#31. Game Loss to the Champion (Saturday, October 23, 2010)
What was your best day…of playing in the big leagues for the first time?
To fully appreciate the significance of this day, we need to understand the context of the two years that preceded it.1
Despite being a third-year college student now, living away from home and with full freedom to do whatever the hell I wanted, I had done nothing that could be described as remotely adventurous so far during my time at Waterloo. The furthest I had ever traveled from my dorm was to the Conestoga Mall thirty minutes away to get groceries. And my lifetime alcohol consumption count, after one carefully-planned “trying-new-things” drink at the sports bar two weeks ago, now stood at two. To say I was sheltered would be putting it lightly.
Suffice to say, the idea of taking off to Toronto for the weekend to go to some Magic: The Gathering Grand Prix tournament (#88), just like that, was pretty foreign to me.
But, as part of the changes I was trying to make after the disastrous summer I just had, I figured: what the hell I’ll do it. And it’ll be a blast.
So I studied hard in the week leading up, to free up my weekend. And on Friday morning, after my corporate finance class, I get on the GO Bus to Mississauga (the suburb where the Grand Prix is being held). That first moment when I was sitting on the bus, thinking “I’m actually just travelling two hours on this bus to go to this event in another city because I want to”, just felt really, really cool.
Now I don’t actually have any hotel plans. I’m not twenty-one yet, so apparently I can’t book a room myself. So I figure I’ll just meet some people at the event and maybe one of them will have an extra space in their room; and if not, I’ll just go to that Monte Cassino place that we booked last time with just sixteen-year-old Gary’s driver’s license2.
I get to the convention center, and right away I am struck by just how big the space is, and the sheer fact that 1,000+ people are going to be crammed in here doing nothing but playing Magic for the next three days. Then, while registering I run into two random guys from Western University (an hour away) – Dean and Kevin. Thirty seconds into our conversation, they find out that I need a room and I find out that they have space in their room. Too fucking perfect.
We arrange that, then all play in one of those mini-tournaments, where the winner gets three byes to tomorrow’s main event. In my first round, I get my first taste of the merciless Grand Prix rules when I accidentally shuffle one card on top of the other and cut the sleeve. My opponent calls the nearest judge…who happens to be Dave Lowe, the guy who organizes all our Magic events at Waterloo (#105). Awkwardly, he gives me a Warning (next after Warning is Game Loss). Then I replace the sleeve, beat my opponent, then lose in the next round. (Dean and Kevin don’t do any better.)
That night in their hotel room at the Sheraton we do some last-minute practicing (I also step down to the bar for a short while to watch the Rangers eliminate the Yankees in Game 6 of the ALCS…something that I was not going to miss). And as we lay in the beds, and after inserting myself into a discussion between Dean and Kevin on some girlfriend drama at Western, I have trouble falling asleep. Because I am just too damn excited.
I’m spending the night away from home (both my dorm and my real home), I’m sharing a room with complete strangers that I just met six hours ago, and I’m about to play in a premier tournament for my favorite game in the world. How freaking awesome is all this.
For the main event the next morning, it’s Scars of Mirrodin Limited. I build a red-white artifact deck built around my two Chimeric Masses, and I win my first match. Then, second round I’m against this guy named Jack Saunders (who got a bye first round), who’s also from Ottawa. I manage to win the first game, but then he wins the second. The third game, I’m having trouble drawing the cards I need. So, I activate an ability on a card (Flight Spellbomb) that will draw me an extra card. But just as I flip it up, he says: “Stop!”
Turns out, I didn’t have the lands to activate the draw-a-card ability, and now that I’ve drawn it, I’ve technically cheated. We call a judge over, I explain what happens, and he gives me a Game Loss. So that’s it for the match. Jack tells me: “Sorry about that, but it’s the Grand Prix. You understand.”
I win the next match, but then lose the next two and I’m out. 2-3 for my first Grand Prix; not bad. But as I look at the scoreboard, I see that Jack Saunders is near the top of the standings at 5-0. What?
He ends up riding this to Day 2, hangs onto the 8th spot for Top 8, makes it to the final, and defeats the eventual Magic Pro Player of the Year Brad Nelson in a shocking upset.
So I choked away a 1-0 lead, on account of a Game Loss, against the guy who ended up winning a 1,361 player competitive tournament. That’s pretty cool (though totally embarrassing), I guess?
- Also, to not be totally lost by the finer details on Magic: The Gathering, you may also want to read #105 and #88.
- This was part of a trip I made in the summer of 2006 after our month of selling jewelry (#83) was completed. That was also the setting for drinking instance #1. But there were other stuff that made this trip lame, so it’s on this list.