Well, another tournament has come and gone, and, as usual, it's up to one of us who was there to post up the events which took place at the tournament. Unfortunately, I have to warn you in advance, this tournament went pretty damn AWFUL for me, and nearly caused me to quit dueling, so expect a few rants here and there when I'm compiling all of this together.
The tournament took place at QRC, in one of the classrooms (not the gym as advertised, due to the gym being assigned that day). It felt cramped, with all of the duelists there, and there were some concerns that duelists could use the sections beneath the desk to hide cards, but it wasn't too bad.
It got under way at 12 :30 (Talia, the organiser, was waiting for some people to come at 12), and the numbers for the first wave of duelists was announced. Balki, The_Falener and my numbers were among the first to be called, so we sat down and dueled our opponents. We all made it through pretty much okay, considering that spectators were all over the place. However, The_Falener had to duel his match over, because of a move involving Snatch Steal and Mataza the Zapper that he made (unknowingly) to win the match. He still won the match, under supervision.
Basically, everybody who was expected to win, made it out to the second round. The junior league then went under way, and, surprisingly, didn't take too long to finish. I'm not really sure who won that, as I was out getting something to eat. Perhaps somebody seeing this thread could elaborate on that.
The second round was under way, and this probably marked my most HORRID dueling experience EVER. My opponent was Cliff, the guy who came in second in the last GATT tournament, but that's not why it went so horrid. As we shuffled our decks, Cliff asked me if I reduced the cards in my deck. I told him no, not knowing that that should have been a tip off.
The duel went under way, and Cliff emerged victorious. However, as we shook hands and counted our cards, I noticed that I only had 39 cards.
I looked in my box, and, to my horror, 6 of my most powerful cards were still in the box! I told Cliff we should duel over, but then sparks flew, him stating that it was my own fault (which it was), and me trying to explain that I wasn't even playing with all of my cards, and with a deck of only 39, it wasn't a legal duel.
Well, boy, this was were I felt like I was the next victim of a Black Supremacist movement.
Several people jumped in and started to argue that I should have been disqualified (I checked the PDF, I only had to forfeit one duel to Cliff for that mistake), and I was 'a white man trying to put the black man down'.
Utter and complete rubbish. I turned to them and said 'Well, if you were in my shoes, wouldn't you have been doing the same?' They all said, 'No, we would have taken we loss and gone with it.'
Pardon my language, but BULLS**T. If they were so willing and able to jump to Cliff's defense like this, they most certainly would have done so if the tables were turned on them. Not that I'm blaming them at all for trying to aid a fellow duelist, but that line about 'Cliff being a black man having to overcome the white boy' really ticked me off at how truly racist they were in their defense. Ah, boy.
Well, poor Talia, who had to endure this level nonsense from both sides, finally got fed up and gave me my re-match. As the match started, people shouted 'Yeah, boy! Show him the power of the black man!' could he heard, which I promptly ignored. Balki showed up, and when they tried to explain 'in their own words' how the comess started, he said, bluntly,
"I don't care about how this started, let me just see the match."
Well, the match went under way, and I won the first match.
I did the right thing (well, in my opinion) and forfeited the second to Cliff.
Cliff won with Chaos Emperor Dragon, to which a great cheer erupted from my depressors. Apparently, they didn't care as long as I lost the match. God, did I feel like a heel. I shook hands with Cliff, congratulated him, and wished him luck in the final rounds. No hard feelings, and I'm glad Cliff and I are still friends, even after all this happened.
After all of this happened, I was just battling feelings of embarassment and rage. I couldn't move from my chair, I was practically cemented to it in pure guilt. A few duelists that I knew tried to comfort me, but I still couldn't shake it. Well, I decided that the best way to shake off this guilt trip was duel several people until I felt better, which I did.
Meanwhile, the duels condensed to the final two, Balki (Chaotic) and Anderson Lawrence, who is the Toymart champion.
It practically came down to a topdecking situation between the two, Balki fending off Anderson with a Sinister Serpent, and Anderson breathing down his neck with three monsters. Two plays later, Balki emerged victorious, and took home the prize of $300.
He then distributed flyers of his tournament at Cascadia Hotel on the 24th September, and invited everybody to come to the 'Reign of the Chaos Legion'. Now, a Marvel vs. Capcom 2 tournament is going to take place, and you know me. I probably won't be dueling that day, but best of luck to those that do.
Well at least I got a nifty dog tag out of the whole experience.
It went well, regardless of the conditions and the controversy that took place, and I'm pretty sure that the next time Talia hosts a tournament, it'll turn out great. I left soon afterwards, and, I guess I made peace with everybody, still getting some complements on my deck.
Well, if anybody has anything else to contribute on this topic, feel free to do so. Balki, in particular, is more than welcome to post up his tournament report and his thoughts here. I'll just leave with some Pros and Cons that I saw in the tournament:
Pros:
- Big turnout, and a lot of formidable duelists made an appearance here.
- The tournament ran pretty well, and the junior league finished pretty quickle, which we were all grateful for.
- I learned that several people are now the proud owners of a Morphing Jar! I think I started a trend.
- My brother and I left one set of dog tags and 1 D.D. Warrior lady richer.
Cons:
- Losing in the second round.
- The cramped classroom.
- The blind opinions of the crowd at the rematch between me and Cliff.
- People deciding to cheat at the raffle by stealing the red cardboard and marking their numbers on it. I told Talia to just ditch the idea if they wanted to play dirty.
Well, that's all from me.
Later, and see you in the nationals!
