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I Went To Seattle and
All I Got Was…
THE BEST TCG TOURNAMENT
EXPERIENCE EVER! This
past weekend featured
Kaijudo’s very first
championship tournament.
By now you likely have
heard about the results.
How Bobby Brake managed
to pilot his “Leviathan
Control” deck through a
somewhat rough start
with an unfinished game
two in his first match
(which still went to him
as a 1-0 win) and then
losing his second match
against mono-fire rush.
After that round 2,
Bobby’s deck was warmed
and he went on to prove
that being number 1 in
the rankings isn’t just
about “attending a lot
of tournaments.”
Unfortunately for me, I
did not manage to
qualify as consistent
4-2 records with not
good enough tie-breakers
seemed to be my bane for
the entire KMC season.
On the flip side, my son
did qualify so I had the
chance to participate in
the awesomeness that
became the first Kaijudo
“Champs Weekend.”
Being at the
Champs Weekend I learned
a few things about
Kaijudo. The following
is a rundown of those
things I learned...
Kaijudo players are a
really cool, nice and a
great group to be
around.
Meeting this crew in
person was not only a
pleasure, but an honor.
With 19 years of TCGs
under my belt including
A LOT of competitive
play in more games than
I care to mention I have
literally NEVER met such
a wonderful, fun and
exciting group of
people. Everyone was
friendly, welcoming and
simply great to be
around whether they were
simply visiting the
tournament site, but not
participating, playing
in the Champs weekend or
there as a
representative for WotC. Rob
Gruber and the Good
Times Games crew are a
good example of this as
everyone knew who they
were before Friday’s
LCQs were completed and
it wasn’t just for their
thick Canadian accents,
eh? There wasn’t a
moment they were not a
blast to be around and I
believe the majority of
the people felt the same
way about the group of
players and WotC folk in
general. As
for WotC
representatives, they
made sure that they were
a plenty. You couldn’t
throw a Hybrobot Crab
without hitting one,
each of which were
always more than willing
to chat with you or even
throw down for a game or
two.
Kaijudo players are a
group paranoid, annoy,
pathetic people. Or at
least some of them are
unfortunately. I’ve
seen a lot of pathetic
people claiming to be
Kaijudo players tearing
each other apart all
over the internet and
over the stupidest
things. While I really
didn’t see so much of
that in person during
the Champs weekend, such
ridiculousness did
emerge on the internet
almost immediately after
the Champs weekend was
concluded. One player
who was in attendance
decided it was a good
idea to start bashing on
the hard fought skills
of a 14 year old kid and
claim that he didn’t
earn his spot in the top
8. While this complainer
disguised his “concern”
as “he wanted to make
sure the system wasn’t
broken” the fact that he
bothered to sit down and
do the math to SEE if
that the kid had made it
in legitimately
demonstrates to me that
this player was
specifically LOOKING to
discredit the young
Kaijudo Master. The
claim was that the kids
tie-breakers were
altered to ensure that
he would make Top 8 if
he ended up with a 4 – 2
record. So, this
player’s means of
thanking WotC for
supporting the game and
giving the players a
great weekend was to
accuse the company of
pushing in a kid so that
they could show that
even a kid could make
it. Despite these
accusations that
player’s age has never
been mentioned by WotC.
WotC did not perform a
special interview with
that kid in order to
trot out to its hopeful,
younger players. WotC
did not perform a deck
profile on this kid’s
deck. The closest thing
to any “special
attention” this kid
received was for his
feature match versus
Robert Hebert. I say
“special attention,”
however both players
were high up in the
standings by this point.
How do I know
this for sure?
Because I happen
to be that kids dad. I
can assure everyone that
no foul play ever
occurred. Ryan is an
extremely strong player
– one of the best in
North America, I’m sure.
He has proved himself in
the rankings, KMCs and
finally in at the Summer
Champs itself. He plays
and practices in the
very same local meta
that brought us both the
1st AND 2nd
place finisher of the
Summer Champs
tournament. If you are
player who didn’t make
it to the Champs, don’t
be salty. Step it up and
prove yourself. Made it
to the champs, but
didn’t do as well as you
would have liked? Don’t
be salty. Step it up and
prove yourself next
time.
