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Fabian

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Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« on: July 15, 2012, 05:18:43 pm »
+9

Today, Sunday July 15, Swedish Nationals in Dominion was held here in Stockholm, our nation's capital. Originally I wasn't sure if I would attend, as it was unlikely I'd be able to go to Worlds even if I won due to lack of sponsorship. In the end I decided that a day of Dominion wouldn't be the worst either way, and I did want to go to Gencon, after all. Plus the game store is like 15 minutes door to door, anyway.

We were 21 players, and because enough of us had brought complete sets of Dominion cards, we could play on seven 3 player tables, with more or less random cards (no promo cards, and a few tables had to share cards with each other, but that wasn't a big deal). We would play six rounds (3 points to winner, 2 points to second place, 1 point to last place), and the overall winner after those 6 rounds would go to the final. The players in places #2-#4 would play an additional 3 player play-off, with the winner of that game also advancing to the finals, which would be first to two wins.

I don't really know how the strength of Swedish Dominion players compares to other countries, but there's definitely a number of good players here, most notably our forum's Lekkit (who won Nationals last year when I was sick) and his girlfriend, as well as a few more isotropic regulars up to level 30ish or so. I'd be lying if I said anything but winning would be a huge disappointment for me though, and that's definitely the only goal I had in mind this morning.

I sat down for round 1 against Lekkit's father, who had traveled from southern Sweden to play (I believe, anyway), and a guy who was pretty new to Dominion (but who played quite well on this board but, though plagued with pretty bad draws). I opened Trading Post, while Lekkitdad opened Merchant Ship. There wasn't a whole lot of interesting things going on in this kingdom, and from there we mostly bought more money, some Caravans or Merchant Ships before the greening phase. Both Lekkitdad and I drew quite well, and with 4 Province each (and the third player having 3) I thought I'd be able to win comfortably when reshuffling into a 6 card hand with Merchant Ship (and Caravan) in play. My deck at this point was 4 Province, 3 Copper, Trading Post, a Duchy and a lot of good cards. Alas, my 6 card hand was 3 Province, 2 Copper and Trading Post, and Lekkitdad who had a similarly good deck could easily buy the last Province after me to take first place.

I felt pretty disappointed after the second place finish, knowing that it would probably take a very good record to win outright and not have to go to the play-off round. I sat down to a kingdom with Colonies, no trashing, no +action and no +buy except for Tactician, which provided a limited amount of both actions and buys. I, along with one of the other players, went for a Tactician/Bank (opening Tactician/Embargo, unfortunately the Tactician missed the first reshuffle and the super early Platinum I was hoping for didn't happen) kinda deck, but some key differences in how we built it (more/earlier Banks for me, for instance) meant I could get three double Colony turns while the other two players never got going in quite the same way, and I ended with 7 of the 12 Colonies.

The next few rounds are kind of a blur. I realize now I should have written down the kingdoms if I was planning on writing about them later. I can't remember the board in round 3 at all, I won that game though. In round 4 I decided to open Wharf/nothing and bought two more Wharves and Silver/Gold/Province for the rest of the game while my opponents went for things I deemed too durdly (Golem/Tribute/Bridge/Merchant Ship/Wharf concoctions), I won that one pretty comfortably. Round 5 was a scary/fun board with Hamlet/Menagerie/Stables/University/Salvager/Merchant Ship/Cartographer/Saboteur. I went for two early Salvagers to get rid of the crap, with the idea of gaining Universities and going nuts with Hamlet/Menagerie, eventually leading into (Universitied) multiple Saboteurs every turn. My opponents got pretty decent decks too, but slightly less focused on enginy things and more on Merchant Ship and buying Victory points earlier. My deck was coming together very well, but I failed to realize the 30 minute game limit should have been a much bigger consideration for me when choosing strategy. I tried to play as fast as I could, but towards the end of the game I was playing maybe 15-20+ actions per turn, and a lot of the cards I listed have some choices involved in playing them. I thought I wouldn't be able to win it in time, especially as my Saboteurs weren't hitting any green cards, and one of my opponents hit a Province of mine on her final turn, but in the end I managed just in time and won with 3 points or so. Phew!

