On My Way Out
I?m a competitive guy. I like to win, particularly at games I play. Whether it?s sitting atop the leaderboard on Counter Strike or winning big in a Magic: The Gathering tournament, I?m the guy who comes to take the prize.
Why would I be playing if I weren?t in it to win it? This always seemed so obvious to me.
When I got back into Magic last year, I had no idea that I?d be sucked in so quickly. ?Oh, I remember Magic,? I said to myself. ?Just a cool little game and a great way to make geeky friends?? I played in the past, years and years worth, until I got a Real Job and a girlfriend and left it behind?for about 5 years.
Then I visited the Official Site. Then I visited a great fan site. In a few weeks I was sucked back in, determined to win this game of skill and luck, sometimes much more of one than the other. Besides, it was always fun to play.
Turns out I hadn?t lost much of my play ability. Of course I was stumbling at first, blindly reading every card, trying to figure out the new rules they had completely changed in my absence. But much like the proverbial bike, I got back on and adapted quickly.
Since returning, I?ve accomplished the following in cardboard (non-Online) Magic, in the following order. I attended the first event about 6 months after I got back in:
? Top 4, Pro Tour Qualifier (Kamigawa Block Sealed, Top 8 Rochester Draft)
? Won 2 Tournament Flights (32 Players each, 4?0 record), Betrayers Prerelease
? Grand Prix Trial Winner, Knoxville
? 27th at Grand Prix: Detroit (Kamigawa Block Sealed), Payout: $650, Turned Pro
? Top 8, Pro Tour Qualifier (Kamigawa Block Sealed, Top 8 Booster Draft)
? Top 8, Saviors of Kamigawa Prerelease (Kentucky)
This Saturday I?m going to attend the following:
This year I?ll be in the Charlotte, North Carolina venue and will be staying an extra day to get in some VS System goodness as well. The idea with this tourney is to qualify for Nationals. Nationals is where the big money resides, with a top prize of thousands of dollars. Because I sure as hell aren?t going to be playing 11 rounds of magic this Saturday (13+ hours) for a box of cards, regardless of its value.
Why do I do this? Why do I take the time out of my life to study the game, try to hone an advantage, work towards the Perfect Concoction of 60 Cards To Ruin My Opponent?
Because I like to win. Because I play to win. Because I will win. There can be little victory with no confidence to back it up. And I?m a big believer in the power of confidence.
We?ll see if I make top 4 (if there are 410 or less players there), or top 8 if there are more. If I make those positions I?ll get an invite to Nationals, happening in Baltimore this August.
As a result, I won?t have an update tomorrow (if I do, it will be brief), and I?ll probably have to skimp out on Monday as well.
I also got very little sleep over the past week, and would kill for a nap. Too bad I?ll be testing all night. Wish me luck.
And I wonder what?s in a day
What?s in your cake this time
1 Comments:
Good luck Evan; I've seen you play cards and believe you'll kick some serious geek-butt!
I completely understand your will to win. I feel the same way about paintball. I play to win and get pretty aggressive. It works for me sometimes and against me at other times. It's been almost a year since I've played and my old playing groups haven't been contacting me to play any this year. I let go of the ORNL guys when you left there. The last time I played, Jason Herrell actually showed up too.
During the next to last game, he and I were base defenders and both went outside the base perimeter (separately and without the other person knowing) to pick off attackers. We were on the same side of the base and it was getting darker. I heard him moving around but didn't know who it was. He started shooting at me and I shot back. I ended up taking him out and in the heat of it all, it didn't dawn on me until much later that he was actually a on my team.
I went on to sneak off through the woods and circled around behind all the attacking players and got right in the midst of them. My heart was pounding and my adrenaline was flowing strong. I mentally picked the order that I wanted to take them out (best players / equipment first) and shot them up pretty good (got somewhere between 8-10 players within 20 seconds).
They were all cussing and ranting as they walked out of the woods, then later on after the game ended and everyone was standing around, one of the bigger guys started asking "Alright, I wanna know who was the $*#& that left the base and shot us up! Who was it?!" He sounded pretty mad, so I was a little hesitant, but I spoke up and said it was me then asked if I broke any rules, because I didn't remember hearing any that prevented me from doing what I did. The guy that organized the game day assured me it was cool, but I still have the feeling they didn't like me / it. I think that Jason was a little peeved at me too for shooting him, but he did shoot at me first and I didn't recognize it was him until it was too late and I didn't even remember that he was on my team until after the game was over and he asked me: "did you shoot me?"
Wow, I practically turned this comment into a post of my own. :-)
Anyway, take care and the best of luck to you!
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