Comic-Con Tournament Report

by Adam Molnar

Anyway, I decided to use some of my .hack prize winnings to attend a convention beyond Gencon this year. Since I'm not likely to travel to Europe, and I also want to play both LotR and .hack, that leaves Origins and Comic-Con. It takes me about 5 seconds to decide on San Diego over Columbus. Fan dollars pay for the trip and pass. My old consulting Marriott Rewards cover a hotel near the convention center, which I found by repeatedly checking until something popped up one Saturday night. Given that Chris Wiemer from Madison, my roommate, is kicking in some cash for the room, I should make a small amount from this trip. In homage to Patrick Sullivan, I'm taking more of a travelogue approach, though I don't have the need to obcess about coffee. And it's unlikely that there will be, um, stories about unwanted emissions. Instead, there will be pictures.

Wednesday

It still amazes me that at 6:30 AM Central, I can be sitting in Chicago, and 5 1/2 hours later be walking in San Diego. But that's routine now, and even a small delay to reboot the flight computer doesn't slow me down much. As I type this, waiting for Chris, it's 11:15 AM in San Diego, sunny, and I'm by the pool at the Residence Inn. There's only one cute bikini girl, I guess because it's midday. Nevertheless, that's one more than Columbus.

Since I decided to come here, I've been on a heavy diet and exercise program, and it's helped. I'm only a little overweight - 6'1", 196 (1.85m, 89 kilos for metric folks). But the new muscle tone doesn't make up for my pasty whiteness. I just quietly enjoy the sun until Chris arrives. The convention doesn't start until evening, so we head out to Old Town and the Mission. This requires a trolley ticket. We head to the station and I buy my ticket easily, but when Chris tries, it eats his $5. And then another $5. Chris says, "I was honored to donate $10 to the beautiful city of San Diego." We went to Old Town, tried to find someone with a clue, but wound up with a phone number of an automated system, which said to mail in a refund request. How wonderful. Also, the tortillas are only available on weekends now. Sigh. We did get a picture of the offending mchine.

Mission San Diego was a nice rebuilt church, a good way to spend the afternoon. Apparently, this was the hottest day of the summer so far in San Diego. It was 84 degrees. Given that my glasses fogged from humidity earlier this morning in Chicago, I chuckled.

Here's what you're missing - the view from the hotel balcony. As an added benefit, the Residence Inn has a barbeque on Wednesday nights, so we get free hamburgers and hot dogs. And free beer.

After dinner, we headed down to the convention center. Since our badges are paid by Decipher, who doesn't have a booth, we're professionals. Unfortunately, the professional line is ridiculously long. A little sweettalking gets us Preview Night badges for free - we promise to come back tomorrow for the real ones. (Even though my card skills are rusty, it's good to know my talking's still there.) Here are a couple images from the show floor. Darth Vader is made out of Legos; someone had too much free time, or something.

Because it was preview night, the booth girls did not seem to be in attendance. Since I understand my audience, I promise to search more diligently this weekend. And for you females and nontraditional males, I'll even get a couple booth guys. If such things exist. Are they like unicorns? Also, tomorrow will have the first tournaments, so I'll have news and notes.

Thursday

The events I might want to play in, LotR and .hack, begin at 4, which leaves the morning free. Janelle is summering near the UC-San Diego campus. Yes, the Janelle of Janelle on the River of the Water of Life, which I explain in my tournament report. In the morning, I hop on the trolley (the ticket machine is still broken) then the bus to La Jolla. On the bus at 8:30 AM are three rather tipsy Irish girls, who are returning from a night in Tijuana. They were rather amusing for the first five minutes.

Meeting Janelle was tricky, since neither of us know street names very well. Eventually we find each other, and walk around La Jolla and the cove. Because the morning was quite foggy, I don't have many beach shots. On the good side, the sea lions wer in, so I got a good picture of them. Plus there's one of me in the water, about 12:15 PM. The timing is important. I teach summer school college statistics at the University of Chicago. My students took their midterm today. I promised that during their midterm I would be at the beach, in the water. This is the proof. Of course, I, a champion athlete today, pay for my schadenfreude when a wave hits me. My butt was wet for the next 30 minutes.