Going into the final round, I was tied for first place with another strong player there, who had finished second in our Dominion League we had been playing this winter/spring. When I won round 6 in ~8 minutes from being the only player who was interested in Tournaments (on a board with not much else going on, one of my opponents went straight Big Money pretty much for instance), I went over to watch the game of my "rival", who was caught between two Pirate Ship players in a dragged out Familiar game. Things looked kinda hopeless for him, but he made it very interesting in the end with a 31 vs 30 vs 28 finish, with him getting second place. With five wins and one second place, I finished in clear first place, and got to wait around and watch the second through fourth place finishers play an extra match to decide who my opponent would be in the final.

After Lekkit's girlfriend (who reads/posts here occasionally, but I won't mention her name because I don't know if she wants to be anonymous or not) won their play-off game, our first kingdom of the finals had Swindler/Tournament/Hunting Party as key cards. I fell behind really badly when my first HP was Swindlered into a Duchy right away, and I was sure I was losing horribly. My Swindler was doing some good work too though, and after a long game her deck was reduced to a lot of bad and/or green cards (thanks in large part to the prizes (hi Followers), which she didn't really fight me for), and I won 38-19.

Game 2 of the final had Masquerade and.. those new full-art treasure/victory cards I hadn't seen before, I guess. We also started buying a few Noble Brigands somewhere in the midgame. I was careful to keep track of the score between our passing and/or trashing Estates, but in the end-game when she bought the penultimate Province when we were tied, doubt started creeping into my mind. I knew I had passed a non-Estate to her on an occasion when she had passed an Estate to me. Then we had trashed one Estate each.. right? Or had I trashed both of them? After trying to think back, I decided to go with my gut, as I was pretty sure I was right, all while imaging the stories of the supposedly good player who ended the game when behind in the finals of Nationals. Luckily, I was right, and we tied the game.

In game 3, the big key card was Mountebank. I opened Mountebank/Courtyard to her Mountebank/Crossroads. From there, we bought mostly money for a long long time. And Noble Brigand! Lots of Noble Brigand. Also a Horse Traders on her side and another Courtyard on mine. I won the curse split 6-4, some thanks to lucky draws and some thanks to Courtyard putting back Curses. In the mid/late game, we mostly traded Victory Card purchases with her being ahead on tempo. I decided to buy the penultimate Province when I felt her deck was comparatively bad and should have a much harder time than mine. Meanwhile, more Duchy dancing wouldn't get me anywhere, as she would be ahead by 4 points after they were empty, and I would need both Provinces anyway. She couldn't buy it on her next turn, and my Courtyard drew me into the Silver I needed to become national champion!

I'm very happy to have won the tournament, and I'd love to go to Gencon to play at Worlds. Unfortunately I won't be going if I can't find some way to make it cheaper, as even winning Worlds would set me back financially for sure, and that's before considering hotel costs. It makes me wonder whether other European countries are sponsoring their national champion to go; if not, I think dondon might be close to winning by default when he shows up at Gencon. Lekkit said Worlds last year had something like one American, one Japanese guy and the rest were European. With no sponsoring, I wouldn't count on (m)any Euros this time around; when asked at the beginning of the tournament if anyone was interested in going to Worlds, I was the only one who expressed interest (out loud anyway) because of the whole "pay for it yourself" thing.

Thanks for reading!
« Last Edit: July 15, 2012, 05:26:35 pm by Fabian »
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Lekkit

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #1 on: July 15, 2012, 06:28:15 pm »
0

Again, congratulations to your win! To be honest I think you were the only one I saw who constantly played good. Also I think you're a great player. Both skill-wise and sportsmanship-wise. It was unfortunate that the tournament itself was quite poorly organised, and the top player from our league got to sit on their own tables the whole time without facing each other.
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clb

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #2 on: July 15, 2012, 06:29:52 pm »
+1

Congratulations, Fabian!
Hopefully, you can find a company willing to sponsor you to go to Nationals and uphold the Swedish name!
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Fabian

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #3 on: July 15, 2012, 06:38:44 pm »
+1

I agree the seeding thing wasn't very well thought out and should be changed for sure, Lekkit. I think overall the tournament organizer(s) do a great job of listening to our suggestions (I'm pretty sure no one brought up that this was a poorly thought out seeding system before the tournament started? I know I didn't) and making the right decisions as far as creating a good tournament goes though, and I wouldn't want to call the tournament poorly organised for that reason. I'm very grateful that we did what we did instead of all the awful tournament structures I read about on this forum from other places, and overall I think our tournament structures (both here and in the league) have been pretty great, especially after our feedback has been taken into account. Thanks, organizers!

