Okay, I am saving the even better for my articles, but I am gonna burst if I don't release something right now. Pop.

6. Pro Team Edgeworld. These guys tickled me pink. They won the 10K, they were one card away from the final, Dustin made money in his first PC? With only four players and some janky stall deck? Off the radar and into your face. With a very sharp hatchet raised high above the head. Wesssssayyyyyyde!!!

5. The Top 8. Pure gravy. Each and every one of them is a quality human being and the camaraderie was unequaled. Happy, friendly, true ambassadors of the game each and every one of them. It was Sportsmanship at its finest.

http://metagame.com/vs.aspx?tabid=46&ArticleId=5130

4. Alex Tennet. A-Rod said something to me as we bid each other farewell on the sidewalk and he headed for his jet. It was one of the classiest things I have seen on the Pro Circuit. He had been eagle-eyed on the rail pushing Vidi to the top like a cheeky guardian angel through to the final, now he had to leave before the last round! I said "You guys could be the first team with double winners!" A-Rod didn't hestitate in sincerely expressing this from the heart: "True, but Shane is such a cool guy, and it would be great if their team takes it too!"

(Exclamation points and inexact quotes added due to faulty memory unit.)

3. Spid3rm4n. Spid3rm4n. Spid3rm4n.

http://metagame.com/vs.aspx?tabid=46&ArticleId=5105

(I know Alex, and he will get as many chuckles from this as anyone.) Graham was rolling through the pros, showing the kind of intestinal fortitude that I will never have... even though he is less than one-third my age. Alex was honed in on Top 8, and he has the best focus in the game when victory is in sight. Alex was consulting the judging staff in concession etiquette, and Graham's friend says "Are you gonna take the split?" Our teenage hero responds with "I'm not gonna scoop to this guy." The friend suggests "Well then tell him, so he doesn't have to go through all this." The Solid Steel Kid whips back with "Nah, I'll watch him sweat."

2. Vidi's secret weapon. He had a good luck charm. Infi boobs. I won't tell you anymore, for fear of death by mental power. Damn, I love that guy. Seriously. We had some fun this weekend didn't we Vidi? Did I tell you that my sister looks exactly like Kelly Clarkson? She's recently divorced and looking if you can move to Orlando.

1. Kergy's blog. The ghost of Gary Wise showed up in the hall and danced buck naked with a Samurai sword. These are the best two pages of entertainment our game has ever seen.

http://metagame.com/vs.aspx?tabid=46...ArticleId=4977

http://metagame.com/vs.aspx?tabid=46...ArticleId=5028

That's all you get for now. More in article form soon. Your turn. Stu out.

GO GATORS!!!

Synth and his daughter couldn't buy a win in the 10K. My only win was a "bye". :P My worst show at a tourney in a long time.

Someone wrote "Bwah hah hah hah!" on my baggie and after trying to build a deck with what I had, I understand what they were laughing about. My deck was a disorderly set that used all 4 teams just to fill out a decent curve. It was so bad that once, I had to play a boosted Beef on 6.

Mmm... boosted beef... :)

Oh well... there's always next time.

Phasing out...

Nah, that's Best of The Atlanta Airport. Your game was never in doubt... but George Mason had all foot traffic grinding to a halt and 200 people crowded around the bar screaming in delight.

Favorite Moment: I was hanging out with FTN and Alex starts threatening Dave with his cards. Alex says "You know, these cards have sharp corners" and starts to throw the card at Dave. He doesn't let go, but the card swings and hits Kim, his girlfriend and fellow teammate, in the eye! Hilarious.

Fortunately, she was fine.

Graham Van Leeuwen...

The highlight of PC ATL.

I was chanting a silent victory to myself when I saw that you were playing a Multiple Man deck, Stu. Not only that, but you were playing the Avengers with Captain America! As well as no reservist abusing cards!!! And the Thunderbolts were there, with no MoE tagging along!! You are my hero, Stu, plain and simple. Even more than the guy who top 8'd the Hellfire Club!! This was a great PC. The X-Faces deck is sweet, Squadron is more diversified and interesting, people didn't just give in and Net-Deck! GO MENTAL! God bless the Jank!

infi boobs man how savage thank god i actually know what that means..

lucky charm... thanks stu

Team Online represent.

My list:

1. Vidi winning, obv. FTN's second PC win was a scorcher, and the roster now boasts 3 PC champs in total (and close to a quarter million dollars in earnings. We aren't Kai Budde quite yet, but we're getting there ;)).

2. Making admittedly minor (but still non-cosmetic) errors in 5 games and having none of them cost me the game. I do not agree with people who say that if you win a game, your mistakes don't matter and you shouldn't beat yourself up over them. You *should* beat yourself up over them. Moreover, you should drill the error into your gaming consciousness so it is not repeated. Example: Final draft pod of day 2, I neglect to remove a counter from Jason Green's characters on two occasions with Scarecrow, but still win the game. Next game, had I made this error I would have lost by one point of endurance. Forget about the good plays you made; you made them once and will make them again. Ensure the same is not true of your mistakes.

