January FtF 2023

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2958

The ADM Freeze occurred on the weekend of Dec 3-4. There is no basic freeze; warriors in basic are classed based on their FE at the time of the tournament.

Vlad has passed along the tourney announcement and the prize is 2 potions of max damage:

"The manager of each Tournament Champion will receive a prize that will make them the envy of their peers: two potions, each of which will increase the damage rating of one warrior to the highest level possible, in perpetuity I All prizes must be used on a warrior Initiates class or higher, and may not exceed the natural limitations for a warrior."

There will be stylemaster prizes (1 bonus potion) in each class for the 9 styles that do not TC:

"In addition, one bonus skill potion will be awarded to the manager of each of the Stylemasters (except the Tournament Champion) in all classes. Primus bonus potions must be used on a Primus warrior of the same style; ADM bonus potions must be used on an ADM warrior of the same style; basic DM potions may be used on any living warrior on the same team. Stylemaster potions may be traded 1:1 but may not be sold."

There will be two Bloodgames arenas, DM 96 for those that are present, and DM 97 that runs overnight from Saturday to Sunday and where anyone can participate.

Even if you can't attend, you can find a proxy or ask Sandy to proxy (your warriors will run on autopilot and she will print and mail you the fights after the tourney).

Good luck to everyone in Tempe!

Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2022 2:16 pm

See you all there!

As we used to say in my younger days (quite a few decades ago) ...
BE THERE OR BE SQUARE.

Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2022 8:18 pm

"Sandy, it would be a great honor if you would be my proxy ..."

Like that?

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2022 2:16 am

DonaldTrump wrote:

"Sandy, it would be a great honor if you would be my proxy ..."

Like that?

It could score you some drastically needed points! Wink

Expert Poster Joined: Dec 31, 2021 Posts: 57

Sandy should start requiring mandatory cookie purchases by all proxy owners.

I actually am prepared and know what I am doing this year as opposed to just showing up after work, buying three rollups, and running random strategies. Not sure how much that improves my outlook?

Expert Poster Joined: Dec 31, 2021 Posts: 57

I ventured to RSI to make sure Sandy is in good health and remains so. All is well, please submit all donations to my Patrion account Wink

Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2023 3:02 am

Good luck to everyone at the FtF. Wish I could be there.

Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2023 12:06 pm

35 Managers here in Tempe! Most in a long, long time.

Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2023 4:52 pm

Here is the online link

http://www.reality.com/ff68con.htm

Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2023 9:05 pm

I loved seeing all the Parry Riposte's in the late rounds and even winning! Well done and Congrats!

Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2023 4:18 pm

A great time for me.
Gotta thank my table-mates for that
(Mikey, Marc, Allan, & Darrell - and I guess O.A.B./Dave who was proxied by Mikey to a T.C.)

Results for me:
44 entries (incl 3 Crapmasters @ 6-9) w/l = 56.7%
6 TVs for 13.7% (quite decent!)

Canadian-American Alliance destroyed Bob+ @4-2.
(Gotta feel sorry for the managers associated with Managerr.)

I do declare this FTF the Whiskey Whomp. (those there know what I mean.

The RSI Wizardettes ran a very good show, overcoming the initial issue of overflowing Rookies. I thank them.

Seems like Atlanta is leading the race for the next FTF. (Last one there over 15 years ago)

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2958

I wasn't in attendance, but Assur was kind enough to proxy for me once again. I ran a slimmed down squad, and most of it was stuff that could run on auto-pilot to make things easy on him.

My entries: 33
Broken down by class: 8 Primus, 5 Contenders, 0 Eligibles, 0 ADM, 4 Freshmen, 4 Challengers, 2 Champions, 0 Adepts, 1 Initiate, 0 Apprentices, 9 Rookies
Broken down by fighting style: 11 AB, 7 LU, 6 WS, 3 ST, and 1 each of the remaining 6 styles

Champions and Initiates

These were my first two classes to finish, with all three entries going 3-3. The Champions entered with 25 and 26 FE, so 3-3 results were actually solid. I was a bit disappointed in the Initiate. EBLA went 13-3-4 in his Rookies run in October, and while I would have normally saved him for April, I wanted to see his Initiates results quickly to determine his viability for a zombie potion. He went a disappointing 3-3, but still showed some of his pizzazz from Rookies. I determined that he wasn't zombie material, but he definitely deserved more play time.

