![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Bragging Rights, then a long dry spell
Jun. 11th, 2013 03:55 pmAs some of you may have seen on Facebook, I had a banner first day at the Bragging Rights GT. This was the first big team tournament in the U.S., with eighteen four man teams attending this year (after two dropped out). The team format is interesting because you can try to arrage beneficial match ups in your favor. Sometimes one teammate is thrown to the wolves so that the other players can get the match ups they want. It's a nice extra layer of strategy over the usual decisions about deployment, charging, and targeting.
Day one was my first three day win in my career. Round four was a tough match with bad luck on either side, but I pulled out a big (15-5) win. Our teams ended up dead even overall for that round, which still kept us in contention to win the event. The last game was against someone with the same army as my last opponent, but was a vastly better player (and painter). His army stood out and I took several picturs of it the day before. Unbeknown to me at the time, my opponent had just won the Southern Overlord GT circut, making hime the highest ranked player in the South.
It was becoming clear that I was going to lose the game, and lose big. He took every possible advantage of terrain and cover, and my dice were not co-operating. I took a few breaths, reflected that this was my best performance to date, accepted my fate, then did my best to change it! I fought back hard, but in the end it was a total loss (0-20). Considering who I was playing, and how I'd done already, I was OK with that.
Our team placed sixth overall, and we won the Best Appearance award thanks largely to two of my teammates who were nominated for the top ten armies at the tournament. The social side of it was fabulous too: meeting a bunch of cool folks from San Francisco, talking to some Canadians and joking about how I would represent them at the ETC this year, and teaching a visiting Danish player the dangers of drinking the Kraken. ;)
Now, my biggest battle to fight is trying to figure out how to get a solid night's sleep. Wish me luck!
Day one was my first three day win in my career. Round four was a tough match with bad luck on either side, but I pulled out a big (15-5) win. Our teams ended up dead even overall for that round, which still kept us in contention to win the event. The last game was against someone with the same army as my last opponent, but was a vastly better player (and painter). His army stood out and I took several picturs of it the day before. Unbeknown to me at the time, my opponent had just won the Southern Overlord GT circut, making hime the highest ranked player in the South.
It was becoming clear that I was going to lose the game, and lose big. He took every possible advantage of terrain and cover, and my dice were not co-operating. I took a few breaths, reflected that this was my best performance to date, accepted my fate, then did my best to change it! I fought back hard, but in the end it was a total loss (0-20). Considering who I was playing, and how I'd done already, I was OK with that.
Our team placed sixth overall, and we won the Best Appearance award thanks largely to two of my teammates who were nominated for the top ten armies at the tournament. The social side of it was fabulous too: meeting a bunch of cool folks from San Francisco, talking to some Canadians and joking about how I would represent them at the ETC this year, and teaching a visiting Danish player the dangers of drinking the Kraken. ;)
Now, my biggest battle to fight is trying to figure out how to get a solid night's sleep. Wish me luck!
