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Kong Man
PCLA Part 2: Concerning Day 1
James Kong
December 24, 2005
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Part 2 involves the Day 1 of the PC and the couple of days preceding it. You may like it, you may not, however I still encourage you to sue VSP.

One week after we had arrived and such classic quotes such as "I've stuffed animals before" (TBS) and "I've slept with Ben bore and he snores" (Paul Ross), the rest of the Australian players had landed. Without further ado these are the players and their stories.

Luke 'Like' Bartter - Many people know Luke from his consistent top placings at both 10K and PC level. Fewer people know that if you get Luke drunk enough, he likes men. In a touchy feely way He even wears rainbow shirts. Spread the word.

Like
"Please God may I win the first three rounds at the PC..."

Alex 'Uly' Brown - Known as the Best Technical Vs. player in the world, Alex is a perennial bridesmaid of the 10K scene making 4 finals but only winning one. He has posted two top 20 performances at the PC and has no hair.

Uly
"Meat Ops had its unfortunate side effects."

Scott 'ssteven' Hunstad - Co-owner of VSParadise, Scott brings much happiness and joy to restaurant owners around the world. His love of gaming knows no bounds and because he is, of course, independently wealthy he is able to travel to any PC he wants. Not just a warm body at the gaming table, Scott has made a Top 8 and PC and many a quarter-finals of 10Ks.

ssteven
Man on a mission...

Paul 'Vanwolfgang' Vanderwerk - Co-owner of VSParadise, Paul is known as He Who Shall Not Be Named on VSParadise forums because any mention of him involves expletives and is therefore deleted. Paul is known for making Top 8's of 10Ks and dropping, as well as his love of Marvel's Merry Mutants.

Vanwolfgang
Can you spot the giraffe?

Sam 'K' Kassis - If you see him. Run the hell away. Terrorist scum.

SamK
"Dhurka Dhurka Dhurka..."

Randall 'TDKR' Hughes - Randy/Big Dell is known for his consistent slow play. If you have to play him, have a nap. When you wake up, after he has finished his recruit step ten minutes later, you will feel refreshed, alert and ready to play Turn 1. Be aware that he is ALWAYS right. Additionally he may or may not be a terrorist and involved in racial riots via SMS.

TDKR
"Dhurka Dhurka Dhurka..."

Andrew 'cornstar' Corney - For some reason his avatar on the forums is of Lucius Fox. This says a lot about Andrew's idea of testing which involves trying out many non-tier 1 cards, even when we tell him to stop! Andrew's play skills are evidenced by his 8-0 in Swiss at the Melbourne 10K. Also known for dropping, Andrew has made two 10K top 8's.

cornstar
"8-0 is nice... Dropping is better... Don't you agree giraffe boy?"

Kieran 'Honest' Otton - The biggest Arkham fan I know, he is the only Australian who didn't play FoE. Co-Owner of Sydney Games Centre, Kieran has helped the game grow in Sydney with the only unfortunate side effect being that he tries to convince people to play Arkham.

Honest
Kieren 1 Batman 0

Ross 'Raider' Schafer - Ross is not from Sydney. So we already know that he isn't cool. The fact he comes from Canberra. Well. Nuff' said. However for someone we only see once a year and only at PCs he gets along really well with the clicky Sydney crowd. Too bad he works for the government. Sam K has plans to blow up that building.

Raider
Don't deny it Ross. You do snore!

Anthony 'Migga' Macali - Anthony has been the recipient of many a bad beat in his life. Whether it is being half Italian and half Maltese, living in Melbourne, or playing Yu-Gi-Oh, Migga can't help getting kicked around. Hell, I bashed him in Magic. And I don't even play. Poor kid wasn't even 21 when he went over. Bad beats.

Migga
Can you spot the Maltese Falcon?

Wednesday 16/11

With everyone now here, we all decided that Frank and Sons was the place to go. Cheap deals on everything meant that we all copped the wallet beats. Hunstad and Vanderwerk were running around the place trying to find Ravnica boxes, which most places had sold out of. While there we see Vidi Wijiya, Kelly barn extraordinaire, who is picking up a System Failure.

