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And with that, a looooong posting hiatus is ended, and I have posting privileges again! I solemnly swear not to make any more jokes about 40k LARPing.

My review of the Nova Open can be found at this link.

Hulksmash did one too, and his is located here.

Andrew, it was nice to meet you. I hope we get a chance to game together in the future. You're half correct about me rubbing people the wrong way. It's not uptight or serious gamers that I rub the wrong way....in my semi-final game against Tony Kopack, he was 100% business, no smiles, no jokes - we went right to it and had a professional, pleasant game. He told me afterwards that he was completely surprised, because I was nothing like what he had heard.

There *is* a subset of people that I have little tolerance or patience for, and find it difficult to be civil with. I don't know a good name for that group, and don't want to make any generalizations that will get me another long vacation from Dakka - but I will say that they usually are ready to identify themselves for me, and loudly, which makes making distinctions pleasingly easy.

I *will* readily admit that my internet approach to serious business is no-nonsense.

I sound a bit tipsy on the video up there. That coffee cup in my hand has the last of the Captain Morgan's Private Stock.

When I asked at the event, I heard it was based on performance (objectives).

And willydstyle, we did play our game. We said "diced off" because it was easier than explaining the whirlwind game that we had. My opponent (Devin) is a semi-frequent opponent, and one of the few gamers from Jacksonville, FL that I don't loathe.

Well, we diced off for first turn; I rolled a 2 to Devin's 6, and he elected to deploy and go first.

He deployed, then I deployed.

I told him that if he didn't shoot me, I wouldn't shoot him.

Turns one through four, neither of us moved or fired at each other; we just caught up on each other's doings for the last year or two. Turn five he took the central objective and won 3-2 objectives.

Devin would tell you that I was quite a gentleman about the loss.

If I had won the roll to go first, it would have been the opposite. Since neither of us were playing for prize support, it was a good end for two exhausted players.

If you want to rabble at him for giving me a good sportsmanship score for playing the game in that fashion....go for it. Otherwise, suck it. By the definition of sportsmanship and the "excellent game" criteria, we both fit the bill quite well to each other.

During the GT itself, I think I actually gave out all excellent game votes.

Karma from Day one must have been balancing itself out, because I floated through the GT against opponents who didn't argue and quibble, who knew the rules, and were happy to throw dice.

Literally, every game that I played was one of my best games ever. When I ran into Rich, I was expecting trouble because he gave me some trouble during the invitational - every move needed judge intervention, double-checking every dice roll - but he told me that was because of my "reputation" and that I was right in every circumstance, and played an extremely tight game. He didn't repeat during the GT, we had no issues, and despite knowing what was coming for me, I still won by the tiniest sliver of skin on my teeth.

Close games, no rules arguments, fun opponents....this was the best set of 8 games that I have ever played in my life. It would have been a disservice to *not* give excellent game rewards to the players who unknowingly worked together to make this the best tournament experience I've ever had.

Even Tony got an excellent game vote. He was serious, all business no jokes, and I played poorly - bad reserve rolls, not going first...but I settled into his rhythm and we had an extremely enjoyable game. He took me fair and square - beat me succinctly, Njall ran amok through my entire army almost singlehandedly, and I had nothing but admiration for him giving me a lesson in humility. That would have gotten my best game of the day vote if we had them.

Is it so strange that my opponents might have felt the same? A couple people said they learned a whole lot watching me play across from them. Most said that it was an amazing game. Several also commented on how unfair my reputation is.

Eh - I had a blast. ++, will go again next year. If Mike had used a ranking system for best sportsman based on other factors, I probably would have won it because of where I stood in the brackets compared to the others. Random chance giving it to me...was gratifying, hilarious, doubly hilarious, and worth a drink.

MVBrandt wrote:We're still pondering sportsmanship. We divorced it from having any impact on scores in any category this year, and the result was overwhelming feedback of a poisitve, upbeat atmosphere and tons of excellent votes. Getting to call up nearly 20 guys to get a photograph and be honored as equivalently great sports felt far far more right to me than the application of social engineering and influence of players' competitive scores as some sort of farscical (sp) attempt to "force" good sportsmanship upon people.

It's smething we'll analyze pretty heavily for next year, but the outcome here was great tourneywide sportsmanship and broad honoring of excellent sports. Not sure that's a misstep, honestly.

With sportsmanship being separate from the scoring, I got to be myself, instead of campaigning for a good score during the game. It was nice.

porkuslime wrote:

2d6_Penetration wrote:Well I have played dash and I must say this guy is a jerk. But you all here love his nuts.

random posts from the peanut gallery for 100 Alex..

2d6.. can you back this up? Where and when was that... or are you just bashin?

Oh...there's a handful of small-minded folks on the east coast who dislike me AND have played me. Once upon a time, I thought I was being helpful by trying to help people whom I played against (and thrashed soundly with weak lists) by offering them tactical/list advice after a game. The same folks who took serious offense that I would offer to pony up cash to a store to buy them free stuff if they beat me.

The world is full of wonders, but this ain't one of them.