Congratulations to Travis Frazier, Pasadena's City Champion. Against All Odds, Travis piloted his Darkseid Substitute deck to the final, where he and Dan Lujan (playing Brotherhood Reservist) split.

Special recognition is also due to Joe, who made the Top 4 cut in his first sanctioned event.

Final standings are available here:
http://vs.chimpshack.org/events/2007...standings.html

Thank you SO MUCH to the 16 players who came out and made City Championship - Pasadena a smashing success.

I took special pains to prize out generously. I can't guarantee all future City Champs events at Game Empire Pasadena will be so generously prized, but we'll do our best.

• Everyone who arrived on time (by 12 noon), received a European Origins pack. (Portugese, Italian, or Spanish language)
• Round 1, everyone received a pack of Legion of Superheroes, courtesy of Edgeworld, Costa Mesa.
• Round 2, i deck-checked. I actually deck-checked Steven Smyth at the end of Round 1, because he'd left 3 cards off his decklist. To compensate for this indignity, i hooked him up with 2 EA Darkseid/4's, which had arrived late at Game Empire. Even when you're penalized at City Champs, you come out ahead. (note: this is not meant to encourage any of you knuckleheads to submit a bad decklist at my next event)
• Before Round 3, we served Donut Man's famous strawberry donuts. Due to the holiday, we were only able to get 11, but everyone got at least a half. Most people were a bit staggered by the size of the dessert anyway.
• Round 4, i deck-checked.
• Round 5, everyone received their Harry Osborn <> Green Goblin Extended Art card. I deck-checked again.

Prizes

• First
  12 packs Marvel Team-Up, 2 Euro Origins packs, 4 Thanos Extended Art Cards, 1 City Championship playmat, 3 assorted Hobby League EA's.
• Second
  7 packs Marvel Team-Up, 2 Euro Origins packs, 4 Beast Extended Art cards, X-Men Wolverine t-shirt, Heralds of Galactus Tin, 4 EA Hobby League cards, 3 assorted Hobby League EA's.
• Third/Fourth
  5 packs Marvel Team-Up, 2 Euro Origins Packs, either the Green Lantern or X-Men playmat, 3 assorted Hobby League EA's.
• Fifth through Eighth
  2 Packs Marvel Team-Up, 2 Euro Origins packs, 3 assorted Hobby League EA's.
• Ninth through Sixteenth
  1 Pack Marvel Team-Up, 2 Euro Origins packs, 1 additional Harry Osborn <> Green Goblin, 3 assorted Hobby League EA's.

We ran 5 rounds of Swiss, a donut break, and one round of 2-out-of-3 top 4 in a shade over 5 hours.

Thanks to Game Empire, which really got into ordering the hobby kit and provided the fantastic venue. The bathroom was immaculate, the skylights beautiful, so on and so forth.

Special thanks to mazerat, who donated 12 MTU packs, and a pull from his extensive collection of Gallery Collection EA's for each participant.

Extra-special thanks to Erick, who came up, donated 16 Legions packs, a box of MTU to swap with Game Empire so we could prize out, and the fantastic PTO game clock, which gave us timekeeping in big, bold numbers.

The stuff was part contributed by SCGE since most of the players there are regulars at our PCQs and Sneaks.

Since I like to do numbered lists:

1. Game Empire is an awesome venue:
By awesome I mean... holy clean store Batman. Had all sorts of games... minis, board, card... etc. And I do have to mention that I was blown away by the bathrooms. It had not one but TWO very clean bathrooms, one for each affiliation. I was told the ladie's restroom was immaculate which was expected... but the men's... well... you just don't expect to see that kind of cleanliness of the potty from a gamer store.

2. Strawberry donuts:
Okay... I didn't look at the picture Eric had posted originally but I expected them to be some kind of donut with strawberry frosting. No... they were actual donuts... cut in half... with REAL whole strawberries inside! It was like a strawberry sandwich... unreal.

