

The ADM Freeze was done this past weekend.

Post-freeze minis were emailed yesterday (Monday, September 21) to anyone who requested them.

We should be receiving paper minis and ADM selection sheets with our upcoming turns, and we can expect to see a list of Challengers pulls published in the newsletters soon. We are also awaiting an official tourney announcement with prize and format details. A Tourney of the Dead is assured, based on tradition and dead warriors showing up on minis, but not much else is known yet.

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2957

The Challengers pull list appeared in the latest newsletter:

NEW GRADUATES--FROM ALL ARENAS (INCLUDING CLOSED ARENAS)

For those of you who keep track of such things, a few additional warriors graduated
from regular DM arenas (including closed arenas) since the last tournament.

FORCE OF ONE (19-5622) BY THE NUMBERS (472)
TASSLEHOFF BURRFOOT (21-8778) KENDER INVASION (676)
LOWDOWN AND MEAN (29-6113) I'M THE WOLF (504)
SUPERIOR SEGUE (32-7186) SEGUE CARTEL (440)
UNCONTROLLABLE (72-9129) BASH BROS FEELINGS (1201)
MARK PORTUGAL (73-348) WORLDWIDE GORE (36)
ETERNAL DOOM (82-16726) HAUNTED CASTLE 1 (2543)
CFO (84-32810) BUSINESS CLASS (5753)
BEELRETH (84-41537) 102ND DIRE LANCERS (7227)
SLOTH LIASON (84-51421) THIRSTY THUGS 1443 (8827)
NAP MANIAC (85-4134) WICKED MARTYRS 1507 (747)
HOMING LEMMING (85-16885) THIRSTY THUGS 1656 (3094)
STEVE DALLAS (85-19356) IN BLOOM (910)

Congrats to the grads. -- Green Eyes

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2957

The tourney announcement has reached some players, today.

The TC prize is Evil Twin:

And for this tournament only, managers of Tournament Champions will earn one potion which lets them transform one of their warriors into its Evil Twin! The warrior's qualities will transform to the opposite alignment, switching skill bonuses between categories (in order IRAPDDec, so init <-> dec, etc.), exchanging favorite Offensive Effort and Activity Level and favorite Offensive and Defensive Tactics. Weapons will swap to the opposite weight according to style. The warrior will receive the maximum damage possible, ambidexterity, immortality, and the favorite learn of their choice. The warrior will hereafter be known as "EVIL xxxx." All final qualities remain in normal style and arena bounds; no favorites will be revealed in basic; see more details in your arena newsletter.

There will be a Tourney of the Dead:

All Dead Tourney Tournament Champions will be resurrected and granted immortality; Tournament Victors of the Dead Tourneys will only be resurrected.

There will be Primus stylemaster awards:

All Stylemasters for Primus (excepting the TC) will earn one ZAPP to be used on another warrior of the same style.

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2957

The tourney has run.

There were over 3,200 entrants. That is a 40% increase over last October, and a 30% increase over the October before that.

About a third of the entrants were in the Dead classes.

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2957

I entered 60 warriors in this tourney, 46 living and 14 dead.

Breakdown by tourney class: 7 Primus, 3 Contenders, 2 Eligibles, 4 ADM, 2 Freshmen, 5 Challengers, 6 Champions, 1 Adept, 5 Initiates, 1 Apprentice, 10 Rookies, 2 Dead Challengers, 4 Dead Champions, 2 Dead Adepts, 2 Dead Initiates, 4 Dead Apprentices

Breakdown by fighting style: 17 AB, 3 BA, 6 LU, 4 PL, 3 PR, 3 PS, 4 SL, 13 ST, 3 TP, 4 WS

I've been trying to keep a tight rein on my budget, on account of the world falling apart and not being sure if I'm going to make much money this year. I aimed for 50 and ended up with 60, so not too bad all things considered. Most of the bloat came from Rookies and Primus. I had 6 Rookies from replacements and added 4 from two team sheets at the last minute. And in Primus, I entered two warriors who I might not otherwise enter because I received some exact rhythm information from King of Primus.

The extra additions will have very little impact on my TC chances, since I'm almost never in contention in Rookies and I'm literally never in contention in Primus. But maybe I can eek out a Primus stylemaster or two.

My best chances traditionally are in the Eligibles-ADM-Freshmen classes and this tourney is no different. I have two bust-outs in each class, one legitimate TC hopeful and an extra WS in each class since I've been trying to do well with that style and I happened to have some ready. In addition, I entered my two BA sandbaggers in ADM, SURLY DECKHAND and HORTATOR, just because they are capable of TVing and maybe they can stick some early losses on other bust-outs.