Primus

My 8 entries consisted of 3 maxed +4/+4 or better FI ABs and 5 non-ABs. I don't normally run my LU, GOLDENBEARD, or my PL, GAOLER, because the competition is too stiff for those stylemasters. But since GOLDENBEARD got a SZ increase and a damage bump and GAOLER received exact favorite knowledge from King of Primus, I decided to give them another try.

The class was terrible for me, highlighted by an 0-5 GAOLER, who has won PL stylemasters in the past. My only warrior to make it past R5 was my top AB, the max damaged and Dodge tactic favorite SNAKE OIL SELLER. And he fizzled out at 4-3.

With a combined 12-30 record from a quarter of my roster, I figured this would spell doom for my win/loss record and award percentage.

Rookies

I don't really like running Rookies at FtFs. I don't run enough to develop a deep style database, and other managers have been really concentrating on this class, as evidenced by the 980 entries this tourney.

However, I am searching for a good zombie candidate. Obviously the zombie potion is good for ABs, but ABs kind of stink in most of basic and require some lucky favorites to even be worth running in Primus. Do I really need another prize warrior who follows the trajectory of forgettable basic performance --> ADM success --> Primus mediocrity? I can do that with a natural AB. However, I found some good setups to make zombie WSs and zombie LUs. The LU is clearly the superior style, but the ideal setups were harder to come by. The WS fit a need for me; my Primus WS is not very good and I've never gotten a WS TC. Nobody rolled up perfectly, but I had a number of warriors who could have had hidden bonuses or shown knack, so I entered 6 WS and 3 LU for the sole purpose of finding a good zombie candidate.

I was out of Rookies by R8, but I did find a nice zombie candidate who went 3-3. A 15-13-5-21-15-4-11 WS showed me +2 to +4 Par on the overview, learned 1 Att & 1 Par on his first tourney fight and picked up an Expert in Attack to reveal +2 Attack. He ended up learning 13 skills in 3 FE, didn't reveal a bad favorite learn, and fought well enough with normal damage that I am willing to try him as a 17-13-5-17-17-4-11 +5/+2-4 immortal zombie WS with max damage. Even if he fizzles out in his lower basic tournies, I can see him being a solid Challenger sandbagger, ADM sandbagger, and maybe even an exciting Eligible and Contender.

Contenders

Contenders was a mixed bag.

I tried something new with my strategies and I don't think it worked. DUSKBLOOD PUDDING and SPARE ANCHOR, who both have multiple TVs, both went 2-3. NAKED LUNCH, who has been on the cusp of TVing a few times went 3-3.

The good part is that my best Contender, THIRD COURSE, made it to the final 6 with a 10-3 TV. And my newest Contender, FISHWIFE, went 8-3 in her first tourney in the class.

I figured the class would be harder than normal, with some warriors dropping down from Primus due to minus train and minus skill prizes from King of Primus. And the top three, I think, are all fully modified warriors, so there is no shame in coming in just behind them.

Congrats to Papaiz on his Contenders TC with ALBINO RAINBOW over THE UPTIGHT MAN and ALUCARD. That is tough competition.

Freshmen

I had nothing in Eligibles and ADM, and I wanted some bust-out excitement in this tourney. I had four bust-outs lined up, of varying quality. Normally I would have busted them one at a time in the next four tournies, but a few reasons caused me to choose a different strategy. The two biggest ones are that my busts hadn't been doing that well lately, and that I had a bunch of promising sandbaggers on the cusp of being viable and worth entering. So instead of busting 1 Freshmen, I busted all 4, with the plan being to spend the next year working on my sandbaggers exclusively.

