This will be the first of an ongoing series of articles that will cover my journey to Krosmaster Worlds 2016.
My adventure did not start the way most exciting adventures
do. I was not bitten by a radioactive spider. A powerful wizard did not mark my
front door with a treasure-hunting, home-reclaiming Dwarven meet up symbol. I
did not find a strange message from a captured princess in the memory banks of
a trash can-esque hooting and whirring robot. My story begins with a twitch.tv
stream.
Last March, in the early morning hours, I found myself lying
in bed with my IPad propped on my chest and headphones plugged in my ears. I
didn’t want to wake my sleeping wife, and I also wanted to block out the cacophony
of snores coming from her and the dogs. The broadcast was plagued with the same
technical issues, questionable commentary, and awkward pauses that every
production faces in its infancy. But this was a broadcast of the Krosmaster
World Championships, and my enjoyment of it was not hindered by the fact that the
guy kept saying the word “puppets” to refer to the summoned creatures. I
watched as four champions from five different countries assembled to battle to
see who would walk out the victor and the first ever Krosmaster World Champion.
As the rounds played out, it became clear that none of the United
States champions would be advancing to the double elimination rounds of the
tournament. I didn’t have any skin in the game, but I felt disappointed that
the Americans didn’t have a better showing. When the sun had risen and the rest
of my local players had a chance to catch up and watch the rebroadcasts, we got
online to chat about what we had seen. We came to the conclusion that we had to
get better at the game. It was going to be our mission to make sure a first
round sweep didn’t happen again to the American players.
The following months were filled with weekly meet ups,
bi-monthly tournaments, online play, and discussions with players both at home
and abroad. As I’ve brought up in previous blogs on this site, my playstyle is more
of a blunt Warhammer than a finesse wielded rapier. I had taken steps to play
lists that were out of my comfort zone to gain a broader perspective of the
game, but so far I failed miserably. I would push these lists to limits that my
normal bruisers could handle and watched as they exploded spectacularly in
front of my eyes. I wanted to give up, but I knew that giving up was only
prolonging the inevitable. I would have to get better if I wanted to compete. Slowly
but surely, things started to turn around and I found myself understanding the
mechanics better.
Eventually, I found myself at the Texas Regional event, taking
home the win. I’m not going to detail that event here since I feel this post in
and of itself will be a multi-part post, but you can read about the coverage HERE.
A few weeks later, I arrived in Indianapolis at Gencon. It’s
not unusual to find me here (I’ve been there every year since 1998), but this
time, I was on a mission. Fresh off my win, I knew I had to prove to myself
that I wasn’t a one trick pony and that the Texas regionals wasn’t a fluke. Some
people might have just accepted their win, but I knew that each metagame is completely
different and I wanted to make sure I was a good player universally, not just
locally.
Gencon was not the confidence booster I had been hoping for.
I ended up going 1-0-3 before conceding the last round in order to make it to
another event I had planned for that evening. I did get plenty of great
experience, and I did end up meeting the Kama Farmers (Mikey, Travis, and JJ at
the time) as well as Joshua Hipsher and Jay Adkins (of Team USA 2015 fame), so
it wasn’t a total loss. But I did leave Gencon feeling like I still had a lot
to overcome in order to accomplish my goal of being on Team USA 2016.
At the end of August, I boarded a plane by myself destined for
Seattle. My suitcase was light, but my mind was weighed down with a lot of questions
and uncertainties. Once in Seattle, I was joined by Randy Navarro and William
Hill. We were three of the top four of 2015 Pax Prime regional, the fourth
being the skilled Thomas Crombie, ready to battle after placing 5th
in the previous national tournament. My game versus Thomas was pretty fast-paced
and literally came down to who could secure the ochre Dofus first. I wasn’t
able to and kitty put down a strength storm that I could not weather. I left
Pax placing third, having beaten Bryon K. (another member of the 2015 Team
USA). I still wasn’t sure how to feel about my skills, but I knew I had a few
months to figure it out before Nationals at BoardGameGeek Con.
The following months were a low point in my Krosmaster
career. I couldn’t play online without my client crashing every other map. Our
local play group had increasing real life issues, making our meet-ups sparse. I
was mourning the loss of The Legend of the Five Rings, which had been a pretty
significant part of my life for the better part of 13 years. With the lack of
new releases and the whole ongoing Quest release debacle, I had considered
hanging up my Kamas for good.
Then Facebook did something it rarely does. In between showing
me pictures of my acquaintances’ dinners, funny cat pictures, and television
show spoilers, it gave me hope.
While scrolling through my feed, an unassuming picture of a
post-it note caught my eye. In order to understand why this resonated with me,
I will explain briefly a little bit about my upbringing. I grew up on the water
with my dad. He bestowed upon me a lifelong love of all things nautical, from port
to starboard, sea-worn pirates to daring swashbucklers, and from the crow’s
nest at the top of the mast to the mysteries that lay sunken in the murky
deeps. I knew I couldn’t let my ship sink. I would clear out the water
threatening to keep me down. I would come out of this stronger than before. There
was just one problem: my new found gusto might have come too late. It was just
four days before the official start of the convention that would host the
national competition.
This feels like a good place to conclude part one of this
story. I’m sorry it’s not a tactically charged as my normal posts are, but
believe me when I say those long-winded recounts will return in the coming
days. Stay posted for part two…
-Jeric is an established miniatures player who provides tactical insight, event reports and a few odds and ends along the way
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