This will include the following:
1.) My report on the behind the scenes of Waterbury...hear about the pre-Waterbury Shanigans, how round 1 took an extra hour, and what it was like to see D and Liz go at it on the main table right in front of me.
(who quotes themself...honestly)
So this whole crazy event starts Friday afternoon. After grading some quizes, I dip out of school at 2:45. I head to my place in Torrington, CT, grab a change of clothes, pack some more soda/chips/garbage cans/coolers in the car and out the door I head for Waterbury. Upon arriving, I lug everything in and start setting up. I forget how much work the setup is and await my lovely girlfriend Theresa, whom works down the street and was going to be walking up to help me. She arrives and we go crazy whack setting up chairs and tables. Soon Ben Kowal arrives, an hour and a half late, having hitched his way to Waterbury. After much confusion with rides, upon completion of the room, the three of us and my friend Dave head back up to Torrington. There we order 4 pizzas(one for each of us of course) and play poker/watch TV, with Chris Kitzmiller(moobius), Brian Phelon(Hulk3Rules), and Dan Rix(Matrix) eventually showing up for some drinking/diner/hanging out.
BSSSSSSSSSST...Fuck...I hate that sound. If there is one sound I can do without it is the sound of an alarm clock after only 5 hours of sleep. OH WELL. I roll out of bed and take the second shower, after Theresa, before Kowal. When Kowal is done he rides with me to the "dirty bury" leaving Theresa to ride with Matrix and to lock up the ole apartment.
When we arrive, there are already people waiting to get in. Of course, the one time when I get there a little bit later is the one time the banquet department does not open the doors for people. Oh well...I get it taken care of and start setting more stuff up. As Kowal goes to town on setting up the computer, I notice there is no printer. DAMN, I knew I was forgetting something. Fortunately, having formerly worked at the hotel, I know the pass code to get into my former associate's offices. I borrow a printer from the Marriott's Director of Human Resources. Ben then proceeds to SETUP Dci Reporter. After the last group rolls in at around 11:20, I pair the round 1 pairings and lo and behold...the borrowed printer gets mad at me. The pairings are very light. Upon inspection, the printer is broken and is leaking tons of black ink as there is a huge spot underneath it. I quickly run and borrow ANOTHER printer from some other unsusspecting Hotel Manager.
With this situation averted, I make some quick annoucements and 188 people go to town on one another. We enter the last of these results, pair round 2 and go to print out the pairings. THEN IT HAPPENS. After 1 round of play, people should not have between 0 and 10 match points! Apparently, Ben had set the tourney up to be a UK POINT SYSTEM. It won't let me change the setting back. The only option is GULP...start a new toruney in the computer, re enter all 188 names again, repair all 188 first round pairings, and re eneter the result of all those matches. Fortunately, Pizza had just arrived so I announce that we will be having a short 30 minute lunch break.
The problem ends up in the end taking 55 minutes. People started to notice and so I make an announcement detailing what happened. Many people familiar with DCI Reporter were shocked that we fixed the problem in ONLY 55 minutes (thanks MAJORLY to the help of the great Chris Kitzmiller and my girl Theresa). Overall everyone was very cool about it(since it was really only 25 minutes more than the lunch break anyway), and were just happy we didn't replay the round.
Round 2 pairings go up.
People play magic.
Round 3 pairings go up.
People play magic.
Round 4 pairings go up.
People play magic.
Round 5 pairings go up.
People play magic.
Round 6 pairings go up.
People play magic.
Round 7 pairings go up.
People play magic.
Standings go up
Round 8 pairings go up.
People play magic.
Throughout the day, thankfully, there were no other real problems. Two shipments of pizza sold out...next time I will have to get a third. Tons of people won door prizes, including Sam Best who won a one of a kind pencil sketch of Grafted Skullclamp. Ric Flair did an AWESOME job with that video that he filmed all day. If you haven't seen it yet...you totally need to.
At the end of the eight rounds, I had my wonderful judging staff(Chris, Jason, Angelo <3) cover the top 16, while I did the trivia contest. It went quite good with many people involved. The Play of the Day(for a Trop Island) went to a person who submitted a non-magic goof. Someone apparently, traded tons of dual lands for 105 rolls of this dice game where you can win a mox and ended up with 105 or so bulk rares. The person who submitted this has a trop heading there way once I get a free moment.
Then, as she has been known to do, Diannah went crazy and challenged me to a Bacon Bit eating contest. The 8 cannisters of Bacos had arrived and we went to work, chugging bacos and washing them down with a community pitcher of water(of which we both drank right from the pitcher). I was horribly in the lead and would have eating my 4! cans before here, until Diannah broke the one-on-one-osity of the event and let other people play. Then, to make matters worse, when I stepped away for one second to handle something on the computer(an oracle wording, I think)...everyone took their bacos and either threw some away, at Diannah, or poured them in my can. It ended up that I ate about 2 cans full to everyone else's 1 or so. I take this forum now to declare myself the winner, and will accept future ONE ON ONE challenges at future Waterburies to defend my title.
