Subject: newbie wins South Carolina! Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 15:07:57 -0500 From: David Doust To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com New Wave Conventions would like to thank South Carolina for a successful Columbia Pro-tour Qualifier. We had a total of 81 players in the main event for a 1 slot qualifier. Considering this is our first show in South Carolina. I think that South Carolina will develop into a pretty decent size tournament city in no time. I would like to thank everyone for their support that help make the event a success. We held the Qualifier at the Quality Inn at I-20 and Broad river. I have to tell you that I have never seen so many game rooms in an area before. There had to be at least one to two 24 hour game room every block!! They must really like video games there! We met at the Warzone and drove up in on Friday night. We only took 2 juniors with us this time: Thomas Pannell ( Georgia State Champ ) and Mike Winkelstein ( a pro-tour veteran ) Registration went smooth, and we started just a little after 10:00 am. I announced the Paris mulligan format and it seemed that most players were happy with the change. There were a variety of decks. Surprisingly, there were no big name players in the mix at all. In the Swiss round, the highlight had to be when Mike Winkelstein lobotomized Matt Guinn (playing a Fruity Pebbles deck) It is kind of hard to win without one of the combo cards!!! But Matt Guinn redeemed himself by dropping out and winning every single side tournament for the rest of the day and got himself some fat cards!!! I guess he is a lot better in limited than constructed! After 7 rounds of Swiss, the top 8 is as follows: 1 Mike Winkelstein (Pox) Warzone player 2 Charles Rose (Mono-Black) 3 Carl Wright (White weenie) 4 Glen Dudley (Green/white) 5 Radford Ellenburg (Red/white) 6 Andrew Starnes (Mono-red) 7 Brian Lynch (Stompy) 8 Trevor Bradley (Randall) 9 Bruce Cowley received the V.I.P. invitation to the Atlanta Grand Prix! 1st round elim Charles Rose beat Brian Lynch Trevor Bradley beat Mike Winkelstein Andrew Starnes beat Carl Wright Radford Ellenburg beat Glen Dudley this round only lasted 36 minutes!! 2nd round elim I chose to watch Radford vs Trevor Game 1: Radford got out early Mogg and Savannah lion with only one city, Trevor started putting out sedge trolls and edicted a couple of Radford’s creatures, Radford bolted the troll at an opportune time, but eventually just could not hold off Trevor with only one city of brass as land for the entire game!! Radford put up a great fight considering the circumstance! Game 2: This time, Radford got land, got out early Mogg and Orc for some early beatdown. Trevor hymned, guess what, he got a sand golem, doh!! And Radford was holding another golem and a tactic waiting for the next hymn. Although, eventually, Trevor got rid of the Golem with an edict, it was too late. Game 3: Trevor got really disturbed by the golem and decided to sie out 3 hymns and side in 3 disenchants. I guess the Sand Golems really got to him!! Trevor got to an early start with a couple of knights and a mishra…. And eventually consulted for a bolt to kill Radford. This round lasted all but 24 minutes! Finals: Andrew Starnes (Mono-red) vs Trevor Bradley (Randall) Game 1: Andrew got out a pup, Trevor answered with a knight, and edicted the pup. Andrew played a wildfire, Trevor answered with another edict. Trevor played 2 sedge trolls, one after another, Andrew bolted both of them! Andrew played a Ball Lightning, Trevor bolted it. They just had answers for each other the whole game, but finally Andrew top decked the fireblast for the kill. This game lasted for 8 minutes. Game 2: Trevor played first, mishra….attack, Andrew bolted it, and played an aeolipile…Trevor played 2 knights, Andrew got rid of them both with a bolt and the pile. Andrew played a pup ( mistake ) of couse, Trevor bolted it, ooch!!!Then Trevor played a Wildfire and that was the end of it! Game 3: This was a fast game, all I can say is that 3 ball lightning by turn 5 is pretty bad! Trevor took care of a couple of them by consulting for bolts and other means, but they just kept coming and eventually, Trevor just ran out of options to deal with these nasty balls!! The whole match lasted 24 minutes. Pretty fast format. So, the Qualifier winner, 16 year old Andrew Starnes - in his first ever sanctioned tournament - he got his DCI card from me today! Very composed, Trevor was doing his best to annoy him the whole match, but it did not even face him. I think we are going to see a lot more of Andrew in the future. Congrets! Andrew’s deck: 2 Jackal Pup 2 Dwarven Miner 2 Fireslinger 4 Mogg Frantic 2 Goblin Vandal 1 Ironclaw Orc 1 Gorilla Shaman 1 Wildfire Emissary 4 Ball Lightning 4 incinerate 4 Lightning Bolt 3 Kindle 4 Fireblast 1 Goblin Bombardment 3 Cursed Scroll 1 Aeolpile 10 mountain 1 Wasteland 3 Quicksand 4 Mishra 4 Plateau See you all in Miami and Orlando. David Doust New Wave Conventions South/Florida Regional Co-ordinator Atlanta/Orlando/Puerto Rico Pre-release Co-ordinator Atlanta(GA)/ Orlando(FL)/ Puerto Rico(PR)/ Miami(FL)/ Knoxville(TN)/ Columbia(SC) Pro-tour Qualifier Co-ordinator Wizards or the Coast Policy Advisory Committee PMPA Advisory Committee Wizards of the Coast DCI Level 3 Judge