Cincinnati Results Write-up

Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2021 4:32 pm

I started playing Duelmasters back in the mid 1990’s when several of my middle school friends took me to GenCon, the largest gaming convention in the United States. GenCon was held in my hometown of Milwaukee for many years. RSI ran a demo tourney at GenCon where each player could run two of their five warriors every turn for multiple turns over the entire weekend. By Sunday the best warriors competed in a single elimination tournament to crown a champion of the demonstration. I was hooked almost immediately. The details are a bit sketchy, and I am unsure if my first ever team was placed in arena 62 Valamantis or 66 Tarrgir. I believe it was the latter. The team was Rescue Rangers. One of my favorite warriors, Zipper, was a lunger 13-10-8-17-15-5-17. I probably would not even run this warrior today.
Back then after the demo tournament RSI would open a new arena and all warriors would start fresh with 0-0-0 records. Zipper cleaned house in the arena till he ran into a warrior run by the Honorable Baron Bentsword. Zipper runs in the Tourney of the Dead every October till this day with an arena record of 6-1-2. He will be running in this coming Tourney of the Dead.
I met the Baron and his two sons, Mat and Eric, later known as Howlin Wolf and Malaquar (sp?) at GenCon. Mat was roughly my age but despite this we were not very close back then. There were some crazy managers back then; The Boss, Gary Triplet, several of my friends from school including Andy, who went by Carnage later. Many years later, Mat, Eric, their father, Dave, and I became very close friends. In fact, they are some of my favorite people on this planet, as are most of the managers in this game.
Throughout the years I spent a fair amount of time with both Dave and Mat. Fast forward to this year and the opportunity to ride with the Baron from his hometown of Chicago down to Cincinnati for a face-to-face tournament arose. I jumped at the chance. The only thing that could have made the ride more enjoyable would have been if Mat could have come with us. The ride was a disaster; we hit traffic in Chicago, then in Indianapolis, and finally in Cincinnati, where it took us almost an hour to go the final two miles to the hotel where this year’s convention would be held. I would not change any of the hardships getting down there for anything, relishing the time I was able to spend with Dave. I would use our familiarity throughout the weekend for as many laughs as I possibly could, having convinced many of the other managers at the event that we were an “odd couple.” Instead, I consider us very close and love the Gervais clan dearly.
Once we arrived, we met up with several other managers who elected to arrive on Thursday night. We said our “hellos” to Vlad, Riff Raff, Mannequin, TUM, Crip, and I believe Kharadmon. The hotel bar had the single best selection of Bourbon I have ever seen, something I wish I had been able to take better advantage. I did have a few excellent choices on Thursday. We chatted about the game and went to bed at a reasonable time.
I will spare you the details of the Bourbon tours on Friday, as well as the baseball game on Friday night. (Perhaps I will discuss these events when I finally write all my exploits at every face-to-face into a best-selling novel, including almost having to kill a guy in New Orleans over a chess game, to almost being murdered in St Louis looking for a party, to visiting the Pentagon while in Arlington. Most of the best stories involve my friend Andy, which might be best told via a film or podcast.)
On to the actual tournament which officially began on Saturday. I wore a Cincinnati Reds t-shirt because I am a good sport despite winning a gentlemen’s wager from the Brewers/Reds game the night before. Mannequin and I each had a custom shirt of the opposing team made for the other. Loser had to wear the shirt all weekend. The shirt I made for Mannequin had the number “6” on the back with the name “Mannemeat” on the back (because Mannequin’s favorite warrior is Meat (and Pepp)). The shirt Mannequin made for me stated “0 TC’s all time.”
You see, despite playing this game for well over 20 years, I have never won a TC. I feel like I sort of know what I’m doing. I have a large stable of very good warriors. But for some reason, I have never been able to actually win a class. I have come close many times; more third place finishes than I can count. And up to this point I have been runner up four times. Twice in Milwaukee (home turf is a real advantage), once in a rookie tourney where The Dealer took out my Aimer with a speedy size three Slasher, and in the most recent mail-in tourney where Riff Raff gave my runner up his only three losses with his first TC ever. I have managed to get out several Bloodgames warriors (literally crying in a separate room because I had FINALLY won SOMETHING the first time. It still brings tears to my eyes thinking about it.)
Cincinnati was going to be my time! Managerr had even picked me to be the winner in Adepts. Something he has never done before. I had a great roster, I was harsh in my cuts, I skipped the upper-level ADM classes: Primus and Eligibles, so I would have time to keep up with strategy changes. I felt my best chances were a double 21 lunger bust out in ADM, my previous deep runs (including a former runner up) in Champions, Adepts, and Initiates. I still to this day have trouble competing in Apprentices, but rookies is always a crap shoot. And I had several top-notch designs in the class, including two double 21 lungers as well as several decent Aimers including a 10-4-9-15-21-4-21 aimed blow (spoiler alert, he died on round one.)
