Day 1, Saturday the 19th of March 2005
Everyone wakes up early and in time for the player's meeting before Round 1. Decks are sleeved up, randomized enough from multiple shufflings, and ready for action. We're all gagging for some card-action and wait with baited breath as the head judge rattles on the usual hoop-la about fair play, player decency, etc. etc. Once he ends his speech, Round 1 starts and players scramble across the hall for their tables.
We got a great turnout this weekend with 370 competitors from around the ASEAN region. The Japanese contingent brought along 35 players, while the others were a mix of Thais, Filipinos, Aussies and of course, the home team: S'poreans rounding up the bulk of the competition.
With 300+ people, this means a grueling 8 rounds of card play before they cut to Top 64 players to continue to Day 2 of GP: S'pore. Since one round (of a 'best of 3 games' against an opponent) takes at least an hour, that'll mean we gamers would be 'stuck' here in the exhibition hall practically the whole day. By our own choice. ;-p
Since I won a local Grand Prix Trial in KL a few months back, I have the benefit of a three-round bye (which means I forsake playing for the first 3 rounds and get rewarded a win instead). This allows me to spend the rest of the morning doing more sightseeing around the city.
In summary, I noticed this island state is *pretty* small indeed...nearly everything is within walking distance and if ur the outdoors type of person, walking about from one tourist attraction to another wouldn't be a problem. Of course S'pore city also offers efficient public transportation in the form of MRTs, taxis and buses.
Walking around the city some more, I noticed how bloody clean the place is!
There's no rubbish or litter strewn across the streets, no cracks on the pavement or vandalised amenities, no ditry drains with their dubious smells, damn even their back streets and alley ways are clean and I have not seen one sight of stray cats or dogs!
Just wtf are the S'porean Govt doing that Msia's Govt isn't ?
Everyone wakes up early and in time for the player's meeting before Round 1. Decks are sleeved up, randomized enough from multiple shufflings, and ready for action. We're all gagging for some card-action and wait with baited breath as the head judge rattles on the usual hoop-la about fair play, player decency, etc. etc. Once he ends his speech, Round 1 starts and players scramble across the hall for their tables.
We got a great turnout this weekend with 370 competitors from around the ASEAN region. The Japanese contingent brought along 35 players, while the others were a mix of Thais, Filipinos, Aussies and of course, the home team: S'poreans rounding up the bulk of the competition.
With 300+ people, this means a grueling 8 rounds of card play before they cut to Top 64 players to continue to Day 2 of GP: S'pore. Since one round (of a 'best of 3 games' against an opponent) takes at least an hour, that'll mean we gamers would be 'stuck' here in the exhibition hall practically the whole day. By our own choice. ;-p
Since I won a local Grand Prix Trial in KL a few months back, I have the benefit of a three-round bye (which means I forsake playing for the first 3 rounds and get rewarded a win instead). This allows me to spend the rest of the morning doing more sightseeing around the city.
In summary, I noticed this island state is *pretty* small indeed...nearly everything is within walking distance and if ur the outdoors type of person, walking about from one tourist attraction to another wouldn't be a problem. Of course S'pore city also offers efficient public transportation in the form of MRTs, taxis and buses.
Walking around the city some more, I noticed how bloody clean the place is!
There's no rubbish or litter strewn across the streets, no cracks on the pavement or vandalised amenities, no ditry drains with their dubious smells, damn even their back streets and alley ways are clean and I have not seen one sight of stray cats or dogs!
Just wtf are the S'porean Govt doing that Msia's Govt isn't ?
Side note: I got into conversation with a S'porean friend of mine later, and it turned out that their govt has induced really, really, tight law enforcement; that the island has been dubbed a Nanny State by some detractors.
Just imagine this: If caught littering, a S'porean is liable to be sentenced community service, picking up trash along the S'pore shore whereupon the perpetrator's closest friends and family are encouraged to come along and take pictures and makes jokes of the litter bug. Talk about over-enforcement, eh !
I prefer M'sia's more lax enforcement and our oh-SO-savage, chaotic cities any day of the week! ;-p
Neways, after lunch (and mucho sightseeing), we got back to do some gaming. Round 4 started and I ended up drawing the game with my Canadian opponent (who's teaching English in Japan) because we ran out of time. I won Round 5 resoundingly because my French opponent (who's working in China) because of his inexperience with his deck.
So at the end of Round 5, I have 4 wins and 1 draw. To make the cut to top 64 players (out of the aforementioned 370 players) I had to get two more wins out of the last 3 rounds of the day.
An EASY feat to be achieved right ?
After all, ur talking about the Scottish MtG 2002 National Champion here...this is gonna be a walkover innit?!
Well...let me tell u peeps out there a thing or two about a thing or two : OVERCONFIDENCE is the bane of players worldwide.
In retrospect, I gotta say I disrecpected my opponents in the next 3 rounds and was too overconfident of my chances of making Day 2 (and hopefully finishing in the money), that I didn't expect them to be THAT DAMN GOOD!
The Japanese chap in Round 6 decimated my board and beat me resoundingly.
"It's o.k. one down, that'll just mean I'll have to win the last two rounds...I can do this!" I said to myself as I shuffled up for Round 7.