Thanks clb, feel free to go ahead and suggest some companies which would be interested in a sponsorship like that though ;)
« Last Edit: July 15, 2012, 06:40:05 pm by Fabian »
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Kirian

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #4 on: July 15, 2012, 06:39:57 pm »
0

I'm really surprised that RGG isn't sponsoring the international contestants to come to worlds, given that they sponsored US regional champs to go to Nationals, which probably cost close to as much given hotel costs in Chicago.  Seems a damn shame to have worlds be like five people.

Hey, I have an idea!  They could do the world championships via Isotropic!  That couldn't possibly cause any trouble.

Congrats man!
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Fabian

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #5 on: July 15, 2012, 06:42:17 pm »
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Kirian, I would kinda tend to agree. Then again, saying I know close to nothing about the inner workings, or motivations, of big companies would probably be an exaggeration, and I'm sure they make a lot more money off the US market than the Swedish market, or whatever. Still I'm obviously super bummed out this is the case though.
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clb

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #6 on: July 15, 2012, 06:44:17 pm »
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Thanks clb, feel free to go ahead and suggest some companies which would be interested in a sponsorship like that though ;)

I am not familiar with Swedish companies (or their advertising policies), but I know SkullCandy has sponsored some buddies to travel to and play at the US Nationals for amateur (AA) volleyball.
It probably couldn't hurt to ask around? If it means wearing a few ugly shirts or hats, but getting to compete in Worlds, it might be worth it. Maybe there is a mid-sized company in Sweden who is looking to break into the US market? You can be the vanguard advertisement! ;)
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luliin

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #7 on: July 15, 2012, 06:45:53 pm »
+5

I definitely think you deserved to win. On my part, I'm just glad I got some sort of redemption from last year's nationals (where I finished 22/24). After all, this time I even beat Lekkit. He'll hear about that for quite some time.
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dondon151

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #8 on: July 15, 2012, 06:46:10 pm »
0

It makes me wonder whether other European countries are sponsoring their national champion to go; if not, I think dondon might be close to winning by default when he shows up at Gencon. Lekkit said Worlds last year had something like one American, one Japanese guy and the rest were European. With no sponsoring, I wouldn't count on (m)any Euros this time around; when asked at the beginning of the tournament if anyone was interested in going to Worlds, I was the only one who expressed interest (out loud anyway) because of the whole "pay for it yourself" thing.

I remember asking Jay about this last night, and I recall him listing off several European countries who were sending representatives for sure, and I think Sweden is the only one that is not sponsoring their winner. Quite odd.

I am looking forward to the possibility of you attending, simply because I don't think I have played very many strong players before at all.
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Fabian

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #9 on: July 15, 2012, 06:48:46 pm »
+2

It makes me wonder whether other European countries are sponsoring their national champion to go; if not, I think dondon might be close to winning by default when he shows up at Gencon. Lekkit said Worlds last year had something like one American, one Japanese guy and the rest were European. With no sponsoring, I wouldn't count on (m)any Euros this time around; when asked at the beginning of the tournament if anyone was interested in going to Worlds, I was the only one who expressed interest (out loud anyway) because of the whole "pay for it yourself" thing.

I remember asking Jay about this last night, and I recall him listing off several European countries who were sending representatives for sure, and I think Sweden is the only one that is not sponsoring their winner. Quite odd.

I am looking forward to the possibility of you attending, simply because I don't think I have played very many strong players before at all.

Well FML then.
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ednever

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #10 on: July 15, 2012, 07:06:04 pm »
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I have a write-up coming on this based on my conversations with Jay, but in the meantime...

Basically RGG owns the US rights to Dominion. Jay sells the rights in other countries to local companies who 'own' that region. He is letting each region do what they like in their area.

He is very generously sponsoring people in his region (He believes players like those of us here are his "Marketing Channel" - he doesn't spend anything on marketing except for helping out players so they tell their friends - if you do go to GenCon you might find yourself getting fed by Jay...), but he had no control of what the other international partners do.

His understanding was that when it was in Essen, he sponsored the US player(s?), but the Euro players all made their way there on their own. He thought it was likely many of them would not sponsor people this year (but as per dondon's point, some are)

More to come.

Ed
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Fabian

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #11 on: July 15, 2012, 07:12:52 pm »
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Thanks for the info ednever. I don't know what it was like in other countries last year, but I know Lekkit had airfare+hotel paid for.