Eligibles

The least impressive of my three bust-outs in the hunt for a TC is in Eligibles.

FISHWIFE started life as a 3-7-14-17-17-10-17 AB. She came back ambi and +5 between Att/Def, so I ran her to ADM and she revealed herself to be Fist favorite. Three bonus potions and a failed ADM bust-out later, she looks like this going into the freeze:

19(16)-19(13)-14-21(4)-21(4)-10-20(3), over 200 FE, Tremendous damage, +5/+4, with 195 total skills

FISHWIFE went for skills on the "increased learning" turn following the King of Primus, and learned 8 skills. She then trained the easy 5th WL train to 22, and an easy 4th DF train to 21. So the good news for her is that she is going into the tourney with 215 total skills, which is an impressive start to a bust-out for an AB. The bad news is that she really doesn't have much bust left. She'll be trying for more DF and WT trains during the tourney, and if she is lucky she'll pick up a 5th train in each and hit 225 total skills by the late run-offs (if she makes it that far).

Freshmen

Freshmen is probably my second best chance, but the style is mismatched to the class. HENCHMAN started life as a 12-6-11-21-20-3-11 LU, accomplished nothing in basic beyond surviving to graduation, but learned well enough to set up for Freshmen. Going into the freeze, he looked like this:

18(6)-12(6)-11-21-20-3-12(1) with over 100 FE, 148 total skills, and Great damage

HENCHMAN was able to learn 19 Att and 19 Def while staying under the Freshmen line, thanks in part to no Attack bonus and a -2 Defense hosing (thanks for that, 3 SP!). He has a nice rhythm (HI/VH) which he'll be using throughout the tourney, and a bad weapon (EP) which he'll only be using against offensives. He trained WL to 21 and 22, and DF to 13 prior to the tourney, so he is going in with 162 total skills.

I like the warrior, but he has shown no chutzpah prior to this tourney and is a style mismatch for the physical monsters that sometimes pop up in Freshmen. So I would not be at all surprised if he goes 3-3. The longer he lasts, the more I like him, as he has a pretty deep bust available.

ADM

This class has been tough for a while, but I occasionally break through in it. I'm not sure if this will be the tourney or not, but my bust-out in this class might be my best chance to TC.

PRIVATEER began life as a 9-10-7-9-21-7-21 AB, and received a few contest prizes from DM 28 to get to +2/+3 and into ADM. He went into the freeze looking like this:

16(7)-16(6)-7-10(1)-21-7-21 with over 150 FE, 168 total skills, and Good damage

He is far from ideal, especially in the damage department, but with his style and Longsword favorite I don't think he needs damage as much as other warriors in ADM. After the freeze, he trained WT to 11 and WL to 22 and 23, to go into the tourney with 184 total skills. He has a pretty deep bust available to him, so hopefully he can avoid early losses and last long enough to take advantage of it. I have him using the LO vs everyone because its a great weapon, but that puts me in a perilous position against good Lunger bust-outs. While I like this bust-out better than the other two, I suspect it is still a long shot for him to TC.

The Rest

I have some neat stuff spread out among the other classes. I have stylemaster competitors in Primus, TV capable ABs in Contenders, an immortal Champion ST with favorites knowledge, a couple mean looking Dead Apprentices. On top of that, I have some warriors who I am excited to read the fights of, despite not being in the conversation for a TC, like SPARE ANCHOR in Contenders and my three WS bust-outs in Eligibles, ADM, and Freshmen.

I think I'm an underdog to TC in this tourney, but I enjoy having lots of competitive warriors with slim shots to succeed.

Judging by the size of this tourney, it looks like my warriors will have plenty of competition. Good to luck to everyone in the tourney. I hope you all achieve your goals, unless it is at my expense!

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

I had a tortured analogy that my TEABAG friends had to endure to describe where I landed but I'll spare everyone. I was struggling to reduce my crew and then adding and then struggling to reduce my crew until I reread last Halloween's tourney write up and apparently I kept landing Almost Exactly (™) where I was last year, even class by class, so I quit fighting it.

I ran an even ton.