Janelle and I wander around La Jolla, which is nice. The best part is when we're searching for the Catholic parish Mary, Star of the Sea. (If you recall, my Saturday Worlds deck was Janelle, the Star of the Ocean. Janelle is Catholic, working toward her Ph. D. in New Testament Biblical Studies. I volunteer as graduate fellowship coordinator at the campus Catholic center.) We don't know exactly where it is, so we stop at a Lutheran church to ask directions. Not only do we get directions, but as we're walking out, one sweet lady offers to give us a ride, which we accept. She's Episcopalian, but sings with the Lutheran choir. She drives us to the church, and I snap a photo. The church really is very pretty.

Anyway, my friend and I part, and I catch the bus to the convention center. On the way, I stop to get a beach hat. Right across the street is a farmer's market, which has fresh strawberries. I spend $2 to get a little container. At the convention center takes a little work to get my badge, involving two workers, two supervisors, and an escort. But that's a different story. Eventually, I arrive at our tournament hall, where WARS booster draft, Star Trek, and Megaman are wrapping up. Counting me, seven people are there for .hack. Sixteen people sign up for the LotR Reflections Draft (not the most straightforward format, I must say.) Today, I'm playing my Blademaster/Fire deck, with 45 of 60 cards red. I go 4-0, defeating Melody, Sam, Matthew, and Sean. In respect for their decks before Nationals, I won't describe what they're playing or how the games went. However, I will put in their pictures. (Sorry Matthew; you're not that blurry in real life.)

The tourney ends about 8, and Chris and I head back for dinner. On the way, we stop for a few sunset photos. Again, these are views not really found in Columbus.

Friday

Friday has become a day for an impromptu .hack event, at 4 PM. There's nothing before that, so I sleep in somewhat, watch some British Open coverage and see Jack Nicklaus' end, then head off to Balboa Park. On the map, it didn't look too far to walk, and it really wasn't - no further than the convention center. Unfortunately, the map did not state that it was all uphill. At the top I was rather tired, but the view was very pretty.

It's very nice, and I spend a couple hours walking around, some at the Botantical Building, but most at the Timken Museum of Art. They have only around 100 paintings, but they are almost uniformly classic and marvelous. Fifteenth century Dutch, Italian, some French, Russian, Americans of the 18th and 19th century. Plus the special exhibit was on conceptual drawings, thirty or forty artist's planning sketches, most beautiful in their own right. I wanted a poster of one, Thomas Moran's Opus 24. He created it when he was 30, the same age as me. But it was on loan and they had no slide, sadly. I finished up my time by riding the carousel, once I found out adults could ride too. The worker chuckled when I asked him to take this shot.

At the tourney hall, I walk around and take some photos of the events in progress. The California state Star Wars Championship drew around 16 people, more than the WARS National Championship. I saw some LotR games happening, a Star Trek PSQ, and the .hack players hanging out in the back. Of course, we're closer to the windows and sunlight. There are 8 of us today, meaning three rounds. Today, to change up, I'm playing my version of Heavy Axemen / Gorre. The 11 strength monster loses his first fight, but I recover to win that round 2-0 anyway, over Tenchi. In the second round I beat Sam again, and pose for pictures with Sam and Heather. My Gorre actually wins twice, the first time giving me a ten-point win. To make it more fun, I stick the card in my hat, which becomes an extension of my hand.

I lose a match to Matthew, who put together an AM plant deck with no PCs. In one game, I manage to draw 3 Subaru 2.0 in a row, though amazing I won that one. In the third game I see 14 cards before any of my 13 PCs, almost stabilize, but lose a 50/50 draw for the match. Matthew deserved the victory. The .hack players are very motivated; Tenchi and Melody even played on the floor. There are more pictures from the tourney room on the pictures page.

After the tourney, and a bite to eat, I head down to the Gaslamp district. Not to dance, though; I head to the Borders, to pick up my copy of Harry Potter. They weren't that organized, disappointingly; I could do better. Nevertheless, it was very crowded, and I got to wear a pointy paper hat. The big events for me, LotR Nationals and .hack Nationals, start tomorrow, so I'll start a second page for that.

Comic-Con Coverage Page