Rush proved itself
strong. The
Champs tournament saw
three mono-Fire Drakon
and three mono-Light
Enforcer decks in a
field of 46 players.
That makes for 13% of
the field being rush.
Based on those
statistics even odds
would say that no rush
deck stood a chance of
making it into top 8. In
real life 2 of those
decks made it into top 8
would makes for 25% .
That’s nearly twice the
success ratio that would
be expected. For a
long while people have
claimed that rush decks
simply didn’t have the
chops to make it
consistently into the
top spots. Those same
people pointed to the
numbers of rush decks
entered into the field
during the KMC season
and how few of those
made the grade. My
argument all along has
been that it has not
been the decks, rather
it has been the pilots
simply making bad
choices. I believe that
the Champs tournament
was the ultimate test of
this theory as any
player running a rush
deck during the
tournament surely would
be a capable player.
Sure enough, rush beat
the odds as they found
themselves pushing their
way into Top 8. While
one was mono-Fire and
the other mono-Light
both deck archetypes are
essentially the same.
WotC will not be banning
Bottle of Wishes anytime
soon.
“Variance” was the word
of the weekend! During
the WotC panel the
designers explained that
they felt that Bottle of
Wishes was good for the
game as it included just
that bit of variance to
the game making it more
exciting. They went onto
explain that while they
do believe that Bottle
of Wishes can create
explosive results, (such
as the turn 2 shield
into Tritonus that I
experienced during the
LCQ) though there are so
many MORE stories that
people don’t tell
regarding when bottle
hit something such as a
bird or a Stormspark
Blast with nothing
worthwhile to tap on the
board.
WotC is concerned about
Keeper of Laws.
Speaking with the head
of R&D with regards to
Keeper of Laws we found
out that the card was
intended to give agro
decks a weapon to use
against control. Of
course, the first
seriously competitive
deck which players
shoved Keeper of Laws
into was…a control deck.
Sounds like this had
WotC face palming and
now Keeper of Laws IS
run in agro as planned,
however it is seen in
just as many, if not
more, control decks
making it the 3rd
most played creature
card amongst the top
decks through the
post-Clash KMC season.
WotC states that, unlike
Bottle of Wishes which
they seem completely
unconcerned about, they
are watching Keeper of
Laws effect on the
metagame carefully
carefully.
WotC wants to seriously
create a game that is
about the community and
the experience. Words
to this degree where
spoken regularly
throughout the weekend.
WotCs focus is on the
“the experience” of
Kaijudo. With that
Kaijudo is never
intended to be a big
money game like Magic:
The Gathering, rather
the “profit” one will
see in the game will
come mostly from the
sense of community and
fun the game provides.
That’s all good and
well, but words means
nothing without actions,
right? Champs weekend
firmly demonstrated to
me that WotC is not only
saying those words –
they MEAN them. By
Saturday afternoon the
regular chatter
throughout the room was
about how awesome the
experience had been so
far. The majority of the
players did not even
CARE about the
tournament the next day.
Sure, they wanted to
play, but the tournament
had now been relegated
in their minds to “just
another even that
weekend along the way.”
Players created cards
together, ate lunch all
together, chatted it up,
joked, played unlimited
drafts/sealed
mini-tournaments and
just generally had a
great, relaxing,
memorable time. I doubt
a single person walked
away from the experience
without making at least
one new friend. For the
majority of us we made
so many new friends from
all over North America
that we simply can’t
bother to count.
Additionally reinforcing
the “experience”
philosophy WotC gave
away prizes to people
they feel truly
exemplified what they
are looking for in the
Kaijudo community. In
fact, the prizes were
rather surprising and
nearly equal to what the
top competitors received
on for the Sunday Champs
tournament. Each person
received a signed, from
copy of the Infernus the
Awakened art work and an
iPad Mini!
In
closing , I’d like to
say. Great job WotC! I
have only compliments on
your event. For a once
jaded Duel Masters
player I have all the
confidence regarding
your seriousness of this
game and most especially
after witnessing the
greatness of this past
weekend.
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