Count of style
style Total
AIMED BLOW 25
BASHING 6
LUNGING 17
PARRY-LUNGE 1
PARRY-RIPOSTE 2
PARRY-STRIKE 1
SLASHING 8
STRIKING 22
TOTAL PARRY 3
WALL OF STEEL 15
(blank)
Grand Total 100

Count of class
class Total
ADEPTS 10
ADM 1
APPRENTICES 11
CHALLENGERS 4
CHAMPIONS 3
Dead Tourney 27
FRESHMAN 2
INITIATES 9
ROOKIES 33
(blank)
Grand Total 100

Areas of Interest

1st Planned Bust

This tourney includes my first actual planned bust, a +3/+2 Waste who was sitting at 177 skills and 173 FE. JENICOR (35-4593) of HOUSE JHEREG (138) [74-60-0,210,168FE], will fight Adm. She is a wall of steel with ST=25(10) CN=22(12) SZ=4 WT=14(1) WL=21 SP=9 DF=12. She is ambidextrous, is bright, has awesome endurance, can take tremendous amounts of damage, can carry almost limitless weight, is incredibly quick and elusive, does tremendous damage, has a Master in initiative, has an Advanced Expert in riposte, has an Advanced Master in attack, has an Advanced Master in parry, has an Advanced Expert in defense, has an Advanced Expert in decisiveness.

She trained her will to 24 post-freeze, picking up her Grandmaster in ATT and enters the tourney at 189 skills. I'm new to busting stats in a tourney, but trained DF for two rounds hoping to pick up the DEF master. then switched to WT for three turns to snag 15 and 16 WT, then WL for two to hopefully hit 25, then WT for two more turns in search of the elusive 17, then leaned on DF for rounds 10 onwards.

She has been doing ok in DM100, so I didn't try anything cute, sticking with her favourite weapon and rhythm, even though the former is not ideal.

I know it's not a strong bust. But I am hopeful for a TV. It's funny; having just checked I see now that she started in Murska Almost Exactly (™) 6 years ago on 11/19/2014. Criminy.

Immortal Champ

Like some others, I have a decent immortal champ with terrible faves:

SPICY KITTY (42-5148) of OPPOSITES (454) [16-3-1,177,29FE], will fight Champions. She is a striker with ST=12(1) CN=5 SZ=12 WT=21 WL=15 SP=9 DF=11. She is left handed, is a genius, is quick, is slightly uncoordinated, is very frail, can not carry a lot of weight, is incredibly quick and elusive, does good damage, has an Advanced Expert in initiative, has a Master in riposte, has an Advanced Expert in attack, and has a Master in decisiveness. I have two words for you: Lunge and Maul.

A Total Waste

Like a year ago, I am experimenting with a Waste strategy. Unlike a year ago, I have a plan for scum. So, we'll just see how we do. I decided to pick back up the effort after seeing others who had the horrible taste to succeed with what was obviously my idea first. My lawyers will be in touch, Destitute Noble. I hope you aren't really destitute!

Where are the ABs?!

On paper -- get it? -- it looks like I am running a healthy amount of ABs but, as the Luddites are quick to tell me in Chatzy, statistics lie sometimes. Of the 25 ABs, only 8 are in the live tourney.

Tourney Goals

1. TV each basic class -- this is a stretch goal

2. Non-basic TV -- I'm hoping Jenicor pulls this out as my two Freshman are probably not up to the task.

3. Four dead TVs -- I don't have the strong dead crew I did last year, so I am not as hopeful. Particularly since most are pretty poorly timed.

4. Make a finals fight

5. Kill more than die

6. 55% W/L rate -- This one is also a stretch, if we can all agree my July performance was a fluke. With 2/3 of my tourney sitting in rooks and dead, I will be very happy to achieve this.

7. Put a loss on Fifth-Rate -- As you all know, I'm generally a pacifist; however, some acts of flagrant ingratitude just can't be ignored:

"OAB: I put one of the bonus stylemaster pots on my +3/+4 DYO AB. He'll shove that gift box directly down the throat of the next Vlad warrior he faces in a tourney."

Who I like

Prize be damned, I held no one back for some future day. Life is too short.

Champs: 3 nice STs, including Melton who went 11-3 in Adepts while slapping Fifth-Rate around a couple times.

Adepts: The 10 entries are evenly divided between LUs and STs which, for some unknown reason, feels right. The best of each style:

He is a lunger with ST=11 CN=10 SZ=5 WT=21 WL=21 SP=5 DF=11.
He is right handed, is a genius, is active, is clumsy, has a good endurance, can not carry a lot of weight, is incredibly quick and elusive, has a Master in initiative, has a Master in attack, and has a Master in defense.

He is a striker with ST=17 CN=9 SZ=4 WT=21 WL=10 SP=12 DF=11.
He is right handed, is a genius, is quick and active, is very frail, is incredibly quick and elusive, does great damage, has an Expert in initiative, has an Expert in riposte, has an Advanced Expert in attack, and has a Master in decisiveness.

