The World Championship was awesome.
Props & Slops
Props
First- my utmost love and respect for The Euro Emperor, Chris Menzel for all the blood, sweat, and tears he poured into organizing this event. I know he wasn't alone, but I am sure all would agree none of this would have been possible without his tireless sacrifice to this amazing game. The beer glass was an amazing souvenir I will cherish.
To Kevin Jaap and Tamas Papp- the teamwork and organization to make sure all the major and minor details were executed was tremendous. Not to mention the incredible donation of time and the amazing slips from Team Welsh for all the Beer Wars slips and V-Cards... Always incredible work to behold...
To David Destefanis- talk about generous- I have a copy of TPK on my desk in the library here and will be getting a group together to play sometime this week. Thanks for making the journey and bringing the amazing swag. It was great to finally meet you in person.
To Hayes Hunter- You are such a easy-going dude. Thanks for helping me smell better at a gaming tournament. Seriously, I look forward to our next meet up and hope we can hang out for a few days more next time!
To Hayes Hunter's Belt- We will always have Bochum... I have pictures.
To Chris Gogolen- I really enjoyed our chats and your insight. You played a helluva game and just came up short. Thanks for loaning me a Quiggy's Stick... I look forward to seeing you again soon!
To my opponents- Rikard Eriksen, Mortiz, Gyorgy "Bill" (Twice!), Robert "The Father", Jonas Hagen Norregaard, Darren The GoodPete "The Welsh" (and the few others I just can't remember- Each of you spent time getting to know me and I you. I appreciated how each of you let me "relearn" the game after my 3+year hiatus. Normally, a World Championship-level event is NOT where one wishes to reconnect with a game again- but I can saw that the SWCCG community is like no other community out there.
To Paul McPherson- thanks for meeting with me at the airport and taking me on our journey. It was great to meet a fellow teacher and share in a few stories. I don't think I would have felt as comfortable coming back to Zurich on my own had I not gotten to experience it with you. Thanks for also jumping in with the Team Tourney updates as soon as we arrived as well as running the Consolation Tournament on Sunday. Team player all the way! I look forward to seeing you again soon!
To Bastian Winkelhaus- Wow. You are a legend.
To Bryan Mischke- You are a legend in the making... even if you are a Tommie...
To Rasmus "Beer Runner" Juul- You are the life of the party and are probably the most memorable person I have ever met at a SWCCG party... also, thanks for the starter binder of cards... such a generous act. I have them at school with me now and will be teaching kids soon.
To Kristian Lund and Casper Jørgensen- Hilarious conversations are the meat and drink of a good time. Thanks for letting be a fly on the wall and partaking in whatever language you were speaking at the end of the night...
To Greg Shaw, Brian Fred, Joe Oslen, and Steve Baroni- like Hayes, I never had the chance to get to know each of you better and man, I am glad I was able to connect with each of you a bit this weekend. BFred- sorry I effed up your Strike Planning... so much more planning out how to sign a Strike Planning. Greg- good luck with the family. Baroni- I hope you found a good "glutenfrei" restaurant!
To Matt Carulli- Was glad to meet up with you and Justin at the hotel on the way to Day 3... like the others, more time was needed. Good luck with your fur-babies...
To Angelo Consoli- my buddy! My pal! My amigo! I’m gonna bunk with you, buddy! At every SWCCG event... We’re gonna be buddies! We’re gonna be pals! We’re gonna wrassle around!
Whoops-a-Daisy!
Seriously, if it weren't for you , Angelo, I would not have likely been there... it would have been too easy to stay home, and, say complain about the Twitch stream like some other whiny nob-jobs... but I went! And that made all the difference... Thanks for loaning me cards and for being awesome.
To Marvin Tegeler for loaning me cards- I hope Mortiz got your back to you!
To Mortiz- Thanks for the games and for loaning me cards AND for the Facebook Message chat on the way home from the Zurich airport!
Finally to the hard working staff at Zu Den Vier Winden (Damian Seher, Bibi, and Der Stich! and the others I never got names for). Entertaining to the hedonistic needs, wants and desires of a phalanx of Star Wars nerds is amazing... I hope we were gentle...
Slops
Me and my stupid memory on how released captives worked... duh.
99% of my slops I want to direct is towards the haters...
2019 Worlds was just amazing... I know the European community will take great care of the Empire The Euro Emperor raised...
Thanks for the memories... I plan to be attending a few more of these EuroEvents in the future.
Thanks again to Chris, Tamas, and Kevin.... I posted pictures of the weekend (and Haye's belt) on the SWCCG Facebook group... more importantly, I posted some personal videos of Saturday night as well...