Macquariecon 2009: National Championships

[zero_cochrane]

HeroClix at Macquariecon 2009: National Championships

Macquariecon (http://www.macquariecon.org/index.php?module=pages&page=home) is held over the 11th, 12th, and 13th of December at Macquarie University (in north Sydney, close to Epping). As the first gaming convention to be held after the release of Hammer of Thor in late November, it would be untoward to miss this opportunity to celebrate the return of HeroClix with a Championship tournament open for all comers!

The Championships will be split into two parts:

HeroClix Preliminary - 300 point Draft
Draft your team from a random selection of characters made available by the tournament judge. These characters come from a range of new and older sets.

After team construction the Preliminary will run over two 60-minute games. An award will be presented to the player with the best win/loss and victory point total, and players may keep any figures they choose in the draft. New and returning players are welcome to join in!
...followed by:

HeroClix Championship - 300 points Constructed
Bring your best pre-constructed team to compete for the title of 2009 Australian National Champion! Once the Prelimary rounds are complete, all players who wish to participate in the Championship plays three 90-minute games. If you don't bring your own team, you may use the team you built in the Preliminary rounds.

The Australian National Champion award will be presented to the player with the best win/loss record and victory point total (including both Preliminary and Championship rounds); additional awards will be presented for Fellowship and Best Comic Team.

In addition to these trophies, prizes include Thor's Mighty Chariot, Dark Phoenix, and numerous LEs. The Champion receives first choice, but you don't need to come first to win a prize!


Tournament Rules
The Fantastic Four rulebook and all official tournament rulings as of November 2009 will be used as much as possible. If ambiguities exist, the judge's rulings are considered final.

Each game will be played to the time limit, which will be varied slightly to avoid clock-watching. Players are encouraged to take their turn in a timely manner. Stalling is not allowed, and may result in the stalling player immediately ending his turn.

Figures from all HeroClix sets are legal, from Infinity Challenge (2002) to Hammer of Thor (2009). Teams for the Championship round should be constructed prior to the tournament, and must be recorded on an official sheet and submitted to the judge before the Championship rounds begin. All characters, feats, and battlefield conditions must be recorded on the sheet.

Players who wish to play in the Championship must first participate in the Preliminary. Players who do not have a constructed team prepared for the Championship may use their draft team from the Preliminary rounds for the Championship as well. If a player chooses to use his preliminary round team (with no changes or additions), he may cancel one Battlefield Condition each game.

Fellowship is awarded on the basis of sportsmanship, fair and friendly play, and contributing to the enjoyment of other players.

Best Comic Team is awarded on the basis of comic accuracy, attention to detail, and may be supported by bringing a copy of the comic you're drawing inspiration from. This team might be a non-generic keyword team, but this is not required.


The Macquariecon website is currently waiting for an update, but in the meantime any HeroClix-related questions can be asked here.

[zero_cochrane]

Facebook Event Page:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=170453499416&ref=nf

[zero_cochrane]

I've put together an A4 flyer for display at the Tin Soldier, hopefully Kings Comics, and anywhere else that might be selling clix.

If you want a copy PM me your email address and I'll send you the PDF.

[zero_cochrane]

The MacquarieCon 2009 website is now taking registrations for players.

www.macquariecon.org

[zero_cochrane]

I have a query about cost for the events and could you let me know where it
is possible to find cheap accommodation near to the venue
There's not a lot of backpacker-style accommodation near Macquarie University (it's not a tourist area), but you can get rooms at The Ranch, a decent pub that's walking distance from the university.

http://www.theranch.com.au/accommodation.html

Each session at the convention has a $5 charge - so that's $5 for the preliminary and $5 for the Championship rounds, a total of $10.

[zero_cochrane]

I should be able to post some info about rpize support for Macquariecon... tomorrow night. :classic:

Some cool stuff has been set aside, one figure arrived in the mail today, and I just need to confirm the rest...

[zero_cochrane]

Prize Support

There will be a variety of prizes up for grabs at Macquariecon, including:

Trophies. A trophy provided for the Australian National Champion, the Preliminary Winner, Fellowship, and Best Comic Team. These will be provided by the convention so I don't know much about what they'll look like.

Big Figures. These include Thor's Mighty Chariot, Dark Phoenix, and Starro the Conqueror.

Hammer of Thor LEs. Gharskygt, Samantha Parrington, Skull-Brother, Son of Surtur, Thor the Reigning, and various card elements.

Buy It By The Brick Figures. Primarily Super Skrull: Illuminati, but a few older figures as well.

Other LEs. These include Johnny Thunder, NGN Superman (Batman Ally TA), the Coming of Galactus Herlads, the Lambda-Zero judge LE, prurple ring Atom Eve, and various LEs from earlier sets such as Icons, Legacy, Fantastic Forces, Collateral Damage, Armour Wars, Sinister, Supernova, and Origin.

