GenCon 2007 Updates

[LordHomerCat]

Congrats to Steve!  First the Prelim, then the main event.  Sounds like a pretty good weekend, and I will be thoroughly disappointed if his article this week does not feature a picture of the Jet hanging on his wall.

[Dxfiler]

I just got off the phone with Rich...

evil did in fact prevail :p

They split the painting and steve apparently just had the nuts and won in 2 quick games. 

Congrats to both Rich...

and Steven Menendian, 2007 gencon vintage world champion

- Dave

[ErkBek]

Congrats Stephen!

They split the painting and steve apparently just had the nuts and won in 2 quick games. 

How does that work? Does Steve get it for 6 months a year and Rich for the other 6 months?

[LordHomerCat]

Maybe they plan to sell it and split the profit?

Or cut it in half a la King Solomon

[Smmenen]

Congrats to Rich and everyone else I played this weekend.  I ended up winning the prelim tournament with 55 players in addition to the champs with my only match loss  all weekend to the emitable Scott Limoges!   Congrats to all of my excellent top 8 opponents, especially TK who I dream crushed twice this weekend!   Much to say, but for now I sleep

[DJ_DDP]

if steve wins we have to hear that GAT is the best deck even more !!!

GRATZ STEVE

[Zherbus]

It's been the truth for months now. Congrats Rich and Steve. I couldn't have hand-picked a better Top2.

[sean1i0]

All I can really say is congrats to everyone in the Top 8, but especially to Steve and to Rich.  I wish I could've been there to see that one!

[yespuhyren]

Congrats to all and Steve, but especially the other Steve, Steve Conway, for T8'ng both Legacy and Vintage.

[Yare]

Congrats, Steve!  You are a worthy champion.

Additionally, congrats to everyone else who top 8'd!

Edit: Now that I think about it, is there some thread somewhere that lists all of the top8 results from the Vintage championships (and Legacy for that matter) for easy reference and/or safety against the ravages of time?  Just an idea.

[ErkBek]

Gencon coverage is here.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=welcome/conventions/gencon07#2

[Moxlotus]

Congrats Steve.  I couldn't have picked a better top 2 to represent Vintage.

Oh, and Flash almost made top 8.  My teammate Ryan Mayrand went 6-2.  So close.

[Hydra]

Good job to everyone, especially Ray, who's been long overdue a top 8 at a major event.

[Vegeta2711]

Good jorb to all who made t8; and esp. to Steve for winning the whole thing.

[Dxfiler]

One statistic that I found highly interesting had absolutely nothing to do with decks and separated this top 8 from many other ones in premier events for other formats-

6 of the top 8 were over 21 years of age and 5 were over 25.

Why is this significant other than the fact that they can all go out and drink after (probably a REALLY bad idea for Steve :p)?

Well it shows that the format has many long time players (with many in this top 8 playing their staple decks for years) who are passionate about the game but choose to play vintage as their format of choice.  It also could be argued that vintage has alot more mature players when compared to top 8's filled with infinite kids, but I'm not going to make that argument.

In any event, it looked like a VERY strong top 8 with yes, the two biggest names in the room you could pluck to face off in the finals against each other.

Still, despite all this talk of the format being 'varied' and 'healthy', it is worth pointing out (as others already have) that it was a 4 scroll on 4 scroll final with both players using GAT. :p

Also worth pointing out is the vintage prelim gave Steve 2 byes, which is a huge advantage for him given that no one else even had one bye.  I wonder if they'd reconsider a bye system next year.  Don't read into that too much, I think Steve was making top 8 no matter what, I just found it interesting that only one person in this large event had byes and no others were up for grabs.  That seems quite unbalanced in my opinion.

So congrats again to Steve and Rich.  Rich lost like 3 total matches the entire weekend from 3 different events and is probably Q'd for worlds off his 5-1-1 at the block event, so I think he did OK.

I'm looking forward to Steve's report.  I imagine he had many insane plays.

- Dave 

[diopter]

One statistic that I found highly interesting had absolutely nothing to do with decks and separated this top 8 from many other ones in premier events for other formats-

6 of the top 8 were over 21 years of age and 5 were over 25.

Why is this significant other than the fact that they can all go out and drink after (probably a REALLY bad idea for Steve :p)?

Well it shows that the format has many long time players (with many in this top 8 playing their staple decks for years) who are passionate about the game but choose to play vintage as their format of choice.  It also could be argued that vintage has alot more mature players when compared to top 8's filled with infinite kids, but I'm not going to make that argument.

In any event, it looked like a VERY strong top 8 with yes, the two biggest names in the room you could pluck to face off in the finals against each other.

Still, despite all this talk of the format being 'varied' and 'healthy', it is worth pointing out (as others already have) that it was a 4 scroll on 4 scroll final with both players using GAT. :p

Also worth pointing out is the vintage prelim gave Steve 2 byes, which is a huge advantage for him given that no one else even had one bye.  I wonder if they'd reconsider a bye system next year.  Don't read into that too much, I think Steve was making top 8 no matter what, I just found it interesting that only one person in this large event had byes and no others were up for grabs.  That seems quite unbalanced in my opinion.

So congrats again to Steve and Rich.  Rich lost like 3 total matches the entire weekend from 3 different events and is probably Q'd for worlds off his 5-1-1 at the block event, so I think he did OK.

I'm looking forward to Steve's report.  I imagine he had many insane plays.

- Dave 

The top 2 also played 4 Brainstorms, 4 Forces of Will, and double-digit lands. I don't imagine you will want to be restricting those cards?

