Tournament 11th September 2005

Four of the North East's finist Heroclixers, well ok four players from the North East, travelled the lengthy journey from Teesside to Loughborough to compete in the prestigious Armor Wars Prelease & WWHCI Qualifier at Loughborough University. The League of Extraodinary Hockey Shirts* were joined by colleague and friend Craig Woolnough for a day of games and gags (mostly very corny old ones courtesy of Crimson Duck). Some familiar faces (from Gencon 2004) were about including Gareth, far right, who is always a pleasure to encounter and many more strange faces. Really, some of them were very strange. Just kidding, they were ok faces we merely hadnt seen them before.

The gathering was huge as 50+ turned out to do battle for the honour, the title and of course the factory set of Armor Wars™. There were surprises (both good and bad), prizes, fierce competition and great camerarderie for a full day of gaming and it was a fantastic experience. Thanks and kudos to Anup, Judge Jules and his team of judges for making it a great event to be part of and thanks to all the players for taking part in what has to be one of the best Heroclix© events ever seen in the UK. The format for the tournament was three Swiss Rounds from a 3 booster sealed competition, followed by single ellimination rounds for the best 16 qualifiers plus the 16 regional qualifiers from the earlier marquee events. For those that were elliminated after the Swiss Rounds there were ample side events to take part in including Battle Royals, Rocketmen© and High Stakes Drifter© demos and games of Pirates©. The event was supported by the retail bargains of mazeratgeneral and a cool swanky draw for one of four mighty Dark Phoenix™s.

We took up places on tables ready equipped with three boosters and the all new Armor Wars© maps and someone scuttled round to collect our dosh. We obviously picked a hot place to sit with both Ste's going three for three on unique pulls from the their boosters and Sean and Craig getting two each. Together a very impressive 10 uniques from twelve boosters, but obviously some other players were not so lucky and got sucky pulls. We had an allocation of time to devise and prepare our teams and then there was no going back as they had to be registered. Crimson Duck (Sean) used R Executioner™ (56) as a big hitter, supported by the perplexing abilities of E Shaman™ (66) and R Psylocke™ (45). E Banshee™ (77) provided excellent mobility with his flight and running shot and V Marina™ (55) proved a great addition to bring the total build cost to a just under maximum allocation of 299 points. The nameless team were adorned with some newly purchased lucky green ID Rings and we were underway. Two consecutive tight wins got the team to table four for the last Swiss Round, where they got a right hammering from the V Quicksilver twins. OUCH! 13 move with hypersonic speed and an almost impenetrable 18 defence on a very cluttered map, so a final respectable record of 2 - 1 with a round 1000 total victory points.

The last 32 players in the single ellimination rounds saw a surprisingly diverse range of teams pitted against each other. One that caught the eye (it helped that it was on the table next door) used three Sentinels™! Alas it didnt survive to go into the last 16. Amazingly Crimson Duck's assorted motley crew consisting of V Deadpool™ (with Autoregeneration) R Taskmaster™, V Blade™, V Silver Samurai™, E Shocker™, R Mysterio™, E Scarlet Witch™, V Scourge™, V Paramedic, and the Franklin Richards and Robbie Robertson pogs did progress to the next round thanks to a well spawny critical blade strike from Silver Samurai™ late in the game for seven damage, all the more spawny as it needed double six to hit at all. The team got in another victory to reach the last 8 where they were rituallly humiliated by a Nova Blasting Phoenix™ and Nova Blasting Polaris™ LE. A top 8 finish was far better than expected but very nice to achieve. Though it was a tad disappointing to pick up the only two Mutant Mayhem LE's already owned as a prize. Anyone need a Sammy Leibman and/or a Mary Walker?

THE HAUL! Upon our return, thanks to participation in side events, some retail therapy and a lucky strike on the Dark Phoenix™ draw (not for me I might add), the north east is now richer by: the contents of 15 Armor Wars© boosters; 2 Nova™s 1 Dark Phoenix™ 1 Sinestro several LE figures 1 Mech Warrior® starter set (oh no - what have I done?!?!) Some Rocketmen® and Pirates® boosters

Once again, a great big THANKS to Anup, Jules and the other judges and all the participants for a fabulous day and a great event. See you at Gencon!!!