Voting for the Magic Invitational

[Moxlotus]

Sweet.  I voted Ruel for the "Road Warrior" and he won.  Now voting is for "Resident Genius."

I vote for Mike Flores, although Tsuyoshi Fujita was not far behind in my book.  I wish they did the writer's vote first so Flores would have a chance to win that first.  Either way, I think both of these guys will end up going to the invitational.

[Komatteru]

I don't think I'll be voting for Rizzo.

[Jacob Orlove]

I don't think I'll be voting for Rizzo.

Somehow I doubt he'll be on the ballot.

[jpmeyer]

There'll be plenty of opportunities to vote in Fujita, like in the APAC ballot.

[Nazdakka]

Sweet.  I voted Ruel for the "Road Warrior" and he won.  Now voting is for "Resident Genius."

I vote for Mike Flores, although Tsuyoshi Fujita was not far behind in my book.  I wish they did the writer's vote first so Flores would have a chance to win that first.  Either way, I think both of these guys will end up going to the invitational.

Exactly the same here. Ruel IS the road warrior, and was the only possible choice for that slot. For Resident Genius, Flores seems to define the metagame every year. At one point earlier this year, every good deck in standard seemed to be a Flores creation. How can he not be the resident genius?

[cosineme]

yeah, there are more interesting/fun people for road warrior, but the fact of the matter is, only one person attended every single event.

[LordHomerCat]

Obv Ruel is the only choice for that ballot.

I begrudgingly voted for MichaelJ as well, even though I didn't want to.  Nobody else really has the effect on the metagame that he does, what with writing 16 articles a week for every magic website in existence.  He is a good builder no doubt, but he also discounts pretty much every deck he DIDN'T build, and he completely whiffed on Ext. for LA.  It will be interesting to see who wins.  Ishida and Fujita are both very good, and Ishida's prodigy did win Player of the Year (or worlds, one of those two) using Ishida's designs.  But, I had to throw one out there for Flores, and now have to somehow live with myself the next morning because it sure feels dirty to vote for a guy so in love with Gnarled Mass.

[Toad]

Nassif FTW!

[Mind_under_Matter]

I wanted to vote Karsten, but MichaelJ just had so much going for him, plus I'd like to see how he'd do with 15 top pros. The problem was, Karsten put up results in both limited and standard, The "List" and 6-0 in the standard day at worlds is just an incredible example of combined talents that exhibit exactly what I think the resident genius should embody.

But in the end, Flores won out by a nose, largely because I'm voting Karsten for the Fan Favs if he's on the ballot. Antione or Julien has to be the European choice, though I have to admit, I'd like to see Gomersal go again.

[Harkius]

Itaru and Tsuyoshi are both great candidates for Resident Genius, and Michael Flores is arrogant and sometimes a bit overbearing and perhaps even a bit of an ass. However, as Nazdakka pointed out, he does tend to do some incredible things with the cardboard. In addition, Flores has been around for years, doing what he can to improve the skill of the environment. Fluke players tend to show up in these types of categories (a bit less on this one than similar voting for other games/sports), so longevity gets some points from me. In addition, Flores does a great job of building original decks and just taking already builts and adding swanky tech, which ALSO gets RezGeni bonus points from me.

I wanted to vote for Comer, because he was the ORIGINAL Resident Genius (even though Tsuyoshi was the first to actually be called this), but he has fallen aside largely since the days of his dominance, whereas Flores is STILL establishing beats. Fujita was also a great candidate, along with Itaru Ishida, but I just couldn't see myself voting for the last of these if Fujita was on the list, or voting for Fujita if Flores was on the list.

Plus, as a mad bonus, can you even imagine what kind of card Flores will turn in if he gets invited? What will we get to vote for this year??? That also goes into my decision on voting, like the last tiebreaker if it comes down to it.

Harkius

[Anusien]

Flores's only hope of a card is if he submits a good one and the site votes on it.  Bad Player Flores can't roll with the other invitationalists, I have this feeling.
I want to vote Flores, because he does define The American Metagame.  However, whenever there's a new format, we always turn and say, "What have the Japanese come up with?"  I picked one of the Japanese deckbuilders, I don't remember which.  I think I voted for Itaru Ishida because he was the name I was most familiar with.

[Harkius]

Flores's only hope of a card is if he submits a good one and the site votes on it. Bad Player Flores can't roll with the other invitationalists, I have this feeling.

Oh, I totally agree. I thought that my statement on this was clear that this is what I meant. Anyway, it is also fun to read his reports about the mistakes that he makes. He's a great writer (or he was, back at the Dojo), and his tourney reports are a lot of fun.

While I understand not voting for Flores, you should at least actually know who you voted for. C'mon! You're making a mockery of our democracy!!! I mean part of that, though. If you ARE going to vote, it should be an informed vote, not "Some Japanese guy whose name sounds familiar".

Cheers,
Harkius

[Jacob Orlove]

Flores will make some ridiculously fair card, not anything broken.

[Anusien]

Who plays fair anymore, anyway?

[Moxlotus]

APAC:

Oiso or Fujita?

[pyr0ma5ta]

I voted Oiso, because he's the second most dominant Japanese player, and the most dominant is already in.

[Mind_under_Matter]

Oiso, but Fujita was very tempting. Two PT Top 8's and a 9th? Easily makes it in any previous year on the APAC ticket, but this year two Japanese players put together incredible seasons, and a third won worlds, I'd like to see him get one of the others, but APAC goes to Oiso.

And I'm 3-0 on the votes. I'm getting too conformist.