The Champion gets first choice of the prize pool, with subsequent choices goin in descending order. Additionally, when the Preliminary winner, Fellowship, and Best Comic Team winners get their turn, they can take two picks. Once we reach the last player we reverse the order until every item has been chosen and given away.

Consolation awards will be given upon rolling a critical miss. It's not all unlucky!

And of course whatever figures you play in the preliminary round draft are yours to keep. There's a good chance that you'll see a few uniques in there too. ;) All in all, everybody should go away with a bit of loot.


These prizes have been collected partly at my own expense, but also with contributions from the Tin Soldier tournament players, and donations made by some former players (Drax, Dean Esam) and current players (Glen Smith). It just goes to show that we don't need a national distributor's support to put together an event worth getting enthusiastic about - get enough like-minded people together, and they'll put on a show worth seeing! :classic:

[Bij-man]

Wow this sounds great.
Well done to all those involved for putting it together.
I am looking forward to coming along and playing.
That is great prize support with no national distributor help.
Fantastic effort!!

[Than0seid]

I've said this to you in person, but I'm greatly excited about the tournament.

I've registered myself and Sgt Grimes for this, and shall happily see you on the day.

If you only drank beer, I would buy you one for organising all this!

[zero_cochrane]

I've spent a bit of time tonight making "boosters" for the draft! :)

Those people who are planning to attend - please do register at www.macquariecon.org and/or confirm on the Facebook page. I want to make sure that I have enough LEs and draft "boosters" for everybody, so having an idea about numbers will be helpful!

[zero_cochrane]

In accordance to nbperp's recent ruling, "Print and Play" will be in effect during the Constructed part of the tournament.

The 10% feat cap applies as normal (30 points of feats in a 300 point team). I probably don't need to say it, but any kind of Photoshopped or doctored cards is grounds for disqualification.

[Sgt Grimes]

I hope we can get there by 9....

[zero_cochrane]

And the results!

Championship: Andrew (M.O.D.O.C.)
Five undefeated games! His team in the Preliminary draft was a killer (two Batman [Beyonds] from Arkham Asylum, Immortus, and Contingency Plan), and he played against some stiff competition in the Championship rounds. While a Warbound Mystical team might have dominated easily in older tournaments, with multiple Captain Americas and some Cosmic Radiation Interference bouncing around it was riskier today. And yet he managed to keep things together and joined the ranks of National Champions.

Andrew also contributed the knitted Mjolnirs that we gave to Fellowship and Best Team. :classic:
Second Place: Matt (Sgt_Grimes)
Solid performance in the Preliminary draft (based on a team of figures you might not expect to be star players), and a very effective Soldier team in the Championship, provided Mat with a commendable four win record. He was only let down by a loss against the current reigning National Champion...
Third Place and Best Team: James H (Mr_Nobody)
It was hard to pick the Best Team - we saw a number of great comic-accurate teams, including James' Secret Avengers, Rob's Fantastic Four after Reed and Sue quit, and Ben J's West Coast Avengers. All three strove to recreate an exact moment in comics, which made it very hard. The Secret Avengers distinguished themselves by performing exceptionally well (coming within reaching distance of victory) even though the team had sacrificed all the main support powers - Outwit, Perplex, Telekinesis, Probability Control - and still managed to do very well.
Fourth Place: Jarrett
Jarrett had some terrible luck during the Preliminary draft, but pulled it together to earn two solid wins (and a bye) in the Constructed rounds. I played a friendly game against him in his Bye round and he won that too!
Fifth Place: Ben T
His constructed force was a solid Martial Artist team of Captain America, two Jimmy Woos, Howard the Duck, and Elektra. He only scored two wins out of five overall on the day, but with victory points earned being about 100 points less than the overall champion, there was some solid play here! If you looked at just victory points earned, he came in second overall!
Sixth Place and Fellowship: Ben J
It was great to have Ben visiting from Adelaide, and I was impressed with his friendly gameplay, his comic-accurate team (going so far as to sacrifice keyword benefits just to get the perfect sculpt), and his story about teachung clix to the kids in his school.
Seventh Place: Rob (Than0seid)
His Fantastic Four team was definitely a contender for Best Team, and it seemed pretty competitive, too. He was let down by bad luck that was just enough at just the wrong time.
Eighth Place: Paddy (M.O.D.O.C. Jnr)
Definitely the wackiest team of the day. All Animals, featuring the only chase figure put into play - Thor the Frog of Thunder. Might have earned more points to place higher if he had not been given the bye in the final round.
Ninth Place: Khaine
A Gotham City team of OotS Batman, Batgirl, Robin, and Nightwing; I played against him in the bye round and they took down Loki and had Ultron on the ropes! Khaine faced some tough opposition all day (Captain America certainly seems to have caused some difficulties) but scored some points in every single game - which not everybody can say... certainly not me!
Tenth Place: Cap'n Dave
A complete newcomer to clix, Cap'n Dave is a regular at UNSW Gameplayers, once a heartland of HeroClix. Let's hope that we see him again at the Tin Soldier on Thursday nights, and that he has some luck getting his club involved in the game again.