Saturday went well. I had lost several decent warriors to the three-loss format, including my busting lunger in ADM who went 3-3 despite hitting his trains. He did have crappy faves; Epee, low offensive effort, high activity level, dodge tactic, and parry learn. He entered the tournament with awesome endurance, takes tremendous, tremendous carry, and great damage. A highlight of the Freshmen tourney was one of my “prepping” warriors starting 5-0, only to crap out at 6-3 losing to the eventual TC and the runner up (both run by Howlin Wolf…more on this later.) And another “prepping” former Bloodgames graduate getting four con trains in four FE. Challengers could not have gone worse with only four wins for eight warriors, the only highlight being an immortal challenger aimed blow who had just graduated as a Fist fave, mod-mod, bash tactic, defense learn going 2-3 at 40ish FE.
Champions was not much better, despite having many warriors that had gone very deep in several classes in prior tournaments. No TV’s here. Apprentices got me two TV’s out of 13 warriors. Not bad for low expectations.
Adepts was the highlight, but first…Initiates! Two TV’s out of 11 warriors, including the third place finisher who lost to the runner up and the eventual TC (also run by Howlin Wolf…more on this later.) The TC in Initiates had two losses. Both were from my warriors.
Rookies went well. I matched up with Shadow on round ten with a warrior I thought could beat his warrior with no strat change. I was wrong, and Shadow earned his first TV ever against one of my warriors. Well done, Shadow. I also had the fourth-place finisher in Rookies. Many of my matchups were against warriors with only one loss. I went Mannequin on the field. Why beat them twice when you can kill them and knock them out of the tournament? It worked and I apologize to the victims of this strategy, but I’m fighting for my first TC ever here!
Adepts was my best chance. Round 10 and I have 6 out of the remaining 15 warriors. Round 11: 4 out of the last 10. Round 12: 4 out of the last 7, including two out of the top three with only one loss. 4 out of the last 6 on round 13 are mine. Including the only remaining one loss warrior. I have all Strikers and one Wall of Steel left at this point. But the only warrior I’m really worried about just tagged a loss onto that Waste (despite him being a coveted Rip learn fave.) APM was no match for the Shortsword, despite this being an input error by Sandy. It was supposed to be the Long Sword versus heavy armor.
Here I start matching up with myself. I’m in the driver’s seat. This is an enormous advantage. I can control the matchups. (Shout out to Dr. F and Mannequin for their advice and insight into how to setup my matchups. And Don….you’re welcome! (He wasn’t even going to come, but I texted him several weeks prior to the tourney and he shows up and takes the Contender’s TC away from TMM.)) I set my strats, knowing I have just lost to one of the remaining other manager’s warriors, while tacking a loss on the other. Through some miracle those two managers matchup against each other. Both with two losses. Only one more manager to beat. And I have several losses to give. Hershel Briles is eliminated by Clever Stab (the other two manager’s matchup.) Only Clever Stab to beat. I. Have. Got. This.
Round 14 leaves me with my two best chances to tag the remaining warrior with one loss to my available three. And again, somehow things work out perfectly. The warrior I believe has the best chance to take out Clever Stab matches up with him. Both with two losses. But my one loss warrior, Skull, gets the standby. I might actually get to fight myself for my first ever TC!
Momentum, a suspected LS fave Striker faces Clever Stab, a stud lunger who is really hard to hit. But not impossible. I figure, he can’t dodge if he’s on the ground. I jump him easily, Long Spear to the hip. But he stays standing. He dodges, rips, and Momentum is done.
Clever Stab with two losses versus Skull, with only one loss. I still have an advantage. I decide not to try anything crazy until I have to. The first fight goes as expected: Skull hits Clever Stab, but can’t seal the deal. I have one more chance. It should now be noted that Clever Stab is run by my best friend in the game, Mat, or Howlin Wolf. At this point, either Mat is so confident in his chances, or he gives me bad advice to secure the TC for himself. Mat would never do this, and I know it. Plus he’s already secured two other TC’s. Mat and I actually have a conversation, and he GIVES ME ADVICE ON HOW TO BEAT HIS WARRIOR. It was something I was thinking about trying anyway. But, it should be noted, that even now, I am such a crowd favorite to finally bring home the prize that my opponent is helping me win. We had a very brief conversation about Mat throwing the fight…it went something like this:
“I even thought about throwing the fight” says Mat.
“Don’t you dare!” I reply.
“I wouldn’t insult you like that anyway” he says.
I say, “Well, if I’m going to win my first ever TC, I can’t think of another person I would rather win against than you.”
Here comes the final fight. I use the strategy I was thinking about doing, with confirmation from my opponent and friend. And just like that….Clever Stab takes down Skull. I am once again a Bridesmaid. And I still have 0 TC’s all time. Two runner ups in two consecutive tournaments.
I usually average around 45% win-loss percentage. In Cincinnati I managed 55%. My final TV count is 11 out of 88 total warriors sent for a 12.5 award percentage. I came in second, third, and fourth in Adepts. I came in third in Initiates. I came in fourth in Rookies. Most managers would consider these pretty good numbers.
But when your only goal is to finally win a TC, those numbers are meaningless. Especially when you are taken out by the same people almost every time. And especially when those warriors are prize modified (as Clever Stab was, without revealing any details.)