Inits: Arguably my strongest class, edging out Adepts. An offensive heavy class with ST/BA/SL making up 6 of my nine entries. Hopefuls include two BAs with Adex INI/ATT/DEC but the main events (for me) are the N/G 29 DEC striker and the R/R 33 ATT basher.

Apps: Pretty weak here, but threw in five Wastes to try to advance the ball on my themed approach.

Rooks: A spitball of decent warriors and a lot of also-rans. There's a +4 PAR WS and a +4 ATT WS. There's an Adex ATT AB and an EX DEF AB. There's an EX DEC SL. On the LU side, there are a few 11-x-x-17-21-x-11s and a 10-10-8-21-17-5-13. No monsters, no rainbows, no DYOs.

Dead: Top two I want back:

10FE], will fight Dead initiates.
He was a lunger with ST=11(3) CN=8 SZ=5 WT=21 WL=21 SP=10 DF=11.
He was left handed, was a genius, was very quick and active, had a good endurance, could not take a lot of punishment, could not carry a lot of weight, was incredibly quick and elusive, had an Advanced Expert in initiative, had an Advanced Expert in attack, had an Advanced Expert in defense, and had an Expert in decisiveness.

1FE], will fight Dead apprentices.
She was a aimed blow with ST=12(1) CN=7 SZ=4 WT=17 WL=21 SP=3 DF=21. She was ambidextrous, was very intelligent, had a good endurance, was very frail, could not carry a lot of weight, was incredibly quick and elusive, did little damage, had an Advanced Expert in attack, and had an Expert in defense.

There you have it. Good luck to all except against me! Hopefully everyone enjoys their tourney.

Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2020 8:21 am

I ran 7 warriors, but was happy to have one go 7-3 given how long I've been away from the game. While I envy those who have dozens/hundreds of tourney worthy warriors, i dont envy having to update that many stats afterwards.

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2957

My 60 entries into the October MI produced the following results:

207-184-5-0 record, for a 53% win percentage
3 awards, for a 5% award percentage

I highlighted a few bust-outs prior to the tourney. This is how they did:

FISHWIFE, in Eligibles, a crispy bust-out managed to get 0 trains during the tourney (not surprising, since I was going for 5th trains) and went 5-3. Not very impressive, but since she is a +5/+4 FI AB, she continues on to Contenders and then Primus after that.

Her wingman, SECOND MATE, a WS bust-out did slightly better and earned an 8-3 TV. He is a stat-switch WS who began life as a 17-12-3-7-21-3-21 WS, and got a pretty neat favorite rhythm: high/low slash/parry. Unfortunately, he was saddled with a poor weapon, the Morningstar. I had him use the Broadsword with the Parry tactic as his main strategy, and the Battle Axe with the Slash tactic vs ABs and some defensives. It worked pretty well and he exceeded my expectations. He didn't have much to bust besides a pair of 4th trains (WL and DF) and WT, but between those and some gateway skills prior to the tourney he made a go of it. When you only earn 3 awards out of 60, every TV is precious!

My 21-21 AB bust-out in ADM, PRIVATEER, finished up at 6-3. He trained well, but just couldn't put it all together.

My 21-20 LU bust-out in Freshmen, HENCHMAN, also went 6-3. I think he fought 4 TPs out of his last 5 fights, which is not a good style match-up and is part of the risk of busting a LU in Freshmen. I was hoping there would be a mean AB or two to take down the TPs, but no such luck.

So the end result in the advanced classes was busting out a handful of warriors and eeking out an 8-3 TV. Primus and Contenders were no better, as I failed to achieve any of my goals in those classes, with no TVs and no Primus stylemasters.

I had to wait until Rookies to get my second award. I had a nice run there with a 15-5-10-21-17-5-11 ST out of 10 Rookies entries. That TV has likely bought him a lengthy basic tourney career.

My third award came in Dead Adepts. I entered OUBLIETTE of DUNGEON CELL, a 7-7-12-21-9-7-21 AB with nice bonuses and a nice favorite learn, but who had never shown much propensity for tournies. I had a note on her overview that she looked good running 5-10 with the EP and the DA. I had probably tried Fist at some point and failed miserably, and I seem to recall using a lot of Dagger in the previous tourney and obviously not TVing. So I decided to give her an Epee against everyone; if it turned out to be her favorite, she would be using her favorite weapon 100% of the time. I'm not sure if that did the trick or not, but she was dodging and riposting LUs and STs and whoever else stood in her path. She didn't win, and she didn't even make it to the finals, but she was the beneficiary of one of the finals deaths in the tourney and earned a RU* in my records as she was given that label in the newsletter.

