About Tournement Reports

[Gandalf_The_White_1]

As a newer player to type 1 (note:newer player, not noob), I would like to share my thoughts on tournament reports.

Tournament reports are excellent articles because of their informative nature on the deck that was played and how it behaves against a variety of decks faced in the environment.  They give an general idea of how to play the deck and how to play against it.  Primers, although based on sound theory and playtesting, simply cannot inform in the same way as a report.

Although most reports are sufficiently detailed, the odd report has things like "I won this game but can't remember how," or, "I get a bad hand and lose."  This is unacceptable.  If the author cannot remember enough details to flesh out the report  with a general idea of how each game went(which is understandable considering the size of many tournament and the number of games played), he/she should take notes on each of the games or not write the report at all.

Not only can reports be a valuable source of information to players, they can be entertaining and humourous as well.  An example would be the link to an older Stay City report "Type 1 Players Have All The Fun" on the main sidebar of this site.

I, personally, would like to see more well-written tourny reports on this cite, perhaps even a forum dedicated exclusively to tournament reports (this would probably involve splitting the tournament forum into 2 separate forums, 1 for reports and results and the other for announcements, which I think would be a good organisational move as not all posters bother to use the format Announcement:__ or Report:__ which can make it harder to sift through posts, plus the fact that basic members must currently post their reports in the Open Forum).  Reports should not be constrained to those who made top 8 or higher or some other thing.  Even players who fail to move on past Swiss should write a report so we can learn from their mistakes.

So, in conclusion, I would just like to say that I hope the number of well-written tournament reports on this sight increases so we can all enjoy them and learn from them, and people please use the format Report:__ when posting.

[skecreatoR]

Why don't you write them yourself, instead of bitching other peoples work. If you want to learn to play a deck, play it instead of reading about it. You can't possibly learn how to play a deck well by reading a primer, neither by reading a tournament report.

If you aren't satisfied with the current level, how about you, as already noted, begin writing them yourself? They are a bunch of work, and especially the funny ones with information surely takes bunches of time. Tournament reports aren't ment to be the "playtesting" part of primers, they are supposed to be tournament reports. They aren't the same.

Well, who wouldn't like to see a few better tournament reports? Everybody would.

But out right saying other peoples work, which they do because they can, like it and want to, plus its for free, is "unacceptable" is just stupid.

Clearly, just because you played T1 for a "long" while, doesn't mean you ain't a noob. You, goodsir, are a noob because of the idea that you have, which is that everybody is writing tournament reports for your pleasure and increasement of knowledge. So stop whining, and get on writing... damnit.

[rvs]

Not everybody goes into the tournament expecting to write a report. Normally, I personally would only write a report if I did well.

I never take any notes. I hate it when my opponent takes game notes, and I will call them on it. It's useless and time wasting. I will occasionally take a few pointers AFTER the game if there's something I want to remember. Usually however, they are about how I'm going to change the deck around for the next tournament.

Carl Devos has an extensive report collection, although I'm not sure he updates it as frequently as he used to. His site is www.zongo.be/t1 IIRC. Morphling.de also has some reports.

[mongrel12]

Tournament reports are excellent articles because of their informative nature on the deck that was played and how it behaves against a variety of decks faced in the environment. They give an general idea of how to play the deck and how to play against it.

The value of tournament reports in terms of learning how to play a specific deck seems to be--in your mind, entirely overrated. Tournament reports, to me, have appealed more for the novelty and humour value than my actually learning how to play the deck.
You learn to play by having better players review your games and criticize your decisions in real life, and by talking to them regarding the deck's game plan. It's possible to derive sideboarding knowledge from tournament reports, but in general it is better if you learn how to sideboard yourself, as it forces you to comprehend the other deck's game plan on a deeper level.

I don't really regard most tournament reports as doing anything that a regular article couldn't do, and the relative scarcity of them on tmd doesn't bother me in the least. As has been stated, if you--as a player, can demonstrate in your own reports, that they are valuable in conveying knowledge that you cannot pick up in playtesting, go ahead. I simply don't understand how this could be--you learn how to play decks by playtesting, combined with an amount of reading up on the deck, or talking to better players. Reading tournament reports is no substitute to actually playing with the deck.[/quote]

[Gandalf_The_White_1]

skecreatoR: Why would people post tournament reports except for others to read them?  I understand they are not written specifically for ME, but they are written for US, the users of TMD, to read.  By doing so they also accept that their report may be open to criticism.  I understand the writing a truly GOOD report is alot of work, but  if the average game that lasted 10+ turns is described in under 10 words, I would say that the report is probably lacking.  I have not written any tournamnet reports YET, but when I do, I will make sure that they are detailed and accurate, even if I cannot dupilcate the same witty humour that others are so adept at.  If you consider critisism/encouragment of particular activities to be whining then regardless of what you do I am sure you will be "whined" at for a large part of your life.

About notes: The rules allow players to take notes for future reference, and often it is a good idea to take notes should a dispute later arise about life totals, etc.  Noting a source of damage or what a duress reveals takes only a few scribbles and can have importance later in the game.  I realize not everyone goes into a tournament expecting to write a report, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't take notes about the game.

Of course playtesting a deck is the best way to learn how to play it- for experienced players.  For players of limited experience, modelling their play style after another, more experienced player is a good start to help them get a feel for playing a particular deck.

I don't believe ANYTHING is a substitute for actually playtesting a deck, but not everyone has time to playtest every single deck they might be interested in.  Reading about how a deck plays is a good first step to learn about it and decide whether or not you DO want to sit down and playtest it a hundred games.

[rvs]

@Gandalf: you know the kind of notes I'm talking about. I'm not talking about notes about what a duress reveiled. I'm talking about notes like: he played this, I played that, he did this, I did that. Apart from being useless, it's time wasting.

[skecreatoR]

I see your point. I still think the attitude used in the post is not needed, I love TA's as well if they are good. So I think the point is very fair, but not the way you wrote it. (Neither was the way I wrote it, by the way.)

[Gandalf_The_White_1]

MoreFling: Slow play/wasteing time does tend to bother me (I am a relatively fast player, and I can easily become impatient when my opponenet takes a 5 minute turn with a control deck without casting yawg will, or similar antics), but often there are pauses in the game when it is not diffcult for a player to jot something down (like when your infuriating opponent is taking his/her 5 minute turn of nothing).  My point is merely that undetailed reports can be rather monotonus and taking a few notes on each game can help to flesh things out.

SkeCreator: I'm glad we agree on something .  My purpose is to encourage better tournement repots to be written, not to discourage people from writing them.