Gencon Masters Tournament Predictions

[Forar]

So, do we have any results yet to indicate who got closest in their guesses?

[Fetid Strumpet]

As of 30min ago the last update I got was:

Round 1:

6 NB

6 Arcanists

3 Outcasts

1 Guild

Round 2:

6 Nb (2 Lilith, 2 Zoraida, 1 Dreamer, 1 Pandora this round)

2 Arcanists (both playing Colette this round)

[Gruesome]

No rezzers playing? I'd not have guessed that. And more arcanists than outcasts is pretty interesting too.

Fetid, how confident are you in those totals?

[Odin1981]

Lol, wow after round one just 2 factions.

[Fetid Strumpet]

I have a friend at the con who told me that's what the rounds were. Just posting it as I'm sure there was some interest.

---------- Post added at 12:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:48 AM ----------

Round 3:

3 NB

1 Arcanist

Unknown which masters they are playing at this point.

[DarcXON]

I have a friend at the con who told me that's what the rounds were. Just posting it as I'm sure there was some interest.

---------- Post added at 12:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:48 AM ----------

Round 3:

3 NB

1 Arcanist

Unknown which masters they are playing at this point.

Damn it GiS! I predicted you at second place >.>

[Fetid Strumpet]

Update:

Top 3 at Gen Con this Year will all be NB.

I'm hearing the Arcanist player conceded on the 2nd turn against Pandora.

[DeleteAccount]

Update:

Top 3 at Gen Con this Year will all be NB.

I'm hearing the Arcanist player conceded on the 2nd turn against Pandora.

Holy hell that sounds depressing.

[DarcXON]

Man, and I was really hoping I was close enough. Guess that the NB players from last year still hold the upper hand until someone gets better with one of the other factions.

Come on people! Dethrone them!

[Gruesome]

Guess that the NB players from last year still hold the upper hand until someone gets better with one of the other factions.

That is one possible interpretation of the results.

[dookieagain]

Well I'm not sure what the soul stone total on the masters is, but the earlier gencon tournaments I played were 25 soulstones and I think neverborn can make very effective forces at that point value wherein some other factions don't have room at that level for all the synergy you need. I mean 2 lelu and 1 liltu plus a totem is pretty good, and I conceded in round 2 to a twins plus Tuco team that utterly crushed me. Not that I'm a good player, but I think at 30 or 35 other factions have more answer to those minions.

[Gruesome]

Well I'm not sure what the soul stone total on the masters is, but the earlier gencon tournaments I played were 25 soulstones and I think neverborn can make very effective forces at that point value wherein some other factions don't have room at that level for all the synergy you need. I mean 2 lelu and 1 liltu plus a totem is pretty good, and I conceded in round 2 to a twins plus Tuco team that utterly crushed me. Not that I'm a good player, but I think at 30 or 35 other factions have more answer to those minions.

I agree. I believe it was a 35SS tourney, but not 100% sure.

There is not much to take away from the results of a single tournament, IMO, especially when it was so heavily populated by only two factions.

All we know about the matchups was that no NB played each other in the first round if it was single-elimination and there were 6/6 NB still there for round 2.

I am still pretty surprised about no rezzers.

---------- Post added at 07:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:41 PM ----------

In terms of who was closest in their prediction?

DarcXON

His prediction:

1) Neverborn

2) Outcasts

3) Neverborn

4) Arcanists

Swap out #2 with another neverborn and he nailed it.

[dookieagain]

There is not much to take away from the results of a single tournament, IMO, especially when it was so heavily populated by only two factions.

All we know about the matchups was that no NB played each other in the first round if it was single-elimination and there were 6/6 NB still there for round 2.

I am still pretty surprised about no rezzers.

Well a single tournament is a bit inaccurate. Since to even get into the tournament you had to win a previous tournament. So everyone who was in there was already a tournament winner against fairly stiff opposition. I don't know if it says something about the factions or not, but I played in two of the non master tournaments and saw many of every faction especially guild and outcast so I'm sort of surprised they were so under represented in the invitational.

Also I was hoping to see some of the gamers lounge rezzers in the end. Did see many a gorgeous Seamus and McMourning avatar though.

[bashamer]

It was 35 points and the retain was build out of Tera clips without roofs ( mostly )

So one of the driving factors in the tournaments was what do you have with flight, spirit etc. Flight was extremely powerful all tournament as you don't have to pay vertical distance when you fly over walls.

as for rezers, not a whole lot of players in general.

Anyway getting into the avatar tournament was relatively easy if you did the grinder, it probably went down to the top ~16.

In the 25 point event there was very little neverborn btw.

the archanists were all running Colette, some had a secondary master as well, every neverborn master saw play in the avatar tournament. Even the new guy if you count the last game.

