Tournament Report, n00bcon XI - Brother Jonas

What, a hundred, man?

- Henry V

Henry IV, Part I, [II, 4]

This year's n00bcon was shaping up to be the largest festival of Old School ever held, thanks to the ongoing growth in the popularity of the format and the fact that in addition to the World Championships, a series of independent side events in Gothenburg presented an overload of gaming and socialising opportunities.  On top of that, the list of attendees was a veritable Who's Who? of global Old School.

With so much to look forward to, all I could think beforehand was that the only danger was that expectations would simply be too high.  In accordance with the scale of the event, I decided to set myself a personal Everest: to complete 'The Century of Bolts' by casting Lightning Bolt 100 times in real play over the days we were out there.  A handheld clicking-counter was duly purchased on eBay for the purpose.

Qualification for n00bcon is tough - there simply isn't room for everyone who might want to attend.  But thanks in part to success in the World Cup, the Brothers Of Fire was again a large delegation this year, with plenty of first-timers in our team.  As a result, a large group formed on Thursday morning at Stansted Airport for Roc of Kher Ridges Airways to ferry us to our destination.  After, that is, the now-traditional full English breakfast:

Stebbo keeping it tight in 1993 swag

With time for some in-flight warm-up games against Brother Ben, I was able to make the first two entries in my quest to scale the Century.

After a quick stop-off at the hotel, we headed on to the Rotary, the spiritual home of Old School.  It's always an experience to walk in, but this year felt even headier than usual.  In the early 00s Weezer made a music video in the form of all the current memes of the time, inviting the participants back to a large studio to recreate their moments of fame.  The participants commented afterwards that it "felt like walking into the internet", and there was something of this for me, especially given the growth of podcast content in the last year which has brought people's voices to eager ears.

We also had the chance to see David M's incredible contribution, the Old School Heroes card game!  Probably the first and last time I will be immortalised in cardboard form, complete with Minor Threat flavour text...

With that done, we were into the Wizards' Tournament 2, a chance to turn the clock back to 1993 and enjoy the game in full throwback style.  With a very meagre Alpha collection myself, I was assisted heavily by a 'Mysterious Benefactor' who lent me my deck.  By bringing my own Alpha bolts to the table, we were able to unleash 'the DecaBolt', which meant I was packing 10 bolts in my 40-card deck.  If you're going to break the four-of card restriction, then you may as well do it properly! Plus, it's a common card - so, you know, "...as Garfield intended", right?

Brother Pat and I in obligatory backpatch mode

Seeing as they were his cards, I'll leave my Benefactor to discuss the exact makeup of the deck in a future article, but suffice to say, for a "cut-me-and-I-bleed-red" burn mage like myself, this was the Old School equivalent of driving a drag racer.  But then, performance was secondary to the richness and fun-factor of the event. For my first game, I was lucky enough to be seated next to Jason Schwarz and to watch his jaw-dropping fully-powered deck in action, all without basic compromises to modernity like, er, sleeves.

Chaos Orb countermeasures, Deckmaster-style

As well as a frankly indecent number of 93-era Orcish Artilleries, I cast a fair few Lightning Bolts in the course of the action, and tracked every one on my trusty Bolt-counter on my way to a solid 3-2 finish.  My running total provoked a few moments of mirth, although I did feel sorry for Alex P who was on the end of no fewer than eight of them in the course of one short game.  I don't think I will ever cast so many again.  I also learned that in 1993, Iron Star was absolutely busted!

By the end of the day, I retired to grab dinner with a number of the others, and was pleased to reflect on a very healthy count:

While eating, we learned that Brother Stebbo had heroically made it to the final of the event, which was the subject of some celebration.  That he was beaten by an unbeatable deck was perhaps a shame.  Personally I consider Alpha-only Magic to be even more of a "who gets the joke?" format than Old School, which in itself ought to be played very much in recognition of the absurdity of the game.  On that basis, the fielding of the kind of deck we whispered about in school playgrounds seemed amusing and fitting.  On the other hand, the complete removal of chance maybe took it too far - with similarly insane resources at my disposal, I would have been tempted to run with the mythical Benalish Hero / Crusade megadeck.  But each to their own - I felt that the winner had proven his point, but for Stebbo to reach the final using his own cards, and only singles of many of the power (including Chaos Orb) was a notable achievement even by his spiky standards!

