IIT!

[jazzfish]

I gather from zyxwvut's reaction that he may be interested in Secret Project Rock.

Actual Origins report to follow (short form: awesome); for now, you'll have to settle for my IIT report.

I played in my first International Icehouse Tournament at my first Origins, in 1998. In my second game I had a game-destroying crash that shook me badly enough that I ended up icehoused in games two through four. (I do have the distinction of being one of the players in the "four in the icehouse" game, where Jacob called Icehouse on himself.) I skipped 1999 to play in an Unknown Armies scenario run by Greg Stolze (totally worth it) but played in the next six. I took fifth place in 2001 and 2005, and sixth (behind cthulhia in 2004. I skipped 2006 to play in a vicious and unsatisfying LARP, and judged rather than play in 2007 (stupid lyme).

This year I went into the tournament this year feeling pretty good about it. Mad props to Ryan M for sweeping the ice-offs and whomping me in the game he played against me, and I'm quite pleased to have come in second behind him with 2.5 wins (and to have gotten the green medallion out of it, too!). Due to the quirks of the schedule I didn't face Eeyore or Josh in the Ice-offs, so I was fairly nervous going into the finals.

Eeyore won the first game. At the end of the second, Ryan was left with a large prisoner of Josh's, and mediums belonging to both me and Eeyore that he could kill with it. If he'd killed mine, Eeyore would have won the game and (essentially) the tournament; if he'd killed neither, I think Eeyore and I would have shared the victory (giving Eeyore a strong edge to win overall). Ryan chose, wisely, to kill Eeyore's piece, giving me the win and himself a decent chance at the scepter. All he needed to do was win the third game and beat Eeyore by six points. (I didn't calculate Josh's required margin, but he was still a contender as well.)

Much of the last game is a blur. I remember scrambling for a fortress, and I remember being impressed that I wasn't getting as many of my larges killed this time. I'm not even sure how the game ended, other than that I'd played out my pieces shortly before everyone else and was very quietly counting and recounting my score. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when Eric called "Time!" Ryan and I had tied. Ryan had a one-pointer dead on his stash pad. If he'd played that, he would have won the game, tied me for the finals, and won the tournament on the tiebreaker (score in the Ice-offs). As it stood, I'd won.

From a tournament score of sixteen to the scepter, in just ten years. Wow.

Edit: Eeyore's tournament report. I calculated wrong; Ryan needed to beat me by two in the last game to tie and win on tiebreaker. Still, a tense and excellent game.

Comments

Dude

[prog.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

Re: Dude

[jazzfish]

Thanks! It was quite the experience.

[jsciv.livejournal.com]

I will reiterate my congratulations and share with the peanut gallery that the only bit of this that I ended up watching was the part where you and some girl bonked heads while both trying to figure out moves. :)

[jazzfish]

Right, that. That would be Kat Dutton, who won the Cooler Than Ice award. Though probably not for head-crashing. :)

[isolde-deely.livejournal.com]

Nice job - congrats :)

Wish I could have made it this year - learning how to juggle a long distance relationship, mandatory shift/job change, and finances. Whee! So we're going to GenCon instead ( I would have preferred Origins).

Maybe next year :)

[jazzfish]

Why thank you. :)

Yeah, you sounded pretty busy. And, yay timing. Have fun at GenCon, though!