Summoner Wars Tournament Update
The first round flew by, the second round begins!
It's been one week since our first official Summoner Wars iOS tournament started, and 54 competitors have been narrowed down to 18. From this point on, summoners will be fighting tooth and nail for each and every victory.
In this second round, three 6-person pools have been created. Each pool has a competitor who won their previous pool and a competitor who got second in their previous pool. No two players who were in the same pool in round one are in the same pool again. Once the complete round robin has been played in each pool, the top two in each pool will move on to create the final championship pool, from which the top player will be crowned in two weeks, earning the championship and winning a $50 PlaidHatGames.com store credit.
Thanks to everyone who has participated in the tournament so far. It has been a lot of fun. Good luck to our final 18 competitors!
Here's an overview of the three second round pools/divisions.
The Whirling Blade Division
Goldentrader took first place in the round 1 pool, using the Tundra Orcs for all 5 matches. Here's what tghops (who also moved on) had to say about their first round match, which Goldentrader won: "Very slow game where I let Elien sit frozen for a long time, came back to bite me as a surprise champion rush took me down."
AcidVeins23 slipped in with a second place finish in the Wild Swing division, going 3-2 and getting the only win so far over JYoder. He went 3-0 in the first round with the Phoenix Elves and Cloaks but 0-2 with the Jungle Elves. Here's what JYoder had to say about their match: "Wow... that was a sad ending for the Guild Dwarves. Oldin rolled on your 1-life Elien and... snake eyes. But I'm thinking, no big deal cause I'll get a second chance. After all, Oldin has 5 life and you won't get 2/2 with a distant Laleya and 3/3 with Elien... but you did."
Airstone took the Taskmaster division to task with a 4-1 record using the Phoenix Elves exclusively. FritzBraun said this after Airstone defeated his Guild Dwarves: "Airstone's Phoenix Elves took down my Guild Dwarves in a close run thing. My wall killing almost paid off, but he managed to get the Fire Drake out and it was all over from there."
kalrhin had a great round 1 showing, taking second place in the Shild of Light division and managing to go 2-0 with the Fallen Kingdom. Here's what he said about his Fallen Kingdom victory over jsmkd's Guild Dwarves: "At the beginning he cornered my summoner with his pesky defenders... but it was all just to spice the game. After a few rounds I summoned Skhull, that started clearing the board of annoying commons. I even finished possessing Baldar, the only Dwarf champion that hit the board."
esper88, the Summoner Wars rising star of the GenCon tourneys this year, won the Power Shot divison at 4-1 going 4-0 with the Tundra Orcs. His one loss was in a Guild Dwarves mirror match. esper88 noted after the match: "I keep forgetting I'm no good with the Guild Dwarves!" But so far his Tundra Orcs are undefeated.
PassiveAssassin moves on from the Shadow Summon division having used five different factions in round one. Expert summoner killercactus described their Jungle Elves mirror match: "[What hurt was] me leaving a Lioneer lane open that went 3/4 on my Abua. That swayed the game into a 'matter of time' scenario for me, just doing everything I could to keep Abua safe from Chant of Haste, but like PassiveAssassin said, I can't really do anything about double Haste. PA got all 3 of his walls early, too which put me in a tough spot to play defense. That's my second loss with Abua Shi in somewhere around 40 games. Good Game, PassiveAssassin."
The Burning Blade Division
tghops took second place in the Fire Breath division and used 5 different factions, notching wins with the Vanguards, Cave Goblins, Guild Dwarves and Cloaks. He talked about his aggressive play style after finishing three matches last round: "I haven't decked out yet and I think probably the games lasted an average of 5 turns or so."
Zyre26 won the Magic Barrier division going 4-1 and using a variety of factions. lildrummahboi was impressed with his playstyle after their Phoenix Elves mirror match: "Well done there. Those early wounds were something else. Good luck!"