Vidi

We obviously danced around mentioning the decks that we were playing, although Luke did buy 4 Foil Mega Blasts, 4 Birthing Chambers and a Ratcatcher in front of him. We later found out the Realmworx thought we were playing Rigged Elections. We go back to Anaheim and have dinner at the House Of Blues, which is having its Voodoo Karaoke night. During the night Randall was serenaded by Sam.

Serenade

After some prompting Ben pumped out a rendition of I'm A Believer while Raider got up to sing Butterfly. After most of our group had left, I was promised free drinks for the rest of the trip if I went up and sang Hanging By A Moment by Lifehouse. Luckily for me Alex and Luke were the only witnesses as I mumbled my way through the verse, and then belted out the chorus. Thank god for beer.

Thursday 17/11

We left Ben's house today to go stay in Anaheim. We arrived at our hotel, check in and visit Uly who, from the smell of things, was still removing remnants of meat from his body. We head out to the convention to register for the tournament and get our Gencon passes. As it turned out we aren't even allowed to look around the convention, so we go back to the hotel and do some testing. We ate Tony Roma's for dinner, at Sam K's insistence, follwed by even more testing. I fell asleep at around 11:30 ready for the big day.

Friday 18/11 PCLA Day 1

The Day Of Reckoning. I woke up at 7AM showered, changed and then went downstairs for a breakfast of fat, bacon, eggs and toast. Since I never eat at tournaments, I have to have a big breakfast. I find out from Randy that he couldn't sleep last night and went out to the back of the hotel and did star jumps. Weird.

I arrive at the con at 8:35 and go straight to the tables for a player meeting. After some announcements about Silver Age and UDE's lack of respect for international players by having four PCs in America, I nervously found my first round pairing and felt extremely happy when I saw it isn't a "name" player.

Round 1 Aaron Weil

Aaron might not have been a name player. He might even have qualified for the PC by winning n LCQ the previous day. So you would grant me being confident of winning this match. I mean what are the chances I play the guy who goes 10-0 on Day 1. Sigh. Aaron wins the die roll and takes odds. Things look up for me when I drop a 1 drop and he misses. The first turn was probably the best part of the match for me as Aaron plays Natasha, Quicksilver, Hawkeye, She-Hulk and Wonder-Man to utterly destroy me. The Avengers B-drops Natasha and Quicksilver destroyed my board and I couldn't get back in it from there. On the other hand, I have missed Yellowjacket and Beetle, so I miss drops. My life sucks. I lose I am

0-1

So I lost a match at the Pro Circuit. No different from any other time right?

Round 2 Steve Baroli

Last year, I got my first win in Round 2….when my opponent didn't show up. No such luck this time as I sit down with Steve already at the table. To my relief I win the die roll and choose odds. Luckily for me Steve was playing Squadron, which was an easy match-up for me. Having said that, the match was extremely tight. Endurance totals were even for the most part, thanks to Ratcatcher who had burnt him for about 12 endurance over the course of the game. The final turn ends with him dropping Albert Gaines on 6 with no cards in hand. A Whizzer with a Panacea Potion counter is on the table. I play dudes and Screaming Mimi and burn his endurance into the negatives so that he can't use Whizzer's ability. On his turn he does 32 points of damage to me to drop me to -14 to his -3. I send Beetle into his Whizzer with a double Wrecking Crew and a power-up for an exact 10 attack and Whizzer falls down. Screaming Mimi into Albert Gaines, while next to Heinrich Zemo, with the two Wrecking Crew bonuses on her, and a Savage Beatdown, allows me to clear his board and swing with Heinrich to the face for the win.

1-1

Once again I am at 1-1 and feel relieved to get my first win, especially in a tight match.

Round 3 Mark Verhous

I lose the die roll, get evens, and miss my 1 drop. This did not bode well for the match, so when I realized that Mark was playing Avengers, I went into a corner to cry. The kick in the nuts was he didn't miss 1, dropping a Beast, and then went on a killing spree with a team attacking Natasha on turn 3. Mark plays Hawkeye on 4, and Carol Danvers on 5. Since he missed She-Hulk I thought I had a chance, but when he showed me Wonder-Man on 6, I conceded with the scores at 3-20.

