Any reports from LVO?

[Paddywhack]

So, anyone got any pics or reports from LVO this year? I'm not seeing much online anywhere. 

[Yore Huckleberry]

25 minutes ago, Paddywhack said:

So, anyone got any pics or reports from LVO this year? I'm not seeing much online anywhere. 

I heard that the winning player had a set-list Nekima build:

Nekima - cache 7
  - Inhuman Reflexes
Blood Hunter totem
Hayreddin
  - Inhuman Reflexes
Mature Nephilim
  - Ancient Pact
Mature Nephilim
  - Ancient Pact
Black Blood Shaman

Major gameplan was kill something important and then out-activate.

[Gnomezilla]

Third Floor Wars has the final standings, and there’s boards photos on A Wyrd Place. The TO is going to assemble a final report later, which will probably cover most of the top tables since they all regularly attend his home tournaments. (They also ended up playing against one another a lot after the initial rounds, so there was less mixing of metas than you nigh expect from raw results.)

My hot take is: the chatter from the masses is a lot less ‘that’s a busted list’ than ‘y’all (you say ‘y’all’, right) got outplayed’, which speaking as someone who also attends aforementioned tournaments at the other end of the rankings, is disrespectful to some very skilled players; that’s the best showing for female US players I’ve seen in some time, which is both glorious and a sign that we [read: me] need to step it up some; and it’s something of a comfort that people other than me can’t beat that particular list either even though I’ve lost to it far, far more often.

Edited January 28, 2020 by Gnomezilla
I can’t control strikethrough on mobile but that’s a fair assessment where it landed, so let’s keep it

[Paddywhack]

9 minutes ago, Yore Huckleberry said:

I heard that the winning player had a set-list Nekima build:

Nekima - cache 7
  - Inhuman Reflexes
Blood Hunter totem
Hayreddin
  - Inhuman Reflexes
Mature Nephilim
  - Ancient Pact
Mature Nephilim
  - Ancient Pact
Black Blood Shaman

Major gameplan was kill something important and then out-activate.

Gods I hate Inhuman Reflexes....

7 minutes ago, Gnomezilla said:

Third Floor Wars has the final standings, and there’s boards photos on A Wyrd Place.

Ah, yeah - I figured that's where some might be. I won't join that group again though - too many bad interactions even after several times joining. 

[Gnomezilla]

Until such time as the actual attendees show up, feast your attention here:

Also tagging @Guslado the esteemed TO to please share the table photos. I haven’t got any photos on this phone that I can positively ID as Houstonian tables.

[grim_stoki]

I went and had a good time. One thing to keep in mind is roughly half the field was fairly new to the game, so I'm not sure how much of a representative sample is for the sake of evaluating the competitive scene. I didn't play the winning list, but I did play a Yan Lo list that was hella bent. I had no answers for anything in his crew, and thank my lucky soulstones I escaped with only a 2-3 loss. I'll need to start teching into that matchup hard in the future if I'm going to stand a chance. 

[Paddywhack]

1 hour ago, grim_stoki said:

I went and had a good time. One thing to keep in mind is roughly half the field was fairly new to the game, so I'm not sure how much of a representative sample is for the sake of evaluating the competitive scene. I didn't play the winning list, but I did play a Yan Lo list that was hella bent. I had no answers for anything in his crew, and thank my lucky soulstones I escaped with only a 2-3 loss. I'll need to start teching into that matchup hard in the future if I'm going to stand a chance. 

Was it a TT or Res Yan Lo? Do you recall the list and what was so hard about it? 

 

[Ogid]

4 hours ago, Yore Huckleberry said:

I heard that the winning player had a set-list Nekima build:

Well, that sounds familiar XD. Congrats @Kharnage!

4 hours ago, Gnomezilla said:

My hot take is: the chatter from the masses is a lot less ‘that’s a busted list’ than ‘y’all (you say ‘y’all’, right) got outplayed’, which speaking as someone who also attends aforementioned tournaments at the other end of the rankings, is disrespectful to some very skilled players

I'm probably missing some context here... was there some kind of tense enviroment about the wining list/player?

[Kharnage]

Hello, yes, it was me who took first at LVO! And I did indeed run exclusively my 6 model double mature build for the duration of the tournament. 

Prepare for the wall of text!

First game was into an Ironsides player on Plant Explosives, and he was a rusty/newer player. He ran his bombs on three different Steam Arachnids and Amina for the 4th and 5th bomb, and I hunted them down, stole their bombs, and managed kill Ironsides without loss of (Nephilim) life. 8-3, I think. Dig their graves and Breakthrough were my schemes. 

