Newark Face to Face Spoilers and pics.

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2958

Natural History museum

Stillgard to the left

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2958

Eligibles final

Consortium (proxying for Mannequin) and TUM sitting
Crip reading
DMobster and TMM in the background

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2958

Freshmen final

HowlinWolf and TUM sitting
Floyd reading
Background, from left to right: Spirit, Deep Thought, Alfredo, Marma Duke, Chief I, Stormlord, Khisanth, TDO & wife

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2958

Adepts final

Baron Bentsword and Crip sitting
Consortium reading
Background, from left to right: Sandy and Mike, JE (obstructed), The Dealer, Spirit, Alfredo (obstructed), Marma Duke, Chief I, Deep Thought

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2958

Dr. Feelgood TC victory lap

From left to right: TUM, Otto X, Dr. F, Lee, JE, TDO

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2958

Primus final

TMM vs himself
TUM reading
Background, from left to right: Lee's hand, The Dealer, Marma Duke, Chief I, Deep Thought, Stormlord (obstructed), Floyd, TDO (back turned), Baron Bentsword, HW's foot

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2958

Freshmen final (different angle)

Foreground, from left to right: Deep Thought, The Dealer, Alfredo, HW, TUM, DMobster

Background, from left to right: Bubbaganoosh, TDO, Khisanth, Stormlord, Baron Bentsword, Destitute Noble, Dr. Feelgood, Otto X, Stillgard, Crip, Consortium

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2958

Studcraft, taking the bull by the...

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2958

Thursday:

A number of people were arriving at the hotel on Thursday afternoon and were interested in exploring NYC. My work load is light over the summer, so I was free.

Thursday's tour group consisted of JE & family, Stillgard & company, Spirit & company, Studcraft, Dr. F, and myself. 11 people in total. We met up at the hotel and made our way into the city. It involved a taxi to Newark Penn Station, then the PATH train to the World Trade Center. Not too bad of a commute, taking a little less than an hour.

We started with a walk around the World Trade Center memorial site. I hadn't been above ground there in years, so it was nice to see what they had done with it. Honestly, it was beautiful and moving. There were two huge empty spaces representing where the twin towers once stood, which consisted of waterfalls flowing into the earth and the names of the victims etched on the railing surrounding it. A somber start to the day, but well worth seeing.

Following that, we walked over to Wall Street and Floyd came out to meet us and give us a bit of history about the area. We saw the outside of the NYSE, Federal Hall, and Trinity Church, and went inside Alexander Hamilton's old mansion which is now a museum devoted to Native Americans.

We decided to finish off the day with a subway trip up to Times Square. Holy cow was there a lot of people! Even walking was a chore at times, but we hung out for a bit and people watched, and Spirit's young companion posed for photos with some friendly ladies wearing body paint instead of tops.

Everyone was exhausted by this point, so we headed back to the WTC site, stopped off at a grocery store, then the PATH to the taxi to the hotel for a night's sleep.

Friday:

We got an early start on Friday because we wanted to get a few sites in before the RSI tourney room was in full swing.

We lost a few people (Studcraft, Stillgard's son and his friend), but we gained Otto X.

We headed to the WTC site again and walked a couple blocks to the shoreline so that we could view the Statue of Liberty from a distance. Quick and painless so far. Our next stop was to take the subway up to Central Park West to visit the Museum of Natural History. I had no idea it would be so busy. Crowded subway, crazy lines to get into the museum, kids running around everywhere once inside. We saw a few things, and even that was hard with 9 people with different speeds and interests. Eventually JE, his wife and daughter split off to go see Strawberry Fields in Central Park, Otto X explored the museum on his own, and the five of us remaining went to the top to see all the dinosaur bones. Pretty impressive creatures!

We wrapped up early so that we could get back to the tourney site and beat rush hour traffic. We did make time to hit Famous Original Ray's Pizza for a slice, and we lucked into walking by a film shoot for a movie.

At times it was crowded and exhausting, but hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves. I know I did. You spend so much time living in a place and you forget what you are missing. It was nice to see things through fresh eyes again and it gave me a good excuse to visit some sites that I haven't been to in years.