Speaking of Diannah...I'm not sure if it is taboo to still mention this, but...On a scale of 1 to Fuckin hot lesbian action. Diannah and Liz were a Q. In other words, it was so unexpected and freaky-deaky it gets its own scale. If you weren't at Waterbury, I hope you saw the pics before they were taken down, and if you only say the pictures, it was much better to see in person...trust me. I missed the original viewing, but when I sadly asked Diannah why she didn't let me know it was going on, she pulled Liz over and gave an encore performance right there on the Judges table. :shock: CRAZY!
{RANT} As things started to wind down I began to clean up. Please listen up if you plan on attending the next Waterbury Event. The Marriott is doing me now favors, by allowing me to hold events there. They have plenty of business they could bring in, but can usally find space to slide me in. AS SUCH, lets do our best to encourage them to have us back. The most important way to do this is to NOT LITER. I will say this again in slightly different words...DONT THROW YOUR SHIT ON THE GROUND. I bought 8 large garbage cans to place all around the room and I frequently replace full bags so there is no reason to just throw cards, paper, chip wrappers on the floor. Even on my way out for the night, I saw a interesting plant I had never seen before in their garden. I said.."wow, a darksteel pendant plant...that must be a rare breed...wait a second!" Please guys, I'm asking that you be respectful of the property and don't take it for granted or before you know it, it may be gone. {END RANT}
The top 16 went for about 5 hours(as could be expected, and ended well into the morning, those who stuck around seemed not to matter, since the either won power, a cool playmat, or were staying in the hotel that night anyway.
The play of the day in my opinion was the last one of the whole damn event. Out of approximately 2000 games played that day, for the last one of all to come down to a lava dart to the face(sided in for Xantid Swarm) was spectacular and had me laughing all the way to Denny's that night for a early morning snack.
The next day I went to Office Max, then to the Marriott. I installed something in the Human Resources office and left this note.
"Dear xxxxxxxx,
I think I may have screwed up your printer. I am going to err on the side of responsibility. Enjoy your brand new one.
Ray"
And so it ended, another Waterbury in the books. What will the next one hold? God, after all this...who really can say?
2.) A listing of the final standings with each player's deck type next to his/her name.
3.) A listing of ALL round pairings and results.
Based on #2 and #3 anyone with alot of free time can compile some statistics on the Win/lose ratio for EVERY MATCHUP...anyone who wants to take on this task. You are more then welcome.
I now have this information. I was going to post it here, but the columns don't seem to come up right and everything get's blurred. If someone would like to get the excel files and host them to be displayed on a site and/or compile data with them on deck type vs. deck type win percentages, etc so we could get some good data to work with...please pm me, aim me at plikey, or email me at
iamfishman@hotmail.com.
I tried to group the decks as best I could so as to limit the number of deck types. For example, I compiled the one burn and two sligh decks into one called Mono Red. I combined old school Mono Blue with Smennen Blue into Mono Blue. Also, I combined all the Tendrils decks(which basically differed by at most 4 Death Wishes) all into the decktype LONG, but I kept Draw 7 seperate.
Thanks
4.) A long list of people I have to either thank again, or those that I forgot to thank on Saturday.
Theresa...both for physical help and mental support. You keep me sane through these stressful days.
Kowal...despite the incident, you are a big help to Waterbury, and I'm glad to have ya "on the team".
BigChuck...This guy came JUST TO HANG OUT AND HELP...you can't get more amazing than that. Thanks again Chuck and sorry for forgetting you originally.
Chris K, Angelo, Jason LeDuc...for your amazing judging calls. You were all right on the money each time. I can't thank you guys enough for answering all those hard type 1 related questions.(Fortunately, no one played Sharazard this time)
The Marriott...for putting up with 188 of us and for borrowed printers.
Steve...The Mana Drain is a big help in getting the word of Waterburies out to the type 1 community. Thanks as always. Glad to see you come down, and hope you can many times in the future.
Jeff Anand and Sam's Comics and cards...our two vendors worked real hard to supply you guys with all the cards you need. It is alot of work packing all that stuff up and bringing it down to the event, then lugging it back out. Let's give these guys the credit they deserve.
The artists and Gencon...for signing all those playmats and making them look super cool.
Diannah and Liz...well...you know
Ric Flair...for making one hell of a cool video.
All the participants...as I said last time, and will always be true...without you...there is no Waterbury. Thanks for your understanding between round 1 and round 2. Thank you for your support.
5.) Other stuff that I think of...
ONE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT...Go to the TMD Champs 3 in Endicott this weekend. It is going to be sooooooo savage. I know I wouldn't miss it for the world.[/quote]