3. Great turnout:
About half were locals from Hobby League and the rest were the regulars from Comic Cult in Torrance. No EW guys since they were at the money PCQ (which Patrick/Joe won 1st/2nd at). I talked to them and asked about why they didn't attend the money event and the general consensus is that Game Empire is their home store and they wanted to play in a casual, fun environment. This bodes very well for Hobby League.

4. Varied Meta:
16 players, 16 different decks (listed in order of finish)...
Darkseid
Broservists
Hellfire
Kree-VU
Energy Burn
AGL
Defenders Mono!
Spider-Mate Stall
Quickfate
Shadowpact
JSA Rock Mono
Moloids
Hellboy Club (Hellfire/Hellboy)
Silver Sable Bounce
Kree-Seid
X-men Mono!

5. Energy Burn?
Yeah... I said I was going to play Quickfate but after playing some games with it... I decided it did too much searching... I hate shuffling. Plus I heard someone else was gonna play it so I wanted to try something different. I had decided on Broservists but unfortunately my build was very rare-heavy (Ruins, Acolytes, Boot, Voght) so I went with burn. It was either Energy or VU w/321 but since I've been harping on Classes/Traits and I had most of the rares, I went with Energy. It was ironic because Dan ran over me with Broservists... heh. Good thing is most of my games didn't go past 4/5 so I could play another game (or eat strawberry donuts) while we were waiting.

The new Hobby League system is awesome. By using a different format every month, it gives us some interesting tournaments to look forward to. I think Random Punks will be pretty cool. VS still needs those mid-level tournaments (HINT HINT) but this is a big improvement over the old Hobby League system.

Great job by Eric Lui in running the tourney and props to Tops Burgers... outstanding chili-chees fries (what is it about gamers and food that's really bad for you?).

We really wanted to go to this, but when you are a competitive vs player (like we are) you go where the money is... Joe and I split top 2 at Njoy Games and came out with $150 total... not bad for an 8-man tournament... special props to Bykov for running a stellar and smooth tournament. We didn't get donuts, but we got pizza instead!

I find it interesting that a money tournament the same day in roughly the same area got half the people that the city champ with no money got.:) Obv. you guys don't need ratings like the rest of us to play at Indy. Bastards with your over 10 PC points or ratings through the roof! Poor Kariggi has 9 points and a rating that sucks ###, my only chance at Indy is to get him qualified at some point some how!:ermm: FYI I don't care to much if I'm qualified I just have fun, but its important to him and he wont go unqualified. Dammit I just want a vacation!:cool:

Game Empire is by far one of the cleanest gaming stores I have ever been too, they actually had a women's bathroom and it was clean. A huge selection of games, I was actually able to find one for my girls in their age range, which is kind of unusual in a game store usually the games are all geared toward adults or big kids! But this one had something for everyone. The chairs are huge big swively ones, massively comfortable in large gaming area! Nice! The strawberry donuts were awesome and a good time was had by all! Fantastic job running the tournament Eric and congratulations to Travis and Dan good work!:)

I wanted to give props to both Eric and Erick. Eric for running a smooth event and erick for donating prizes as well as showing up. Oh, and the clock was pretty cool as well.

I feel I should point out Game Empire's weakness is actually the chairs. Those crazy comfortable swivel chairs were only on hand for the special event...when I go on Thursday they're certainly not there! :p

And yeah, I'm a super casual player so I really only go to events my friends are in....and most of them are not pros or even pro-wannabes.

Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to make the Torrance CC due to prior commitments on that day.

Am I the only one who finds this INCREDIBLY funny?

We're PROS! We go where the MONEY is!

$150 Bucks?!?!?!?!

Don't spend it all in one place...EL-OH-EL

Props to those that went to City Champs instead...and Boooooo to the store that ran another event in the same area just to pull players.

If they were smart, they would have promoted their event at the CC and gotten more players in the long run.

CC

Actually, I think this is a little unfair to the store that ran the money tournament. I believe they had planned their tournament well in advance to Game Empire planning their CC. By the time the stores found out about the conflict, it was pretty much too late to change either date. Just one of those unfortunate things that happen.

I had a blast at the CC though, and if it weren't for a scheduling conflict next week, I think I would be going to Torrance to participate. As much as I love the local Game Empire play group, it was nice to play some other people that were playing their own unique decks.