When the sand settled, it was not a great tourney performance for me. The honorary runner-up was a nice way to finish the tourney, and I'm happy to have OUBLIETTE back to prep for Champions. 0 deaths was the other silver lining in my tourney.

I'm not too broken up about the disappointing results, however, as this game wouldn't be very fun if it weren't challenging. I'll just try to do better next tourney (which is a Mail-In in January, in case you hadn't heard). And while I didn't do well, other managers had some great results and they should be proud. In particular, we have at least one first time TC winner, BlackHart. A big congrats goes out to him!

I have already begun plotting and prepping for January. I look forward to fighting you all then.

Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2020 10:47 am

Manager's Thoughts when reading his tourney and looking at the results:

Primus: Um, did TMM have a maxxed AB that did not make Round 10? Yeah, that might have been partially my fault. Sorry. On the plus side, Primus now has the 2nd most amount of TVs after Rookies! Maybe it's time to split the tourney again! High Primus, Mid Primus and Contenders! (Just a thought! It could even be skill line based where the line is in such a place to put the power styles in the same class!)

Contenders: I'm taking Samsara's bustout as proof that TMM loves this prize! Looks like a Samsara bust and easy win. Good riddance according to the rest of the field.

Eligibles: The Eligibles Tourney when I bust out a warrior: Fist AB, Fist AB, Fist AB, Trip-21 Weapon AB, Double-21 Lunger Fist AB, Fist AB.
The Eligibles Tourney when I don't bust out a warrior: Watches the finals happen between a Scum TP (He'll always be a scum TP to me even if he isn't anymore) and a SZ 21 Lunger.

ADM: My bustout went 9-3, after my similar bustout went 8-3 last tourney. The bad news is that I have a ton of warriors who look like the warriors I just tried to bust that now look doomed to settle for low TV performances forever.

Freshmen: A little surprised at some of the new entrants and the few entrants I sent did better than I expected. Maybe we're in a new cycle and a new changing of the guard to so speak.

At this point, I'm 4/5 in my tourney predictions. I mean sure I'd like to go out on a limb more and predict new people but TMM and HW deliver when you call their number!

Challengers: So I did have a really good scum Lunger who went 10-3 previous. The bad thing about scum Lungers is that they get hit. And the back thing about Challengers (and higher) is that when they get hit they get knocked down. And that was Moose's problem, he just gets hit enough such that he gets knocked down a few times and doesn't TC. (Like 7 of last 9 tourney losses came to other Lungers) This time he did get hit a lot and got knocked down a couple of times--the difference was that in most of them he got back up right away! One of Bubba's Slashers was able to knock him down and keep him down but he scummed himself after hitting him over and over. It wasn't until DMobster's LU kept him down in Round 14 that he lost. He then beat Thunder Bay (My R-Up pick) next before getting Floyd's Fist AB in the finals. (Fist AB is usually a good match up for a Scum Lunger at this level.) My first TC in at least 6 years or so.

Champs and Adepts: Didn't send any just in case the Jan FtF had a better prize, was going to hold for there. But now who knows what I will do.

Inits: My Inits squad was awful and I knew it would be the Rainbow class anyway. Did not see a Basher win coming.

Rooks & Apps: Had a good squad that performed as well as I expected. No complaints.

Dead Tourney: I mentioned before I had a lot of timed warriors. I have been too lazy to send like that 20 FE Striker I that was lying around in the dead. But this time I sent like all the warriors I had that were within 1 FE. (2 FE of Adepts or higher). And they did really well! I even got a Slasher back! I can't remember the last time I had a Slasher TV! So that was interesting. Good refill on my pipeline when I need it!

Overall, I can't complain. Data Driven Tourney Decisions really work! When you spend hours agonizing over your roster and pay attention to your warriors, that also helps!

528-419 (57.80%). 1 TC, 20 TVs. (11 of them Dead, TVs with 7 different styles! Just one of those tourneys where almost everything went right, best one I can remember in recent history for sure) After not going deep with anyone at all for awhile, it was nice to have several warriors making several deep runs in different classes. It might have been a fluke but maybe I still have a little bit of it the ol' magic sometimes.

Now for the quick turnaround in January!

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

Welcome to the Election Day version of the Monday Morning Tourney Quarterback (MMTQB)! The votes have been counted and the lawsuits filed. There have been claims, counterclaims, violence and bloodshed. And that is just within the TEABAG Alliance guildhouse!
Let’s go (re)count the votes!

