# Gateway 1997 - Report

by Stefan Vincent
September 2, 1997

Hey All,
Well, it's over and we're exhausted. We had a really good turn-out at this convention; thanks to everyone for putting up with our experiments with the tournament rules. We'll have something ironed out a bit better by the next convention. I'll lead with the little other news that I have, and then follow with the tournament report, such as it is.

Throne Wars: still no word on an exact release date. Jose did send us a list of cards, but it wasn't firm, and it certainly wasn't what we were playtesting earlier this year. We don't know for certain what's going to be in it, except that Jammers players should be really really happy to see this set. Odd, for a set that's supposed to have lots of kick-butt Lotus cards... J&B in Anaheim and All-Star in Chicago are pre-selling boxes at $63 and $65, respectively, so I assume they know something we don't about the packaging (last I heard was 9 card packs; those prices should mean 12 or 15 card packs).

Next Event: we're looking toward the end of September for another get-together. Matt tells me that Brian has opened a new game store in Torrance (true, Brian?) so maybe he's willing to host us :) And we're also talking about setting up a semi-regular game (once a week? every other week?) at someone's home, so bear with us on that. That's it for the news. Here's the tournament report, as well as I can remember it. Lack of sleep has an effect on my memory, I've discovered, so I don't guarantee that any of this is correct. Maybe I should write these things down as we go...

Friday's game had 9 players, so we divided nicely into games of 3, with a four player final.
Mike N.: Dragons
Caroline: Ascended
John D.: Ascended
Randy: Dragons/Hand
Brandon: Architects
Ernie: Architects, I think (I didn't play Ernie that night)
Matt: Monarchs (the all-Thunder deck)
Stefan: Architects recycler
Lissa: Jammers/Monarchs (Molten Heart)

Final was Matt, Caroline, Lissa, and John (I think. Ugh. Can't remember, since I was busy playing the other losers in fun games while they were playing the final). Sorry. Matt's Thunder Knight deck came out on top, much to everyone's surprise.

Saturday's game was big - 13 players, so we had games of 3 and 4. Scores for 4th were too close to call, so we had a 3-player semi-final, and then the 4 player final:
Mike N.: retuned Dragons, back again
Caroline: Ascended, again
John D.: Ascended, but different today
Randy: Dragons/Hand, back again
Ernie: Ascended
Brandon: Architects, but retuned with the hitters he traded for from Mike on Friday...
Matt: what the heck were you playing, Matt?
Stefan: the retuned Jammers/Monarchs. Not retuned enough, apparently
Kevin: Architects
Eric: Lotus
Flayne: Monarchs (Ice, as far as I saw, but there was probably more in there)
Greg: Ascended (Greg's first game. Ever. Made it to the semi-finals, too.)
Steven: Architects
After three rounds of play, Tim, Caroline, and Brandon(?) were in the finals for sure, but the fourth slot was a toss-up between Mike, Kevin, and Greg, so we had them play a semi-final. Mike took that on the tiebreaker, and advanced to the final. I didn't stick around to watch (I lasted until about 1:30 am and then gave up...) but I'm told that Mike came out with the win.

Sunday's game was 10 players. Again, we needed a semi-final to decide who would be in the last game.
Mike N.: Monarchs today
Caroline: Dragons today
John D.: Ascended again
Randy: Dragons/Hand, retuned, and *working* today :)
Ernie: Ascended again
Brandon: Architects again
Matt: Dragons/Yak Enforcer "Smack Back etc. etc." (his GenCon deck)
Lissa: Lotus reburial
Stefan: Monarchs magic stuff
Greg: Ascended Hood deck
You know, I don't even remember who had to play in the semi-final. Huh. But the final was Matt, me, Randy, and Mike. After much pounding back and forth, Matt managed to get the win.
So there you have it, such as it was. I hope everybody had fun. I know that my decks were working better in the games I played after I was eliminated, but isn't that always the way?

Last modified: January 16, 1998.
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