Second game was into one of my fellow Texans, he played Pandora, it was Turf War. He ran a puppets influenced crew, and while beating through the armor was a pain, focus, blade rush, and black blood meant that I saw victory. His deck was also not particularly kind to him; he blacked a Vasilisa summon of a Stitched off of Hinamatsu's corpse with the high mask in hand. Hinamatsu was the first to die, followed by Teddy, then eventually Pandora (I had taken Assassinate in the pool) 7-4 final score, my other scheme was power ritual. Candy was his Claim Jump target so she stayed away from the combat that occurred on the other side of a building, but my Blood Hunter had managed to take her below half to prevent second point of Claim Jump, and my Mature escaped melee to prevent second point of Take Prisoner.

Third game was also into one of my fellow Texans, this one was not excited to see Corrupted Idols into me (Because 6 models with 2 ancient pacts typically hand picks where the idols drop) 
He ran Von Schtook. I was hesitant to engage because he had 9 stones, so I played back turn 1, hard engaged turn 2, and the Valedictorian, despite his cache, was dead by turn 3. Schtook died, a mature died to Anna, but I maintained absolute control over the Idols. One of his two Necropunks with GST lived and got through to my board half, and with a student of Viscera he summoned off of Anna's kill, managed to score 4 points off of breakthrough and Search the Ruins, whereas I only scored 1 point each for those schemes. 6-4 final score. 

Fourth game was into a Resser I'd played before on Vassal. He played Yan Lo, and it was Reckoning. (Yuck!) Knowing that I was not going to score more than 2 points into Yan Lo (because Manos is your second point, there's enough minions and enforcers for your first, and you're not gonna kill Yan Lo past turn 2) I was determined to play back, and took Harness and Search the Ruins. Nekima made a gutsy turn 2 play to kill his Manos-upgraded Komainu (It took a severe 6, blood for blood, moderate 5, and then a 3 point whack to do it, but I had the cards and focus necessary to bet on it) which almost cost Nekima her life, but she managed to stay alive and even above 7 wounds, denying his Assassinate pick entirely. Manos never lived to run Search the Ruins (jumped in trying to tap that 7 health Nekima after Izamu did his thing and just, missed. Then got eaten next turn.) He killed my shaman with Yan Lo, and then Hayreddin managed to stick it out to die turn 5 (he was at 2 HP in hazardous aura at top of 5 with nowhere to BFJ to escape) final score, 5-2. 

Fifth and final game was into yet another fellow Texan, also playing Yan Lo (But TT this time!) on Turf War. TT Yan Lo meant I got to deal with Fuhatsu. Vendetta into his Izamu worked out, scoring the first point with a shotgun round after Nekima focus-smacked him a couple times and then ran, and Nekima finishing him off next round. Dig their Graves always gets me the second point because the Shaman can just farm corpses and scheme markers off of the Blood Hunter in the background while the rest of the crew fights, though I only scored the second point on that. Most of my struggle was keeping Fuhatsu engaged and beat on, trying to score the first point of Dig. 9 stones later, he just turned a 2 health Fuhatsu into 7 health Izamu, so I never got the first Dig point. A clutch double-interact from Sun Quiang on a Turf Marker on turn 5 (I didn't realize he had Don't Mind Me) turned a 4-1 lead into a close 5-4 stretch as he also scored his Vendetta and Dig, though after I turned in my sheet I realized that I scored 2nd point of Vendetta even though Izamu was resummoned. But it didn't matter, I'd already had my 5 wins, so I called it good.

[Gnomezilla]

2 hours ago, Ogid said:

Well, that sounds familiar XD. Congrats @Kharnage!

I'm probably missing some context here... was there some kind of tense enviroment about the wining list/player?

Usually after a tournament reports that a fixed list soloed it to win, the peanut gallery of commentators who weren’t there reacts with ‘that’s broken, plz fix’; this time it was never that but instead ‘learn to play’, and I know all these guys play way better than to deserve that label. I get my l2p-level butt [gently] kicked by them in round one on a regular basis.

[Pergli]

22 hours ago, Ogid said:

Well, that sounds familiar XD. Congrats @Kharnage!

I'm probably missing some context here... was there some kind of tense enviroment about the wining list/player?

No, definitely no tense environment towards the winning player. Considering 30% of the field came from his Meta and were aware going in what was going to happen, there wasn't any bad blood.  Is it frustrating that we can KNOW the list going in as well as the strategy and not be able to beat it? It can be, but I would rather have a strong player with a strong list in my meta than not. It forces us to all to continually learn and be better at the game we all love!

[Ogid]

36 minutes ago, Pergli said:

Is it frustrating that we can KNOW the list going in as well as the strategy and not be able to beat it? It can be, but I would rather have a strong player with a strong list in my meta than not. It forces us to all to continually learn and be better at the game we all love!

Agree 100%, Good players in the meta makes everyone improve.

