Road to Worlds #6 – Not Over Yet

Well, this is not the post I thought I’d be making at the end of the today.

I made the Top 16!  I went 6-1 and finished 6th in Swiss.  Top 16 starts at 10am tomorrow morning and I’m playing for the Warhammer 40,000: Conquest World Championship title!

I’m really kicking myself for not taking notes after each round.  I am happy to say that everyone I played against was extremely friendly and were a pleasure to play against.  My biggest fear about Worlds was that it was high profile enough that there would be players taking things so seriously that they were no longer having fun.  I’m glad that wasn’t the case.

So, I’m back in my room now, having just ordered a steak to celebrate.  I feel terrible that I didn’t go out for the Cigars and Beers event hosted by the First Planet Podcast guys, but I’m exhausted after a 10 hour day of Conquest and I want to make sure that I get some rest before tomorrow.  I’m sure if I went I would have got caught up talking with folks and would have gotten home late.

In the afternoon session I faced another Kith, a Nazdreg and two Ragnars.  I was happy to have a better result in my second Kith mirror of the day.  He got the Archon’s Palace out first turn, but I managed to still win some command and eventually reeled him back in for a victory.

My match against Nazdreg was one of those matches that makes everyone hate Kith.  It was lopsided from the outset and the deck mostly played itself.  It’s not a knock against my opponent, but it was a case study in why Kith is such a strong deck.

My last two matches were both against Ragnar.  Both were very challenging games, even though I went in to the tank far too long worrying about Kith being bloodied in the last turn of the first match-up.  I forgot that after I won planet 1, there would be no battle at planet 2.

At 6-1 I was a lock for Top 16 so I was able breathe a huge sigh of relief after my last victory.  Reviewing the numbers after the fact, it looks like my strength of schedule was good enough that I would have made Top 16 even with a loss.

The adrenaline is finally starting to fade. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a decent night’s sleep.

Wish me luck for the morning!

Travis is flying out to the FFG World Championships in Minnesota next week to play in the Star Wars: Armada, Warhammer 40,000: Conquest and Android: Netunner events. Conquest is his primary focus and he is going to share some of his thoughts leading up to and during the event here on The Tactical Squad blog.

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