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.

In a personally memorable moment I won’t forget, some of the most wonderful people I know decided to award me with a special “Buffy CCG Protector” award. Words don’t do it justice, so you’ll have to check out the picture for a clue of what I’m talking about.

Sunday - Showtime & the North American Championship

Sunday, a day to relax, a day to enjoy a simple game of kicking each other’s a$$. I know mine feels like it’s been kicked. What better way to finish off the tournaments but with The Slayer coming out on top. After all, that’s the way it worked out every week on the show. This time, it was Caroline not only switching over to the Protector side of things, but doing it in grand fashion. Here are the results for the final Gen Con tournament.

With the tournaments complete, it was time to award the North American Championship. To recap the rules, the championship this year was determined by a player’s four highest scores across all ten tournaments. So, for every tournament a player played about four, they were allowed to “throw out” their lowest score. That pretty much benefited a lot of people. I certainly could do without my last place finish with Anya in Tabula Rasa. Let’s take a walk back through Gen Con.

On Wednesday Matt Butterfield and Patrick Parker both won tournaments and jumped to the lead for the championship. In close pursuit in third place was John Bruno.

On Thursday night it was John Bruno winning the Highlander tournament in a tiebreaker over Patrick Parker. However, this gave Patrick the lead in the championship points with John Bruno three points behind in second and Dave Gerspach 5 points behind in third.

On Friday morning Mike Mathews arrived and promptly won the Hero of the Week/Villain of the Week tournament over Caroline Boehmer. Patrick maintained a two point lead over Dave Gerspach and Caroline jumped in third place, only four points behind.

On Friday afternoon it was Patrick Parker winning the Hot Dog Surprise tournament in a tiebreaker over Dave Gerspach and Matt Butterfield. Patrick continued his two point lead over Dave for the championship, with Matt moving up to third place trailing by five points.

On Friday evening it was Mike Mathews winning his second tournament, Tabula Rasa, by one point over John Bruno. It was still Patrick Parker in front at this point, but only by one point over Matt Butterfield, who had moved up to second place. Dave Gerspach was still two points behind in third place.

On Saturday morning, it was Dave Gerspach winning his first tournament at Gen Con by two points over Caroline Boehmer, Kit Radtke and Nicholas Draven. This vaulted Dave to first place in the championship by three points over now second place Mike Mathews and by three points over Patrick Parker.

On Saturday afternoon, Krista Donnelly won the Dream Card Tournament over David Robins. The top eight positions in the championship points remained unchanged.

On Saturday night, Dave Gerspach won his second tournament, and Protector of Gen Con 2005 title at the Grand Patrol. Kit Radtke finished second overall, but Patrick Parker took the title of Big Bad of Gen Con 2005.

Heading into Sunday’s finale Mike Mathews and Patrick Parker trailed Dave by 3 points. Matt Butterfield was in fourth place, behind by five points. And Caroline Boehmer was in fifth place, behind by six points. Since Mike had to head for home, Patrick couldn’t make it and Caroline could only make up a maximum of five points, the title came down to Dave and Matt. However, Matt needed to win the tournament.

It came down to one final game, but the Slayer proved too much for Matt’s Ken deck, just like she had fought off The Primitive. While it moved Caroline up to second place, it preserved the title for Dave. Congratulations to everyone who participated this year. Here were the final results.

I fully expect next year the competition will be even tougher.

Prizes and Changes to the Rankings

Oh ….my …god!!! The prizes were phenomenol. If anyone who played in these tournaments didn’t believe they walked away with enough Buffy merchandise, then they just aren’t telling the truth. Of course, just about everyone left with Anya. You couldn’t help it. I know links to our sponsor sites were posted on the boards. We’ll make sure they get reposted. If you want to make sure we can offer such prizes again next year, please let them know how much you appreciate their support and please buy their products. And if you tell them you got introduced to their product as a result of our tournaments, that’s even better. Here’s a list containing some of what was provided.

Diamond Select Toys
- Buffy and Faith Deluxe action figures
- Toy Fare Exclusive Dingoes Ate My Baby Willow
- Toy Fare Exclusive Chosen Spike
- Tara action figure signed by Amber Benson
- Tara T1 limited unpainted action figure in box signed by Amber Benson
- Exclusive Lorne action figure
- Exclusive Wesley action figure
- Exclusive Spike action figure
- Hush - Willow and Tara Together Forever Set
- Book of Vengeance Anya, Anyanka and D’Hoffryn Set

Cinequest.com
- 27 Anya action figures
- 12 Spike action figures
- Exclusive Hells Bells Anya action figure
- Exclusive Grave Spike action figure

Inkworks
- 7 Men of Sunnydale base trading card set
- 5 Spike the Complete Story base trading card set
- Serenity promo cards

Eden Studios
- Buffy RPG Core Book
- Buffy RPG Monster Smackdown Book
- Buffy RPG Slayer’s Handbook

