Ahhh, Waterbury. It has such a different meaning to me. To all of you, Waterbury is synonymous with Type 1 tournaments. Not me. When I think of Waterbury, I think of the place I spent the first 22 years of my life. I think of flying down Juniper Hill Ridge(one of the steepest hills in Waterbury) at 65mph, playing Hackysack at the Barnes and Noble, and Heartattack.Pizza from John’s. I think of the many long years at Blessed Sacrament School and Sacred Heart High. I think of tutoring jobs, working at a Magic store that was actually the front for the sale of certain illegal substances, and 7 long years working at the Courtyard by Marriott.
… and Friday night found me back there again.
TMD OPEN 5 began for me after I left school Friday afternoon. A short trip home to load my car with 400+ soda, 200+ chips, an insane amount of computer stuff, and magic cards, and I was off. I arrived at the local to meet my old time friend and, now, General Manager of the hotel, William Bianchi. Billy informed me that the hotel was to have an inspection on Monday morning and as such, he brought in painters to paint the room we would be in. Unfortunately, they did not finish the last third of the ballroom, and would in fact be coming in on Saturday morning from 6-9 am to finish the job. As such, I was only able to set up about 70% of the room Friday night. Like good old times I set up tables and chairs, laid down tablecloths, and set up easels for the feature match area. Aiding me were two terrific individuals, my lovely girlfriend, Theresa, and my (10-4)good buddy, Scott Hughes. We finished and went to Friendly’s.
Can I just say, I rarely go to Friendly’s. I often think of their food as diner type, small portion food. Boy was I wrong. If you ever go there, order the Fajitas. They come with all sorts of good stuff, plus rice, and event a cool edible tortilla bowl. A+++
From here we took the 20 minute drive up North along good old Rt 8 to my new home of Torrington. I introduced Scott to type 4. One of the first few games he played, he had, turn one Urza’s Rage you with Kicker. Pretty good in 1 on 1. Scott had just become hooked on Type 4.
We turned in at 12:00 midnight. I had to be well rested. I knew this would be an insanely stressful weekend.
BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
If I was a super hero, and there was a frame that showed me getting up in the morning in my comic book, that would be the sound of my alarm clock.(Yes, exactly that many Z’s.) I rolled out of bed at the ungodly hour of 6AM, (which oddly enough is the same hour I get up each morning for school…but today it was much more ungodly.) and was shortly loading the car with all the rest of the stuff I did not want to take with me Friday night. We stop at Dunkin Doughnut’s for breakfast and make it to the Marriott by 7:40. The painters are already there, working hard. The Canadians are already there working hard at sleeping, except for Erich. He was a card sorting machine, waiting for the tournament to start. The painters finished in miraculous time, we finished setting the room, and relaxed for about 1.3 minutes before finally opening the doors at 9:30.
I handled deck registration personally this time to ensure a less-than-65 minutes pizza break, and things were looking good. BigChuck showed up to lend a helping hand, for which I am incredibly grateful, and things seemed to proceed fairly smoothly right through registration.
Can I make a quick comment about deck registering? Of course I can, this is my thread. But seriously, if you want to ensure your name is spelled correctly in the pairings, please write it clearly on your registration sheet. It’s tough to read a lot of your writing(not like mine is any better…lol). This will avoid hassle for both you and me.
After the Browne, Lydon, Shay trio (so sorry about the accident, guys) and the Lawrence twins(what was your excuse for being tardy, Gentlemen
) arrived, we began round 1 at about 11:40. The announcements stated that we had 202 people, but actually there was exactly 200(I entered two people in twice, one purely as an accident, the other Rich Shay, because I forgot I entered him in the first time, one week prior to the event, in order to not forget the round one bye he received from winning TMD Open 4.).
Throughout the day, things ran quite smoothly.
This had a large part to do with the amazing Judges we had at the event. Chris Kitzmiller, Jacob Orlove, Dan Richardson, Simon Cooper, and Aaron Rubinslein were awesome. They quickly answered “Judge” calls and did so with precision. If you see any of these guys at future events, make sure to tell them thanks for all the hard work they do. You guys Rock.
Feature matches for each round were:
Round 1: Steven Mennedian(SMENNEN) vs. Mike Broughton(MYKATOG)
Round 2: David Lawrence(EASTMAN) vs. Mark Perez(PTW)
Round 3: Brian Phelon(HULK3RULES) vs. Ben Kowal(KOWAL)
Round 4: Steve O’Connell(ZHERBUS) vs. JP Meyer(JPMEYER)
Round 5: Marc Perez(PTW) vs. Peter Olszewski(DICEMANX)
Round 6: Matt McNally(TEHMAGIKGUY) vs. Rich Shay(THE ATOG LORD)
Round 7: Aaron LeKarz(???) vs. Andrew Probascro(BRASS MAN)
Round 8: Matt Snow(DIAKONOV) vs. John Blake(ULTIMA)
At this point I have to thank some terrific people. Aaron Conole and his incredibly helpful girlfriend Kerri were vital in allowing the feature matches to be videotaped so they could be put online for all to see. Kerri very selflessly offered to film with Aaron’s camera while Aaron flopped the Magical cards.