But yeah, terrain is a huge driver of the results. You were effectively playing an open toped maze. So yeah, as there is no improved climb you were pretty sol in some scenarios, like open topped squares w/o doors. There are a lot of models i would not bring to gencon next year.

But i got kicked first round of avatars. Soulstone miners did not work as i thought, on the bright side we found out before it did much harm.

[Gollum528]

After playing at 25ss all weekend, the 35ss felt insanely roomy. I can say, in regards of faction strength, I qualified for the sunday avatar tournament with the Neverborn, arcanists, outcasts, and very nearly with the guild and ressers. I think the factions are pretty well balanced at this point (arcanists will get a huge boost with Mei Feng) and the neverborn still have a few overpowered builds they can make but it's almost even. Almost every match from every faction was a challenge regardless of the faction I was playing and I don't think I finished lower than 6th in any of them.

---------- Post added at 09:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:14 PM ----------

Marcus was almost always in one of the top three tables all weekend. In fact, one of the rounds, there were three Marcus' between the three of them. The most surprising for me was the number of competitive Raspy's.

[Shadai]

Update:

Top 3 at Gen Con this Year will all be NB.

I'm hearing the Arcanist player conceded on the 2nd turn against Pandora.

I was said Arcanist Player.

Ask away.

[ravenborne]

Man, and I was really hoping I was close enough. Guess that the NB players from last year still hold the upper hand until someone gets better with one of the other factions.

Come on people! Dethrone them!

Or the NB get toned back a bit... but if you are in the camp that the game is all balanced and its all just player skill, disregard this message.

[Korrosion]

I was said Arcanist Player.

Ask away.

What happened? Can you give us a short summary of both crews composition/strats/schemes and what happened on turns 1 and 2?

[Shadai]

What happened? Can you give us a short summary of both crews composition/strats/schemes and what happened on turns 1 and 2?

I can give you only what little I know. I'm still new at this game so I don't have a lot of experience.

Strategy was Shared Distract. I was running standard Colette (Colette, x2 Coryphee + Duet, Cassie, Perf/Mann) with Breakthrough and Power Ritual. He had Pandora with Collodi (sp?) 3 dolls, a couple of stitched togethers, and something else I can't remember. He had bodyguard and breakthrough.

Now, just to give you an idea of the matchup, he was (is) a guy who goes to a lot of tournaments, knows all the cards, plays fast, and has already won at least 1 major tournament that I know of. He won this one too, which makes the total I know of 2. Me, well I was just lucky to be sitting in the seat. He was overall game #17 for me, and it took every ounce of what little skill I possessed and a $$$$$$$$load of luck to even be sitting in the seat.

Because this is the masters, everyone is expected to know their $$$$$$$$, so I was playing a bit faster then I would have liked so I didn't slow anyone down. I didn't want to be the guy that played really slow in hopes that the game would go to time or anything. Probably my first mistake.

Anyway, I won deploy, had him deploy first. He Deployed in the center of the deployment zone, with every one of his models touching each other in a tight, two row group. I put Cassie on one side of the board to activate first corner, Coryphees and mann on the other side, with Colette, Perf, and Dove in the center. I don't remember if it was him or me who won initiative but it didn't matter.

I should also mention since this was game #17 for me that I've only played against Pandora once, and that was earlier in the tournament on the Qualifier and if it wasn't called for time would have probably gotten stomped too. So I kinda knew what she was capable of but not really well. Additionally, this was the first time I've seen Collodi and since the time to get a match in was so short and restrictive, I didn't really have time to read his card to see what he did other then a cursory glance.

So, his first activation he casts some strange aura/spell/something that if the model fails the resist duel they have to activate last. I get this is going to sound fuzzy without much detail, but again, new player, and he was talking fast. I was struggling to keep up. So he flips 9 cards for each of his models and declares that he is going to have them all tie so they fail. I now have to activate all of my models before he even activates 1.

Sigh.

Well for Colette, if you are at all familiar with her, this is about the worst thing ever. Colette is a stick and move, act/react type of army. By having to go first, I'm essentially tipping my hand. So Colette makes me a stone, moves a couple of times, Perf moves forward into the cover of a doorway, Cassie activates corner 1 and moves forward, Coryphee activates corner 2 then shots down the other side forming up to the Duet, Dove flys over toward the Duet but not close enough for me to have it within 3" (a mistake of deploy I made that will never happen again) and.... yeah... that's it. Remember, I have to activate all of my stuff apparently, so I'm kind of rushing because I didn't want to take too much time. Second Mistake.