These weren't ringers, but they each had some promise.

MOTHALLAH was a 21 WL/21 DF PR, and the less said about him the better. He hadn't shown any propensity for winning in the arena, and he continued that with a 3-3 performance in the tourney.

UPSILON CETI was a former Adepts TC and entered the freeze as a 24(10)-14(7)-6-21-21(1)-11-5 BA with a little over 100 FE. She trained well, getting WT to 25, WL to 24, and DF to 8, but ended up losing to HISSY in R11 and SKYWARP in R12 to finish up at 9-3-1 with a TV and a stylemaster.

CHI CARINAE was an expedient 50 FE bust-out, an 11(2)-10(5)-11-21-20(3)-6-15 ST. She hit the 50% train to 21 WL to start off her bust, and trained well over the course of it all, getting WT to 25, WL, DF to 17, and WL to 23 before the end. CHI CARINAE rode the 2 loss bubble into the run-offs and went fairly deep before losing to HISSY in R13, and ending up with a 10-3 TV and stylemaster.

FOMALHAUT, my last and most successful entry, entered the freeze as an 11-16(6)-15-16(1)-14(5)-4(1)-21 AB with a Dagger favorite and Great damage. He hit the 70% train to 17 WT to start off, and managed to train DF to 25 and SP to 6. He had 1 loss going into the run-offs and beat HISSY in R10, ILL SUBLIMINAL in R11, BLEYS in R12, and SKYWARP in R13 before squaring off against HISSY, a Parry-Riposte managed by TMM in the finals.

With a 12-1 record vs an 11-2 PR who I had already beaten once, I figured the odds were in my favor.

R14 saw FOMALHAUT lose to HISSY pretty handily. HISSY was very active, dodging and riposting the first attack, and FOMALHAUT only managed 1 hit in 2 minutes before succumbing to HISSY's SS crits.

FOMALHAUT performed better in the final fight in R15, hitting her twice and knocking her down in minute 1, but she bounced back up and kept fighting. Minute 2 saw lots of attacks and no hits from either warrior, then minute 3 got bloody again. HISSY landed a hit, but then FOMALHAUT responded with 2 more hits and sent HISSY desperate to start minute 4. But it wasn't to be. HISSY parried the next attack, riposted, and landed two SS crits to finish FOMALHAUT off.

So FOMALHAUT finished up at 12-3 with a runner-up and a stylemaster. Congrats to TMM on his impressive PR and a nice bounce back tourney after October.

Challengers

My last class to finish was Challengers.

I had four nice entries in the class, but my best by far was CADAVER DOG, who had already managed 2 Challengers TVs in prior tournaments and who was entering with 86 FE for what was probably his second-to-last Challengers tourney. If he was still around in April, the plan was to run him in the arena on the turn prior to the tourney, maybe get an invite with favorites knowledge, and train DF for a last big blow out.

CADAVER DOG started life as an 8-6-9-21-21-10-9 LU. I traded for the replacement and the team he was on from Marma Duke in 2011, told him how I wanted the replacement designed, and never ran the rest of the team. I don't adopt other people's warriors as a rule, but since I designed the replacement and was the only person to ever run it, I felt it didn't violate my own personal rule. I had just previously won 3 TCs at the July 2011 FtF (a max damage tourney), so when my 8-6-9-21-21-10-9 LU rolled up with Little damage, I thought, why not max damage it? CADAVER DOG started off his Rookies tourney at 3-0, then died at 3-2. He then spent the next several years fighting in dead tournies until finally coming back after a Dead Champs TV and beginning sandbagging in Challengers with 0 political points.

CADAVER DOG entered the tourney as a 12(4)-13(7)-9-21-21-10-10(1) LU with Great damage, +3 Defense, and 165 total skills. I had settled on using the LO after poor performances with LS and SS in recent prior tournies, despite missing the DF for it. He ran on the same strategy almost every round, with the only difference being a slight toggle in min 2 vs defensives (slowing down quicker again them than against other styles). Whatever he was doing, he seemed to like it, as he started off the tourney 15-0, and trained two more CN in the process.

