The First Swiss Round Draw was made with randomised pairings as is ever the case and at this point there were only eleven players, but the late arrival of another three players meant a slightly shorter first round for 2 players, but at least no byes were needed in the end. I feel the need to give Kudos to James Phoenix here for offering to drop from his game taking the bye and letting Phil play as he had travelled all the way from Durham on the train. In the end it wasn't necessary and although you haven't got the 'official' fellowship award I do have a little something for you next time I see you that you are deserving of for this grand gesture of sportsmanship. It was a very busy day for the usually relaxed Judge Duck as he had to patrol up and down a long line of players answering questions to the best of his ability. It certainly gets a lot more difficult to Judge events when there are more players with a broad mix of ability and experience so Kudos to Jules, Darren and co for the work they did at Loughborough last time we were there.

The attraction of having a full day on a Saturday, plus the lovely cheap food provided by the ladies of Middlesbrough Gamers Club, make the Saturday events a real attraction. The next Saturday event running here is the eagerly anticipated Collateral Damage© Marquee so hopefully we will be able to at least match today's attendance and make it a real stonker. Juding by the number of us in Forbidden Planet after the event buying comics and stuff, I imagine their takings were up for the day too!

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All the players lined up on tables opposite each other ... a great sight as a new record attendance is set once again at Middlesbrough Gamers Club (GameWorldUK)

Meanwhile Stephen Hunt's "Kneel Before Zod!" not surprisingly fronted by General Zod™ and supported by Maxima™ and Intergang Medics/Agents was taking a victory in a very close game against Paul Brown's namless ones. These nameless ones were a real mix including Robin™, Shaman™, Persuader™, Black Knight™ and wait for it ... Superman™. He didn't kneel before Zod™ at first but Zod™ did win out in the end in what was probably the closest game of round one. James Pattison's first round effort saw his "Dragon Masters" battle against Martin Teece's "Team Throw A Tantrum". Martin lost the whole team so there was no one left to throw a tantrum apart from him, fortunately he didn't. Cheers Martin! Once again Liam and Parry were drawn against each other, this is becoming the new 'battle of the Ste's'. Liam's massive X-Men™ hoarde had no name so I will call it "Ex-Men" as that seems very appropriate (sorry Liam). Parry took the match as he often does this time using "Catch me if you can" which had no less than five characters with hypersonic speed. Parry, you don't do things by halves do you? Oddly both teams were 489 build totals and Parry got the full 978 point win. Liam Cook nil point (in vaguely French accent)

Latecomers Stuart Waterhouse and Jez Gomez paired against each other. Jez's team had the friendly name "Kill Stu", and with another KC Green Lantern™ Deadpool™, Green Arrow™, Ravager™ and Joker™ I would have fully expected him to. However after hardly moving out of the starting zone and having a slightly shortened time this round he failed to do. Stu's "Scum" didn't actually have a sock full of pool balls, but they did have Star Man™, Quicksilver™, Batman™, Psylocke™, Cyclops™, Deathstroke™, Princess Komand'r™ and Dr. Strange™. In the other game involving a latecomer, Matt Barker took on James Phoenix's "Firebird" with his "Titan's Together" team. Matt's Titans took the spoils in a pretty close game to round of the first round games.

"Kneel before Zod", "No, sod off!", "Ok then my minions shall smite thee"

BK

What only three Supermen in the tournament and only one of the the Icons© Veteran?

BK

It was at round about this time that Judge Duck realised that whilst putting all the tables in along line had seemed like a good idea (and for the purpose of photography was a great idea) it did mean that he was running up and down the line answering questions all day like a linesman, sorry referees assistant on acid. Perhaps a different set up for the Marquee?

Ste D's perfect 1000 gave him top spot and saw him come up against Parry who had given his brother's "Ex-Men" quite a mauling. The first of two lessons in use of BFC's in round two occured in this game as Ste played an Earthquake and Parry today wasn't using BFC's, which is odd as he had in the past - oh for an Ordinary Day eh Parry? Parry tried to surrender but mother nature and Mr Date ignored the white flag and the Karma God of Heroclix struck as Parry's speedsters tried to run away and the earth shook. Final tally Ste 989, Parry 0. Almost as bad as the English Cricket Team in Pakistan.

Phil G faced off against James Pattison for Round two. Phil's team spanned every universe including characters from Marvel, DC, Indy and City of Villains so wasn't exactly comic themed but did have a theme, as we shall see later. Phil managed to keep just under half of his team on the board as he wiped out James taking a 747 (points) flight into the third round with his hardcore team. Stuart Waterhouse met Paul Brown in round two as he had already played Jez and they were the pairing that were dictated by W:L ratio and points having had a tight round one. Stuart's assorted Scum hammered their way through Paul's crew taking 664 points to Pauls 342, perhaps they will fare better next time if they have a swanky or ominous name? That meant Jez was playing James Phoenix. Jez did move out of his starting area this game and despite the power of his KC GL (which I coveted deeply) Jez saw another defeat but it was another very, very close game. JP eventually ended up on top by 569 points to 399.

The second lesson in the use of BFC's, though very similar to the first, was handed out by Ste Hunt to Matt Barker. Another Earthquake but this time to a team that was made up of eight characters, none of whom could fly. Big hurts when that baby kicked in for a total of 24 damage to Matt's team and 12 to Stes, but all Ste were support figures. Again an Ordinary Day would have been nice. Craig "he really does have a top on his head" Woolnough was sorting Liam's "Ex-Men" out pretty effectively to record his first win of the tournament and make his earlier zero points start to look a little more respectable.