I’m done.

I will be sending dead warriors to the tournament in October, as well as Challengers and other ADM projects. And I am going to time most of my warriors. But my participation will slowly be going down. Cincinnati was very likely the last face I will attend. I will likely not respond to things on Chatzy. I will slowly but surely take my ADM and project warriors off maintenance. And I will quietly slink away from this game. My long joked about retirement is here.
It is with much fondness that I bid all of you farewell.

Master Poster Joined: Aug 28, 2009 Posts: 249

Yeah Yeah.. I'll meet you in tempe with a bottle of bourbon possum penis

Master Poster Joined: Aug 28, 2009 Posts: 249

LOL.. thats great

Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2021 8:38 pm

Great writeup, JE! Although I would've liked a little more bourbon and a lot less HW.

See you in Tempe 2023. Maybe DC'ish next July? If so, we're visiting George Washington's restored distillery on Mount Vernon.

GW Rye Whiskey!

Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2021 10:23 pm

JE wrote:

I started playing Duelmasters back in the mid 1990’s when several of my middle school friends took me to GenCon, the largest gaming convention in the United States. GenCon was held in my hometown of Milwaukee for many years. RSI ran a demo tourney at GenCon where each player could run two of their five warriors every turn for multiple turns over the entire weekend. By Sunday the best warriors competed in a single elimination tournament to crown a champion of the demonstration. I was hooked almost immediately. The details are a bit sketchy, and I am unsure if my first ever team was placed in arena 62 Valamantis or 66 Tarrgir. I believe it was the latter. The team was Rescue Rangers. One of my favorite warriors, Zipper, was a lunger 13-10-8-17-15-5-17. I probably would not even run this warrior today.
Back then after the demo tournament RSI would open a new arena and all warriors would start fresh with 0-0-0 records. Zipper cleaned house in the arena till he ran into a warrior run by the Honorable Baron Bentsword. Zipper runs in the Tourney of the Dead every October till this day with an arena record of 6-1-2. He will be running in this coming Tourney of the Dead.
I met the Baron and his two sons, Mat and Eric, later known as Howlin Wolf and Malaquar (sp?) at GenCon. Mat was roughly my age but despite this we were not very close back then. There were some crazy managers back then; The Boss, Gary Triplet, several of my friends from school including Andy, who went by Carnage later. Many years later, Mat, Eric, their father, Dave, and I became very close friends. In fact, they are some of my favorite people on this planet, as are most of the managers in this game.
Throughout the years I spent a fair amount of time with both Dave and Mat. Fast forward to this year and the opportunity to ride with the Baron from his hometown of Chicago down to Cincinnati for a face-to-face tournament arose. I jumped at the chance. The only thing that could have made the ride more enjoyable would have been if Mat could have come with us. The ride was a disaster; we hit traffic in Chicago, then in Indianapolis, and finally in Cincinnati, where it took us almost an hour to go the final two miles to the hotel where this year’s convention would be held. I would not change any of the hardships getting down there for anything, relishing the time I was able to spend with Dave. I would use our familiarity throughout the weekend for as many laughs as I possibly could, having convinced many of the other managers at the event that we were an “odd couple.” Instead, I consider us very close and love the Gervais clan dearly.
Once we arrived, we met up with several other managers who elected to arrive on Thursday night. We said our “hellos” to Vlad, Riff Raff, Mannequin, TUM, Crip, and I believe Kharadmon. The hotel bar had the single best selection of Bourbon I have ever seen, something I wish I had been able to take better advantage. I did have a few excellent choices on Thursday. We chatted about the game and went to bed at a reasonable time.
