Okay, final results:

9-16 won playmats.
5th through 8th played it out. Brendan scooped to go home, while Corey beat Mike and then Caleb.
Brendan and Mike got libraries for being in 7th and 8th place.
Caleb got a twister for 6th.
Corey got a pearl for 5th.
Jon beat Mike, and then Kent, advancing to the finals against Josh, who beat Seth. Kent and Seth split the emerald and jet that were the 3rd/4th prizes, each walking away with $260

A dramatic 3am finals match took place. GAT won game one with Tog unable to find black mana and succumbing to the dryads. Tog came back with Tinker Colossus in game 2. Game 3 was epic, with dryads beating until a deed showed up on the last possible turn. Then, Tog was forced to Drain an Intuition, while at 3 life and with no cards in hand. He ripped Cunning Wish for FOF, though. Finally, GAT got a dryad to stick, and it only took one swing to take the game. Jon walked away with the ancestral, and Josh won the lotus, and the title.

Travis got 17th place on tiebreakers.

Top 8 was (in finishing order):
Douglas Menger (dragon)
Michael Hitherington (gifts belcher)
Caleb Rozwic (uba stax)
Seth Levy (Drain/AK TPS)
Corey Mann (arti-hate Goblins)
Kent Kolbig (Flame Vault)
Bob Mahannah (Tendrils/Colossus togless Tog)
Brendan Ward (Gifts w/Oath SB)
Jeff Carpenter (Oath)
Jon Smithers (Tog)
Stephen Houdlette (Gifts)
Gary Steffens (UGw Threshold)
Vincent Forino (IGG Mono-B tendrils)
Matt Denham (U/W lions aka Meandeck Fish)
Aaron Lindo ("Hidden Hate" aka rg hate cards.dec)
Josh Meches (GAT)

In the first round, Josh's GAT smashed Doug's Dragon; Brendan's Gifts trumped Jeff's Oath; Corey's goblins crushed Gary's UGw Thresh; Seth's TPS beat Vincent's Mono-B tendrils; Kent's flamevault burned up GI's gifts; Jon's tog owned Bob's togless Tog; and Aaron's hate fell to Mike's Gifts. There were a surprising number of near-mirrors, particularly the Jon/Bob AK match and the Seth/Vincent tendrils match.

The Jon/Bob game took forever, so Josh had time to beat Brendan, Seth beat Corey, and Kent beat Caleb, while Jon now faces off against Mike and Josh against Seth. The Josh/Seth winner advances to the finals, while the Jon/Mike winner will face Kent and the winner of that match will play in the final round.

We'll probably be here at least another 2-3 hours to get it all over with.

Those results are not 100% accurate.

Here are some of the recognizable names who are at least 3-1:
Nate Pease (4-0)
Travis Laplante (4-0)
Brian Demars (3-0-1)
Paul Nicolo (3-0-1)
Roland Chang (3-1)
Mike Jacob (3-1)
Crossman Wilkins (3-1)
David Lawrence (3-1)
Stephen Houdlette (3-1)
Brassman (3-1)

those are in tiebreaker order.

more to come as rounds progress!

184 people total.

Archetype breakdown is as follows:

Stax 25
Fish 20
Oath 17
Gifts 13
Tendrils 10
FCG 10 (includes non-foodchain lists)
CS 9
Dragon 5

and

Other 60

The tournament is really defined by all those "other" lists, which include older archetypes like sui, 4cc, sligh/burn, and newer stuff like threshold, flamevault combo, and just random piles. Lots of stax for NE, though.

To come: people doing well (once more than two rounds are over), and a breakdown of how many people paid to go above 10 proxies.

You could use Goblin Welder, Arcbound Ravager, or the like.