[Than0seid]

While I b*tched and moaned about having to play Modoc twice in the same comp, it's more to do with his son being a jerk (poor Ambush Bug) and had nothing to do with the organisation.

At least I got to take some revenge out on Paddy for the poor Bug. 8)

A most excellent day of playing, with me letting myself down in my first loss more than my dice. Not taking away from Modoc who outplayed me most of that game and deserved the win, though with less points than I ended up giving him 8)

And I made him work for the second victory. Congratulations must go to him for the overall victory though. Nice work Andrew!

And congratulations to Mr Nobody and SA Ben for two excellent comic teams which led to me missing out on the most comic accurate team. I was worried going in that I was going to win that by default, and I'm glad I lost to two such outstanding choices.

Admittedly, maybe I shouldn't use Sgt Grimes and Modoc as barometers for the typical team to face in a tournament 8)

And thank you for organising the whole thing James. It was run smoothly and fair, with everyone scoring some great swag and having a great time!

[zero_cochrane]

We gave away nearly fifty LEs, not counting the three big figures, plus ten silver Mjolnirs as participation prizes, the ten LE cards given away for critical misses, and the six event dials and two gold Mjolnirs given out for critical hits. I hope everybody walked away with some cool stuff. :)

[BB_downunder]

Awesome! If only...

[M.O.D.O.C.]

You were there in spirit Brendan - my team (my winning team) was based around SI Dr Strange :laugh:

But on a more serious note,

an awful lot of thanks has to go to Zero for organising and running the whole thing. The amount of prize support that was present has been down to his good efforts (and the generosity of Glen_smith in particular). His time and effort are much appreciated and also his selflessness in giving up his own shot at the title himself should not be undervalued.

Thanks everybody who made it such an enjoyable day,

except for Grimes who didn't stop winding me up all day.


Oh and by the way

Mr_Nobody you were nearly correct, it didn't last the car journey home before Grimes mentioned that he had been the national champion twice before.

[Bij-man]

I would like to say a big thankyou to everyone.

You all made me fell welcome and I had a great day of playing clix.
It was nice to meet you all and now I can put faces to the names.
I was really happy with my West Coast Avengers team and while I rolled some critial misses they did manage to win match.

My favourite game was against Ben T. It was the closet match I have ever played losing by 4 points when I couldn't Catch Ambush Bug with Karnilla. The feat was enough to get the win.

Great event James, excellent prize support and well run. It was a fun and friendly atmosphere and I hope I can make it again.
Well done M.O.D.O.C on the win. Your team was very tough to beat.

[Than0seid]

You all made me fell welcome and I had a great day of playing clix.
It was nice to meet you all and now I can put faces to the names.

It was nice to meet you as well Ben, and thank you for travelling all that way. I wish I had got a chance to play you through the day.

My favourite game was against Ben T. It was the closet match I have ever played losing by 4 points when I couldn't Catch Ambush Bug with Karnilla. The feat was enough to get the win.

I'm glad you didn't k.o. the Bug, I would have hated having to call you a jerk the first time I met you 8)

[Sgt Grimes]

And the results!

Second Place: Matt (Sgt_Grimes)
Solid performance in the Preliminary draft (based on a team of figures you might not expect to be star players), and a very effective Soldier team in the Championship, provided Mat with a commendable four win record. He was only let down by a loss against the current reigning National Champion...


Not to nit pick but I lost to last year's NC as I didn't play my arch-nemesis.

Great tournament. Well organised..... esp. when you told them to shut up and stop picking on me.:laugh:

[Sgt Grimes]

Mr_Nobody you were nearly correct, it didn't last the car journey home before Grimes mentioned that he had been the national champion twice before.

I don't remember saying that.......its true and sounds like something i would say....you were asleep for most of the car trip......maybe you dreamt it. No wonder you think i'm a jerk.

[zero_cochrane]

Not to nit pick but I lost to last year's NC as I didn't play my arch-nemesis.Mr_Nobody was still the reiging champion at the time that he beat you. ;) M.O.D.O.C. didn't receive that title until later in the day.

[Sgt Grimes]

Mr_Nobody was still the reiging champion at the time that he beat you. ;) M.O.D.O.C. didn't receive that title until later in the day.

Yes, but that is not the way it reads. ;). Anyway I don't think i can go back to playing regular tournies now........So 2010 nationals at CanCon?

[zero_cochrane]

Cancon is held in January. You want to lose your title so quickly? ;)

If the Canberran folks want to organise a tournament for Cancon, I'd probably go!

[Sgt Grimes]

Cancon is held in January. You want to lose your title so quickly? ;)

If the Canberran folks want to organise a tournament for Cancon, I'd probably go!


Yes I would like to lose my title of first loser:laugh:

[zero_cochrane]

Photographs!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=photos&gid=213612967686

[Bij-man]

Thanks for the pics.
There are some good shots.