Quotes of the week

"In Democracy it's your vote that counts; in Feudalism it's your Count that votes." – Mogens Jallberg

Let me set the scene. About 4 years ago, a relatively unknown, obnoxious player in the political game came onto the scene and began having success. Several successes in fact. Fast forward to this Election Day…

After a raucous caucus, we mounted a campaign to win all the “battleground” states, colloquially known as “basic arenas”. And we did. Until the polling venues closed. Then, in Establishment cities, the shenanigans began. Being a mailer, “mail in” and “absentee” ballots began to appear, with dubious or missing signatures and/or other necessary authentication. Partially punched chads (an atrocity, since all Chads should be fully punched – particularly in Niytyole) were overlooked and counted with great care anyway. Somehow, for days following Election Day, these ballots were accepted and allowed to be tabulated until such time as, in every single instance, the additional ballots cost us the win in most of the battleground states and, ultimately, the overall election. Just look at these compelling examples of voter fraud:

Challengers: In this crucial battleground state, Limper was the front-runner at 7-0 when the polls closed but mysteriously landed at a 7-3. His running mate, at 7-1, also ended up at 7-3 without explanation.

Champs: Our champion in this state was 7-0-1 on Election Day, with the kill being a former Runner Up, but “lost” the state at 7-3-1 several days after Election Day. His running mate, at 5-0, was assassinated on election day.

Apprentices: Our candidate was at 7-0 and declared the winner on election night but “officially” finishes at 7-3.

Rookies: Our 7-1 candidate inexplicably lands at 7-3 after numerous mystery ballots appear, with two other members of the same political party also landing at 7-3.

All-in-all we had 8 candidates win or place and then somehow all lose their respective states after hours, behind closed polling doors. Each somehow at 7-3, thus denying even the chance for a recount. This doesn’t even include the candidates that bizarrely died at 7-1 or 7-2 like they lived in Russia. Each completely closed out of their respective battleground states. So, in four of the six key battleground states, we were shut out.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you don’t recognize this as the Establishment protecting itself you are naïve beyond belief.

“Looks like a storm.” –BoV, Tourney Morning, Day 2

I was wandering around the kitchen Saturday morning in a bit of a fog, both having just woken up and also deep in thought about the Initiates contest. Reading Adepts had been a nice way to wrap up the night before after some disappointments in the higher classes. Initiates was at the top of the agenda for this morning and, as mentioned previously, I had high hopes for the class.

“Looks like a storm.”

I looked up, startled out of my Initiates thoughts.

“What?”

“I said, ‘it looks like a storm.’” She pointed to the latte art on the cuppa joe she had just made me.

And she was right.

Miguel took the Initiates election by storm, as if all of his political opponents had recently taken a ride with Donna Rice or on Stormy Daniels. A rainbow, he started life as a 17-7-3-21-21-4-11 Blue Ape.

But, before all that, Miguel’s election strategy needed to be settled upon. He had come out of Rooks at 13-3, leaving 2 arena fights to do something with. At 32 ATT, inclusive of at least +3, a single skill might very well score the AMAS rating. On the other hand, a single session at the gym would guarantee an increase to his physicals in a couple ways. Ultimately, he hit the gym first, got his bulk on, and then went into the last Primary debate looking to hone his skills. As expected, he picked up an ATT skill but not his rating. Unfortunate but not the end of the world. He was apparently +3 and not +4 ATT. The other lesson coming out of the debate was how to be more decisive, which enabled us to consider him an Expert in that skill going into the election.

It was an exciting run to win the electorate, even if it was consistent along the way. Miguel exercised his constitutional right to deliver suffrage early and often. Equally important, he did not discriminate in any fashion as he whomped on every style but the Parry Lunge, with four stops in the key Striker swing precinct, and two each in the LU, TP and AB precincts.

A Bad Burrito gave Miguel some pause in round 3 – those do the same for me – but he persevered. Dr. F’s Pound Town got pounded and the discussion with JE’s Nightmare – a style that created some concern on paper – ended after a single pass, rewarding Miguel with his ADEX in decise. Miguel passed gas on HW’s Passing Grass and then ran into trouble with JE’s Freeman. A solid desperation strategy, critical dodge and timely riposte ended the discussion and logically helped Miguel learn some new dance moves. An uneventful 8th round brought both our hero to 8-0 and an award which was enthusiastically received.

Round 9 involved another Howlin’ Wolf TC Enterprises™ candidate, this one an effective pacifist. Exterminator broke every weapon Miguel brought with him, including his fists, and delivered our wayward Basher’s first loss. The pain was worth it though as Miguel finally pulled in his AMAS in attack. I thought things were getting back to normal with a quick win over a Steele Shudder, with a PAR rating included as a bonus, but then Miguel ran into Hexxs. Miguel got desperate enough to show off his newly acquired dance moves and one-shotted his way to victory after winning the second decise battle.