Advanced Expert Poster Joined: Jul 30, 2003 Posts: 178

It was a great trip. The tour was awesome. I'm not sure I would have even attempted navigating without your guidance. The 911 memorial is majestic and it immediately takes you back to where you were and how that day changed you. The pizza was so damn good! The way people there just completely tune each other out is so foreign to me being from the midwest. Anyway thanks again Dave you made the trip awesome! Oh also learned Kirk has a vast knowledge of New York city history rolling around in his head. All in all an excellent trip!

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2958

OAB's Newark FtF

By the numbers:

33 entrants + 2 Bloodgames teams
Class breakdown: 5 Primus, 1 Contender, 2 Eligible, 1 ADM, 1 Freshmen, 1 Challenger, 2 Champions, 3 Adepts, 4 Initiates, 6 Apprentices, 7 Rookies
Style breakdown: 9 AB, 1 BA, 6 LU, 1 PL, 1 PR, 1 PS, 3 SL, 9 ST, 1 TP, 1 WS

Record: 139-107-1-2
Win Percentage: 56.5%
Awards: 5 + 1 (Bloodgames)
Award Percentage: 15%

Primus through Eligible:

Primus was even worse than usual. Got some trains on my King of Primus team, but they went a combined 1-24. Ugly!

Contenders was the bright spot of the Primus level classes. After my TC in April, my next man up was Shewish Whaler, former Eligibles TC. He wasn't quite ready, missing two DF trains as of the freeze and not having enough CN. But by the end of the tournament, he had picked up the 2 missing DF trains, 1 CN train, and managed a 7-3 on top of that. I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do in October!

I sent crap to the Eligible class and did appropriately well. Ran a couple of used up ADM bust-outs, who learned gateway skills after the freeze and went for difficult trains during the tourney. 0-3 and 2-3 for my efforts.

ADM:

This was my best class, I felt, but with ADM being so crowded and competitive, I wasn't optimistic. I was running Shark Bait, an 8-9-13-7-21-5-21 AB. This same design has TC'd and RU'd ADM for me before (two separate warriors), so I was hopeful. He wasn't perfect, though. On the plus side, he was +4/+4 Att/Def. On the downside, he had SS vl/vl favorites. On the plus side, I used a mega-zap to make him FI favorite. On the downside, it took the whole 120 skills to max his Def learns, leaving less room for physical training. I was able to put 6 ST and CN trains on him and I decided to go for it.

The bust went great. 3 WL trains pre-tourney. 3 DF trains early. Then 2 WT trains, 1 more WL train, and 1 more DF train before the end. Even managed a couple SP trains. The fights did not go as well. Shark Bait took two early losses, one to TMM's AB and one to Otto X's LU. Not a good sign. After round 8, he was at 6-2. Then things started looking up. He just kept winning. By the finals fight, he was 13-2 and facing off against Otto X's LU bust-out.

The final fight vs Wilhelm Scream went a little better for Shark Bait than the first one (where he got steamrolled), but it wasn't good enough. My AB opened with two Fist crits that connected, but the third crit was dodged, riposted, and Otto X's LU threw a game ending LS crit. One attack, one hit, and my AB was down on the ground. The rest of the fight was just going through the motions, as LS crit after LS crit hit my prone AB. Very close, but Shark Bait was not the best ADM warrior on this day.

Congrats to Otto X on his TC!

Freshmen:

I thought this class would be my second best chance to TC, but things didn't work out as planned here either.

My entry was Hero Sandwich, an x-x-x-21-20(3)-x-20(3) AB bust-out. In the arena, after the freeze, he did three guaranteed WT trains to pick up a quick 15 skills. During the tourney he tried to train his WL to 21, which should be a 25% chance per round. And he tried. And he tried. It wasn't until the 10th round that he finally got WL to 21, and by then the writing was on the wall. He was 8-2 and matched up against The Uptight Man. Even with the 7 extra skills from WL to 21, Hero Sandwich wasn't able to beat him. He did get in one LO crit, but with his opponent's 25 CN, it didn't even faze him.

So my Freshmen hopeful would have to settle for a TV. Congrats to TUM on the eventual TC and condolences to HW who had two of the three remaining warriors and had to settle for a runner-up.

Challengers through Adepts:

Challengers and Champs were completely uneventful.

Adepts on the other hand, turned out much better than expected. I had overshot the Adepts line with a really good LU, so my only entries were a SL who had TV'd Inits, along with an AB and ST who had accomplished nothing so far. Needless to say, my hopes were not high.