Prizes from Inventory or donated by Aly/Dave
- 3 Buffy RPG Core Books
- Exclusive Comic Con Darla Action Figure
- Exclusive Wild at Heart Oz Palz
- 2 “Kiss the Librarian” mugs
- 2 Dice/Token bags
- WWBD bracelet
- Buffy comic book
- Buffy novel
- Assorted Inkworks base trading card sets from Men of Sunnydale, Women of Sunnydale, Spike the Complete Story, and Buffy Season 7
- Assorted CCG cards signed by Buffy/Angel cast members (Amber Benson, Mark Metcalf, Julie Benz, Adam Busch, Andy Hallet, George Hertzberg and Camden Toy)
- 4 Inkworks autograph or pieceworks cards
- 5 foil sets of Pergamum Prophecy, Angel’s Curse or Class of 99
- 2 non-foil sets of Pergamum Prophecy, Angel’s Curse or Class of 99
- 4 Buffy CCG “Commisary” sets
- 58 Buffy CCG Ultra Rare Cards
- Several Booster Boxes

 

I’m sure I missed a few items since the above was done from memory, but certainly you get the idea. If we want to have any chance of coming even close to the above list in the future, let our sponsors know how much they’re appreciated.

 

So we finished the events and handed out all the prizes. We said there would be lots of change to the Buffy CCG Rankings. Considering the length of the newsletter as it is, I’m going to have to make many of you wait until the September ranking list is printed. But there have been several changes, even within the top 10, which I will produce. I while some of the top spots haven’t changed, if you compare the rating numbers to the pre-Gen Con list you will notice that there isn’t nearly as much distance between some of the top players any more. The fun has just begun. Here’s the latest top fifteen.

 

1st Dave Gerspach	1322 rating	2642 points
2nd John Bruno	1284	2364
3rd Caroline Boehmer	1276	2430
4th Matt Butterfield	1252	2227
5th Patrick Parker	1251	2067
6th Keith Kusnier	1233	1990
7th Meldzan Isakovic	1209	1826
8th Sean Jones	1166	1393
9th Justin Francis	1162	1510
10th Kit Radtke	1155	1497
11th Krista Donnelly	1151	1300
12th Mike Mathews	1138	1142
13th Holly Boehmer	1128	1178
14th Aly Greaves	1126	1181
15th David Robins	1118	1164

 

Unless I’m mistaken, there are six new names in that list. That pretty much wraps up Gen Con. I’ll give more stat updates further down the newsletter.

 

 

What Did You Think?

Ten players took time out from the Grand Patrol on Saturday night and gave some feedback as to what they thought of the tournament formats and prizes and Gen Con, as well as, what influenced them to play in the Buffy tournaments. Here are those results.

Please rate each of the tournament formats used at Gen Con from a scale of 1-5 with 5 being to definitely bring it back to 1 being please don’t bring it back. Generally, every format received at least 1 rating of 5, except for Highlander. The only formats not to receive at least one vote of 3 or lower were the Wednesday Sealed Deck, Highlander and Grand Patrol. Here’s how the formats ranked.

Grand Patrol	4.8
Wednesday Sealed Deck	4.6
HotW/VotW	4.4
Hot Dog Surprise	4.2
Highlander	4.0
Saturday Sealed Deck	3.9
Tabula Rasa	3.8
Showtime	3.5
Dream Card	2.9

The only other way to rate the tournaments would be to consider how many people actually played in it. Although every tournament had similar numbers in that regard. There was one write-in vote to bring back The Three Challenge format.

What factors help you determine which Buffy CCG tournaments to enter. The percent of responders to cite each reason.

It’s Buffy! I don’t need any other reasons	60%
Timing (Fits your schedule)	40%
Tournament Format	20%
Prizes	10%

Which prizes do you enjoy seeing for the tournaments. The percent of responders who cited specific prizes.

Cards signed by Buffy/Angel cast	80%
Buffy/Angel action figures	70%
Buffy/Angel trading cards	50%
Buffy CCG promos, ultra rares or foil sets	30%
Stuffy people made (i.e. RJ’s binders)	30%	(these were write-in votes or I’m sure RJ’s binders would have received 100%)

So what does all of this mean for next year? Well, nothing at the moment. My immediate feelings are this. There were just a couple of tournaments too many. Unless other’s plan to hold events, there just wasn’t any time to breathe between Thursday night and Sunday afternoon. If no one else felt it, then it may just come down to me needing more help. Sorry guys, but by Thursday I felt like the Con should be over. I was having a great time, but getting prizes delivered while at Gen Con was just a bit too much. I certainly feel Saturday should only have two tournaments with the second ending a bit earlier.

As for formats, I think the Wednesday Night Sealed Deck and Grand Patrol formats are locks. HotW/VotW is almost a certain lock given how fast it sold out. Highlander received no votes lower than 4, so it’s very possible. The Saturday Sealed Deck wasn’t voted too high, but it had great turnout and the highest number of new players. The Dream Card tournament rated the lowest, but had an equal number of people rating it 5 as rated it 1. It probably won’t get a good time spot, but we need to have at least one chance to play those cards. That probably means that Hot Dog Surprise, Tabula Rasa and Showtime will be the most likely to be cut or replaced. Of course, we’ll ask everyone’s opinion when it comes closer to registration time (only 4-5 months away).

