Weekend Event Report

The Shadowfist players of Brisbane, old and new, decided to forego a perfect Brisbane Spring weekend to instead descend on the gaming tables of Good Games Spring Hill for the second annual "B&S Brawl". Run over two days, the weekend is a mix of Shadowfist-related fun including tournaments, trading and movies.

The weekend got off to an eventful start with the world first sealed-deck tournament using the yet-to-be-released Combat in Kowloon and Back for Seconds starter decks. As a promotional event, existing players brought along friends which helped swell numbers. With decks handed out randomly at the start, participants had a great time playing the new set, seeing the new cards and in some cases playing factions they'd not played before (or playing old factions which have been given a new twist such as the Ascended and Dragons). The results showed the decks play well against each other, with more than half the participants getting a win or time-out win throughout the tournament.

In the end Brisbane Shadowfist icon Brad Daniels took the prize playing the Lotus deck, with second place going to the Dragons deck and third to Mitch Haggman playing Jammers.

After a bite to eat those who remained for the evening were treated to a showing of the Tsui Hark classic "The Iron Monkey", the perfect way to end an afternoon of Shadowfist.

Sunday morning got off to an early start with the "Battle of Brisbane" draft event. A mix of illness and Sunday public transport issues saw the numbers down on what was expected, but the participants were buoyed by the attendance of Good Games store owner Corey Hill who has always been a great supporter of Shadowfist and considers himself a draft specialist regardless of the the game.

The premise of the "Battle of Brisbane" event is the use of custom Feng Shui sites designed by Steve Darlington, based on iconic local locations. Tournament participants selected 8 of these locations to use as Feng Shui pods to help with deck building. With a mix of old sets, including 7 Masters, Shaolin Showdown and Dark Future, the game included ancient sorcerors, Manchu soldiers and futuristic cyborgs fighting for control of Brisbane.

At the end of four rounds first place went to tournament organiser Leonard King ("rigged! rigged!!!") with second place going to Mitch Haggman and third place Cameron Watson. Corey came in fourth place; a good result considering he only plays Fist occasionally.

With the draft running overtime, there was only a short lunch break before the afternoon Final Brawl tournament for the State Title.

As always, the open, constructed format showed Shadowfist at its very best with a wide range of factions and deck styles. After 3 rounds points were tallied and players allocated their final tables. In the end though, the finalists' game ran less than half the allocated duration with Kevin Lowe's "Maximum Butt Kickin'" deck overpowering its opponents to take the game and the title. A player who doesn't want to be named came second, and Mitch Haggman came third.

Thanks to the support of Good Games we were able to offer a $50 store credit to the "New Recruit/Old Master", the highest placed new player who joined, or old player who rejoined, the game in the last year. This year's winner was Cameron Watson, who managed to do good things with a limited card pool to build a fearsome Darkness Monarchs deck, coming in fourth overall.

As a final prize, the title of "B&S Brawl Champion 2012" and accompanying plaque went to the player who scored the most match points across all tournament events. This year's winner, by a fair margin, was Mitch Haggman who placed in all three events showing his consistency and skill across a range of formats.

Congratulations to everyone who took away a prize over the weekend.

Thanks must go to;

Hamming it up at the end of the weekend.

Inner Kingdom Games and Daniel Griego for prize support, allowing us to use the CiK decks and having them prepared so soon after the success of the Kickstarter campaign. We were proud to be given the opportunity to be first in the world to run these cards in a tournament.

Corey and Cassie from Good Games Spring Hill, who continue to be massive supporters of our game and our playgroup. On top of the $50 store credit they also put a box of Seven Masters up as a prize, and paid for a staff member to stay late to allow us to have our movie.

Randal Wales for being the perfect collaborator and sounding board to help get this event up and running again. Vive la Flying Monkey Squad!

Kevin Lowe and Matt Barker for helping me cut up the printed CiK cards ready for the event. 3 sets of 6 50 card decks make for a lot of cutting and it couldn't have been done without you.

Steve Darlington for the feng shui sites, and for the loan of the hat.

Mitch Haggman for supplying the video projector, even though, for the second year in a row, he wasn't able to attend the movie himself.

Thanks to everyone who came along. I hope you had a good time.

All things being equal, B&S Brawl will return for 2013 so make your plans now to be in Brisbane for September next year.