The AB and ST predictably exited early, but the SL went on a tear. Finger Sandwich started out 6-0 before taking his first loss in round 7 to Kardashian. Then it was another few wins before losing the jump to a ST in round 11. By round 14, there were three warriors left. Finger Sandwich, my SL, Wednesday Adams, Crip's AB, and Pursang, Baron Bentsword's ST. The ST got the bye, and my SL faced off against Crip's AB. My SL couldn't lay a hatchet on him and Finger Sandwich was left watching the Adepts finals from the sidelines.

Congrats to Baron Bentsword on his TC and condolences to Crip on his disappointing finals loss.

Inits through Rookies:

These classes are not my strong suit, but I did better than usual. Had a 7-3 in Inits, a 9-3 TV in Apprentices, and a 12-3 TV in Rookies.

Bloodgames:

The MI Bloodgames were terrible for me. I tried a Dr. F-inspired scum BA and it went 0-10. My best warrior barely managed 3 kills and it was only good enough for 8th place.

The FtF Bloodgames was better. Despite my AB dying in round 1 as predicted, I had a multiple warriors who decided that they liked killing. By the halfway mark, I had one with 2 kills and three with 1 kill. Nobody breaking away from the pack, but a number of warriors in position to make a run for it. In the end, it was my 5-0-1 ST Krill Soup that got hot. Another kill in round 6 put him at 6-0-2. A third kill in round 8 got him to 8-0-3. Even so, there was a ST ahead of him at 7-1-4 called Aluminum Stallion of Animal Alloys. A loss in round 9 (combined with a kill by the other ST) should have put Krill Soup out of contention, but a kill in round 10 and the death of Aluminum Alloy vaulted Krill Soup into 2nd place with a 9-1-4 record!

For the third year in a row, I've gotten a ST out of the Bloodgames. Its no TC, but its a pretty cool consolation prize.

I had a great, if exhausting time. The hour and a half commute from my upper west side apartment to Newark was almost too much, but in the end I'm happy I got to sleep in my own bed for a FtF.

I had fun showing people around the city, and after the initial disappointment at losing ADM, I was pleased with my tourney performance.

Congrats to all the TC winners and condolences to all the Runner-Ups! See you on the sands in October!

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2958

TC & RU list, courtesy of Assur:

Primus: Frankenberry/AB/TMM over Bob Eternal/AB/TMM
Contenders: Magic Johnson/AB/LHI over Skitzoid Snoopy/AB/Marmaduke
Eligibles: A Balcony/AB/TUM over Confession/PL/Mannequin
ADM: Wilhelm Scream/LU/Otto over Shark Bait/AB/OAB
Freshmen: The Uptight Man/AB/TUM over Ether/AB/HowlinWolf
Challengers: Superior Snotling/AB/Manager over After 10 Beers!/PL/TMM
Champions: Legacy/LU/Dr. Feelgood over Oreo/ST/TMM
Adepts: Pursang/ST/Baron Bentsword over Wednesday Adams/AB/Crip
Initiates: Nth Brick/ST/TMM over Steven/LU/TMM
Apprentices: Eco Power/ST/HowlinWolf over Ike/BA/Consortium
Rookies: Little Boy/SL/Dealer over Pirate/AB/JE

Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 3:58 pm

Eligibles final -- Mannequin (proxied by Consortium) vs. TUM:

Challengers final -- TMM vs. Manager (proxied by TDO, wearing the moose hat)

Rookies final -- JE vs. The Dealer

Advanced Expert Poster Joined: Jul 30, 2003 Posts: 178

hope this link works

https://youtu.be/NDa9UZ-R0P0

Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2015 7:29 am

Newark 2015 Face is now in the books! Now that I moved to the Phoenix area, its weird to fly back to my old local area for a tourney. Not that long ago, I was doing this flight in reverse. Oh the irony! Couldn't get the time off of work on Friday, so had to take the redeye and landed in Newark around 6:30am. Spirit was kind enough to pick me up from the airport, and after some confusing turns on the highways, we somehow manage to make it back to the hotel. When we arrive and get to the conference room, I see we have a pretty decent sized space. I think someone said we got 3 conference rooms opened up. So that was pretty cool. My first round tourney was already sitting on my seat, but I say a quick round of hellos to everyone sitting close by, and anyone willing to take time from their strategies to come over and say hi. Marma Duke bought a bunch of bagel breakfast sandwiches for everyone on Saturday morning, so want to give him a shout out for that!

