2018 Tempe F2F

Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2018 8:01 am

Manager list for this FtF
Primus TMM/TMM
Contenders TUM/TUM
Eligibles TMM/Khisanth
ADM Baron Bentsword//Papaiz
Freshmen Mannequin/TDO
Challengers Dameon Darkheart/TMM
Champions Howlin Wolf/Floyd
Adepts Howlin Wolf/DMobster
Initiates TUM/TUM
Apprentices TMM/DMobster
Rookies Howlin Wolf/Den

Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2018 8:10 am

Primus-ADM was a total AB fest (with ABs in both the TC spot and RU spot). But below that, there was some nice variety in TC.
Freshmen was ST over TP,
Challengers was LU over LU
Champs was ST over SL,
Adepts was PR over LU,
Inits was ST over AB,
Apprentices was LU over LU
and Rookies was AB over LU.

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2018 11:22 am

Well, it has been a week and the FTF has finally settled in for me. It felt like one for the ages,
so I thought I'd write about some of the highlights:

Contenders: I sent 3 guys, all trying to near what I presume to be the line. I still don't
have any guys classed Primus, so this is all new territory. I had 2 lungers go 5-3, with one
of them learning some skills from 282 to 289. Hopefully, he'll stay in the class and continue
to get better with more CN trains.

Eligibles: I decided to bust one of my favorite warriors, a PL named Charlie Patton. He went
into the freeze 25(13)-25(15)-8-20(5)-20(5)-7-20(3). I trained WL to 21 and DF to 21 the
first 2 turns, then tried learning some gateway skills but only managed 1 PAR. He started
off the tourney doing really well, going 5-0 until he matched up with what appeared to be a
parked AB of TUM's. The next turn, he picked up a hard WT train and I was getting excited
given all the skills he had at this point. He didn't lose again until round 12, to the eventual
TC Opal Ravioli. There were only 3 of us left at this point, but I didn't have high hopes after
that crushing defeat. I managed to get a win against in round 14 vs. Mabushi the eventual RU,
but I lost even worse in my rematch to Opal Ravioli to finish the tourney at 12-3. Congrats to
TMM!

ADM: I had a pretty good idea of where the line was, but didn't have much to bust besides Dissident,
a 14(5)-21(6)-6-19(2)-14(5)-8(1)-21 R/G AB. He started the freeze at 170 skills, and got all
3 post-freeze DF trains despite only 14 WL. I was hopeful he could continue that training mojo
and outskill some of the impressive opponents I heard about before the tourney. Unfortunately,
he got zero trains over his 6-3 performance. My parked PR Gza, however, looked incredible. He ran
out to a 10-1 record, losing only to Floyd's AB while beating both The Uptight Man and Soft 'N Chewy.
He eventually went out in round 13, but it'll be interesting to see if he can replicate that success
in the future.

Freshmen: I busted two flawed warriors here:
a MO/LO WF fave T/T WS that was my first TV in 1992 named Tock .. Tick: 23(10)-15(4)-7-15-20-5-13 and
a HI/LO ML fave good damage ST named The Takeover: 14(3)-17( Cool

-6-21-20(3)-10(1)-12(1).
Tock .. Tick hit 3 WL post-freeze, but unfortunately didn't manage to do very well, losing 3 straight
to go out at 5-3.
The Takeover hit his 4th WL train and 2 WT post-freeze and continued to train really well, maxing his
WT and getting 2 WL and a DF over. He went out in round 12, losing to the TC Snack Fairy. Congrats
Mannequin!

Challengers: I sent the same group of warriors that I normally do. It seems like whenever you lose one to FE
or manual pull, there are always a couple guys from the previous Champs that are ready to join the group.
I had one TP at 88 FE who was most likely making his swan song appearance:
Hot Rocks - 16(4)-14(3)-6-21-18(3)-8-12(1) G/G.
I didn't think he'd improve much on some of the previous TV performances, but I went to work training DF
with the plan to switch to ST to pick up as many skills as possible. While he had a nice run at 8-3,
he didn't improve with any trains and will likely retire depending on faves. Broken Wing, however,
went in at 78 FE and didn't mess around, peeling off a strong 12-3 performance, beating 4 TMM warriors
before finally losing to his RU, Worth the Wait, in the semi-finals. Congratulations to Warrior Wight
and DD!

Champions: This was what I expected to be my strongest class by far. I had some really good timing runs
in the previous two tournaments, with a bunch of 23-25 FE guys landing right at 30 FE. Guys like Bronzeville,
Elvis, and Hibiscus N Gravy had all gone 10+ rounds already in the class, and the rest of the group was
full of former TV's. Things were going really well, and in round 11 I started fighting myself in some of
the matchups. Unfortunately, there were three top notch guys of different styles, Forget Torches(SL),
Jopust Shirt(ST), and Lint(AB). By round 15, I had gone from 6 of the last 9 guys to my last hope
meeting Floyd in the final against his SL that had beaten half my guys. Luckily, Light Brigade,
a 15-5-9-21-17-6-11 ST was up to the task, jumping him after 7 speed checks and bringing home the win.

