Canadian Nationals - TO Report

Tournament Organizer: Alex “Istaril” Hynes

Organizational details: The event was hosted by 401 games at the Holiday Inn Yorkdale, Toronto. The tournament was announced late due to, as far as I can understand, the distributor changeover, and did not have a TO until the August 27th, when I took on the responsibilities of promoting it, organizing it, running it etc. The fee for attending was 30$ CAN. The tournament took place Sept 22-23rd.

The venue: The venue was suitable, clean, well set-up, and spacious on Day 1 (Day 2, with X-wing, was another matter). Washrooms were clean and drinking water was freely available. Availability of on-site snack purchases was a plus. Good Wi-fi was available for streaming support. Parking was expensive. On-site 401 Games store was a plus.

The tournament: The late announcement combined with the Friday swiss certainly affected attendance. The tournament had 34 players: 10 from the Greater Toronto Area (loose definition), 10 from Montreal, 6 from Ottawa, 1 from Trenton, 1 from Quebec, and 6 from the US (1 South Dakota, 5 Michigan). 2 Regional Byes were claimed (Montreal, Rochester). It was run over two days, with 6 rounds of 55 min Swiss rounds on Day 1, with a start time of 14:30 and a 1 h supper break at 18:30, after round 4. The Top 8 took place on Saturday, at 13:00, with timed 55 min elimination rounds culminating in a timed (55 min each) best-of-3 final. The tournament software used was “The Jousting Pavillion”, the full tournament record is publicly available online, here: http://thejoustingpa...ournaments/4209. The tournament was won by Rob St John (CAN) in 2 games with Greyjoy “The Rains of Castamere”, against Alex Tomak (USA) playing Martell Banner of the Watch. The final match was a real nail-biter, and excellent streaming material!

Considerable support was offered, notably by

• 401 Games, who ran the whole event (all nationals). They communicated very well with TOs throughout the organization process and the event, provided paper/printers/computers/tape/sound system and well-equipped staff to aid in running the event. I look forward to working with them again.
• Rob’s Gaming Table (youtube channel), who recorded many games and live-streamed a feature table every round.
• Various Thrones community sources who contributed additional prize support last minute, notably **** Vazquez (Spain, prize offerings), The Detroit Meta (USA, prize offerings), Alex Hynes (CAN, prize offerings), Serena Malyon (CAN, Prize offerings), Ryan Valle (USA, Prize offerings), Jonathan Andrews (CAN, Prize offerings), The Hamilton Meta (CAN, Prize offerings), Alex O'Shea (CAN, Prize offerings), Sean Emberley (CAN, Graphic design). This short acknowledgement does not do them enough credit for how they helped make the event stand out.
• FFG OP, who (accidentally?) provided us with twice as many alternate art cards. All players had a full playset, distributed in rounds 2, 4 and 6.

I was able to offer additional prize support:

• To the Top 8 and to the Top 2
• To 2 new players, for whom it was their first regional or higher event
• By draw to 1 player who travelled from out of province (draw weighted by distance travelled)
• To the highest placing player of each faction
• To each player who appeared on the stream in swiss
• To the players placing highest with the inclusion of the Champ cards designed by either myself or Jonathan Andrews, both in attendance.
• To the bottom place player
• To the player who missed the cut by 1 spot (bubble boy)

The Good:
Tournament field was diverse, including all 8 factions - 6 in the cut. Tournament rounds happened quickly, with no mispairings or misreported records. Rounds had an average of 5 minutes downtime between time being called and the next round starting. Additional prizes were very well received. Presence of King Robert’s Warhammer for photo opportunities was very popular. No players declined to be recorded, or declined to appear on the stream (except one, who had just been recorded the previous round). We had 0 players drop. 2 players were attending their first formal FFG events. 31 of 34 players pre-registered.

Notes to improve:

• An earlier announcement, and weekend date would immensely assist in increasing attendance and securing community support.
• The event was not able to include a Melee (or Draft), due to space and product availability (in Canada) constraints.
• One attendee commented that he’d like to learn the game, and asked if we had demo tables or learn to play tables. We did not, but this is an *excellent* idea if we can muster the support for it.
• I would like to provide a projector or screens for a round timer
• I provided prizes for players playing certain plots in their plot deck, but in order to hand them out at the end of swiss, had to give away player plot information for a player in the cut. Should find a different way of assigning that prize.

Judge’s Report (All Judge Rulings, Actions)

Ruling questions answered:
Does Last hearth scout trigger before Podrick’s interrupt (no)
Does Ward transfer use of Arya’s dupe (no, controller retains)
Does Calm still apply if my opponent changes plot due to rains (no)
How does Underground Vault work on Summer Harvest (no varys riddle involved) = refers to gold, not printed gold. Nothing unusual here.
Whether Begging Brother could cancel a victarion save on a valar turn (yes)
Does VSD work vs offensive stealth (yes)
If begging with 2 gold cancels, but is cancelled in turn by treachery, can it re-cancel (no)
If Randyll Tarly + Lord Renlyès ride with no dead pile, does he stand (no)
Discarding for reserve is only one cersei trigger (yes)
Can Mel trigger before Stark Harrenhal (FP gets first reaction to her entering play)
Can a dupe save the hound from FSOW’s return (yes)
Cancelled Seen in Flames, still Mel trigger (yes)
Is RFG Rains plots Open information (currently, no – query passed on to FFG)
Does a Greenblood Trader your opponent stole from you, if you bounce it to hand, return to your hand (yes)

Judge Actions Taken
Action: A player was playing a deck composed almost entirely of unofficial/official alt arts. According to my policy, disseminated well in advance, he checked with me before the tournament and I signed off on his deck, provided his opponents didn’t request he swapped cards. He had to have originals as backups. I also allowed one plot whose text did not exactly match the official card, “A Time of Plenty” vs “Time of Plenty”
Action: An observer saw a missed Forced Reaction (Late Summer Feast), pointed it out to me. I passed the info on to the players.
Action: A player went to time because his opponent was involved in setting up the streaming equipment and started late. I allowed them time equivalent to their delayed start.
Action: A player after round 1 drew a card that wasn’t in their decklist. At 0-1, and given the TO had assembled their deck for them, I allowed them to replace cards to match their decklist with no further penalty.
Action: A player after round 2 drew a card that wasn’t in their decklist. At 0-2, I offered him the option of fixing his deck or his decklist - he allowed his legal deck as played to stand with no penalty, and adjusted his submitted decklist.
Action: A player requested that the player mentioned above (re: alt-arts) remove draw-deck unofficial alt arts in advance of their cut game. The player was informed well in advance, and complied.
Action: Top 4 and Finals were “Active judging”, where I observed a match closely and rectified even minor errors in board state.