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One way or another, history would be made in the finals of Pro Circuit San Francisco. Either Ian Vincent would be the first player from outside the USA to win a Pro Circuit, or Vidianto Wijaya would win an unprecedented second Pro Circuit . . . in a row, no less! |
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Going into the semifinals, one of the big questions of the Top 8 was how many Donkey Club members with the discard deck named “Ivy League” would make it through to the Top 4. |
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This match saw two of the most decorated Vs. players square off. Each player had faced the same matchup in the previous round and come out victorious, and it was obvious from their actions and demeanors that they were treating this like a heavyweight battle. |
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Kim Caton and Michael Jacob destroyed competition in Day 1 and 2 action. Kim won 14 matches, and Michael pulled down 15, with both players dominating the Draft portion. |
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Sitting down for this quarterfinal match at Pro Circuit San Francisco, I had trouble working out who to support. On one side was my teammate and fellow Englishman Ian Vincent. On the other side was the only Tim in the Top 8. |
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The tournament director told the players they could begin, and he reminded them that they had two and a half hours to play. Vidi cautioned Jason that he should play fast, indicating that all that time might not be enough, but Jason seemed to think it would suffice. |
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These two Donkey Club teammates have agreed to play a best-of-one match to determine the winner, due to the nearly identical nature of their decks. |
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All the PC decklists! |
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Profiles of the Top 8 players! |
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Meet the best Pro Circuit Top 8 ever assembled. |
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“This is my fifth X-Men draft ever,” declared Hager. “I literally have every thread from our team forum printed out in my bag.” |
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I got a chance to talk with Neil after a rough round 17 loss that knocked him out of Top 8 contention. |
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The battle of the fan favorites was announced over the loudspeaker. Patrick Yapjoco and Jason Hager carry a following in the Vs. community for genius deck building and consistently strong play. Better than that, these are two stand-up guys. |
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In an all-star dogfight, Vidi Wijaya (current leader in the standings) faces off against the indomitable Tim Batow. |
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Hot on the heels of his finals appearance at PC: Atlanta, TAWC member and Metagame writer Shane Wiggans is once again looking to make a Day 3 appearance, compiling an impressive 4-1 record during draft after a 6-4 Day 1. |
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It was looking a little unclear how Sohnle was going to pull this one out. |
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“I can’t believe that I’m choosing odds. This is a horrible choice.” |
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Florian Hess hales from Germany. Michael Jacob hales from the upper Midwest. While they have little geographical commonality, they have one thing in common: they both aced their last draft pods with perfect 3-0 records. |
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Along with his teammates, Adam prepared vigorously for both the Constructed and the Sealed Pack portions of this Pro Circuit, and the result is a collection of Donkey Power all over the top tables. |
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In an all FTN showdown, Vidi and Kim square off with 2-0 draft decks born at the top draft table. |
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“Don’t cover me,” said Vidi, “I’m awful at drafting.” |
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Doug sat at table 2 of Draft 1 with some of his Donkey Club teammates—Adam Prosak, Adam Bernstein, and Karl Horn—so to say that this was a powerhouse draft pod is putting it lightly. |
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The morning sun is burning the shroud of fog off the Golden Gate Bridge, and Tim Batow takes his seat at the top table for Day 2 X-Men Draft action. |
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For the very first match of Draft day nobody wants to sit down opposite a Pro Circuit champion. Equally, in a perfect world, nobody wants to have to play against a teammate. For Donkey Club members Karl Horn and Adam Bernstein though, this was the situation they were in. |
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In a brand new metagame, one of the most exciting things I’d like to know is which decks did well. With a little bit of research, I was able to work out the breakdowns. |
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Day 1 of Pro Circuit San Francisco is at an end, and what a day it has been! |
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The last and final round is upon us after a long day of Silver Age Vs. System. Featured this round we have Constructed juggernaut, Kyle Dembinski and his opponent, who’s no slouch himself, Tim Batow. |
