Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Crazy Busy, + The NOVA Open is a TRAVELER'S EVENT apparently ...


OK, so a couple of things to go through today ...

1) The Battle for Blob's Park

This was a Vegas qualifier put on by the Inner Circle this past weekend. Their "formal" GT listed on the circuit is coming up soon, 2 weeks prior to the Open, with limited entry.

Everyone appeared to have a great time at Blob's Park. I wasn't able to compete, for a couple of reasons. They hybridized a lot of the NOVA Open's scoring and mission format, and I didn't want to submit myself to any possible claims of shenanigans when/if I did well. I've played the top finishers (best overall and best general) and their lists before, and done quite well against them, so I figure that coulda happened (not saying it woulda haha!) ... further encouraging me to be glad I didn't play. Real life + work stuff came up so it was an irrelevant ethical dilemma.

I did manage to go out and socialize and hang out later in the day, and I'm glad I did ... a lot of people commented about the Open, I met some people coming who I hadn't met, etc. etc. Plus, it was outdoors under a big hard topped "cabin" style covered area, with authentic German food and draft brews for affordable ($2 coors lights, ew, but $3 Warsteiner Oktoberfest, which was solidly drinkable).

This is an example of how the Open format is pretty dependent on everything being done for it to work perfectly ... in the 3rd round several 2-0's played 1-1's or 0-2's, and they split their prizes and rankings to two "tiers" of players ... the best of the bottom half won an army of equal value to the best of the top half ... kinda weird, but I get why they did it - we talked at the event about it.

2) I'm working a big proposal this week, so my postery is down in terms of quality blog posts.

3) The NOVA Open now has attendees from California, probably Utah, Wisconsin, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Canada, and others I always forget each time I recap. As a result, some people are in need of PLACES TO STAY if possible in the NOVA area ... and isn't that a fun thing to try and find ...

Either way, I'm going to do a piece on places to eat and drink in the area while here ... so people who are traveling and find the time can go hunt out the best of DC's wining and dining.

4) I'm attending the NOVA Brewfest on Saturday, June 26 ... and I'm pretty stoked as usual, as I've been to the last 4 or 5 ... as I go to both the fall and summer events. Anyone in the region who wants to meet up there is welcome to ... there will be a TON of us in our group, most of my friends and their gals, me and mine, roomies and yatta yatta.

But that's later, after this meeting I have to get to.

- Mike

10 comments:

  1. Sounds cool dude.

    I'm in the process of looking for a place to stay that isn't the back seat of my car. Maybe we could get folks together to share hotel rooms or whatevs.

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  2. I had to bail at the last minute on that tournament myself due to weekend double-booking. I'm glad everyone had a good time.

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  3. When you put out the best rule set I've seen for a tourney, you can expect to get a lot of interest from those of us within driving distance.

    I'd definitely appreciate a "travel guide" to the area.

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  4. Kennedy ... color me immensely flattered.

    Update for the statistically curious ... out of 55 current 40k sign-ups (out of 64 slots total), 22 are from outside Virginia (and only a couple of those are from "close by" in Maryland). At least three of the Virginians are from far enough away in the Lovers' State that they're "traveling" as well.

    Basically, ~24-25 of the 55 signed up are going to be traveling over 3 hours to get to the tournament.

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  5. Chumbalaya, you can stay in the back seat of my car if you're looking for a change of scenery.

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  6. @mvbrandt: Glad you're flattered. I'm really impressed with the rule set. I nearly asked to do an 8 on the 8th, but realized that my local gaming group lacks the enthusiasm to do tournaments.

    Honestly, more than anything, it's fair and has no wacky "Ooh look how creative we can be!" missions. Plus, I've found your deliberations on the subject to be quite informative and, after reading them, I tended to agree with most of the conclusions that you drew.

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  7. I'll be honest. I am only going for the Stelek dunk tank.

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  8. ^^ lol

    Oh that'd be righteous.

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