The Con (in summation)

First off, let me say that there will be no pictures. I was barely outside of the exhibit hall, and the tournament hall was really nothing terribly photogenic beyond the assorted pics of the players and winners (which I'll link to later). The exhibit hall was good but it pales in comparison to ComicCon...as does pretty much everything else.

We had a great tournament turn-out. 28-32 people for various side events with 80 people showing up for worlds. All the side events went pretty well with only two exceptions, and both of those were logistical in nature (we had to delay the start of the Alchemist Challenge and Tournament of Champions because we simply didn't have the bodies/manpower at those times due to other minor issues during the day). Worlds really was a great competition - particularly the top 16! Five members from Team Hammergirl made the top 16, as did three folks from Arizona. Two 'Zonies even made top four (well done, Justin and Ricardo!). The stress came in the fourth and fifth hours for me. During the fourth hour we noticed that the tournament software decided to urinate on itself and replace two folks' names with "???". Brilliant! After about 30 minutes of trying to fix it we finally re-input the entire tournament by hand up to that folks. Sure, only 3 rounds, but at 40 results per round...not so fun. Problem two came in the fifth hour when I made two bum rulings. One was easily fixed and didn't have any real impact on the match or tournament, fortunately. The other permitted players to play a card according to a clarification that was made on the forums long ago but apparently not entered into an official rules document - I know better, but in my sleep deprived state I enabled it to continue. While I don't believe either ruling would have had any material impact on the top 16, I hold myself to a higher standard than that. Lessons learned.T

As it turned out, the final pairing was something of my worst nightmare. One of the fellows in the finals was a guy that I nearly kicked out of the tournament hall last year. He's not a bad guy...just doesn't know when to stop talking and is still learning when to be serious versus when his form of humor is acceptable. He actually reminds me a lot of Tom Arnold (in actions and speech manerisms, not appearance). So I have the pleasure of watching this guy through a best two of three format with an increased time limit. "Yes, you have to take required actions. No, you can't throw your card stacks towards your opponent. Yes, you really do have to randomize your cards above the table rather than below it." Wheee!!!!

While the tournament was a grind at times, much hilarity ensued at 3:30 in the morning. When we got back to the hotel rooms Mike started playing with the text-to-speech feature of his browser. By the time we were done I'd laughed my abdominals and cheeks into cramped little muscles...it hurt!!! When you're tired and have been counting cards all day, there's not much funnier than hearing a computer say in it's best Stephen Hawkings voice, "Comb your beard! I don't wanna hear that shit!........ Penis."

The Con was good, but much tiring. This one might have even been my last one for a good while so I guess it's bittersweet. At this point I'm out of flight vouchers and I want a real vacation. All I know is this fall I'm heading to the beach with someone and it will have nothing to do with a convention whatsoever. Go me! :-)