60 minutes later and after drawing 16 lands in a row, you can see a beaten up , disillusioned ME sitting in the corner of the hall, cursing my bad luck for drawing land after land from my deck while my opponent beats me to death with his army of 1/1s (the Chess equivalent of PAWNS).
It's NEVER ur fault when you lose, is it?
It's always the deck's fault for giving u crap cards (err...who shuffled it in the first place?), or ur better opponent who top-decked the game winning card from the top of his library/deck, or even ur bad karma for jay-walking and littering the streets of S'pore last night as the locals look at you in annoyance. ;-p
At the end of the day, my Day 2 journey has ended there. My hopes of making a name of myself in this arena and finishing in the money was crushed because evn if I win the last round, it'd be hard to make Top 64 in a room of 370 players. So what did I do next ?
I played to have FUN.
Round 8 pairings came up and it turned out I was paired to play a Japanese GIRL.
So at the end of Round 5, I have 4 wins and 1 draw. To make the cut to top 64 players (out of the aforementioned 370 players) I had to get two more wins out of the last 3 rounds of the day.
An EASY feat to be achieved right ?
After all, ur talking about the Scottish MtG 2002 National Champion here...this is gonna be a walkover innit?!
Well...let me tell u peeps out there a thing or two about a thing or two : OVERCONFIDENCE is the bane of players worldwide.
In retrospect, I gotta say I disrecpected my opponents in the next 3 rounds and was too overconfident of my chances of making Day 2 (and hopefully finishing in the money), that I didn't expect them to be THAT DAMN GOOD!
The Japanese chap in Round 6 decimated my board and beat me resoundingly.
"It's o.k. one down, that'll just mean I'll have to win the last two rounds...I can do this!" I said to myself as I shuffled up for Round 7.
60 minutes later and after drawing 16 lands in a row, you can see a beaten up , disillusioned ME sitting in the corner of the hall, cursing my bad luck for drawing land after land from my deck while my opponent beats me to death with his army of 1/1s (the Chess equivalent of PAWNS).
It's NEVER ur fault when you lose, is it?
It's always the deck's fault for giving u crap cards (err...who shuffled it in the first place?), or ur better opponent who top-decked the game winning card from the top of his library/deck, or even ur bad karma for jay-walking and littering the streets of S'pore last night as the locals look at you in annoyance. ;-p
At the end of the day, my Day 2 journey has ended there. My hopes of making a name of myself in this arena and finishing in the money was crushed because evn if I win the last round, it'd be hard to make Top 64 in a room of 370 players. So what did I do next ?
I played to have FUN.
Round 8 pairings came up and it turned out I was paired to play a Japanese GIRL.
Now there's one thing u need to know about the game.
We DON'T get a lot of women playing this geeky fantasy based card game, so whenever we get matched-up against one ofthem, it's a treat. Yeah, I know...kinda sad and geeky innit ?
Most of us maladjusted social outcasts literally just fail to perform in the presence of women and therefore turn into smiling, blubbering idiots. I'd like to say now that I'm an upstanding pillar of society and recently admitted back into the living with a permanent job and a social life, I would be different..... yet the grinning idiot in the pic above begs to differ. ;-p
So YES, I proceeded to lose to the GIRL playing a far superior deck compared to mine as I was entranced the whole 60 minutes looking at her other assets. Yeah call me a male-chauvinist PIG now ladies if ur reading this, but I gotta say in defense, I'm ONLY a MAN and eventho' this pic couldn't show it, Ai, as the japanese player is called, had a TUBE-TOP on today JUST to ensure all the women-deprived gaming geeks lose their focus.
I didn't mind tho'! :-)
At the end of the day, only 6 Malaysians made Day 2 and the remaining 29 decided to have dinner and vent our frustations by doing some retail therapy and shedloads of midnight sight seeing.
I gotta say, Singapore authorities really know how to light their attractions effectively to make for some beautiful night-shots (I'll post them S'pore trip pics up on my Fotopages later when I have the free time).
We DON'T get a lot of women playing this geeky fantasy based card game, so whenever we get matched-up against one ofthem, it's a treat. Yeah, I know...kinda sad and geeky innit ?
Most of us maladjusted social outcasts literally just fail to perform in the presence of women and therefore turn into smiling, blubbering idiots. I'd like to say now that I'm an upstanding pillar of society and recently admitted back into the living with a permanent job and a social life, I would be different..... yet the grinning idiot in the pic above begs to differ. ;-p
So YES, I proceeded to lose to the GIRL playing a far superior deck compared to mine as I was entranced the whole 60 minutes looking at her other assets. Yeah call me a male-chauvinist PIG now ladies if ur reading this, but I gotta say in defense, I'm ONLY a MAN and eventho' this pic couldn't show it, Ai, as the japanese player is called, had a TUBE-TOP on today JUST to ensure all the women-deprived gaming geeks lose their focus.
I didn't mind tho'! :-)
At the end of the day, only 6 Malaysians made Day 2 and the remaining 29 decided to have dinner and vent our frustations by doing some retail therapy and shedloads of midnight sight seeing.
I gotta say, Singapore authorities really know how to light their attractions effectively to make for some beautiful night-shots (I'll post them S'pore trip pics up on my Fotopages later when I have the free time).
posted by NiK! at
11:32 PM