The last second round pairing was Phil Guba's nameless ones scrumming down with Martin's tantrum throwers. Martin's babes again could not spit their dummies out as they were all KO'ed. Blockbuster™ isn't proving the most successful leader in the history of Heroclix Martin, maybe its time to try some other 'CHOICES' (LOL). Sorry, couldn't resist. Anyhoo, Guba clocked his first win with 854 points.

"The Ponderers". Jez and JP wonder what will happen next in this titanic battle of wits?

Song for the day with Craig capless and Hunt ill? "One sickly,'nough bart 'at" of course!

Martin Teece and Phil Guba duke it out with Heroclix©

So the top two would be semi-finals were Phil G versus Ste Date and Stu W versus Ste H, all previous finalists but only Phil had not been a previous winner. Phil G was intense, working hard on changing that statistic using nanobots to heal up KC Flash™ after his hypersonic dashes into enemy territory. Ste D's lack of quality support at the expense of keeping with a comic theme meant he struggled to make hits counts and ultimately this was his undoing, but at least he can hold his head up and say he stuck with comic thematics in the face of extreme adversity. Phil G and the cheese-tastic multiverse crew 948, Ste D's DC comic themed JSA 54. I really hope there isnt a lesson to be learned here. Joining Phil for the final battle was Stu after seeing off Ste's Zod based bods. Stu's ample helping of Outwit, cunningly supported with Stealth added to some great line of sight spots (or some very poor ones by Mr. Hunt) helped Dr. Strange™, Batman™, Deathstroke™ et al take the win. Two of Stu's boys were on their last clix, but last clix is not KO'ed is it Mr Hunt?

In the battles for the minor placings James Phoenix made a late surge into the top four placings with a great win over Parry who had now flatlined after his great score in Round One. JP's 988 points got him fourth spot overall and maybe with an extra round we would have seen him reach his first final? Nice effort JP keep it up and that final wont be too far away. Craig W's lack of baseball cap may have sapped his early strength Samson-stylee, but he came back with a late spurt too finishing 2 - 1 and 1209 points. A convincing win over Matt Barker was not without some controversy as Matt challenged a use on Feat cards on multiple characters with only one copy of the card. It was a tough challenge but I blame the destruction caused by Mr. Hunt's Earthquake on a player not using BFCs to challenge the use of BFCs. As ever Mr Hunt is at the centre of all the controversy! Anyway Craig still won with his Fantastic 5 and with a kinder first round draw may well have seen another final himself.

James Pattison finished off the day with an impressive total of 1746 and a 2:1 W:L record thanks to his Third Round win over Phil Guba. "The Dragon Masters" were always likely to score highly with a very well built team including the horrendously powerful Icons© Veteran Superman™ as well as Experienced Batman™ and Veteran Starfire™. Other than a defeat to the eventual tournament winner James did really well and can hold his head up high with a 5th place out of 14. Jez completed his tournament in fine style picking up his first win, about time too with that KC GL! He beat down Paul Brown's mix without taking a KO. Paul's pretty new to the tourny scene and learning all the time so I am sure he will bounce back from this awkward trouncing. To be fair he had the hardest pairings of anyone all tournament.

Deathstroke™ only has one arm and he is still kicking my ass. I would hate to see him with 2

Is Jez the antithesis of Phil with burger and chips and tea in place of fruit and water?

Matt inadvertantly caught on camera considering the future crucifixion of Craig's team

Stu's team couldn't come to terms with the pain dealt by Phil's universe-defying Wacko Jacko freaks and it ultimately built into a game winning position. Perhaps if Deathstroke™ hadn't gone to the lepper colony for his holidays and lost his arm it may have been oh so different? As it was Phil went away victorious and a Shiro Yoshida™ LE richer. However, all was not lost for Stu as his performace whilst being strong was also deemed very fair by his peers and he went away with the same LE as the Fellowship Award Winner. Craig W was also awarded a Fellowships Prize (an alternative from Judge Duck's pool) as he tied the vote but Judge Duck had decided to go with Stu for the main prize due to his strong performance coupled with the vote tie.

  OW

The winner, Phil (left). After 2 finals in two events no longer immune to my cutting sarcasm or scathing insults and fellowship awardee Stu not insult material yet but well on the way

A very cagey affair that went on and on and on eventually saw Jez come out victorious without losing any of his figures. Well done sir, very nice effort. For his performance Jez was awarded an extra LE from Judge Duck's collection, which is now running alarmingly low. Let's hope we can build it back up a bit with a good showing at next week's Wizkids Celebration Event at Loughborough (hint, hint if you are reading this Jules or Anup!). Looks like I have volunteered to arrange transport details for this one!!

Just to check if people are actually reading this: a small prize for the first person to email me and tell me what the heck JP is laughing at on the photo opposite? He looks quite tickled by it, whatever it is (crimsonduck@hotmail.com).

Battle Royale in progress. Anyone not got stealth? No, thought not!

Can't wait to see you all, or lots of you, next Thursday for our next Heroclix™ event, but even more than that I hope lots of you can make the Collatoral Damage© Marquee at the March Mega Day. I am really excited by the set and what better way to get a taste of it than with the greatest sealed event format there is? Save your £15 people - this should be a big one.