In total, Inner Kingdom Games' first GenCon featured 21 Shadowfist players throwing down in 8 tournaments throughout the weekend. There was a lot of great support and good will from everyone.
The first event of the convention was the reasonably well-attended New Heroes tournament featuring nine competitors playing three-player games. Time was certainly on our side for this event, as we managed to whip through four rounds with more than two hours left in the schedule block. Pushing into a fifth swiss round and no final, top points went to Jim Sensenbrenner, who would go on be called “The Beast” for the remainder of the convention. I took second place and James Deto earned third.
With New Heroes ending almost an hour early, the nine redoubtable players of the Exclusive Invitational took a dinner break and regrouped at 8:00 pm for the first-ever Tournament of Champions (there are a number of working titles for this event, we’ll be settled on one for sure by next year). Nine warriors came, but only one walked away victorious from the three preliminary rounds and one final that kept every up past midnight. To Willow Palecek went the spoils (and a spiffy new plaque!). Peter Trudell and Peter Shah made up the other two finalists.
Friday morning started off at 10 am with the Whirlpool of Blood event. For the first time in years, the draft featured eight packs of unique sets; that is, no duplicates of any given expansion. The sets included Critical Shift, Shurikens and Six Guns, Two-Fisted Tales, Seven Masters, Dark Future, Netherworld 2, Throne War and Flashpoint. With the highest turnout of any Shadowfist event for the weekend, this tournament brought together 16 players in awesome drafting glory. Veteran draft winner David Kempe took home top honors, along with an uncut sheet of cards. Jim Sensenbrenner, after narrowly missing the lead in points, placed second and I placed third.
The World Championship Dueling Tournament was next and as usual, tensions ran high. Future conventions would do well to consider eliminating this event for the sake of players with heart conditions. With eight players competing, we engaged in a round-robin format of seven rounds wherein all players play all other players. Following the prelims, Cavebear, Jim Sensenbrenner, David Kempe and James Deto threw down in two rounds of finals. When the dust settled, James Deto emerged victorious with Jim Sensenbrenner earning another runner-up placement. James played a reactionary Seven Masters deck and Jim played an Architect speed deck chock full of character elimination.
The following morning, the World Championship Final Brawl kicked off with an awesome 15 players. Despite three-player games, the four preliminary rounds went the limit in time consumption. After a short break, the top four players went on to the traditional, final epic game. Some hours later, John Merrill triumphed over Michael Lasinski, Peter Shah and Joey Ferreira. John won with a refined Monarch deck he’s been honing for ages into a lethal weapon of destruction.
The Comrades in Arms tournament started shortly after the Final Brawl Final (there must be a better way to say that), but after roughly 80,000 hours of playing Shadowfist, the four finalists from the Final Brawl bowed out of the evening event. Despite losing these great players, we still had 12 amazing players for Comrades in Arms. The four-round swiss tournament ended with my only event win of the convention with a Monarch/Hand “Secret” deck. Fellow Texan Jon Wengler placed second and James Deto took third.
The final event of the weekend was the much anticipated “Faction Wars,” wherein the winning faction will play a significant role in the next storyline. James Deto and his Seven Masters were on the fast track for an unexpected critical shift, but Braz King and his Guiding Hand had a last-minute change of heart and snatched up a new power in the world, along with the tournament win! Joey Ferreira rounded out the top three.
The weekend-long “Who Wants Some?” had a wonderful revival with an outstanding 13 players signed up throughout the convention. The player with the most wins took home an uncut card sheet.
It was a great convention and many great faces, old and new, were around to throw down. Many thanks to all players who made it out for GenCon 2009! We’re looking forward to another great year of tournaments and events as Shadowfist continues to grow!