Additionally, on the fly, a second camera was supplied by Mr. Aaron Rubinslein. Aaron not only let us use his video camera so we could get multiple angles during most feature matches(and so the other camera could have a break), but also volunteered to help Judge, post pairings, etc after dropping from the tournament. This guy has more energy then a nuclear power plant, and I can’t thank him enough for all his help.
As far as the video of the Feature Matches, I am doing my best to get the tapes I have on to my computer to be uploaded. The others are in Aaron Rubinslein’s capable hands. He told me he would get them up as soon as possible.
The level of fair play, good spiritedness, honesty, and classiness that I witnessed from the players was something all of you as a type 1 community should be proud of. I saw players being gracious after having their ass handed to them, players coming up to me and admitting they realized they had made a mistake on their deck reg without me knowing, ready to accept the consequences, and just an all around fun feeling that is often absent at large events. To all the players, MUCH THANKS. Also(and this may not seem like a big deal to you guys, but it does to the guy who has to clean up at 4 in the morning), very very little trash was left on the tables and ground as compared to previous events. Perhaps the extra garbage cans and announcement was a help, but it made the end of the night tremendously easier.
During the day, some cards were found(by Simon Cooper I believe). They were green cards, likely for stompy. If anyone lost them, PM me some credible evidence that they were yours(color of sleeves, unique cards, etc. and I will get them back out to you. Thanks Simon, and all others who turned in lost items. Many items were claimed by their owners who were very thankful for another’s honesty.
The only minor hitch through the day was one that went unnoticed. I had no problem giving away the round by round prizes, but around round five I felt like giving away the 50 mystery rare raffle, when I realized that I had left all the top 32 prizes, among others, at my apartment in Torrington. Fortunately, things were not to busy, and my friend Scott took the 20 minute drive up to my place to get them.
On the way back, Scott stops at Burger King to get food for Theresa, him, and I. I tell him to get me an ICEE with my Chicken Whopper. Man, I LOVE ICEES! I mean, I am in the process of passing law CT law #42921, which grants the right for a man to legally wed an ICEE Machine.
Nahh…I’m just kidding…
…
…it’s ACTUALLY CT law #42925.
Around round 7, I do something that I am still very upset at myself for. See, during the day, I look through the deck lists to find unusual ones for the Interesting Deck Prize. It came down to a Pandeburst deck, a Squirrel Craft deck, and Marc Perez’s SEX deck. Marc’s deck uses cards like Nostalgic Dreams and Eternal Witness to take near infinite turns. Big Chuck, who was helping me look through the lists, insisted that I give the prize to Marc, citing that the other two, while unpopular, have at least been known before Waterbury.
I agree and announce that Marc is the winner of an Italian All Hollow’s Eve for his deck, and proceed to announce some of the bizarre things in it. That’s when I realize my incompetence. Typically, when I give the prize it is to some 10 year old with an unsleeved common deck, however, Marc was still doing okay with his deck, and was in the middle of a match. Furthermore, the surprise factor, one of the decks other strengths, was just minimized by my telling the room what he was playing. Truly not one of my greatest moments, and even though, Marc, I know you told me at the event that it was no big deal, at the risk of sounding annoyingly redundant, I am once again very sorry.
After round 6, something humorous became immediately clear to me. Rich Shay, of whom a prize was being offered to the first person to defeat him, was undefeated up to this point and could thus draw into the top 16. As such, it was not until his top 16 match that the “first to dethrone our former champion” prize was given. Way to stick it to those “swiss-only” players, Rich.
I do deck checks each of the last 4 rounds but don’t find anything interesting. LOL.
I am about to announce the Top 16 when something interesting happens. Some friends of Ben Taraskevich(a.k.a. Waterbury Top 8 Guy), tell me that even though he is in the top 16, his mom is making him leave. I look up, and sure enough, across the room I see the kid practically in tears trying to explain to his mom the significance of what he has done. If he has to leave, I would move everyone after him up one rank and the person who would have been 17th would slide in as the last person as the top 16, so people around the head table were quite bubbling with speculation and excitement. I tell his friends that I actually have nine 9-16th place prizes(I picked up and extra BB Demonic at a tourney in Lennox MA), and even though he would not be able to stay, I would throw that his way, and still have enough prizes for the 9-16 that would result anyway. I would have told him, but by the looks of the faces of him and his mother, I am not going anywhere within 50 feet of them. I have had more than my sure of experience trying to calm down mother and sons(read Aaron Kerzner). This delays the announcing of the top 16 for about 5 minutes. As luck turns out, he wins the argument, and I announce and start the top 16.
