# Torrance Fisting - October 1997 Report

by Stefan Vincent
October 18, 1997

Twelve players today, with decks like so:

    Frank    - Architects recycler
    Mike     - Ascended/Lotus Killing Rain/Dark Traveler/Evil Twin/Bloody Horde
    Brian    - Lotus
    Jeff     - ???
    Caroline - Ascended
    Ernie    - Architects
    John     - Ascended also
    Corey    - ???
    Matt     - Smack Back Yak Attack
    Garrett  - Hand/Lotus Evil Twin etc.
    Lissa    - Hand/Monarchs Rig Dis/Displaced/Queen of Darkness
    Stefan   - Dragons/Architects Cop deck

We played three rounds of 4 each, with a lot of the games running into the time limit. I know my deck this time ran slow(er), purposely; several others also ran slow.

Round 1
In Round 1, my game timed out, leaving me to beat Caroline by 1 point on the second tie-breaker (total body of sites + total fighting of characters); Brian with 3rd, and John fighting through a deck stall (and Caroline mercilessly stealing the few Ascended cards that he did get to play). Matt's Yak Attack took the win over Mike, Frank, and Jeff, again on tie-breaker. Lissa had a clean win just before time was called, with Ernie a close second, beating Corey and Garrett. Points at the end of round 1:

    Stefan (1) 6 Matt (1) 6 Lissa (1) 9
    Caroline   5 Mike     5 Ernie     7
    Brian      4 Frank    3 Garrett   5
    John       3 Jeff     2 Corey     2

Round 2
Round 2 matched up by score. My game timed out again, with me winning on the tie-break again (more conclusively this time, but still sucks to win by tie-break), Lissa 2nd, followed by Matt and Ernie. At the middle-score table, Garrett pummeled his way to a win much sooner than the rest of us, with Mike close behind, followed by Brian and Caroline. At the third table, Frank got the win on the tie-break, with Jeff and Corey dead tied so we split the points, and John pulling in last. Scores at the end of round 2:

    Stefan (2) 13 Garrett (1) 14 Frank (1) 10
    Lissa  (1) 15 Mike        12 Jeff       6.5
    Matt   (1) 10 Brian        9 Corey      6.5
    Ernie      10 Caroline     9 John       6

Round 3
Round 3 again matched up by score. Mike was the thrashing boy at the high score table; his rain deck not quite starting and the rest of us picking off his small sites. Lissa with the clean win here, me second, then Garrett and Mike. At the middle table, Matt again pulled off a clean win very quickly (when his deck works, it works pretty well), followed by Frank, Caroline, and Ernie as whupping boy here. The last game timed out, with Jeff winning on the tie-break, and Brian and John dead tied for second, followed by Corey. Scores at the end of round 3:

    Lissa   (2) 24 Matt  (2) 19 Jeff (1) 12.5
    Stefan  (2) 20 Frank (1) 16 Brian    13.5
    Garrett (1) 17 Caroline  12 John     10.5
    Mike        14 Ernie     11 Corey     7.5

Final
At this point we had four people in front with no ties, so we went right to the final with me, Lissa, Matt, and Garrett. Everyone started very slowly; stalling all around with a little "help" from Lissa's Displaced. I managed to get the Cop deck rolling before anyone else was ready, and made it to 3 sites fairly quickly. Of course, I was now the obvious target, and was beaten even more quickly into submission by all three other players, falling to last within 2 turns despite both City Square and Fox Pass. Matt had a slow start but was able to keep the Yaks out with Claws of the Dragon (you can thank me later for adding those :) and lots of early Final Brawls helped keep everyone down. At the end of three turns of desperate "I almost got that, don't leave it for Matt!" action, he still had a Yak with two Claws (10 Fight, Guts, but 7 damage) to grab the win. Final placement: Matt first, Lissa second, Garrett third, me very much last (down to 1 Feng Shui site...).
And again, how would this have played out under the double elimination rules? At the end of round two, we would have gone to a five player game between me, Lissa, Matt, Garrett, and Frank. If I won that game, I would have won, otherwise I would have faced the winner one-on-one in a final. So, similar to last time (except the names have changed), I would have been guaranteed a second place, and Frank was denied a shot at the finals. Is this system working better? I think it is, since I know my deck isn't tuned to work in a one-on-one game (although it would work quite well in a 5-player game :) and it's much more appropriate to have the same number of people in all the games.
And what would have happened if we'd played straight scoring (closer to a true Swiss-style tournament), and carried the scores through the final? Matt would have gotten 9, Lissa 8, Garrett 6, and me 2, so final scores would have been Lissa 32, Matt 27, Garrett 23, and me 22. But we would also have had everyone else playing as well, so a clean win from Frank at the second table would have put him in 3rd at 25 points. Any thought that we want to go to straight points instead of a winner-take-all final game? The advantage of course is that everyone gets to play the whole time...
Hope everybody had fun; I know that my Cop deck didn't quite work the way I thought it would but I learned enough to retune it (though of course I'll have something new at the next tournament, as tradition demands!).

Last modified: March 11, 1998.
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