In R16, CADAVER DOG faced DOUBLE DOWN, a SL. DOUBLE DOWN got the jump, delivered a LO crit, and knocked CADAVER DOG down. Four more attacks on my defenseless warrior sealed his first loss.

In R17, CADAVER DOG eliminated PEPP IN YOUR STEPP, another LU, by getting the jump and running him over with LO crits. Now the only two warriors remaining were CADAVER DOG and DOUBLE DOWN.

In R18, DOUBLE DOWN opened with a LO normal, which hit, then a LO crit, which knocked CADAVER DOG down. CADAVER DOG bounced back up, but then took another crit, dodged a crit, then took another crit.

Things were looking pretty ugly, going from 15-0 to 16-2 with both losses coming from my final opponent. CADAVER DOG's 33 Defense was enough for everyone else in the tourney, but wasn't holding up against HW's SL. I didn't see anything to do but to shuffle the attack/protect again and trust the strategy that got CADAVER DOG this far.

R19 started much the same was as R18. DOUBLE DOWN opened with a LO normal to the head, then a LO crit to the head, sending CADAVER DOG desperate. CADAVER DOG was protecting the head in desperation, which seems fortunate given the first two attacks that struck the head. DOUBLE DOWN delivered another LO normal, this time to the chest, then attempted another LO normal. Finally, CADAVER DOG dodged, and riposted! CADAVER DOG delivered a LO crit to the head, then the arm, and that was the end of the grueling finals.

CADAVER DOG ended up with a 17-2 TC. It was an impressive run by HW's SL, but it wasn't quite enough.

Aftermath

Despite the total drubbing that I took in Primus, and the weak entries in Rookies and Champs that had little hope of success, my tourney ended up being fantastic. Thanks to Assur for proxying me. I hear it was an exhausting tourney for everyone, and I appreciate him hanging with me until R19!

My final record ended up being 125-102-1-1, for a 55% win percentage, with 1 TC, 1 RU, 4 TVs, and 3 stylemasters. 6 awards out of 33 entries is well above what I could have expected, and it made for an exciting weekend of following along from home.

Congrats to all the winners, and I hope everyone who participated had a great time. Thanks to RSI for running the tourney so well with such a high volume of entries. I am already looking forward to April, where I hope to do half as well as this tourney.

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2958

TC/RU list, courtesy of HW in Chatzy:

Quote:

200 Bobs and Dogs TMM AB/Frankenberry TMM AB
201 Albino Rainbow Papaiz AB/The Uptight Man TUM AB
202 Ross F. Gray Anarchist AB/Maximillian TMM PR
203 Connie TMM AB/Worth the Effort TMM LU
204 Hissy TMM PR/Fomalhaut OAB AB
205 Cadaver Dog OAB LU/Double Down HW SL
206 Valdez DMobster PR/Tyler Durden Chief Illiniwek LU
207 Resounding Tumult Vlad SL/Mr. Carter Madwand LU
208 Horror Fiend DMobster TP/Warwick Davis The Professor PL
209 Seeing Red Mannequin PR/Hornswoggle Doc Steele LU
210 Son of Battles Doc Steele AB/Major Lilywhite TMM AB

Expert Poster Joined: Dec 31, 2021 Posts: 57

If only there was a prize for Runner up! Horror Fiend had won very easily in r15 so I went into the reading with very little hope, but it was a great run by Warwick nonetheless. He fought with impressive heart and determination all weekend long. 30 years away but my old school tactics apparently still work, at least in basic.

Thanks to the sloshingfrothers for letting me hang out with the gang. Hopefully see everyone again next year.

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2958

That was indeed a great run, Professor!

Reaching the finals with a PL is something I haven't accomplished (and is rarely done these days), so it is a very cool achievement. And you DO get a stylemaster potion for your trouble.