Round 12 was special as it reunited Miguel with an old hometown foe in Richard, a Gumball warrior that he had previously had a discussion with in Round 15 of Rooks before sending him packing back to Daiyla Kiv. It was extra special because, well, TMM. Anyway, much ado about nothing in this instance. See you back in Daiyla Kiv, Richard!

Round 13 brought around yet another Howlin’ Wolf TC Enterprises™ TP in Scrapper. Criminy, how many guys did he run?! This was terrifying, given the previous outcome. It was looking bleak, with most swings being parried and Scrapper even managing a riposte which Miguel blocked. But then our candidate remembered he had an AMAS attack rating and wrapped things up.

In Round 14, Destitute Noble’s Rose Gold Benz ran over Miguel on his way to somewhere important, apparently, and damn near had the poor taste to kill our hero in the process. I was savvy enough to figure out that Round 15, which was a rematch, was probably the finals. A very slow Orange-Sheet-Slide™ down 5 decisiveness clashes gave me an ulcer but Miguel won the roll and two-shotted Benz for the win. I’d like to think it was the extra DEC skill Miguel picked up in the first match, but RGB picked one up as well. Who will ever figure out decise? Grats to DNoble for a fine run!

This win checked a few boxes for me, including First Basher TC and first award leveraging a prize from a previous TC. I’d like to claim great management here but there was really nothing special about his strategy. He just seems to have some knack. And dance moves.

TC Bonus Quote:

Art Mullen: “It was a helluva shot. Did you consider what might have happened if you’d missed?”

Tim Gutterson: “I can’t carry a tune! I don’t know how to shoot a basketball. My handwriting is, uh, barely legible. [look of disgust] But I don’t miss.” The I of the Storm, Justified

One apparent benefit of going into Inits with MAS + 6 ATT is that you just don’t miss. Across 13 rounds and 12 opponents, inclusive of FI ABs, Miguel hit with every swing. Howlin’ Wolf’s two TPs provided the only exception.

Awards of the week

Due to the Election Coup, not many awards fell my way. 3 warriors, all in Adepts, received the TV prize: a Grim Reaper Halloween Mask. Miguel received the coveted TC prize, an autographed Grim “Not Grimm” Reaper™ Scythe that will absolutely go up on the wall back at the house.

The TV’s included 2 STs under Floyd’s Theory of Tourney Optimization™ and a lunger.

Stats of the week

Thanks to a 7’2” mishap, 101 instead of 100 warriors entered the polling places, representing both parties as befitting a two-party system: dead and alive. All told, most walked away with “I voted!” stickers. The live side exit polls indicated a 57.78% landslide, or 286-209-5-9. The dead remain dead to me.

Best style: Lungers at 61%. No runaways here.

Worst Style: I haven’t run a PL in a few years now so I dusted off a fine 9-9-13-17-21-4-11. 2-3 for a 40% style record. We’ll see another PL in another few years.

Best Class: My Champions were just that, at 71%. But pretty proud of our success with every district but one coming in at 54% or higher approval rating. @-->--->---

Worst Class: Freshman at 44%. Gerrymandered out of contention.

Goals of the week

1. TV each basic class – Fail

2. Non-basic TV – Fail

3. Four dead TVs – Fail

4. Make a finals fight – Pass

5. Kill more than die – Fail

6. 55% W/L rate – Pass

7. Put a loss on Fifth-Rate – Chump didn’t show. Fail

Overall: Fail!

Factoids that may only interest me

I. My crew managed to put all three losses on a tDO candidate. Given how rarely I beat tDO warriors, this is meaningful.

II. All four award winners had a 21 WT. Two them also has a 21 WL.

III. It being six years of tourneys since I returned to the game, I went back and looked at October 2014 which I don’t believe I ever tabulated. Now I know why. I ran 24 live warriors and came away with a 32-57 record, or a whopping 36%. Counting forward across the All Saints Eve tournaments, my progress has been 36%, 42%, 49.7%, 48.4%, 50.1%, 49.1%, and now 57.8%.

Mr. United Global Services Member Travel Note

I might, sometime in the near future, be ready to begin bracing myself to start the thought process of considering the basic concept of going through the motions of packing a suitcase, driving to the airport and getting on a plane. I may be overstating this.

