Welcome to the Post-Gen Con Special Issue

Ten tournaments in less than 4 days. A total of 36 different participants. Almost 200 prizes given away. We continue to show some growth over last year in terms of interest and participation in the Buffy CCG. And there were several comments from newcomers over the friendliness of the Buffy CCG players and how the atmosphere in our tournaments was so much better than many of the other games being played. We had seven different tournament winners showing the depth of quality players at Gen Con. Yes, I was able to repeat as North American Champion for 2005, but only by the slimmest of margins over a handful of other equally deserving players. And those that didn’t fare as well I’m certain learned a lot and will be winning their own tournaments in the near future.

Several words come to mind when trying to sum up the experience. Exhaustion is probably the most common word when it’s all done. Gratitude comes in a close second for all the help and kind words along the way. Tolerance for mistakes, misplays, and all the other mishaps that occurred along the way. And finally, thankfulness for a great game and the wonderful people who play it.

We’ll cover all the results in this issue, as well as, a recap of how some of the rankings and other statistics changed over the course of the event. Finally, several people during our Grand Patrol completed a survey of how they felt about the different formats and prizes being offered. We’ll share the results and then hopefully use them to continue to make future events even better. I’ve got a few pictures to share, but only a few. Perhaps others have more to share..

Wednesday Night - Sealed Deck

Last year we had at least 12 people express interest in this tournament and 7 showed up. So I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it couldn’t have turned out any better. We had 16 sealed decks available for play and exactly 16 people showed up to play. What we did then was randomly split the group into two tournaments with each tournament group containing only one of each main character. In other words, each tournament had exactly one person playing Angel, Buffy, Giles, Willow, Collin, Drusilla, The Master or Spike as their main character. In an interesting twist, the four highest ranked players present all ended up in the same grouping. Here was the order of finish for each group.

Notice any trend? If you combine the results for both tournaments by character it becomes a little more obvious.

1^st Spike

2^nd Collin

3^rd The Master

4^th Drusilla

5^th Buffy

6^th Angel

7^th Giles

8^th Willow

Yes, there was evil trend to the winning decks. Seems that the Big Bads were in control of Indianapolis. Oh yeah, and both evil winning decks were from Iowa players. They certainly know their evil decks there. J

Thursday Night - Highlander

There can only be one, of each card in a player’s deck of course. In a repeat to last year’s popular tournament format 16 players gathered for the first official Gen Con Buffy CCG tournament. Check out some of the action.

An evil breeze was still in the air as final round produced the following results.

The fun wasn’t over at this point until we conducted the annual Amy-a-thon. This year with the added twist of “I’ve got B.O.”. Each player was allowed to open 3 packs of Angel’s Curse. If they pulled an Amy Madison or B.O. card they were allowed to trade it in for a random ultra rare. Here are the Amy Madison winners.

Here are those who proudly proclaimed, “I’ve got B.O.”

At this point we’ve concluded the first official night of Gen Con and I think many people were already exhausted. I know I was. But before calling it a night, I want to extend a special thank you to Patrick “Austin Powers” Hines. He runs a tremendously fun Austin Powers World Championship every year at Gen Con and went out of his way to move the Saturday night start of his tournament so that many of the Buffy CCG players could join in the fun.

Friday - Hero of the Week/Villain of the Week, Hot Dog Surprise & Tabula Rasa

The trend of evil dominance that started Wednesday night continued into this day and night of a full moon. There is no age discrimination among the wicked as the Old Man dominated the first tournament of the day. Witness the final results.

So who was the top Old Man?

Four tournaments thus far and evil has taken first and second place in each of them. Would there be any surprises among the Hot Dogs? Everyone came armed with cards they thought they’d never play. Well, almost everyone. We hastily helped one wayward player swap out the cards in his deck and then started this first time unique tournament at Gen Con. Did anyone guess correctly as to which main character would rule this event?

Yes, it was the anointed one who assumed rule over this event. With Testosterone banned it was hard to run a fight deck and what character better stops challenges than Collin. If this event is run in the future it’s likely we would at least unban Testosterone and give Collin something to fear.

The final tournament of the night, it’s a full moon and the Big Bads are running wild. Strange events were used for the Tabula Rasa format. Some decks apparently were impacted more than others. Check out these results.

At this point people have to start questioning why they brought any hero decks. But fear not. In movie-like fashion where evil dominates early, good somehow finds a way to the surface. In this case the turning point in this plot starts when Caroline Boehmer decides to realign herself and come to the aid of the Powers that Be. Stay tuned to Saturday and Sunday results to see the impact this would make.

Saturday - Sealed Deck, Dream Cards and the Grand Patrol

It’s been said on the boards that I have a knack for pulling Buffy and Bizarro Sun Cinema in sealed deck tournaments. Well, it was half right as I did get Buffy, but no Sun Cinema. If I pull Buffy, I have to go with her as my main. Just a habit. This time I went with a Buffy deck I’ve never tried before. A 42 card deck with 16 different characters. Armed with only Buffy and three Hair Flips to fend off fight decks I basically hoped to swarm my challenges. For once, something seemed to work. But it was Wish, the Weirding that slowed my opponents at critical points in two games. Here are the final results.

Finally, the heroes have something to cheer about as Buffy and Willow win one for the good guys. Next up is the dream card tournament, a first ever at Gen Con. A tournament that never could have been held without the beautiful work by Troy Bastin (aka metrodj). We can’t thank him enough for the amazing cards he does for us. As for the tournament; well, evil did resurface for a victory, but the good decks acquitted themselves respectfully.

It’s time for the Grand Patrol. Two of the most coveted Buffy CCG awards are the Protector and Big Bad of Gen Con. Originally, these titles were respectively held in the past by Matt Strehlow and Ryan Green. The defending Gen Con 2004 Protector is Mike Mathews and the defending Gen Con 2004 Big Bad is Keith Kusnier. Both were present this year along with several challengers. When the dust settled, Dave Gerspach was named the Protector of Gen Con 2005 and Patrick Parker was named Big Bad of Gen Con 2005. Two more titles to add to the history of the game. Here is final finish.