I will spare you the details of the Bourbon tours on Friday, as well as the baseball game on Friday night. (Perhaps I will discuss these events when I finally write all my exploits at every face-to-face into a best-selling novel, including almost having to kill a guy in New Orleans over a chess game, to almost being murdered in St Louis looking for a party, to visiting the Pentagon while in Arlington. Most of the best stories involve my friend Andy, which might be best told via a film or podcast.)
On to the actual tournament which officially began on Saturday. I wore a Cincinnati Reds t-shirt because I am a good sport despite winning a gentlemen’s wager from the Brewers/Reds game the night before. Mannequin and I each had a custom shirt of the opposing team made for the other. Loser had to wear the shirt all weekend. The shirt I made for Mannequin had the number “6” on the back with the name “Mannemeat” on the back (because Mannequin’s favorite warrior is Meat (and Pepp)). The shirt Mannequin made for me stated “0 TC’s all time.”
You see, despite playing this game for well over 20 years, I have never won a TC. I feel like I sort of know what I’m doing. I have a large stable of very good warriors. But for some reason, I have never been able to actually win a class. I have come close many times; more third place finishes than I can count. And up to this point I have been runner up four times. Twice in Milwaukee (home turf is a real advantage), once in a rookie tourney where The Dealer took out my Aimer with a speedy size three Slasher, and in the most recent mail-in tourney where Riff Raff gave my runner up his only three losses with his first TC ever. I have managed to get out several Bloodgames warriors (literally crying in a separate room because I had FINALLY won SOMETHING the first time. It still brings tears to my eyes thinking about it.)
Cincinnati was going to be my time! Managerr had even picked me to be the winner in Adepts. Something he has never done before. I had a great roster, I was harsh in my cuts, I skipped the upper-level ADM classes: Primus and Eligibles, so I would have time to keep up with strategy changes. I felt my best chances were a double 21 lunger bust out in ADM, my previous deep runs (including a former runner up) in Champions, Adepts, and Initiates. I still to this day have trouble competing in Apprentices, but rookies is always a crap shoot. And I had several top-notch designs in the class, including two double 21 lungers as well as several decent Aimers including a 10-4-9-15-21-4-21 aimed blow (spoiler alert, he died on round one.)
Saturday went well. I had lost several decent warriors to the three-loss format, including my busting lunger in ADM who went 3-3 despite hitting his trains. He did have crappy faves; Epee, low offensive effort, high activity level, dodge tactic, and parry learn. He entered the tournament with awesome endurance, takes tremendous, tremendous carry, and great damage. A highlight of the Freshmen tourney was one of my “prepping” warriors starting 5-0, only to crap out at 6-3 losing to the eventual TC and the runner up (both run by Howlin Wolf…more on this later.) And another “prepping” former Bloodgames graduate getting four con trains in four FE. Challengers could not have gone worse with only four wins for eight warriors, the only highlight being an immortal challenger aimed blow who had just graduated as a Fist fave, mod-mod, bash tactic, defense learn going 2-3 at 40ish FE.
Champions was not much better, despite having many warriors that had gone very deep in several classes in prior tournaments. No TV’s here. Apprentices got me two TV’s out of 13 warriors. Not bad for low expectations.
Adepts was the highlight, but first…Initiates! Two TV’s out of 11 warriors, including the third place finisher who lost to the runner up and the eventual TC (also run by Howlin Wolf…more on this later.) The TC in Initiates had two losses. Both were from my warriors.
Rookies went well. I matched up with Shadow on round ten with a warrior I thought could beat his warrior with no strat change. I was wrong, and Shadow earned his first TV ever against one of my warriors. Well done, Shadow. I also had the fourth-place finisher in Rookies. Many of my matchups were against warriors with only one loss. I went Mannequin on the field. Why beat them twice when you can kill them and knock them out of the tournament? It worked and I apologize to the victims of this strategy, but I’m fighting for my first TC ever here!