For those interested at this point here are the results of each round, and the final standings
http://home.ripway.com/2005-1/238470/TMD5round1results.xlshttp://home.ripway.com/2005-1/238470/TMD5round2results.xlshttp://home.ripway.com/2005-1/238470/TMD5round3results.xlshttp://home.ripway.com/2005-1/238470/TMD5round4results.xlshttp://home.ripway.com/2005-1/238470/TMD5round5results.xlshttp://home.ripway.com/2005-1/238470/TMD5round6results.xlshttp://home.ripway.com/2005-1/238470/TMD5round7results.xlshttp://home.ripway.com/2005-1/238470/TMD5round8results.xlshttp://home.ripway.com/2005-1/238470/TMD5finalswissstandings.xlsAnd now for the moment you have all been waiting for…THE WINNER OF THE FIRST EVER WATERBURY BINGO IS … JDIZZLE!!!
Though, I didn’t see anyone with any bingos, Crazy Carl and JDizzle tied for 8 correct answers each. All of them shared 7 of those 8, though Crazy Carl had Brian Phelon and JDizzle had John Blake. By the rules, since John Blake finished higher in the tournament then Brian Phelon, JDizzle narrowly won.
J Dizzle has a prize of 3 foreign booster packs coming to him in the mail right now…or as soon as I get his address.
Here is what happens in the top 16. (The sweet sixteen!!!)
Brian Phelon defeats Nate Baker
Justin Walters defeats Matt McNally
John Blake defeats Wade Harras
Justin Timoney defeats Nick Coss
Eric Dupuis defeats Mike Panas
Jeff Tussi defeats Corey Fraser
Justin Bransfield defeats Ben Taraskevich
Travis LaPlante defeats Rich Shay
Here is what happens in the top 8(with an amzing 37.5% of players named Justin)
Justin Walters defeats Brian Phelon
John Blake defeats Justin Timoney
Jeff Tussi defeats Eric Dupuis
Justin Bransfield defeats Travis LaPlante
Here is what happens in the top 4(a.k.a. the four J’s)
John Blake defeats Justin Walters
Jeff Tussi defeats Justin Bransfield
Then, as you all know, Jeff Tussi defeated John Blake to become THE MANA DRAIN OPEN 5 CHAMPION.
In the bracket to decide 5th through 8th:
Justin Timoney defeated Brian Phelon
Eric Dupuis defeated Travis LaPlante
Eric and Justin split.
While the top 16 is going on, I run hand out prizes for all other finishers(top 32, highest without proxies, etc.), then run Trivia and Play of the Day.
During trivia, some wacky things happen.
1.) I find out I don’t know how to phrase questions I used before to make them worded correctly. As a result a few questions go debatable.
2.) As I am doing trivia, I am about to toss a sealed grab bag to Jacob Orlove when I realize it only has one card and the card is showing(a Doomsday). “That is weird,” I think to myself but simply stick a card in the sleeve to hid the fact that it contains a prize, remix the stack and toss Orlove a prize. A few questions later, another prize is not concealed. I fix all the prizes, by adding in commons to make them all a mystery and proceed.
3.) I see some name I can’t make out. Turns out it was Kerri, the young lady who videotaped feature matches. The whole time, she never spoke up that I didn’t call on here and we find out afterwords my mistake. I also have a tough decision about an answer given by Harriet Cooper, and say I owe her one.
4.) When I am done with all my questions, I have extra packets. That is very odd, because I usually count carefully to make sure I have only 30. I throw some out to the crowd, and by the end, Harriet and Kerri, along with some others who don’t have as much free time as Mr. Orlove and Mr. Cooper, have some packets. That’s when it hits me! The reason I had more packets is because I had just accidentally given away twice as many prizes as I thought. The packets with face up cards with no card hiding their identity were prizes for day 2 trivia. I had just given away both day’s prizes in one!
The Play of the Day is fuzzy in my memory. I remember thinking that Diannah selling booster packs out of her bra would win, but surprisingly Type One magic players are not as girl crazy as I thought. Something else beat it out, though I can’t recall what.
I clean up as the finals of the top 16 are going on. Cleaning up actually entails setting the tables for day 2. I leave the Marriott at 4:10 am. Theresa and I drive 2 miles and crash (no…not an accident) at my Mom’s house, in her living room, Tree on the couch, me forming two loveseats into a really uncomfortable makeshift bed. What better way to prepare for a hectic day 2 after an insane, record-setting day 1 then by getting 2.5 hours of sleep in the most uncomfortable position ever.
…
…
Day 2 report to follow.
Ray
P.S. Additional thanks go out to our two Vendors, Jeff and Todd from Sam’s Cards and Comics. These guys were awesome and I hope you supported them, and they were able to help you with the cards you needed. Thanks, as well, to Zherbus for allowing me to use
www.themanadrain.com to get the word of Waterbury out. Also, thanks to anyone else who I forgotten, or any other significant stories/facts I left out in writing part one of this long report. Let me know if I forgot you or something and I will give you a shout out/share the anecdote.