It seems like players will play in the tournaments as long as it’s Buffy. Other than that, we just need to find the best times to hold the tournaments. Prizes aren’t too important, but that doesn’t mean players don’t appreciate them. Cast signed cards are a favorite. We’ll have to see how we can continue that trend. It’s probably a good thing that not too many players need promos or foil sets any more, because we definitely won’t have as many of those to give away in the future. How many other prizes we manage to get I’m sure will be influenced by the feedback the players give our sponsors. Really can’t say that enough. If you took the time to go to Gen Con, please take a few more minutes and at least drop them an email.

 

Protectors and Big Bads - Post Gen Con

For the second time a former Big Bad has redeemed themselves and switched to the forces for good. Here’s the current Protector list.

1st	Dave Gerspach	WI	1255 rating	2107 points
2nd	Caroline Boehmer	IA	1153	1349
3rd	Meldzan Isakovic	IA	1113	988
4th	Justin Francis	IA	1102	939
5th	Aly Greaves	IL	1100	946
6th	Jason McCain	CA	1090	878
7th	Krista Donnelly	MD	1076	736
8th	Jennifer Tse	CA	1075	691
9th	Riley Akers	IA	1073	614
10th	Matt Scarborough	IA	1069	643

I’m not sure what happened to the Hellmouth in Waterloo, but Big Bads have spread themselves across the country. Here’s the current Big Bad list.

1st	Keith Kusnier	WI	1195 rating	1632 points
2nd	Matt Butterfield	IA	1194	1706
3rd	Patrick Parker	IA	1177	1430
4th	John Bruno	CA	1149	1234
5th	Sean Jones	VA	1096	813
6th	Mike Matthews	OH	1092	758
7th	Kit Radtke	WI	1078	738
8th	Lee Finholt	IA	1066	590
9th	Nich Schmitz	IA	1066	555
10th	Holly Boehmer	IA	1057	537

 

Favorite Decks and Deck Proficiency

The changes to the list were posted on the boards, but in case people are interested, here’s the current list. For those interested, this list will be posted again around year end. In the meantime, if anyone’s interested in whether they’ve reached a new level with their favorite character they can leave me a private message and I’ll reply as soon as I’m able.

Adam

Level 3 - Dave Gerspach, Meldzan Isakovic, Keith Kusnier

Level 2 - Nich Schmitz, John Bruno, Andy Iverson

 

Angelus

Level 3 - Caroline Boehmer

Level 2 - Sean Jones

 

Anya

Level 3 - John Bruno

Level 2 - Andy Iverson, Kit Radtke, Tom Hamilton, Dave Gerspach

 

Anyanka

Level 3 - Lee Finholt

 

Bizarro Buffy

Level 2 - Holly Boehmer

 

Buffy Summers

Level 4 - Dave Gerspach, Caroline Boehmer

Level 3 - Meldzan Isakovic

Level 2 - Matt Butterfield, Tiffany Lopez, Riley Akers, Kristin Meier, Tom Hamilton, Shon Encinas

 

Collin, the Annointed One

Level 3 - Patrick Parker

Level 2 - Matt Butterfield, Dave Gerspach, Sean Jones

 

Cordelia

Level 2 - Justin Francis, Aly Greaves

 

Dark Willow

Level 2 - Dion Erbes, Dan Joelson, Mike Rodgers

 

Drusilla

Level 3 - John Bruno

Level 2 - Ryan Green, David Truax

 

Faith (Hero)

Level 2 - Mike Matthews, David Truax

 

Faith (Villain)

Level 2 - Eric Ayers

 

Ghost Willow

Level 2 - Jennifer Tse, Sean Jones

 

Harmony

Level 2 - Ken Myers

 

Ken

Level 3 - Matt Butterfield

Level 2 - Mike Matthews

 

Quentin Travers

Level 2 - Dave Gerspach, Matt Scarborough

 

Riley Finn

Level 2 - Darryl Long, Dave Gerspach, Aly Greaves

 

Rupert Giles

Level 2 - Justin Francis, Krista Donnelly

 

Spike (Hero)

Level 2 - Layne Magnuson

 

Spike (Villain)

Level 3 - Keith Kusnier

Level 2 - John Bruno, Dave Gerspach, Patrick Parker, Chris Nichols, Jared Coffin

 

Tara

Level 2 - David Robins, Don Tresca, Caroline Boehmer

 

The Master

Level 3 - Andy Schneiders

 

The Pack

Level 2 - Dave Gerspach

 

Willow Rosenberg

Level 2 - Dion Erbes, Dan Joelson, Jennifer Tse, Eric Hammond, Cassie Cohn, Jason McCain

 

Xander Harris

Level 2 - Eduardo Gaeta

 

The next Newsletter (Volume 2, Issue 8) will be released in October, 2005.J

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