Adepts was my best chance. Round 10 and I have 6 out of the remaining 15 warriors. Round 11: 4 out of the last 10. Round 12: 4 out of the last 7, including two out of the top three with only one loss. 4 out of the last 6 on round 13 are mine. Including the only remaining one loss warrior. I have all Strikers and one Wall of Steel left at this point. But the only warrior I’m really worried about just tagged a loss onto that Waste (despite him being a coveted Rip learn fave.) APM was no match for the Shortsword, despite this being an input error by Sandy. It was supposed to be the Long Sword versus heavy armor.
Here I start matching up with myself. I’m in the driver’s seat. This is an enormous advantage. I can control the matchups. (Shout out to Dr. F and Mannequin for their advice and insight into how to setup my matchups. And Don….you’re welcome! (He wasn’t even going to come, but I texted him several weeks prior to the tourney and he shows up and takes the Contender’s TC away from TMM.)) I set my strats, knowing I have just lost to one of the remaining other manager’s warriors, while tacking a loss on the other. Through some miracle those two managers matchup against each other. Both with two losses. Only one more manager to beat. And I have several losses to give. Hershel Briles is eliminated by Clever Stab (the other two manager’s matchup.) Only Clever Stab to beat. I. Have. Got. This.
Round 14 leaves me with my two best chances to tag the remaining warrior with one loss to my available three. And again, somehow things work out perfectly. The warrior I believe has the best chance to take out Clever Stab matches up with him. Both with two losses. But my one loss warrior, Skull, gets the standby. I might actually get to fight myself for my first ever TC!
Momentum, a suspected LS fave Striker faces Clever Stab, a stud lunger who is really hard to hit. But not impossible. I figure, he can’t dodge if he’s on the ground. I jump him easily, Long Spear to the hip. But he stays standing. He dodges, rips, and Momentum is done.
Clever Stab with two losses versus Skull, with only one loss. I still have an advantage. I decide not to try anything crazy until I have to. The first fight goes as expected: Skull hits Clever Stab, but can’t seal the deal. I have one more chance. It should now be noted that Clever Stab is run by my best friend in the game, Mat, or Howlin Wolf. At this point, either Mat is so confident in his chances, or he gives me bad advice to secure the TC for himself. Mat would never do this, and I know it. Plus he’s already secured two other TC’s. Mat and I actually have a conversation, and he GIVES ME ADVICE ON HOW TO BEAT HIS WARRIOR. It was something I was thinking about trying anyway. But, it should be noted, that even now, I am such a crowd favorite to finally bring home the prize that my opponent is helping me win. We had a very brief conversation about Mat throwing the fight…it went something like this:
“I even thought about throwing the fight” says Mat.
“Don’t you dare!” I reply.
“I wouldn’t insult you like that anyway” he says.
I say, “Well, if I’m going to win my first ever TC, I can’t think of another person I would rather win against than you.”
Here comes the final fight. I use the strategy I was thinking about doing, with confirmation from my opponent and friend. And just like that….Clever Stab takes down Skull. I am once again a Bridesmaid. And I still have 0 TC’s all time. Two runner ups in two consecutive tournaments.
I usually average around 45% win-loss percentage. In Cincinnati I managed 55%. My final TV count is 11 out of 88 total warriors sent for a 12.5 award percentage. I came in second, third, and fourth in Adepts. I came in third in Initiates. I came in fourth in Rookies. Most managers would consider these pretty good numbers.
But when your only goal is to finally win a TC, those numbers are meaningless. Especially when you are taken out by the same people almost every time. And especially when those warriors are prize modified (as Clever Stab was, without revealing any details.)

