Store Championship Report The Soldiery Columbus, Ohio.

[jkayati 26]

I TO'd The Soldiery's Android:  Netrunner Store Championship yesterday, Saturday March 14th.  We had 19 players show up for the 11:00 AM start time.  Five 65 minute rounds of Swiss, a cut to Top Four, and nine hours later, we had a new store champion - Drew Fisher.

 

Drew started of a bit slow splitting in the first two rounds, but most players we playing in Splitsville during those first two rounds.  In fact, Drew was talking about dropping after round three if things didn't improve.  Things did improve a bit, and Drew was one of six players tied at 12 points after the Swiss Rounds.  His strength of schedule got him through the cut as the number three seed.  It just goes to show you never know in the game, and dropping shouldn't be an option!

 

Tournament Stats

 

Corporation Breakdown:

 

NBN:  Near Earth Hub 6

Haas Bioroid:  Engineering the Future 4

Jinteki:  Replicating Perfection 4

Weyland:  Blue Sun 3

Weyland:  Titan Transnational 2

 

Swiss Round Win Rate:  50/84 or 59.52%  (there were two ties during Swiss)

 

So, a decent spread amongst the corporations, but a real focus on just a few of the identities.

 

Runner Breakdown:

 

Kate  4

Andy  3

Edward Kim  2

Noise  2

Chaos Theory  1

Ian Stirling  1

Ken Tenma  1

Kit  1

Leela Patel  1

Maxx  1

Quetzal  1

Reina  1

 

Swiss Round Win Rate:  32/84 or 38.09% (there were two ties during Swiss)

 

That's great diversity there.  Seven Anarchs with five different identities, six Criminals with four different identities, and six Shapers with three different identities.  Still a focus on Andy and Kate, and those two were the strongest runners.  Also, it was a tough day to be a runner.

 

Championship Rounds

 

Brandon Duffy was the top seed heading into the Championship Rounds.  Brandon went 9-1 during Swiss with his only loss coming to eventual champion, Drew Fisher.   He played four seed, Josh Schutte in the first round.  Brandon choose to play Runner first, but it was Josh riding the Astrotrain to a first round upset.

 

Josh Wilson was the second seed, finishing with 13 Prestige during the Swiss Rounds.  That was just one point more than a big field of players sitting at 12.  Josh chose to play his Blue Sun deck against third seed Drew Fisher.  In a very tense, almost going to time game, Drew also pulled off the upset winning with Kate on a Maker's Eye run.

 

Winner's bracket saw Drew's NEH Hot Pockets Delivery Service spamming his Diversified Portfolios to finance those Dedicated Response Teams and stage a come back against Josh Schutte's Stealth Andy deck.  Another close game for Drew, but another win.

 

Loser's bracket with the two top seeds saw Brandon's Jinteki:  RP deck overcome Josh Wilson's Andy deck, eliminating Josh Wilson.  Josh had a really good day and is coming on strong as a player having started playing just three months ago.

 

Drew got to take a break and flush some of that adrenaline, while he waited for the winner of the loser's bracket to face him.  Randomly, Brandon got to play Corp again and a timely rez of Excalibur won the match against Josh Schutte in another close game.

 

First, and final, game of the championship was Drew playing Corp against Brandon's Kate deck.  This game was another close one.  Brandon had two HQ pulls of just a three card hand containing an Astroscript, but missed it both times.  Meanwhile, R&D has the two agendas he needed to steal to win sitting right on top.  So close!  Drew delivered those Hot Pockets using the Astrotrain to claim the win and title of Store Champion.

 

Thanks to everyone who came out and played, and congrats to Drew Fisher!

 

(I have permission to post Drew's decks, but currently the links aren't working for me)