3. 3-0ing the three guys I played from that new team (donkey something) that was supposed to be better than FTN? GG. I think TAWC may be the new second-best team around; I am only 2-2 vs those guys ;).

4. Belting out Iron Man (the song, not the card) on Leader's silly PS2 guitar game the night I got into ATL. I could get addicted to that thing quite easily I think, even though I am atrocious at it.

5. First Steak n Shake in 6 months. Mmmmmmm.


The bad:

1. I check in online for my flight from London and see there is a free seat at the front of the economy cabin so I can stretch my legs. Awesome. I click on it, check in, get on the plane some hours later and sit in my seat. To my left: mother and screaming baby. To my right: mother and screaming baby. In my pocket: borrowed ipod's batteries die. Screaming babies scream for 9 hours straight (I #### you not). I ended up wetting some tissues from the plane's loo and stuffing them in my ears for the entire flight. I end the weekend 0-2 vs kids born in 2006. GG.

2. My second draft pod. Till the end of my VS playing days, I will never believe I could draft a set I knew so well, so badly. There is 100% no question that I would have 3-0ed a second consecutive pod had I not made such a terrible first pick error, backed up by third and fourth pick cockups. The best JLI4 deck in the world was handed to me on a plate. Pod two is thus the real reason I missed top 8, not pod 3.

3. Getting ultimately knocked out of the top 8 by Quang Nguyen in the last round AGAIN (first time was at 10k San Diego 04, where I got 9th after losing somehow while having 3 Kaboom in my row vs his lost city deck). If I end up in SoCal this fall instead of NorCal, I doubt I shall ever top 8 an event again ;)

4. Playing Squadron. I dislike mirror matches at the best of times, but this one makes me want to self-harm. Ours was a good version (GJ, Milt) but losing games largely on the roll of a dice annoys me.

5. 12th place. For some people 12th and $5000 is something to be happy about. In reality, it's only 3 times better than getting 9th. And still just basically means you didn't get 1st.

My highlight of Atlanta was seeing Hans play versus sunday.

Meeting more of the awesome people i laugh and joke with on here almost every day.

That made the whole trip worthwhile even if no matter what I did all weekend, I was always 1 win away from where I wanted to be in games. :)

Gator is a totally cool cat, and his son is an amazing little guy that is going to be the next big thing on the pro circuit ;) keep your eyes open for him!

Meeting Stu was also a treat. A totally laid back kind of guy with the sharp wit and mind you'd expect after reading his articles.

Kergy is totally cool as well.

For those of you that I met but didn't list here, I enjoyed meeting you all as well.

...Well all of you but that one rude guy with the french accent. I'd rather not have met you. Sorry. Hope you have morte fun the next time around so that maybe then we can get off on the right foot, instead of bad attitudes.

Getting to play xmen swarm with black panther supplying the special hard wear was also a treat.

Getting to win more than I lost with a sealed deck with 2 combat pumps was also fun. Getting to win even more with 4 team ups was even better!

Playing vs until we were falling asleep during our turns though was a very nice return to what I'm used to!!!

Looking forward to SF with big smiles all around!!!

Best moment of Atlanta : watching another adult go from smug to sad as my 10 year old son knocks them out of the pcq.

Best moment #2 : Realizing that I can play with the big boys.

Best moment #3 : Hearing about the many people that got stranded and lost on their way to Atlanta. Usually it's me that gets lost.

Best moment #4 : Finally getting my hands on an EA Bastion as my son delivers the card. He's 10, but he's hard core.

Best moment #5 : Gators going to the Final Four.

Graham pwned, when I saw him at a PCQ he sucked it up but after that, im impressed. he was the showstopper of the day. And Alex Jebailey didnt do so bad either

Best part of PC Atlanta was seeing someone wearing an FTN shirt carrying the big trophy. Only 1 FTN in the top 8 was disappointing when 3 of us were so close, but atleast Vidi made up for it by winning the whole thing.

My favorite game though was against TJ (both of us sitting at 4-3 I think). Squadron mirror, he rolls a 5 on a 6-sided die only to have me drop the 6. We both miss 1, he hits Melissa into me for 9 on 2. On 3 I hit Speed Demon w/ a Jet, he hits Lady Lark who double power ups and drops another pump on Melissa after Speedy and Lark trade (45-29 his lead after 3). On 4 he drops archer and I drop Hawkeye and the board gets stunned, I'm now at 18 to his 36 (I keep Speed Demon, he keeps Archer). I drop Whizzer and he thinks about who to Enemy for and decides on Feral. Speed Demon twice stuns a Potion'ed Archer and then Whizzer goes to the face for 36 w/ triple pump to put TJ at -10. 60 damage in 3 turns after missing 1 and 2. Feral can't swing back hard enough for the win.