If you guys are having trouble beating his list, have you tried to swap crews? Playing the list and facing your own models usually helps to see the weak points of it.

[Pergli]

Eh, its not the list per say. We've had two other players adopt the list and they aren't as efficient with it, its how he plays it. I think I CAN beat the list and have ideas on how to do it. Just need to execute it properly. Also the game we played (game 3) was heavily weighted in his favor from the jump. From terrain (alot of blocking/concealing that flight doesnt' care about), to strat, to deployment (wedge) to schemes.  We'll see, i'm really not too concerned with his Nekima dominance  

[Ogid]

In my experience this kind of things are usually more a "player issue" (a.k.a a very good player) than a list/keyword/faction issue unless something is OP, switching crews is a good way to stress test it. Good to know it's also like this in this case. 👍

[farmoar]

20 hours ago, Kharnage said:

Hello, yes, it was me who took first at LVO! And I did indeed run exclusively my 6 model double mature build for the duration of the tournament. 

Great job man! It is awesome to see that such a concentrated elite list can do well. Before all the cries of "net-listing", I have been looking for a small model-count crew for a while that can just eat other models, and I think I may have found it. Now the hard part will be actually finding the models for it (no crew box, and Matures seem to be scarce these days).

Thanks for the rundown of your games! Always appreciate it.

[Guslado]

On 1/28/2020 at 11:40 AM, Paddywhack said:

So, anyone got any pics or reports from LVO this year? I'm not seeing much online anywhere. 

Hey! I ran the Malifaux events at LVO this year. Here's the breakdown of all of the masters played and the matchups at LVO.

I was posting most of my photos to A Wyrd Place as I'm one of the mods over there and these forums don't get along well with my phone. I'll see if I can get a few more photos from my phone onto these forums in a bit, but figured the breakdown of masters and matchups is what people mostly wanted.

[Toqtamish]

[grim_stoki]

On 1/28/2020 at 4:30 PM, Paddywhack said:

Was it a TT or Res Yan Lo? Do you recall the list and what was so hard about it? 

 

It was ressers Yan. I'll try and remember the list best I can:

YanLo

Soul Porter

Chiaki

Manos

Izamu

Komainu

Sun Quiang

What was so hard was all his stuff was tougher, faster, and hit harder than mine. Between all the pushes from Yan and Chiaki and his leap, Manos was in my half of the board on his first activation. The table was set up such that I had a narrow alley that I tried to funnel his crew into, all while taking potshots when I could. Of course, Yan's ash upgrade gives his models insta-concelment and Sun would just heal everything. I ended up resorting to focused shots with my fire gamin onto Izamu so I could cheat in severe blasts, that was the only way I could get any damage on his dudes, and all I managed to kill was the Soul Porter. 

[Gnomezilla]

5 hours ago, Toqtamish said:

The only conference which dares to give y’all the raspberry.

(I may have already been workshopping designs on the theme. 🙃 )

[santaclaws01]

5 hours ago, Guslado said:

Hey! I ran the Malifaux events at LVO this year. Here's the breakdown of all of the masters played and the matchups at LVO.

I was posting most of my photos to A Wyrd Place as I'm one of the mods over there and these forums don't get along well with my phone. I'll see if I can get a few more photos from my phone onto these forums in a bit, but figured the breakdown of masters and matchups is what people mostly wanted.

That's a lot of drops.

[Toqtamish]

1 minute ago, santaclaws01 said:

That's a lot of drops.

Big convention. Lots to see and do. Not uncommon at all. 

[LeperColony]

If you're not going to commit to an event, better not to enter it at all.

[santaclaws01]

48 minutes ago, Toqtamish said:

Big convention. Lots to see and do. Not uncommon at all. 

I haven't seen that many drops in other convention tournaments.

[farmoar]

18 minutes ago, LeperColony said:

If you're not going to commit to an event, better not to enter it at all.

I don't think that's fair at all to say, especially in a 2-day event. And is definitely the wrong attitude to have towards those players.

Why not try and salvage your Sunday after going loss, loss, bye, or loss, tie, loss? It actually happens a lot in larger events. They could have showed up day 2, played for another 4+ hours and maybe pull out a win or two (which isn't putting you in the top, OR spend that time enjoying the sights and sounds of wherever you are (especially at any sort of convention). Unless you are a sucker for punishment, why give yourself a completely negative weekend?

(and that is all assuming that the players that dropped did it because they were losing, and not for personal matters)

We can be better than that as a community, and don't need to start trashing our own playerbase. Leave that to the other games.

[Guslado]

25 minutes ago, santaclaws01 said:

I haven't seen that many drops in other convention tournaments.

It was in Las Vegas, there were a couple people who had a bit too wild of a night after day 1 of the tourney and didn’t wake up until the afternoon day 2.