Mad props to ericlui for judging the event, big thanks to Erick for helping run it (and actually playing), lots of gratitude to mazerat for the extra prize support that allowed me to kick Binkley's butt at foreign language Origins Mini-Master, and finally, all the praise in the world for everyone that came out and made the event so much fun.

I wanted to go, but something came up, this is also a shameless plug for our City Champs, please come!

Link:
http://www.vsrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50282

Please don't bash for reasons you don't know. we were upset to know that CC in pasadena was on the same day. As I would have liked to play in both (even though I'm too lazy to build a deck :cheeky: .)

Props to all players that played this weekend at both events and Boo to all people that bash others for trying to keep the game alive.

It wasn't bashing for keeping the game alive...it was bashing for going "where the money is, cuz your a cool competitive player, and competitive players go where the money is at...(even though it was just 150 bucks you split)"

By making that statement you are basically calling the people who chose to go to the CC "non-competitive" and talking down to them.

If you wanted to keep the game alive, you would have played the CC, as UDE has gone on record that they will gauge future OP decision based on CC attendance.

So good job not only insulting the casuals in the first place, and then backpedaling when someone called you on it.

CC

I'm pretty sure every word you have posted in this thread is an embarassment to casual players and general realm-posters everywhere. Just stop. Nobody directed any targeted aggression towards you, but you're doing a great job at providing flamers with ammo towards your digital head right now.

It's a shame I couldn't get to any of these events, but with 18 cards missing from my deck and an obligation to meet with some people in San Fernando valley before I did anything, I felt that I owed them my undivided attention for the whole day since I got up there much later than expected.

On that note, I can't believe Simi Valley players go to San Diego events. Props to you for making those trips. That area is like 2786273 miles away from me. Seriously. I got on the I-5 around 8:10 am yesterday morning and didn't get into the valley until 11:50. :/

I calls'em like I sees'em.

When someone types this:

"but when you are a competitive vs player (like we are) you go where the money is"

That comment is a shot at ALL of the other players that went to that CC. If you can't see that, that's not my problem.

You can turn a blind eye if you want, but it is what it is. It's the equivalent of saying:

"I'd go to location X, but when you're too cool for the room (like we are), you go to location Y"

He didn't have to add of all of that to a tourney report, about a CC at a competing store. He CHOSE not to start his own thread. He CHOSE to make a point that the "competitive" players went to the other event.

Whatever. If you guys don't see something so clear as day, then I'll drop it cuz there's really no point.

CC

Somehow I think you are the only one who thinks Majestic was bashing on anyone. He was stating why he went there instead of the CC... not flaming anyone for not having the same desire.

The only one trying to take a shot at other players is you. Good job.

Captain Cuba,

You are reading into this waaay more into this than it is. You are basically talking out of your *ss, with nothing to back it up. I guess on the internet, you can interpret anything to your liking, but the fact of the matter is, that is not how I meant it to be. If that's how ONE person viewed it, then I guess it's not bad. I find it IRONIC how the "pros" are supposed to be the d*cks, yet your ignorant dumb*ss is the one being the richard. For your information, just because we're competitive, does not mean we look down on those who aren't. We know all the Pasadena players and we all have fun when we get together. We just happened to choose to go and play in an event where money is the prize. Also, from what I hear from erick, it was a lot more competitive at the CC than it was for the mock-pcq. We all played jank since we didn't care for ratings, and the CC had the "metagame" decks, ie, quickfate and kree/vu, which was not present at the mock-PCQ. Lastly, seems like your "casual" peers didn't look at my post the same way you did. You know why? Because they know me personally and know that's not what I'm about. I'm sure you're going to come back with some witty (and stupid) response to back up what you said, but the truth is, you don't know me, and these people who post here do, and they'll just flame you, if you continue to pursue your point. Unless you can be mature enough to post a coherent and civil argument, stay out of here.

after the cash event i have learned that most competetive players have quit the game and casual players just dont care about highly competetive events with cash prizing. So i dont see why UDE would bring back higher level events.