# Flashpoint Finchley XII - Report

by Andrew Davidson
August 5, 1997

We lost 3 players but gained 5, giving us a turnout of 18 players for Flashpoint Finchley XII - a full year of play now. The following table shows details of the players and their decks. This table is best viewed with a fixed pitch font.

    Player             Deck name         Theme     Factions
    ------             ---------         -----     --------
    Alex Wargacki      Fascist State     Cop       A.F....
    Andrew Davidson    Dosi-do           Power-mad .D.H...
    Andy Holt                                      ...H.L.
    Anil Das-Gupta     Light Armour      BK/HMT    ....J.M
    Arthur Howlin                        Gun       .D.....
    Bill Dawbarn                         Hoods     A...J..
    Daniel Vandenburg                    Orange    ...H...
    Dave Martin        Paper Curtains    Discard   A....L.
    Hedley Coppock     21st C. Monkey Boy          ....J.M
    Ivan Hartley       Cuddly Toys Ski troops      ..F...M
    Mark Wheelhouse    Gas & Mirrors     HoM/CotNF .DF....
    Nithiyan Thiruudaian                           .DF....
    Robert Lee         Dark Rain         Traveler  ...H..M
    Ron Wheelhouse     Holding on for a Hero       .D.....
    Stephen Biggs      DNA               Viv/TM    ..F..L.
    Thivyan Thiruudaian                            AD.....
    Tom Kassel                                     .DF....
    Yuit Sum Vong      Lapdog                      .D...L.

Dragons and Architects are still the most popular factions but not quite so prevalent as last time.

Here is a summary of round 1:
Alex beat Andy, Anil & Hedley
Andrew beat Daniel, Mark & Ron
Dave beat Arthur, Robert & Steve
Tom beat Ivan, Nithyan & Thivyan
Mark beat Daniel, Ron & Yuit

Mark's victory was very swift - up to 4 FS sites quickly and then an unstoppable attack with Plasma Trooper/Cellular Reinvigoration. That table played another friendly while I got the other games started and that finished early too. I saw a chance to get myself some play and so played a game against three of these speedy players while the other games ground on.

The results from round 2 were:
Alex beat Nithiyan & Yuit
Bill beat Andrew & Robert
Daniel beat Anil, Arthur & Tom
Ivan beat Andy, Mark & Steve
Ron beat Dave, Hedley & Thivyan

Bill had now arrived and with 18 players, I went for a 3/3/4/4/4 split. The usual 90 minutes was allowed for this round but hardly any of the games finished in time. On my table this was due a strong defensive combination of Rob's recycled events and Bill's muscular Hoods. As the time limit bore down, Rob then unleashed a torrent of recycled Killing Rain (a Dark Traveler deck) but, as he destroyed all his own FS sites and most of mine, this just gave Bill the tie break. Grrr.
At this stage we just had one double-winner, Alex who was given a bye while the other 8 winners fought it out.

The semi-finals were:
Ivan beat Bill, Daniel & Tom
Mark beat Andrew, Dave & Ron

Ivan is still fairly new to the game and so did well to make the final. I seemed to be the tall poppy in my semi-final and attracted a lot of attention from Ron in particular. He should perhaps have focussed more attention upon his son who used Satellite Intelligence to trump first my Fox Pass and then Ron's Fox Pass to win the game. Mark is perhaps eleven years old and so is easy to underestimate.

Meanwhile in the consolation games:
Hedley beat Andy, Anil, Nithyan & Steve
Ron beat Andrew, Bill, Daniel & Dave
Yuit beat Arthur, Robert & Thivyan

The final was:
Alex beat Ivan & Mark

All finalists were using decks with a heavy Architect element and was a fairly bloody affair, I believe. Both Mark and Ivan are still new to play at this level while Alex has played in 5 out of 12 finals at Flashpoint Finchley. Alex's victory is therefore not too surprising but was nevertheless well-earned - three straight wins on the day. As Alex won with a Cop deck, the Thing with 1000 Tongues was defeated after 6 months of being instrumental in every victory. Accordingly, Alex's prize was a signed Thing with 1000 Tongues. Well done.

The Queen's Head will be being redecorated at the end of next month and so there will be no Shadowfist event there then. Marcus and I are scouting out alternate venues - favourite is the Catcher in the Rye on the other side of the road. In any case, priority will be given to EuroGencon which also takes place on the last weekend of August in Loughborough. My current plan is to run a sealed deck tourney on the Saturday and a prepared-deck tourney on the Sunday. I will be away at the US Gencon this week but will be keeping in touch by email and will confirm all these details upon my return. In the meantime, please keep your non-net friends updated with this news.

Last modified: January 16, 1998.
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