Tournament Report

By Jeff Koke

The first ever set of Global Domination Tournaments was vicious enough to impress even the most devious Secret Masters. The competitors sunk to unheard-of lows and betrayed each other in some of the harshest ways imaginable. Friends turned on friends; fathers destroyed their own sons; merciless tyrants created total world confusion, all for the sake of pure power. All in all, it was a great tournament.

There were four types of tournaments. Two of them were single-round events: the Factory Set Tournament and the Sealed-Deck event. Twenty-one devious players arrived for the Factory Set Tournament, and the backstabbing began early and often. One particularly well-balanced game took nearly the entire 3:45 time slot to complete, but a winner came in just before time was called. Winners at each table got to keep the INWO Factory Set provided by SJ Games to play with.

The Sealed-Deck event was attended by 28 eager players. Most of them brought their requisite sealed Starter Sets, and the few who forgot were able to purchase theirs. We divided them into seven tables of four, and they got going. They had 30 minutes to create one 45-card deck each, with no trading. I was very impressed by the level of play and the quality of the decks that were built in such a short time, with such a limited selection of cards.

The games lasted from 30 minutes to two and a half hours. The last game to end was the most brutal, and ended in a surprise move by the father of one of the other players at the table, his ten-year-old son. Needing only two more groups to win, he mounted a vicious attack on the IRS, who happened to control two additional groups. Despite the best efforts of the boy, and the rest of the players, the IRS was lost, and Dad won, leaving his son stripped of power and dignity.

The other two tournaments formed the core of the Global Domination Tournament: the Head-to-Head tourney, and the Multi-Player tourney. The Head-to-Head event was surprisingly poorly attended, with only ten players showing up for the first round. These ten were, however, some of the best INWO players I have ever seen -- quick and ruthless, power-hungry and unforgiving. We set up an impromptu round-robin tournament, and whittled the ten down to four for the finals. Although all the players had good showings, and some of the games lasted well over an hour (long for a two-player), Nick Montague took the head-to-head title with his killer Cthulhu deck in a marathon power game, made longer by Nick's bad rolling -- he lost an opportunity to eliminate his opponent early when he rolled a 12 on a crucial attack, and he had key groups destroyed to an attack roll of 11 while using the Necronomicon not once, but twice. The competing decks in the finals were things of beauty, loaded with Murphy's Laws, Secrets Man Was Not Meant To Know; it seemed both players had whatever he needed to thwart the plans of his rival.

Montague, from Flint, MI, won a complete set of Limited Edition INWO cards, a set of autographed Limited Edition press sheets and a $100 SJ Games prize certificate. Paul Criner came in second, good for a set of press sheets and a $100 prize certificate, and the quick-talking spastic savant Paul Mehle came in third, winning a $100 prize certificate. The multi-player event was much better attended, with over 40 gamers showing up for the first round. We ran nine games in the first round, and ended up with 11 players advancing to the semi-finals (due to a combined Shangri-La win, and a percentage of goal tie in a game called due to time). The semi-finals consited of two games, with the top three from each table slated to advance to the final game on Sunday. We made this information available to the players ahead of time, so they could construct their decks accordingly. One player in particular, Bahman Rabii (part of a group of INWO fanatics from MIT who drove to Wisconsin from Massachusetts just for the tournament), used the information to build the deadly Upheaval deck. Playing a Power Grab each turn along with his automatic takeover, and unleashing two Upheavals per round (with the help of a Perpetual Motion Machine), he managed to keep two of the other four players sans groups for the first three turns. Once the third round was over, two players were out of the game and the other three advanced to the finals. It was the most cold and calculated play I have seen from any INWO player. It was indeed beautiful.

At the other table, David LaMacchia (another member of the MIT cabal) rolled to victory with his heavy-duty Bavarian power deck. The percentage of goal system was used to determine the two runners-up who would advance to the final round.

The final game, held Sunday afternoon, was a true battle, lasting over two hours. There were no duplicate Illuminati. Represented in play were David LaMacchia's Bavarians, Robert Plata playing Cthulhu, Bahman Rabii as Discordia, David Fritsch's Bermuda, Daniel Blum playing Shangri-La and Mike Williams as the Network. In another demonstration of MIT brainpower, LaMacchia took it eventually with a slow and steady climb to power, and a convenient Law and Order NWO. LaMacchia's victory was so complete that he survived the playing of two Upheaval cards in the final attempt to knock him down, only to still have the requisite 50 points of Power when the smoke cleared.

LaMacchia, of Boston, MA, walked away with the full complement of prizes, which included the complete Limited Edition card set, Limited Edition autographed press sheets, $100 SJ Games prize certificate and a complete run of German-language INWO cards. The runners-up were Daniel Blum, who got a set of autographed press sheets and a $100 prize certificate, and David Fritsch, who claimed the third place prize, a $100 prize certificate. The other three finishers also received smaller SJ Games prize certificates. So after congratulating the winners and watching them walk off with their loot, celebrating a game well played, I grew melancholy. I had seen the best players in the world compete for global domination. I had seen friend turn on friend and families divided by hunger for power. I saw the quick look of despair on the faces of those who realized they were about to lose half of their power structure. I saw the world crumble under the upheavals sparked by a self-destructive madman.

I can't wait until next year.