I’m done.

I will be sending dead warriors to the tournament in October, as well as Challengers and other ADM projects. And I am going to time most of my warriors. But my participation will slowly be going down. Cincinnati was very likely the last face I will attend. I will likely not respond to things on Chatzy. I will slowly but surely take my ADM and project warriors off maintenance. And I will quietly slink away from this game. My long joked about retirement is here.
It is with much fondness that I bid all of you farewell.

I said something similar five or six years ago. So, instead of hurling insults at you or telling you a bullsh*t phrase like ‘Try harder’, I will suggest that you take a break. Give it a few turns, or even months, and try again. Okay, this is where I am coming from. I have a warrior (Par the Sliver formally Par-Salian) that I play off and on for four years and not gain one stat increase or skill. He got one win in four years this past April tourney. Still no stat increases or skills. This guy won three TVs back in the 90s. The last decent warrior I got to the isle was Yrah Banewrecker. That was back in September 2016. I felt lucky to have Yrah because he was the sole survivor of a four-month death plague that I endured. By death plague I mean I lost SEVEN WARRIORS in Four Months. Too bad he got a crappy favourite weapon. After that, it was a who’s who of garbage. I had a couple of bright spots. Too bad they died after two to four turns. Everything else was a SIZE 15 WIT 4, or even 3, extravaganza. It got so bad that I started naming my replacements ‘Makem Smallr’ or some other brick over the head name. Finally, they were. But they were still WIT 3, 4, or 5. Even after all of this, I get told “My worst tourney is still better than your best.” This is true. But then again, I am given piles of sh*t and told to make chocolate cake. So, yeah. You are doing better than I am and I have been playing off and on since 1987.
Just take a break and see how you do then.
That is my five cents.

Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 5:25 pm

I'm blaming Mannequin for making you wear the Cincinatti Reds jersey and throwing off your mojo.

ST vs. LU at the end was freaking me out. I was kinda hoping you'd give the WS another chance even though he lost.

Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2024 3:04 pm

Hello everyone. I have never posted an â€˜after tourneyâ€™ write-up before. But I thought I would give it a go as I have some thoughts.

First, I want to say thanks to Sandy and Lee for choosing Cincinnati for the F2F. I am proud of my home town and wanted to show it off. Of course, there are some issues like traffic that JE had mentioned. There was a major accident on the I-75 bridge back in November that almost closed the bridge permanently. That bridge is one of the biggest choke points in the country and can clog up at a momentsâ€™ notice. Repairs have been going on since. Hopefully JE and the Baron got through the other bridge and back on 75 easily on the way back to Chicago and Milwaukee. I was surprised that the hotel asked us to move to another meeting room on Sunday but boy was it worth it for the view. Sunday was a really nice day too. Iâ€™m glad the weather cooperated.

I hope that everyone had a good time. I had not been to a baseball game in several years. My thanks to Crip and Manne for finding very good seats in left field. Shame the Reds lost. It was fun seeing everyone again and I am hopefully connecting manager names and faces better. I was honored to be asked by Manne, Darque and Crip to team up in their grudge matches against Teabag.

Well on to the tourney. I sent 36 total. Most ever for me. I have been prepping for this for a year and a half. Breakdown as follows: 4 AB, 3 BA, 4 LU, 2 PL, 0 PR, 3 PS, 3 SL, 7 ST, 4 TP and 6 WS. By arena they were: 1 Primus, 1 Contender, 4 ADM, 5 Freshmen, 1 Challenger, 0 Champs, 4 Adepts, 4 Inits, 6 Apps and 10 Rooks.

Primus marked the return to tourney fighting for Cardinal Biggles, my favorite WS. He is very close to maxing just in time for the next KoP. I was thrilled that he went 3-3 and missed the Style Master by just a few recognition points.

Contenders continues to be a sore spot for my TP, Surprise. When I came back to the game 4 years ago [after a layoff of 15 years], I unknowingly really screwed up her training. So, after another 1-4 performance, I think I will just concentrate on maxing out.

I had no qualified warriors for Eligibles for this tourney. Which brings us to the first area where I mistakenly thought I had a shotâ€¦.
ADM featured 4 of my up and comers and my first attempts at ADM busting. Concorde, my back from the dead LU, failed his Wit to 21 roll after the freeze and so he gets to bust another day. His training has been annoying as he has been trying for #7 ST train for going on 3 years [40+ fe]. What do I have to do? Patsi [ST] got a reasonable start after the freeze but choked on training in the tourney, leaving enough to bust again later. Ruthless, my 21 WL SL from Valamantis did a nice job of training and taught me a lot about the requirements for ADM that most of you already know. He did go a solid 6-3 though, so I am happy for that. I did get a chuckle in round 8 as I checked in on Chatzy to find that Assur had commented after his PR Ruth beat Ruthless that: â€œRuth>Ruthlessâ€. Well said Assur ðŸ˜Š. It is now on to Primus to train for KoP as my own 5th seed so I wonâ€™t have to borrow S. Mary Rose from Sandy anymore.