Adepts: My main hope going into the tournament was my Dead Initiates runner up, Miasma. He was a LU that
had always looked pretty good, other than dying in his first fight. He lost all 3 fights in the mailin to
Floyd's super ST, Howlin' (no relation). Surprisingly, he fell apart against 3 other lungers and went a
disappointing 5-3. On the bright side, I had a fun superskilled PR in Savannah Mama, a classic ST in Lil Legs,
and an overperforming SL in Liquid Sword. Liquid Sword gave me some fun results, juking and jiving and responsing
some tough matchups en route to a 9-3 record. Lil Legs' run was pretty simple, running hot and jumping everyone
he could or trying to weather the storm against anyone he couldn't. He couldn't hang against Dr. F's super LU,
Savage and exited at 10-3. Savannah Mama, however, just wanted to do her own thing. As the rounds kept coming,
I never saw an instance where I needed to change her strategy, as she deftly handled the barrage of offensives
throughout the tourney. She ended up fighting what looks to be 9 LU's and 4 ST's, with an NPC, a WS, and her only
loss to an AB being the rest of the matchups.

Inits: I always send a mish mash of styles to Initiates, trying to bolster the weaker styles with a few decent
lungers and strikers. While the token PL/PS/scum guys performed as expected, I did get 2 decent results out of
a ST, Jam of the Week, and a Floyd style WS in Magic Tape, who also went 10-3. Congrats to TUM!

Apprentices: In much the same way as I build my Inits, Apprentices is also pretty much any style goes. Ironically,
the two guys that performed well for me here were also a ST and a WS. Cursed Jury tanked his way to a solid 9-3,
and Cup o Tea kept winning and learning, before bowing out in the semi-finals against the eventual TC, Bob.
Congrats, TMM!

Rookies: I was feeling pretty good about my batch of Rookies. I rolled everything before the tournament, and had 15
participants ready to rock. On Friday night, I saw 3 replacements rolled really well and I rolled up 2 AB's
in honor of DMobster, Thirstin Howl III of Howlin Thugs and Vicious Sid of Howlin Vandals for 20 total. I thought
Rookies would be delayed from them not printing round 1 and fell behind, but my crew was doing really well, with only
2 guys out in the first 5 rounds. Thirstin Howl looked unhittable, quietly racking up 10 straight wins. He lost
to DMobster in round 11, then picked up the pace with 2 runoff kills, finishing the tourney against Den's stud
LU, Cougar John.

Overall, the tourney was an umitigated success. I managed a 63% W/L and a 25% TV rate which are both personal bests.
The 3 TC's were also a first, and I really thought I kept myself in a lot of fights by not overthinking strategies,
just letting the warriors do what they do best. I had a great time talking strategy with anyone and everyone that
would listen, and hope to see everyone this July!

Howlin' Wolf

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

Vlad here with Monday Morning Tourney Quarterback (MMTQB). Having finally digested and re-reviewed my tourney team’s performance, I am really pretty pleased with the results. By most measures, it was among my two most successful. I spent some time reviewing all the fights and thinking through things I heard in Tempe. One of the fun parts of game is that there are always things to learn. Let’s go to the tape!

Awards of the week

I sent a total of 70 live warriors, including 3 Crapmaster scrubs, and 59 of them came back with “thank for your donation!” receipts for Alastari tax purposes. Five of them didn’t come back at all. Six, however, came back with autographed apothecary jars of Broke Stroker ™ brand hand lotion for achieving Tournament Victor status. Once again, I just missed the Cool Manager litmus test of 10% awards. But it was damned satisfying to see many of my folks scrap their way to that level of status. None of my warriors earned the coveted Tournament Champion olive branch crown – which, when you think about it, is an ironic trophy given a tourney of combat -- but I had a warrior or two get close enough to get some olive oil on them!

The six TV’s consisted of 3 lungers, a total parry, an aimed blow and a parry-lunger. For the second tourney in a row, none of my warriors came back with heads hung low and tears in their eyes having achieved seven wins but no more. The tears, of course, in anticipation of the inevitable beatings that would follow.

Quotes of the week

"Is that sandwich being offered with no strings attached?" – Berylstar, looking dubiously at a lovely ½ corned beef with swiss on rye being offered by one Dameon Darkheart.

“Vlad, you have to stop accepting warriors from shithole parts of Alastari” – Donald Trump dba Riff Raff, upon reviewing my tourney roster.

“I’m not going back upstairs to the RSI room until the Saints win the game after this next play” – Baron Bentsword who, as far as I know and to his credit, didn’t return to the RSI room.

“Ah, sugar!” – Consortium, at approximately the same time as Baron Bentsword’s utterance, above, upon learning he had managed to kill his own 21-21 warrior in the grudge matches.