You may find that comment irrelevant but the point is that the "problem" (if you believe there is one, which this top8 does not reflect given the variety of decks that made it) is not Merchant Scroll. Not that there is actually a problem considering the only GAT decks that broke top 8 were piloted by the two best players in the room.

Steve had to win the prelims to get his byes - in essence he earned his byes by winning an additional 3 single-elimination matches. I do agree that perhaps second place in the prelims should've gotten a bye, or even the entire top 8.

[LordHomerCat]

Force and Lands are fine, but I know I've heard talk of restricting Brainstorm, and its not something to just gloss over since it is a very real possibility.  However, this is not the place for that discussion.

It would be interesting if they have like a GP system for byes (maybe 1 or 2 byes for really high ratings) since it is sanctioned and all.  Its not like it would be very hard to implement, and if nothing else it would encourage people to play Sanctioned Eternal.

[hulk3rules]

Since nobody else has done so yet that I have seen here I'll throw out a congrats to Rich M for his 2nd Gencon Worlds T8.  I just hope he didn't go out this time like he did his first time around.

Congrats to Ray also- would have loved to see you take it home

[LordHomerCat]

Alright I just read this on Wizards site and couldn't resist:

A Vintage player through and through, he[Steve] is a combination of intensity, competitiveness, and politeness

Obviously this man did not spend very much time with Steve 

TMD is not the place for veiled personal attacks, especially if you weren't there. Verbal warning.
-Jacob

[Athelis]

Man, it makes me happy to hear (read?) that the finals of vintage worlds was a real Clash of the Titans (although apparently they weren't Sundering anything), as opposed to the Finals of major T2 events in which it's usually between two players whom I've never heard of. My playgroup is always bringing up how awesome Steve and Rich are. So, congratulations to Rich and Steve.

Also, it's really cool to see an Ichorid deck in the Top 8, considering I played it in the only two TMDOs I've been too, despite a good chunk of my playtesting group saying it's dead.

It would be interesting if they have like a GP system for byes (maybe 1 or 2 byes for really high ratings) since it is sanctioned and all.  Its not like it would be very hard to implement, and if nothing else it would encourage people to play Sanctioned Eternal.

And from my knowledge, this is the only sanctioned Type one tournament of the year. But hey, I've been wrong before.

[LordHomerCat]

Legacy counts for Eternal ratings too.

[Athelis]

Ah, sorry I completely forgot about Legacy for a moment, but how many sanctioned Legacy tournaments are there a year?

[soto]

All of them?

[Hi-Val]

Congrats to Steve! Meandeck now posesses three Vintage champions. Look on our works, ye mighty!

And slick props to RayRo for doing work with !stax Stax in the prelims and the main event!

[Myriad Games]

Congratulations to all the winners!

Special shout out to Oliver for making Top 8 in the pre-lim tournament.

Congrats to Ray for making Top 8 of three major events!

I had a blast the entire weekend, all 19 rounds of Vintage that I played.

Thanks to all my kind and friendly opponents.

 

[TopSecret]

Congratulations to everyone who top eighted!

A shout out to Ray,
because his top eight was a long time coming!

Also, a shout out to Oliver for top eighting in the Vintage Pre-lim
with maindeck Grand Arbiter IV!

[Shock Wave]

Since nobody else has done so yet that I have seen here I'll throw out a congrats to Rich M for his 2nd Gencon Worlds T8.  I just hope he didn't go out this time like he did his first time around.

Thanks Brian! I had an amazing time at Gencon after missing it last year. I met some TMDers for the first time (Methuselan, Vroman, Ben Carp, Machinus, Tommy K, Jeremy Seroogy) and other interesting people like Pat Chapin. I also enjoyed seeing a lot of old faces (Jaco, Menendian, Shay, Iamfishman, Windfall). Sorry if I missed you, but 99% of the people I spoke and played against were a pleasure to share the experience with.

The 7 rounds in the Championship swiss were absolutely grueling and some of the most intense magic I've played in a long time. I had particularly exciting matches against Mark Biller in round 3, my ICBM Oath opponent in round 4 (sorry, I forget your name), and Marc Sims in round 7.

I played Landstill in 3 Vintage events, winning 1 with a 4-0 record, missing T8 in the Vintage prelims as a result of a match loss due to lateness, and making T8 in the Vintage championships. That's not bad, especially for a deck that gets very little respect in these parts.

Congrats to everyone who supported Vintage by playing in this event, to the Top 8, and to Rich Shay and Steve for a combination of excellence in playskill and deck construction.

Last but not least, congratulations to DicemanX for tearing through the Legacy Championships with some absolutely brilliant play (especially in the finals), and to Lam Phan for designing yet another winning Threshold list.

This event was a success for Vintage as a whole and reaffirmed that this community is comprised of enthusiastic, friendly, respectful, and very competent players. I'm looking forward to next year!

[islanderboi10]

I sooo can't wait for the reports =D

But congrats to all the top 8.  Steve and Rich deserve to be in the finals. Gat on Gat action...

Congrats to Menendian for winning it all.

[goobafish]

I have never had the opportunity to make it out to a Vintage event in the States. I had an awesome time, met a whole bunch of people, and our car did extremely well with about 6 top 8s among the 6 of us. Congrats to Steve and Rich, It was nice meeting you, and you deserved to be up there. I found the vintage event to be amazing, I had a great time against all my opponents and all the people I met for the first time. I hope to make it down to more events in the states, it exceeded all my expectations. Congrats to Peter on his championship.

[pyr0ma5ta]

Steve's making up for not quite getting there on the Storyteller ballot, I see.  Way to represent.