So he activates, pushes some dolls and collodi around, gets across the board where they almost kill off my performer on turn 1. I think she had 2 wounds left. Then Pandora wanders over by where my Duet was, and starts casting bad $$$$$$$$. I'm flipping decently, but I need a bit more so I reach for a soulstone and say "I'll use a soulstone."

He looks at me and says, "You can't."

I'm sure I had a quizzical look on my face when I replied "They have Use Soulstone."

"No, you didn't say you used the ability."

"I used it on the Corphee before they danced together."

"No," he said with emphasis, "You didn't actually say it."

Now, I've been playing just to have fun this entire weekend. Luckily for me, I hadn't met anyone ultra competitive so most of the games have been fun and my opponent and I coming to mutual agreements as we played on when questions arose. But, this is the Masters, so I expected to meet players like this. I set my hand on the table and said "Okay, I see how this game is going to be." But he was right, I DIDN'T actually say it. I always remember to do it, and had for the entire tournament, but because I was trying to play faster, I guess I just missed it.

Pandora continued the rape train.

When she was done, the Duet was falling back to the board edge it was right next to, had negatives for flips, and was taking on wounds quickly. My opponent had also managed to kill the Mannequin right away too, so the fact I got mirrors off did not matter. The stitched togethers came over and tried to help but for the grace of my luck, somehow managed to survive their willpower flippy duels that would do damage to me, and did damage to them instead.

End turn 1.

I was running out of options at this point. At the start of turn 2, he wins initiative. I try to stone and lose anyway. He activates Pandora and shoots the still helpless, falling back, unable to use stone Duet with some more damage and or kill trigger (I don't remember the exact sequence, sorry). My Duet came off the board and with it, my chances of beating my opponent.

It was my activation and I took stock of what I had left. I had a performer that was about to die, Cassie running up the side to activate the 3rd corner, Colette, and a dove. Against everything he had that had not even taken 1 wound. I could probably activate that 3rd corner, but I would never get the 4th before he managed to kill Cassie. Since the Dove doesn't count, it didn't matter. Then I have Colette, who is really hard to kill, but which so much firepower, and no girls left to use the triggers really (once cassie and the 2 wound left performer was dead), well, the writing was all the wall. There was no way I was going to get to that corner, and I was pretty sure he was going to wipe me off the map so getting points for Distract and Breakthrough were pretty much out of the question.

I conceded.

Really at this point I was just happy to be sitting in the seat. And if you would have told me going in to the weekend that I was going to finish 4th overall after the crappy flip day I had on Fridays qualifier I would have told you that you were high. I didn't want to end my Gencon tournament being frustrated and I couldn't do anything against Pandora who just seems unfun to play against. Additionally, I didn't see any reason at all to drag it out. Clearly I was facing a superior player, and it was really only a matter of time before my luck ran out and my noobness cost me a match.

I was trying to figure out how to beat that after the match, and I asked my Opponent later what would have happened if I told him on my first turn, Colette makes and stone and I pass all my actions. He told me he would have done the same. When I looked at him funny, he explained that he took Bodyguard, so he was already up 2 points. Since I had to move to his side of the board to get my schemes/strategies, he was going to force me to move first. If I didn't, the game was going to end and he was going to win anyway.

So there you are. Sorry I failed the Arcanists.

edit: for general grammar derps

Edited August 20, 2012 by Shadai

[DeleteAccount]

???

Well, I'm not the most knowledgable player, but do you know if the ability to activate last he used was called Pacify?

Because Pacify only affects the order of the crew of the affected models. This means that any casting of pacify on his crew has no effect whatsoever on your activation order.

Anyway, I'll wait till somebody more knoledgable comes in and clears things out since I'm not sure if I'm missing something.

[Bucket Monkey]

Pacify is also on enemy models only so he couldnt have done it on himself anyway not even to get the push from fading memory.

Pandora doesnt also have any pulses or auras only blasts from project emotions

Edited August 20, 2012 by Bucket Monkey

[TheBurner]

I don't know of any effect in the game that makes every model on either side activate after everything else. Pacify is the closest thing to that, and it doesn't work even close to that way.... I feel for ya man. If this is what really happened, I think you might have been hoodwinked.

[Cunning]

I think he must mean the poltergeist's spell? I cant remember what it's called but I do seem to recall its an aura and anyone inside it actiavtes after everything outside it.

[TheBurner]

I think he must mean the poltergeist's spell? I cant remember what it's called but I do seem to recall its an aura and anyone inside it actiavtes after everything outside it.

Yeah, just checked it out. That's a pretty crazy ability. Not sure how to feel about it.

[bigbopper]

He would have been using the poltergiest, Pandora's totem. It has a one spell called persistant distraction. Its a four inch pulse everybody effected has to make a WP duel or activate after every model unaffected activates.