Few of us wanted to overdo the festivities that night, conscious that tomorrow was the big event (no, not the Ryder Cup, although more on that later).

In traditional style, this began with MG's balcony address, much good cheer and anticipation, and the signing of the greatest prize of them all:

Upon picking up my name tag I also noted that I have finally entered the select coterie of nicknamed n00bcon attendees...

This year was an evolved version of the deck I have fielded twice at n00bcon - every year I add more white to the red base, which means I am now pink and will presumably soon be turning a whiter shade of pale. By 2023 I will be running a certain WWW Arabian Nights card with a risque title...

I built this deck to ensure interactive games - in Bolt, Disenchant, Divine Offering, and Swords it has answers to pretty much everything, but plenty of early threat value in the form of Lions, and then some mid-range power in the Su-Chis and Angels.

Unfortunately, its performance in the tournament fell below expectations - I came out 3-4.  Despite this, I had some brilliant games against Charlie H, the dapper Martin Berlin, Alex Raja, Vincent Protic, and a particularly memorable (and close) final match-up against Francesc Montserrat. I was also able to cast a LOT of Lightning Bolts, taking me to 74 for the weekend:

With the formality of this event out of the way, we proceeded to the Ryder Cup - the annual Chaos Orb flip-off contest initiated by the UK and competed for by delegations from our side and from the USA.  (It has since been commented that the 'other' Ryder Cup - in golf - is actually competed for between the US and Europe - in fact this has only been the case since 1979).

While the trophy had been in possession of the US team, its custodian, Shane, had given it the mother of all makeovers.  I was rendered speechless upon seeing the formerly humble prize now elevated to something closer to its full status:

With the US holding the trophy from last year's narrow win, I once again captained the British delegation.  Unfortunately, our colonial cousins were once again stronger, edging the prize 3-2.

It was an emotional defeat, but with the consolation of knowing that with the new trophy and this fresh infusion of interest in the competition, its international future feels assured for the coming years.  I congratulate my opposite number as captain, Danny - although it's fitting that our personal head-to-head score as captains remains 1-1.  (This ongoing contest also doesn't dim the spirit of fraternisation between our countries - with Shane made Brothers of Fire's first-ever honorary member and Will M and Mano becoming official trial prospects for membership).

Even now, the fun was not over, with Markus's much-anticipated '40K' ante tournament taking place. This was one for the serious players, but made good watching.

Too rich for my blood, even with all those Jewelled Birds flying about!

The World Championships ran late - with Svante's Atog build (co-authored with Mano and Will M) competing in the final against Fluffy's The Deck. The fact that the meta in Sweden is still evolving feels to me like incredible validation of the depth of Old School as a game in the purest sense, which remains 'unsolved' even after the collective engagement of millions of brain-hours.

By day three, it was time for something different and the Brothers Of Fire held our own side event: the Venarian Gold Social.  Guest of honour was Brother Jordan, who upheld the honour of our entire club by absolutely smashing it at n00bcon - going to 2nd in the Swiss and bowing out with much acclaim in the quarter-finals.  Not only this, but a feat he achieved without any borrowed cards, and running mono-blue Merfolk!  An achievement for the annals.