Stats of the week

I’m cheating because I’m not really “counting” the three Crapmaster warriors. On the other hand, I’m not cheating because I AM counting the three warriors who were way off their class target FE and were just running for FE. Of the 67 non-Crap warriors, we managed 199-194-5-5, or 50.64%. I think this is just the second time we’ve managed greater than 50%, even if only by the slimmest margins, so pretty exciting.
Best class: Adepts at 63%
Worst Class(es): Any class starting with “C” at 0%, whether I ran in it or not.
Best style: Wall of Steel at 5-3 or 63%. Assur would rightly cry “Foul!” at the sample size there, so alternatively LUs were 57% at 36-27.
Worst style: Slashers at 16-22 or 42%.

Factoids that may only interest me

I. I lost three PRs out of the five deaths, including a multiple TVer. And here I thought I knew something about PRs.
II. Two of my TVs managed a kill in the process.
III. 16% of my warriors didn’t manage a single win. This is down from 28% the previous tourney. I tried to be more selective and it seems to have paid off.

Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note

8 trips to Germany last year paved the way to carting the entire Vlad brood to Tempe on miles. Was the first flight for both kids. Cool memory #1: Picture of the little girl in the cockpit with the co-pilot, wearing the pilot’s hat. Cool memory #2: Stretching out on the floor in front of our row of seats, playing with the 1-year-old boy in his seat, with the flight crew not particularly worried about whether my seat belt was fastened.

Brief truths

A. Den sitting in the chair with his Steelers jersey on (Ward?) was a sight to see and a great thing. Grats, Den!
B. Last tourney I was struck by how much the matchups drive your success or lack thereof. This tourney, I suppose, was a derivative of that wisdom. One of my folks that TV’d led Apps after 8 rounds. I had a few people ask about her. I was able to say, with absolute confidence, that it was strictly the matchups and that she would soon crash and burn. Sure enough, she went 8-3-1 after starting 8-0-1.
C. Floyd working a room for upcoming opponent information is a sight to see. Him asking you about your own warrior is icing on the cake.

10 things I think I think

1. I think I have newfound admiration for international players, including Papaiz with whom I had the pleasure to share a table. Prepping for a FTF solely in slow arenas would drive me to consider a strap over the shower curtain rod.
2. I think that being 11+ blessed in skills does not necessarily a successful slasher make, particularly if you suck at slashers.
3. I think if someone told me that endurance burn was adjusted, at least for some offensive styles, I would believe them. I had warriors gasping after a few swings that normally lasted much longer, with the same strats they always use.
4. I think it is rewarding to spot your lunger’s next opponent in the wings as a total parry and send your lunger in with a perambulator to ensure he was moving slow enough to take a scum out.
5. I think Doing Unto Others is better than them Doing Unto You. It is especially gratifying to Do Unto Others if they have already Done Unto You earlier in the tourney.
6. Coffeenerdness: The only thing better than having a Starbucks in the FTF hotel, as we had in KC, is having one across the street, like in Tempe.
7. Winenerdness: Coming across a favorite, if relatively obscure, wine on the restaurant wine list is a bit like unexpectedly bumping into an old friend. Good things generally tend to follow. In this instance, it was a bottle of Rodney Strong Symmetry at the Steak 44 restaurant in Scottsdale.
8. Obit of the Week: My first Parry Riposte TV, who managed to TV both Apps and Inits and for whom I have some hopes for an Adepts TV, Obit-it early in the tourney. Insult to injury: He’s at 21FE so not looking good for October.
9. I think I’m going to have to pick a table next to Floyd and Howlin Wolf next FTF, particularly if, like this one, they’re sitting next to Dmobster, TUM, and Darth. The osmosis sponge factor would be incredible. 3 times I had critical matchups against Floyd. Three times he patted me on the back in consolation. If I can’t score a next-door table, I may have to be like that Chucky doll that is always right behind you unexpectedly.
10. Other things I think I think
a. I think I continue to see the merits of unarmed aimed blows
b. I think is incredibly satisfying to run someone way below the FE cap for a class and have them land perfectly on the cap for the next tourney. It’s like Rodney sticking the Triple Lindy.
c. I think riposte learns are generally for losers in the same way “I like you as a friend” and vacuum pumps are. My warriors had an inordinate amount of riposte learns this tourney.
d. I think I have more to learn about Jalon-esque AB’s, of which I entered four in Tempe. Best record: 4-3, worst record 0-3.
e. I think my warriors lost to an appalling number of Crapmaster warriors.
f. I think not paying the slightest attention to Rooks until you see who survived to fight on day two has some benefits and some downside. I’m unclear which is bigger.
g. I think responsiveness as a desperation tactic warrants exploration.
h. I think the AA won the most fun FTF table. I’ll think I’ll defer to the Chatzy commentary on the least fun table.

Who I like in April

Other managers’ warriors.

Adieu Haiku

Bookstore visit fun
Three TC’s are impressive
Grats to Howlin’ Wolf

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2018 2:19 am

Vlad, so glad you wrote/summarized.
We just love to read your FTF journals..
You have such a fine way with words and quips.
Kudos.

Looking forward to seeing you this summer in Charlotte/D.C./Philly.