So now to the actual tourney. Here were my highlights (and lowlights):

Primus to Eligibles
Well I didn't expect to do that well in these classes, but I didn't think I would do this bad. Ended up going a combined 1-16 between the 4 guys I sent here. This crew did much better for me in the Spring mailer, so while I didn't think they would do anything grand, thought they would at least be respectable. Oh well. At least some guys got a few trains out of it.

ADM
I had a warrior that TV'd this class in the spring mailer, so was kind of optimistic about his chances for the summer. But after not learning a skill or training a stat, he gets bumped to Eligibles. Doh! Have to rearrange my expectations. But I do have 2 former TC's in this class, though still developing, so I am hopeful. Forest Moon goes 0-3 which was disappointing. But at least she gets a train and a damage bump, so that's something at least. Lebron Leaving however surprises me! He only TC'd challengers in the fall mailer, and I am still training him to the top of ADM. But he fights like an animal in the early rounds and starts off at 10-0! Now I have TC dreams in my head, though deep down inside I probably know he doesn't have a shot against the busters. But he did beat Wilhelm Scream, Otto's really good lunger that was busting, so I figure maybe Lebron has a shot. But ran into a BG's striker and 2 open handed aimers that I assume were all busting, and that's lights out for Lebron. But its a good showing and I am definitley looking towards the future. And congrats to Otto and Wilhelm for eventually taking the title despite me giving him a cheap loss Smile

Freshman
All my former competitive Freshman got bumped up as well in this class. But I do have a couple of young warriors that I think will eventually make some noise here. Though they are still developing. My highlight here was when my PR started off 4-0-1. She actually got a kill in Rd 1, so I think maybe its her time to make a run. But after 3 straight loses, all my guys are out of Freshman after Rd 7.

Challengers
For some reason, I really like this class. I ended up sending 7 guys here, all at various stages of development. Only 2 guys though that I think have a chance on really doing anything in Newark. One of them is Baretta Nano, my lunger who took 3rd in this class in the mailer. So I'm excited about his chances. He ended up taking a tough loss in the middle rounds, getting one shotted by a striker. But other than that Baretta is cruising along. Head into the runoffs with alot of momentum, and is sitting at 12-1 after 13 rounds! I think to myself looking good. But I tweaked my strats against Khisanth's good aimer, and the strat change didn't look good, and he ended up toughing out Baretta in a good 5 min fight. Fought TMM's good looking PL in Rd 15, but I know its a good match up for me and was able to take him out. Now in rd 16, I match up against Mgr's super prized stack aimer, Super Snotling, and Baretta was destroyed in the fight. But nothing to be ashamed of losing to the eventual TC winner! Snotling proved to be Superior. Baretta should still be under the line skills wise, so here's to hoping he gets another Challengers run.

Champs
I sent 3 guys here, 2 of which which were former TV winners. But the best I could do was a striker that goes 6-3. Thought I would do better here, but thats the way tournies go sometimes.

Adepts
Just like in Champs, I send 3 warriors in this class, with 2 former TVs. But I do a little better here. I have a slasher here that goes 8-3, which I consider a respectable showing. That's my second slasher TV this tourney! So take that all you slasher haters Smile

Initiates
I have some decent warriors in this class, but as with all the lower classes, sometimes you just never know. I have some former TV's and a prize warrior here, so hoping that at least one of them makes a good run. Some of my guys do get off to a good start, but its my striker that starts separating himself. He enters the runoffs at 9-1, and I think just as good a shot as everyone else. In the runoffs I run into 2 strikers and 2 lungers. I actually beat both strikers, who I think are my main competition, so I am feeling good. But run into 2 really good lungers, who both riposte my first attack, then subsequently take me out. Didn't throw a crit in either of those lunger fights, which was probably the deciding point in the fight right there. Maybe if I could of found his favorite weapon, things would of turned out differently, but woulda shoulda coulda. Finishing at 11-3 is not that bad. He'll be pretty close to timed in Adepts at least.