Looking forward to the write-up :)
« Last Edit: July 15, 2012, 07:16:02 pm by Fabian »
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Lekkit

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #12 on: July 16, 2012, 10:13:51 am »
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What I mean by poorly organised is that almost nothing was determined ahead of the tournament. We had votes, where only a few players cast their votes and those who complained loudest got their will through. Now I don't think the end product was bad. It really wasn't. But the organising beforehand was really poor.
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Fabian

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #13 on: July 16, 2012, 10:16:32 am »
+2

While that's definitely true, I prefer that over having someone decide on a horrible tournament structure beforehand, and not listening when people point out that it's horrible. I haven't been impressed with any tournament structure I've been reading about on this forum, so overall I'm still quite happy with how we do it in Stockholm even if it could be improved further :)
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Beyond Awesome

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #14 on: July 16, 2012, 03:20:24 pm »
+2

Congrats Fabian. I hope that you can go to Worlds. Maybe a donation thing can be started on here, although, I'm not sure how much people would chip in. Overall, even though your tournament wasn't perfect, it sounds a lot better organized than the one dondon won. Reading about that last kingdom and the way things were decided just brings me nightmares.
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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #15 on: July 16, 2012, 11:15:12 pm »
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Congrats Fabian! Perhaps you can keep streaming Isotropic games and start monetizing your stream/YouTube channel, and pay your way to Gencon that way! :P
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Beyond Awesome

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #16 on: July 17, 2012, 01:30:03 am »
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Congrats Fabian! Perhaps you can keep streaming Isotropic games and start monetizing your stream/YouTube channel, and pay your way to Gencon that way! :P

YouTube doesn't pay that much. Trust me, I know. You have to have a big channel to make the few thousand it would take to make it to GenCon.
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Arya Stark

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #17 on: July 17, 2012, 08:18:57 am »
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I second the donation idea... Do you have a paypal account?
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Fabian

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #18 on: July 17, 2012, 08:29:04 am »
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Heh guys you're cute. If I asked for donations here I expect $10 would be a good over/under line :)

I watch some guys stream video games speedruns sometimes, the top guys there seem to make a decent amount of money. Of course, they've been doing it for 2+ years and have like 1000 viewers pretty consistently and more like 3000 during a good world record attempt. I'd be happy with 5 viewers when I stream Dominion, I think the market is a bit different :)
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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #19 on: July 17, 2012, 11:22:27 am »
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It makes me wonder whether other European countries are sponsoring their national champion to go; if not, I think dondon might be close to winning by default when he shows up at Gencon. Lekkit said Worlds last year had something like one American, one Japanese guy and the rest were European. With no sponsoring, I wouldn't count on (m)any Euros this time around; when asked at the beginning of the tournament if anyone was interested in going to Worlds, I was the only one who expressed interest (out loud anyway) because of the whole "pay for it yourself" thing.

I remember asking Jay about this last night, and I recall him listing off several European countries who were sending representatives for sure, and I think Sweden is the only one that is not sponsoring their winner. Quite odd.

dont suppose he mentioned UK qualifiers or tournaments at all?
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dondon151

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #20 on: July 17, 2012, 02:05:47 pm »
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dont suppose he mentioned UK qualifiers or tournaments at all?

I do not expressly recall him mentioning UK qualifiers.
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Fabian

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #21 on: July 26, 2012, 01:57:58 am »
+3

Update: Sweden will be represented at Worlds!

Should I be contacting anyone to get some info or something? Or just show up Saturday and hope I'm there on time? The available info still seems kinda.. lacking.

Also it'll definitely be a 2-day tournament? Those Gencon badges are expensive as hell grr, isn't the plane ticket and hotel costs enough heh.
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dondon151

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #22 on: July 26, 2012, 02:13:26 am »
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I suppose you can try contacting Jay; I'm not sure how much he'll help you out, but if it's stuff about GenCon, he can probably at least point you to the right place.
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Lekkit

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #23 on: July 26, 2012, 09:34:50 am »
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I thought you won the badge. :S I'd contact Jay for more info.
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Fabian

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Re: Tournament Report from Swedish Nationals
« Reply #24 on: July 26, 2012, 09:35:59 am »
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Oh yeah? I guess that would more than double the value of winning Nationals heh :)
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