The Venarian Gold Social was a chance to step back from usual Old School and to take in the sights of Gothenburg while playing some Brothers' Highlander (our house format of 100-card singleton).  Needless to say, this was a great day.  I even managed to add to my bolt count, although I still lay some way short of my century:

The day unfolded perfectly to plan as we were joined by a succession of people who also fancied a change of pace.  What wasn't in the plan was a considerable late-night escalation as the Venarian Gold Social achieved lift-off and became a major karaoke party in a downtown bar.  Much hilarity ensued (some of it captured elsewhere on the internet).  Some things are maybe left better in the memory, but personal highlights included a group singalong to Bryan Adams's 'Summer of 93', a live rendition of the All Tings Considered podcast theme tune by its host, Mano, and some incredible hi-jinks from Gordon Andersson.  For me this was possibly the highlight of a weekend full of them.

The winners of the Social: Hunter P (Gold), Mano (Silver), and Florian von B (Bronze)

Gordon giving it everything

Two brothers doing Weezer

With our flights home booked for the evening, we had one day left.  Thankfully the amazing chaps of the Urborg Legion had organised a final day event at a pub - ABU only.  Upon arrival, we also discovered that Christian had banned Mind Twist to keep the day fun - this went down less well with some of our group:

Let's (not) Twist Again

As well as wanting to do well in the event, I also had one eye on completing the century.  Brother Stebbo agreed to play games in the departure lounge if that was what it took - but I wanted to achieve it in open play if I possibly could.

For this event I wanted to give some play to Goblin King as well as air a few under-appreciated core set cards - but crucially I wanted to see plenty of bolts.  I had fun matchups with Elias, Bjorn Johnnie (who avenged our last match with a clinical 2-0 win), Brother Stebbo, and Martin J.  With one match to go, I was achingly close to my goal at a total of 96, with this photo taken shortly before:

Cometh the hour, cometh the man - Christian himself stepped up for my final game in the tournament.  After he was forced to Berserk my Dragon Whelp in our first game I feared I wouldn't make it, but fortunately there was enough in the tank and I crossed the line just in time, bolting him to the face at the start of game two just to make sure.

With that milestone done, and the ceremonial raising of the bat, it was time to complete the tournament (won overall by Brother Stebbo), and after final handshakes we returned home, complete in my case with a LOT of new swag:

Reviewing the other reviews and podcasts about the event, I am struck by a strong shared theme of people feeling an incredible sense of connection to the event. To those who weren't there from our community, this probably feels disappointing to have missed out on. And to those who might read this someday who have no idea what Old School is, the whole thing might feel baffling, overly-sentimental, or even a bit weird.  I guess, on both counts, it really was one of those things where "you had to be there", but after all the cards are cleared away what stays with me are three things:

Firstly, the sense of people getting together in real life to share something they are passionate about. The internet is becoming a more crowded and, with that, a less-pleasant place to discuss Old School. But what happens online isn't really Old School - it is at best something that keeps you going between bouts of the real thing, which is sitting down and sharing a beer with a stranger but walking away with something gained on both sides. When that happens, good vibes are inevitable.

Secondly is the sense of continuity. We know that the format of the World Championships is due to change soon, and that this may be the last year that n00bcon takes on this kind of form. If this really is the end of this phase of Old School, I feel that everyone there will have drunk deeply of this spirit and it will continue to flow through the other events round the world that will continue to take place. And hopefully part of that continuity will continue to be the dozens of little traditions including our (very-unserious-honest!) biker gangs, the Easter Eggs, the Gentleman's badge, and the Ryder Cup.

Thirdly and finally, it's about good people getting the joke. My deck featured cards of not insignificant value gifted to me in the days before the event, both by people in my team, and by people I've never even met in the flesh. We are all grown adults rotating cardboard, but within the envelope of that, there is so much scope for the things that matter in life - meeting new people, showing kindness, and enjoying a shared passion. In the end, 'getting the joke' isn't about sarcasm or the need to put up a barrier between your 'serious' life and your 'fun' hobby.  'Getting the joke' and committing to the community is what sets the stage to enjoy - without the need for irony - the pure fun of events like this.

If that sounds mawkish or over-sentimental well, I guess maybe you did have to be there!