1-2

Oddly enough I wasn't too depressed at this point. This may have been because I couldn't complain as Luke was 0-3 at this point. However I did have enough confidence in the deck to pull me through. Hitting two Avengers match-ups with the even initiative was bad times, but I still had a two loss buffer to make Day 2.

Round 4 Daniel Chulsky

I win odds and manage to hit my all my drops for the game, through Beetle and Yellowjacket. It doesn't help that Daniel's only drop for the first three turns is a Rick Jones. On turn 4 he plays a Quicksilver, I play my guys and use Null Time Zone naming Legendary Battles. I obviously didn't have anything else to name. At the start of turn 5, I am on 43 and he is on 2. I Yellowjacket for Screaming Mimi and he concedes when I burn him for 6.

2-2

Feeling good at this point, with the deck finally coming together. Sure my opponent missed 2,3 and 4 but I won. Go team.

Round 5 Matt Rock

I get odds again and play a first turn Ogre while Matt plays a GCPD Officer. On turn 2 he plays Alfred and another Officer. I have Songbird in my hand but decide not to play her, because in testing we found that, with no easy way to stun her, she allowed combo decks to get free searches every turn. I flood the board with characters and attack all game steadily dropping his life and keeping his board down. On turn 4 I left Beetle unprotected on the wing. Hoping to stem some damage, he team attacks his Cops into my Beetle. As I had no more guys in hand I was ecstatic. I clear his board again on the swing back, without trading stuns with anyone. In Recovery, when I choose not to recover Beetle, Matt gives me a weird look. On turn 5 I use Hard Sound Construct to get Beetle into play, and search out Yellowjacket who searches out someone else. Matt plays Sunfire and teams up, stunning some of my guys, but by now he has no board, and is close to 0 life, so he concedes.

3-2

This is the first time I have had more wins than losses at a PC. I tell myself that all I need to do is mimic what I have done and I can make Day 2. Looking around for other Aussies I find out that Corney is now 5-0 and Alex 4-1.

Round 6 Matt Meyer

I lose the die roll and get evens. I see a turn 1 Joystick come down on the other side of the table. Happy that I'm not playing against Avengers with the even initative, I get a good draw with Beetle and Yellowjacket searching each other out. However Matt hits his curve as well and he has an Other Earth on turns 3 AND 5 to knock me to -3. I leave the table dejected.

3-3

I know I couldn't have done anything better in that match but I was depressed. Flying halfway around the world sucks. Doing it and losing matches sucks even more.

Round 7 Brian Eugenio

I get odds and Brian misses 1.He hits Natasha and Black Panther but I clear his board on 3 when I play No Man Escapes The Manhunters on Black Panther. On turn 4, he plays Hawkeye. I swarm the table with 1 drops and Ratcatcher to make his Hawkeye less effective. He zaps Ratcatacher and Yellowjacket with his Hawkeye and bashes for breakthrough with Black Panther with a Beatdown, dropping me to 15. I clear his board and show him Speed Demon next turn and he concedes. Apparently, according to Scott Hunstad who played Brian later on, he was running Chaos Magic which would have allowed him to retarget No Man ….which he did to Hunstad for the win. Now that's bad beats.

4-3

I'm 4-3 and only need two more wins to make Day 2. I feel my gut churning, likely from nerves, but more probably from Meat Ops. Migga is out after playing a guy Round 1 who was running Titans with Flametrap and then getting Betrayaled twice. He also lost a game after he tried to Mega-Blast Speed Demon twice, and his opponent had two Not So Fast. Migga is the king of the bad beats. So looking at that I guess I shouldn't complain at 4-3. Kieran is also out after an opponent lied to a judge about game state and Sam K is out after sucking at VS. I guess we'll always have Yu-Gi-Oh.