Brief truths

A. BlackHart winning Apps was the best part of the tourney for me. And I had some pretty ok parts!

B. There is no shame in having your warrior exited by the eventual Tourney Champion.

C. Being superstitious about reading your tourney is ok if you’re consistent in your mitigation approach.

Ten things I think I think

1. I think “hold at fedex location” is fantastic until they don’t.

2. I think 10 hits from my Devastating damage warrior to an APA WH/LG basher indicates the warrior should be shot. I think I am not sure which warrior.

3. I think my warriors fought an inordinate number of stand-ins on round one across the classes. I think the stand-ins lottery might be merit based.

4. I think my 21 ST and SZ, 20 WT and WL lunger wants to know what stat the “foolhardy” description that the announcer used reflects. I think she wants to speak with aforesaid announcer.

5. I think a two-handed favorite weapon is a detriment in ADM.

6. I think Whale Meat continues to strike terror in my candidates, whatever election(s) they happen to be in.

7. I think, as predicted, Otto X taketh away this tourney.

8. I think I thought killing a former Runner Up would make up for losing my best Champ at 5-1. I think it did not.

9. I think having two warriors both hit unattainable stat trains on round 1 due to entry error was sad.

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

a. I think beating Pepp In Your Step and not getting any skills from it reminded of the Bill Murray quote: “How about a little something for the effort, padre?”. I think it was insult to injury since I both coined and trademarked “Pepp In Your Step”™ . I think my lawyers will be in touch. I think, since he otherwise laid waste to my Adepts, punitive damages are warranted.

b. I think I did a decent job of not looking at next round opponents. I think the first fail was with Team Gumball which just goes to prove the point. That said, I don’t think I received a thank-you for paying the warrior Gumball’s coach fare home from the Challengers tourney.

c. I think my warrior should have killed Hoop Braces when he had the chance. I think then I might have had two prizes. I think I am still happy to have my warrior put a loss on the eventual TC.

d. I think I would have bet money that none of my warriors would ever beat Golden Aberration. I would have lost.

e. I think it was right and proper when Floyd successfully bloodfeuded Big Earl.

f. I think hot Wastes were an expanded thing from last tourney. I think that is good. I think my first example on my read through executed it to perfection on his first fight.

g. I think seeing other people’s AB’s abruptly lose initiative when they are in the middle of kicking my warrior’s tuckus is poetic.

h. I think I enjoyed the name Pound Town.

i. Coffeenerdness: I think I had the new pleasure of basking in a cup of La Cordillera as I read through my turns, courtesy Howlin’ Wolf. I think I’m enjoying another as I dictate this.

j. I think calling out rookie aimed blows in the pre-tourney write up is, effectively, signing their death warrant.

k. I think I underestimated the suckiness of bashers. I think that, yes, I just said that.

l. I think I started thinking about TC potential earlier and earlier each class, starting at maybe round 6 in ADM when Jenicor was 6-0 and by Apps I think on round 1.

m. I think I didn’t run into as many TEABAGers as usual, which is nice. I think losing a 21/21 in one of the few fights with an ally was not.

n. I think strategems don’t work against DMobster.

o. Winenerdness: Important safety tip: A spouse, known as “Corporate” at Chez Vladimer, may have designated a certain shelf in the wine fridge as off limits and not told you. Said spouse may be unreasonable when this is pointed out.

p. I think having the thought “Why would I run that?” in reference to one of my warriors in rooks is awkward.

q. I think killing a rooks fist AB and learning 3 ATT in the process is priceless.

r. I think it was hilarious watching Dense’s “The Weapon” rookie AB stand there, like Dense himself, mouth agape as my defensive laid into him and put him down like a chump. I think it was ironic when “The Weapon” learned his Adex ATT. I think Dense doesn’t understand you actually have to swing for that to be of any value.

s. I think my favorite OCR foibles this tourney included ““is lit in the GROIN”, “deflects the Wow with her LONGSWORD” and, this tourney’s winner: “ishit on the RIGHT FOREARM”

t. I think it continues to be ridiculous to match up against tDO and have his warrior be the nemesis style to yours – like he doesn’t already have enough advantage.

u. I think a big part of rooks fun is discovering bonuses

v. Obit of the Week: So many to choose from here… Let’s go with the 9-7-8-17-17-5-21 rookie. You may recognize it since I lost the exact same rookie two Octobers ago. Obit it at 2FE and still trying to get his predecessor back.

Who I like in January

Like the Buffalo Bills and influenza, I am horrible in January. I don’t like anyone. Even you. Especially you.

Adieu Haiku

Election’s over
Will the chaos end with a
New Prez in Jan’ry?

Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 4:25 am

Wow, Vlad! You outdid yourself!
A great read. Some loud guffaws.
Kudos.