Apprentices
This was probably my best overall class in the tourney. Had a bunch of warriors get off to decent starts, and 2 that made it pretty deep in the runoffs, a striker and an aimer. The striker is a big SZ 17 guy, but was doing pretty well. Entered the runoffs at 8-2 and was actually getting the jump on all the other strikers he faced! His decise rating is competitive, but I'm guessing the initiative coming from the size really helped him get the jump. His 3 losses were to a TP and an AB in the early rounds (the aimer made the runoffs as well), and to a lunger in rd 13. So he finished at 10-3 which was not too shabby for him. My aimer turned out to be a pretty knacky warrior, far out performing his skill levels. Like alot of young aimers, he had alot of attack, but not much of anything else, so figured his only chance were good match ups. But he was fighting out of his mind, and beating styles and warriors I didn't think he had a chance in beating. Started rd 10 at 9-1, and with the way he had been fighting, thought he might actually have a shot here. He is beating all the styles I figured he'd have problems with, namely strikers, lungers and speed aimers. So I am definitely stoked when he is winning those fights, and I have TC dreams in my head! In rd 14 I get matched up against Bubba's PR. I thought it must be a damn good PR to make it this far, but I think its a great match up for me, and so not too worried. I get the jump and the first hit, but he ripostes me and then starts pummelling me! WTF! Pretty impressive and I am suitably humbled. But I still have a loss to give, so I pull myself together, and luckily end up fighting Persistent Beggar in rd 15. I go to Rd 16 with only 2 other warriors left besides me. A striker and a basher. My guy had been doing really well against the strikers, so I wanted that match up. But I draw Consortium's basher. The basher hits me 4 or 5 times with a Maul, so I think I'm in big trouble. But I eventuall riposte, and start punching him like Rocky punching the hanging meat in the freezer. But couldn't take him out. Looks like the basher takes a hit like Rocky as well. The basher finally swings back, and takes me out with 2 more hits! Arrrghhhh. Another guy makes it to Rd 16. Close but no cigar.

Rookies
Rookies ends up being a complete sh*t show for me. My guys start dropping like flies. At the end of day 1, I only have 3 out of 15 guys left. A striker, an aimer and a scum. The striker and aimer promptly lose in rd 7, so only the scum TP left at 5-2. I'm like great effing story here. So in all honestly I don't really pay that much attention to rookies after that. But my scum keeps winning, and when I look up he earns a TV at 8-2! I still think he will get taken out by an aimer eventually, so not that excited, but still happy that I get a TV out of this class. Luckily for me, I keep avoiding those suckers and I find my scum in Rd 14 sitting at 12-2! There's only 2 aimers left, and I match up against a lunger in rd 15. The 2 aimers get matched up against guys I think can beat them, so I am hoping that they both get taken out. I beat the lunger, but one of the aimers beat out TDO's monster rookie Piker. Now I am in the final 4 with the aimer, TDO's parry strike, and a slasher I had beat earlier in the runoffs. Finally its here that my TP meets his match. I get the worst possible match up and get the aimed blow who promptly takes me out. I am a little disappointed since I think I had a chance to win it if my semifinal opponent was different. But my scum definitely brightened up my rookie tourney. That's my 3rd 13-3 finish of the day, so not too shabby!

Bloodgames
This won't be long, but I will say this. DAMN YOOOOUUUU FLOOOOOOOYD!!! My F2F Bloodgames striker enterd rd 10 at 8-1-5. All I had to do was survive to get out. Needless to say that when Floyd's TP killed him in Rd 10, it was a real kick in the nether regions! Arrrghhhh.

So overall had a pretty decent tourney. Ended up with 7 TVs and 3 close flirtations with the final chair. Despite having a horrible record in Rookies as well as Eligibles to Primus, ended up having a winning record of 165-153-5-2. I think the win pct was something like 51.8%. Congrats to all the TC's and condolences to the dead. Its been fun boys. See you in Tempe!

-Stormlord

P.S. Some fun tidbits from the tourney. Line of the day from Spirt: "When I look around this room, I see nothing but potential" in his best Pinocchio voice about the big conference next to us. Marma Duke getting digits and Friend requests from young redheads Smile

Nice seeing old friends and meeting new managers like Jerman and Vlad. Thanks Jerry for letting me look at your warrior database! If I missed anything or anybody, no slight intended. I'm in a rush to finish this and meet the RSI ladies and the NYC boys for lunch.