Round 8 Keeblor Powell

I get odds and hit a nice curve. Keeblor misses 1 and under drops on turn 2 with an Ape X and Dual Sidearms. His turn 3 play is Tom Thumb with a Flamethrower, who I proceeded to bash and KO, so his only character going into turn 4 was a Ape X. He plays Golden Archer on his initiative. I boost Yellowjacket, search out Shocker, and use my remaining resource point to shock Ape X. I clear his board and on turn 5 I run over him.

5-3

All I need is one more win and when I get my Round 9 pairing and my opponent gives me odds after I lose the toss, I am ecstatic. My luck doesn't hold and the Round gets repaired. I check my pairings to find myself playing none other than Randall's favourite player….

Round 9 Jason Hager

After clawing my way up from the bottom tables I finally hit a name player. I hadn't really talked to any of my opponents all day but I had a good chat with Hason who was an extremely nice guy. The game itself was pretty much a non-entity when I play NTZ in response to Mr. Fantastic hitting play and Jason plays Ring has Chosen searching out another Mr. Fantastic, discarding it and then using Dr. Light to get it back. He then play Child Named Valeria. My NTZ was now worthless. I probably kept Melissa Gold on the table for a turn too long hoping to get damage in but a combination of Dr. Light, Catcher Mitt, Child and Utility Belt meant that he steamrolled me. My only chance was to drop Nathan Garret, but Jason knew how the ability worked and moved all his guys to the support row. Damn Jason and his love of non-combat decks.

5-4

So at this point I'm on the bubble. I need to win my last game but feel pretty confident about it. I find out that Luke, Raider, Vanderwerk and Corney are in the same situation. Alex and Randall have already made it though. I look up my table number and head to my seat only to hear my name called out for a feature match.

Round 10 Ryan O' Connor

My first PC feature match! The dreaded Australian curse of feature matches says that we always lose. Scott Hunstad is a good example of this with only one win out his six feature matches. With the Aussie crew watching me I win the initiative. The game was pretty much mine the whole way, and while Ryan did knock me down to 11, I played the perfect game against Squadron. I kept Ryan to two characters the whole game and on turn 4, I Shocker his Shape with an Airskimmer, and recruit Kyle, searching out a Hard Sound Construct. Golden Archer attacks Shocker with a Mega Blast. Kyle swings back at Golden Archer with a Beatdown for the stun. On turn 5, I Mystic Summons for Speed Demon, Drop Beetle and Hard Sound Constuct Melissa Gold. I play Mega Blast on Speed Demon and then form up. Ryan misses Albert Gaines and underdrops. After a couple of attacks Ryan concedes.

6-4

The relief of making Day 2 and ridding the demons of the first PCLA was unbelievable. Doing it on the bubble in the feature match area, with my mates watching was icing. When I found Vanderwerk, who was also on the bubble, had won his match there were high fives all round. Unfortunately Luke and Raider didn't manage to make it but with 5 of us in Day 2, I was extremely happy.

We went to Coco's, a diner in Anaheim, for dinner that night. It was the same place we went to the last time we were here after Day 1. They had some special on a lobster and steak meal which I heartily took up. However while I could finish the lobster I got halfway through the teak and felt like throwing up. The memory of Meat Operations was too great and I pushed the hunk of dead cow away from me. For dessert, Hunstad and Raider drown their sorrows in a whole banana cream pie, which seems excessive to me, especially after eating so much food a few nights ago but they somehow managed to finish it without chundering.

Pie
"Like warm banana cream pie..."

Back at the hotel the others decide that we NEED to practice drafting Avengers. I, on the other hand, was of the opposite opinion. However as they needed more players, I played and drafted a shitty Kang deck. I beat Corney, and lost to Alex before I decided I was too tired for this and go to bed ready for Day 2.

Next up on PCLA Report:

Scott Hunstad has a child named Hun.

Paul Vanderwerk divorces his wife and marries Scott Hunstad.

Luke Bartter talks to Josh Wiitanen.

Alex Brown stretches like CRAZY!!!

Stretch
"Now for my first act..."

Be there or be SQUARE!!!

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