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“Must be soooooooooooooooooooooo nice,” shrieked Prosak. |
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Surprise! FTN probably has the best deck in the format . . . again! |
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Both of these top-level competitors were at 8-1 records for the day. This one was about pride, showmanship, and pole position for tomorrow. |
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Jaime is a pretty impressive player. Being blind, he has to have Braille sleeves for his cards in order to be able to tell what he has drawn each turn, but beyond that he plays just the same as everyone else. |
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Far at the end of the Festival Pavilion hall, the newly created Pro Players’ Lounge was home to bad-beat stories throughout the day, Ian Vincent’s unfortunate suicide by King re-recruit being the most recent. Players enjoyed beverages, the occasional chocolate donut, board games, and movies, all within plain sight of the San Francisco waters. |
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Welcome to the round 8 feature match between Vidianto Wijaya and Gabe Walls. Vidi is fresh off his Pro Circuit Atlanta win and looks to be well on his way to another high finish here at Pro Circuit San Francisco. |
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After a day filled with personal successes, the last two undefeated players were now going head to head! |
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Mike Sewell might only be 5-3 after round 8, but he’s becoming a familiar face on the Vs. System Pro Circuit. |
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Like many a confusing X-Men plotline, characters have been returning from the grave without issue. This doesn’t seem entirely fair, and one man has made a stand. |
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Metagame’s own Michael Barnes won the opening roll and took evens. He was forced to mulligan and maligned that fact, while Bell kept his opening hand. |
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Wander anywhere around the venue today and no matter where you go or whom you speak to, you’ll quickly come across a conversation about a mysterious Parademon loop strategy. |
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Going into round 6, there were only four undefeated players. Two of them were from FTN. The first one isn’t overly surprising—Mike Dalton seems to have made the Pro Circuit his playground, and San Francisco is no exception. The other is possibly a little less well known for her top finishes, but very high profile as the best female player on the tournament circuit right now. |
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Doug Tice and Robert Dougherty are no strangers to the pressure of the Pro Circuit, and this Pro Circuit has definitely proven to be interesting. |
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The Englishman (the only one playing, though not the only one here) took a look at his opening four and elected to mulligan. |
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Gates opened with Archangel, Angel, who attacked directly for a quick 2 damage. |
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Big Man on the Pro Circuit Gabe Walls sat down against the diminutive Tim Batow for round 5 with a smile on his face. That is Gabe’s default face, and even losing the die roll for initiative didn’t take it away. |
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“You finally managed to annoy me,” said Hayward. |
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Both Kim Caton and Scott Hunstad have a remarkable amount of experience with the game, and both began to play as quickly as humanly possible as a result. |
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Patrick Yapjoco is one of the game’s most recognizable players, and he's currently 2-1 after losing a devastating game to Kim Caton in round 3. |
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It’s official. The Arkham Inmates just became competitive. |
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The numbers are in! |
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Featured in round 2 is yet another well-known Vs. System pro, Nick Little, who is piloting the “discard deck” that is all the buzz here in San Francisco. His opponent, Masami Ibamoto—one of our Japanese players from across the “other” pond—is looking to take it to the discard deck with his Avengers reservist build. |
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“There’s a copy of Monopoly in the player’s lounge,” remarked Fielder. “Do you know what that says about expected turnaround time? IT’S A FOUR-HOUR GAME!” |
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This one was going to be interesting. Just a single round into the tournament, we already had something of a mirror match, with Shane Wiggans’s Revenge Squad–heavy build of Checkmate facing off against Dean Sohnle’s build, which splashes League of Assassins for extra location interaction and KO potential. |
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Players from around the world have gathered just a stone's throw away from the Golden Gate Bridge inside the Fort Mason Center for today’s event. |
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Cory started the match by proposing, “Okay, so how about we both trash talk each other all match, and whoever feels worse at the end loses?” |
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