Rodney Smith has apparently come a long way since losing to Andrea on Watch it Played. He played exclusively with the Phoenix Elves, finishing at 4-1 in the Taskmaster Division. Choosing the Vanguards against him could be a good strategy, if he still hasn't mastered defending against the Archangel ambush. (A joke, see the linked video.) I'm sure his viewers are cheering him on.
Danaru2 went 4-1 to win the Soul Harvest division exclusively using the Jungle Elves and beating both Guild Dwarves and Tundra Orcs along the way. GeauxTigers555 dealt fine with Danaru's Miti Mumway but had trouble after that: "You really surprised me with Miti and Chant Of Haste. Then I had two great turns and took Miti out but I just could not find a way to block your last lioness IF you had Chant of Haste."
DoctorPenick was surgical with the Phoenix Elves in all five matches, going 4-1 in the Power Shot division, including an intense win over matdav's Cave Goblins. Said matdav about the match: "Game was back and forth for awhile, Mook missed 3 times to destroy a Fire Beast that was clogging up the lanes. Took some risks with Sneeks late, but it was too late. He had outplayed me in board position. I think we were both decked."
Serenity won the Fatal Slash Division by finishing 4-1, using the Tundra Orcs for every match. Adam felt the wrath of Rukar when facing Serenity: "My best chance was the Power Shot champ [Makienda Ru] and saving the Chant of Life events for her. I had her set up to take down Groggy's favorite wall if nothing else, with no damage on her, and of course the double damage champ guy [Rukar] is summoned and one shots her... Aye caramba. Abua wept."
The Blade of Light Division
Sower 1 fought his way out of a tough Magic Barrier division, finding a lot of success with the Guild Dwarves (3-0 with them). lildrummahboi commented on the effectiveness of Sower's Hammer Quake: "Nice Gror and double Heroic Feat. I would've done the same next turn had you not rolled 6/6 with yours. Very nice indeed."
JYoder, one of the favorites going into the tournament and one of the few longtime forum members who wasn't upset and kicked out after one round, didn't disappoint and won the Wild Swing division with a solid 4-1 record, using the Guild Dwarves exclusively. rudyvalentine had trouble getting his Jungle Elves rolling versus JYoder's Oldin: "It got off to a bad start with two early Magic Drains and the Jungle Elves never regained control as all three Guild Dwarf champs (Gror, Thorkur, Baldar) made it to the battle and laid the hammer on Abua Shi."
Zejety took second in the Soul Harvest division with a 4-1 record using the Jungle Elves for every match. Both he and Danaru, the winner of the Soul Harvest division, used only the Jungle Elves, with their other opponents going a combined 1-7 against them. Couldn't have been fun to have Miti and the gang in your summoner's face so often.
Out of 54 competitors, thenobleknave is the only one who went undefeated, going 5-0 and, uniquely, using the 5 least popular factions in the tournament: Cloaks, Jungle Elves, Vanguards, Fallen Kingdom, and the Cave Goblins. Wow, this is definitely an impressive feat and I'm sure his Blade of Light division opponents are chomping at the bit to try to be the first to hand him a loss. One advantage he has, though, is that you never know what faction you might face when playing against him; everything is on the table.
TheInnocent also bucked the trends of the tournament by coming out of the Fatal Slash division using the Vanguards for all five matches, notching wins over the Phoenix Elves, Tundra Orcs and Jungle Elves. NirvanaTool absorbed the blows of TheInnocent's army of light: "I thought that game was long over so I threw Elien up there to try and make something happen; a few key misses and we had a game in our hands."
Finally, Alkazar won the very competitive Shadow Summon division going 4-1 with a variety of factions. In a Vanguards mirror match, PassiveAssassin was very impressed with Alkazar's use of a mercenary champion: "I was able to surround his summoner and knock her down to one health with mine undamaged, but his expert use of Grubbs and Bodyguard was able to "human shield" her and slowly pound my Sera into a pulp."