Freshmen was definitely bi-polar for me. 3 non-busting went 0-9 collectively. But the 2 busts were damned interesting. 2 years ago, Stiff [LU] met up with Thatsmeatinthecorner in round 9 of adepts (?) in Tampa as my family and I were driving back from Clearwater Beach, exiting at 6-3. Here in Cincy, while busting, he went 6-3 again but I am not displeased. However, the real star for me in Freshmen was a BA blast from the past: BLK Beast of AAAAG. Beast started the tourney at 156 sk with 19 trains. He was probably 9 toes on the line. One WT to 17, 4 DF to 11 and a couple of SP was in my opinion a mild bust at best but boy did he make the most of it. His 1st loss in turn 3 did not surprise me but 7 wins after that sure did. So, there he was in turn 12 surrounded by Plum and 5 warriors managed by HW. The TPâ€™s I thought Beast had a shot against, but the matchups finally failed as Hire Watha knocked BLK Beast out at 9-3. That is BLK Beastâ€™s 2nd TV. His first was in the Adepts class in the Death & Taxes Mail-In Tourney in 1992.

I wasnâ€™t planning on entering Challengers at all until I stumbled into graduating an AB in arena 30 just before the tourney. I thought, â€œwhat the hellâ€ and off to tourney town went Giant Hair Ball newly immortal thanks to Sheila Greywand. Turns out he needed it as he was killed in turn one. Go figure.

Skipping Champions, I thought I had some sleepers in Adepts. Hellâ€™s Granny [SL] didnâ€™t go as far I was hoping, but 5-3 is really not that bad. Overall my 4 Adepts were 15-12 and I canâ€™t complain about that.

Initiates had 2 of my best hopes and they did not disappoint. Electric Yarn [ST] just missed a TV in the January Mail-In Apprentices Tourney going 7-3. I hoped for a repeat or better from one of the very few [5] 21 wit warriors I have ever had. A 5-0 start certainly raised my hopes. Unfortunately, the tide began turning as he lost against Frontal Assault [TP]. Oh well, 6-3 and 14 skills learned is still pretty good.
Mason Fruitbat [WS] was/is my â€œGreat Hopeâ€. He turned in an impressive [for me] rookie performance at 7-3 last summer. I was getting a little concerned with his arena record of 1-4, but he is fighting in Talcama. I think the wins there will come. Mason roared out of the gate with a 10-0 start taking his first loss in round 11 against the AB, Toe Curler. The final 2 fights against HWâ€™s ST, Too Short, were nerve wracking. Mason had been knocked down in numerous fights throughout the tourney and he had always gotten back up to riposte his opponent. As I was looking at strategy changes for the final, I decided the knockdown and lack of ripostes in round 15 was an aberration and stood pat on the strategy that he had used the entire tourney. He had been protecting the arms and I found out later that HW changed to attack the arms in the final. I believe I made the right call but Too Short knocked Mason down again and he couldnâ€™t get back up. As Agent Maxwell Smart used to say: â€œMissed it by that much!â€

Apprentices traditionally has been a good division for me. This time I guess I was most likely running less capable warriors and the record showed it [13-18]. W/L varied from 1 PL @ 0-3 to 2 @ 4-3 [one, a 9-7-13- 17-13-8-17 Striker who died with his 3rd loss and two, a 15-5-18-15-7-3-21 AB who survived].

Rookies surprised me. It was the first time I sent 10. They were all replacements [no team sheets]. I had 3 21 WL WSâ€™s, 2 scum TPâ€™s, 1 BA that had no business doing anything but carrying a torch and no 21 WT warriors among them. The BA I threw in on a lark just to see what would happen. He is ST=17 CN=3 SZ=17 WT=5 WL=17 SP=18 DF=7, N/TR and went 4-3. The WSâ€™s finished 6-3, 5-3, 1-3. One TP collected my 3rd TV at 9-3. Overall 44-30 and best rookies showing ever.

While I was really hoping and praying that I would bring home a TC in my home town, I am very happy with how things went. Total W/L was 125-107, 0 kills, 2 deaths [one immortal] for 54%. Individual styles were led by WS at 63%, TP at 62% and BA at 61%. Awards were 3 TVâ€™s including 1 runner-up for 8.3%. Had Lee extended non-Primus style masters to this tourney I would have earned 3 [including a PS in rookies] and came within a few recognition points of 2 more. October will find a much reduced squad of live fighters to join my favorite dead ones. I will not make it to Tempe [although a proxy is possible] but we shall see about next summer.