When last we left our hero, he was headed to bed the night before the Warhammer 40,000: Conquest World Championship Top 16 Elimination round…
My nerves weren’t too bad walking into the Fantasy Flight Games Event Center. I’d even started to consider the possibility that I could actually win this thing. But before that could happen, the judges needed to do a deck check for all 16 players remaining in the tournament. I suddenly became incredibly paranoid that I had written my deck list out incorrectly the day before. They call one competitor over to discuss an irregularity in the deck – I never did discover what that problem was. Then another player was pulled aside for a whispered conversation.
When he came back to the group, he revealed that he had listed only 48 cards on the written list. The minimum deck size is 50. He had just forgotten to list two Promethium Mine, but I had heard multiple people reference that those cards were in his deck the day before. It was an innocent mistake, but we were still waiting for a verdict to be made. While we were waiting, we admired the tarot sized planet cards that were to be awarded to the Top 8 players and were being set up to be used at the top table for the live stream. Thumbs up from the judges. The offending player would be allowed to compete with his full deck.
Then it was on to the games themselves. As the sixth place finisher, I was paired against the 11th seed, Elliot Hedman, an extremely friendly player who preferred Netrunner to Conquest, but was determined to make the best of his opportunity. It was going to be a Kith vs. Kith mirror match. I’d split my Kith games the day before and thought I had a decent shot, particularly if my opponent was as inexperienced as he was saying. As is often the case with the mirror match, a lot would come down to card draw.
I started with initiative and had a pretty good opening hand. None of the key cards, but plenty of units for command and some Kith’s Khymeramasters to try to take the first planet, which was a tri-color. I was able to secure first planet, though it cost more cards than I would have liked. My draw didn’t help and I didn’t have much to play in round 2. I wasn’t going to win very much in command, but I could potentially snipe first planet again and force a quick game. Or I could shift to the long game, and commit to a planet to win a few cards and rebuild. I had a lot of resources and a Klaivex Warleader in hand, so I convinced myself that even if my opponent anticipated my move I could still power through. But I didn’t think through what the situation would look like after he won command and drew up to a mitt full of a cards, backed up by a healthy pile of resources. I realized that one two-shield card – which was all but certain – could derail my plan so I retreated by warlord and tried to even things up with a Warpstorm. But I knew that my mistake had probably cost me my chance at advancing.
Another Warpstorm and another Klaivex in headquarters face did not improve my chances and after opponent deployed an Archon’s Palace and a Khymera Den, alongside of a 2-3 new units, I knew my road was over. I made a last ditch effort to pull out some combat tricks but after a fourth deployment round of the same, I conceded.
Elliot was very gracious in victory and obviously excited to be moving on. I hope that I was able to offer him some sincere congratulations, but I continued to berate myself inside my head as I had been ever since the beginning of the second combat phase. My first match of every day had been full of errors, but so far I had been lucky enough not to have it result in a loss. But in Top 16, luck isn’t going to be enough anymore. Seeing the balance of card draw after the first round, I still probably would have been in tough, but I could have at least made more of a match of it.
I didn’t expect to be in the Top 16, but now that I was there, it was a crushing disappointment not to be able to go further. It would have been one thing to go out in a hard fought game, but in this case I got in my own way. After about 10 or 15 minutes I was able to quiet some of the screaming voices in my head and go over to congratulate Elliot properly and wish him luck in his next round. Which left me about 10 minutes to decide whether to late enter the Android: Netrunner event – but that is a story for another time.
Congratulations to Varun Khertapal for winning the event and all the 111 competitors that made their way to Minneapolis. Despite my initial fears, everyone was pretty relaxed – at least externally, and were a pleasure to play again. It was a pleasure and a privilege to meet and chat with so many great players from around the world. I haven’t done a great job keeping up with the various names in the scene, but I hope to keep in touch more in the future.
I’d like to thank Shane for convincing me to attend the World Championships, splitting a room with me and being my biggest cheerleader in Minnesota. He had faith in me even when I insisted on downplaying my chances.
I’d like to thank John and Victor, two other Toronto players who made the trip and offered plenty of invaluable advice and playtesting in the days leading up to the event. Both of them had a good showings. John finished 4th in the Worldeater tournament and Victor lost out on the tokens for top Tyranid player on secondary strength of schedule.
I also have to thank the other members of The Tactical Squad. Jon, Liz, Alex and Mark all provided on-going moral support throughout the event and provided words of encouragement when I was knocked out.
And thanks to the entire Toronto Conquest community for maintaining a pretty vibrant scene despite so many competing games. The Netrunner scene is dominant here, but I was thrilled to show that the Toronto Conquest scene is also one to contend with. I hope to see you all at league on Thursday.
And finally I’d like to thank the Fantasy Flight and Event Center staff for running such a top notch event. It’s not easy hosting 100s of competitive gamers, but I had a great time and hope to return next year.
While my Road to Worlds ends here, I will be writing up one more post about my experiences at the remainder of the World Championship week in Minnesota, including the Conquest Wrap-up event.
While Travis is back from the Fantasy Flight Games World Championships in Minnesota, where he played in the Star Wars: Armada, Warhammer 40,000: Conquest and Android: Netunner events, he still wants to share his last few updates here on The Tactical Squad blog.