North American Championships 2006: 25-27 August

Zarathustra · Post by **Zarathustra** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 2:03 pm

It's official!  North American Championships will be in New Jersey this year!

When: Friday, 25 August, through Sunday, 27 August

Where: 1 Lawrence Drive, Ground Floor common room.

Organizer: Mark Alfano

Format:

Thursday

3 or 4 round Challenge Deck tournament, using the four new challenge decks.

Friday:

Multi-Player Boxed Game by Joe Bisz

Virtual Tourney!

Casual gaming.

Board Games.

Saturday:

Day: 4-5 round Qualifiers; 2-deck general opponent; swiss style.

A Long Expected Party Scenario, 3 rounds

Hero Sealed, with booster draft, 3 rounds

Crap sealed.

Casual gaming.

Sunday:

National Finals; 2-deck general opponent; top 4 players from the Qualifiers on the previous day will play a round robin; deck lists may be changed between Saturday and Sunday.

3 rounds LE sealed.

Lodging Info:
There are a good number of hotels and motels in the area.  I will try to book a block of rooms at one of them; more info to come on this.

Cost:

$20 fee to attend the event (for prizes and rental fees at the venue)

LE sealed: $12

Hero sealed: $15

When you decide to attend, please paypal your fee(s) to Mark Alfano at malfano@princeton.edu.

Prizes:
Prizes will include a silver One Ring replica, alternative art Spanish cards, Spanish-language boosters, French-language LE rares, French Promos, German Promos, A Long Expected Party expansion, and more!

Zarathustra · Post by **Zarathustra** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 7:27 pm

Note: the venue may change to an activity room at Princeton University.  If it does, all fees will be reduced, and we will have time for more events / a more relaxed pace.  Other than these ameliorations, nothing else will change.

Zarathustra · Post by **Zarathustra** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 3:01 pm

Venue has changed.  Hooray!

Sauron · Post by **Sauron** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 5:35 pm

I call dibs on your bed!  You can sleep on the couch

Zarathustra · Post by **Zarathustra** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 12:52 am

I've arranged to get a discount rate at a local hotel: $93 per room per night, 2-3 people per room.

Contact Info for Hotel:

Phone: 609.452.2500, ext. 183

Website: www.clarionpalmer.com

Contact person: Rachel Kopliner, rachel@clarionpalmer.com

I will be finalizing this deal by the end of the week.  After I do, I will post an 'OK to contact them' on this thread.  That will be the sign that the deal is ready and you can call to make your reservation.

The hotel is about a 10 minute drive from the venue.  Here is a map indicating how to drive:

Lovely Google Map

Sauron · Post by **Sauron** » Wed May 03, 2006 9:49 pm

Sauron · Post by **Sauron** » Tue May 09, 2006 2:39 pm

New site for the NA Championships 06

www.meccg.net/nachamps06/

Zarathustra · Post by **Zarathustra** » Sat May 27, 2006 8:50 pm

Since North American Championships is going to be in NJ this year, and I have a personal stake in seeing it become the best nationals we've ever had, I'm officially dropping the gauntlet to all those Canadians living north of the border and all the folks way out on the west coast: if you come to NA Championships and place in the top 50%, I will waive your admission fee (!).  We're going to have excellent prizes, so get thinking about travel plans!

Sauron · Post by **Sauron** » Sun May 28, 2006 4:39 am

What if you live in Georgia?

Zarathustra · Post by **Zarathustra** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 3:16 am

LETTER TO PEOPLE ATTENDING NORTH AMERICAN NATIONALS
(Or people interested in the new "Virtual Card" set being developed by the Council of Elrond)

This letter is for any possible attendees of MECCG North American Nationals, coming up soon on August 25th through August 27th.

Joe Bisz and Mark Alfano, as representatives from the Council of Elrond, have exciting news for you. For the first time ever, we will be featuring a separate side event at a Middle-earth tournament involving the use of an unofficial expansion of Middle-earth cards called "Virtual Cards." Virtual Cards are a way to produce expansions for the Middle-earth card game without publishing new physical cards. Essentially, we have taken 39 existing cards and invented new game texts for them that have utilize completely different strategies and open up the possibility of brand new deck types. Since these card texts exist in a downloadable document on the internet, they are called "Virtual." Have you ever wanted to play Pirate as a Minion player? Ever dreamed of defeating Sauron by keeping the One Ring and using force of arms? Well, both these decks are possible now. Think that Sauron and the Balrog are too powerful? Wish you could do something more about squatters and Fallen-wizards? We've added some cards that might come to your aid. Again, this is an unofficial expansion to MECCG-it is not an actually released set, nor is it an Unofficial Errata Proposal (UEP). However, it is our hope that this side event will generate lots of player feedback on these cards from playtesting, so that in the future an official expansion to the Middle-earth game can be seriously contemplated.

What are the rules for the tournament? None, really. You can take a deck you already have and modify it considerably with these new cards, or you make a brand new deck. We do recommend incorporating at least a few of the new Virtual hazards and Virtual resources. Some of the new cards offer completely different hazard and resource strategies, so you should think about that, too! There will be prizes for the winner, but there will also be prizes awarded for the person whose deck makes the coolest use of these new cards! THAT COULD BE YOU!!
So how do you get these Virtual Cards, you ask? Easy! Just visit:

http://www.meccg.net/nachamps06

and go to the virtual cards tab.

Have fun; and let us know what you think!!

Joe Bisz and Mark Alfano
Council of Elrond
Find out more information about American Nats here: http://www.meccg.net/nachamps06/

**And please, don't forget to PRE-REGISTER AND PAY for the event! Do it now!

Zarathustra · Post by **Zarathustra** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 1:13 pm

One more thing: the German 9 will be allowed during the virtual card event as well.  And in fact, all participants will receive 1 free set of the 9 special German promos, courtesy of yours truly

Wacho · Post by **Wacho** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 1:22 pm

Sounds interesting.  When will this event take place?

Zarathustra · Post by **Zarathustra** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 2:01 pm

Friday evening.

Zarathustra · Post by **Zarathustra** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 10:51 pm

Hi Again All!

This is a plea from the tournament organizer of North American Championships 2006: PLEASE REGISTER!  The list of attendees is dwindlingly small, and it makes me very sad to look at it.

All you need do to register is send me an email saying "I'll be there!"  If you want, you can also tell me whether you (a) would like to stay in the pre-arranged hotel, and (b) have already reserved a room at the hotel.  If (a), I will put you in touch with people who said (b), and vice-versa.

Our website is at www.meccg.net/nachamps06

The schedule on the website is, however, slightly incorrect.  Here is the updated, official schedule:

Thursday afternoon and evening:  Challenge deck tourney using the new challenge decks
                                                Prizes will be challenge decks themselves, along with some other goodies

Friday morning: Multi-player boxed game by Joe Bisz (newbies welcome!)
Friday afternoon and evening: Virtual Card tourney (2-deck, general opponent, but watch out for those spell duels!)

Saturday morning:  Semi-finals (2-deck general opponent) OR A Long Expected Party Scenario (http://fan.theonering.net/morgulrats/party.html for rules)
Saturday afternoon: Semi-finals continued OR Crap Sealed
Saturday evening: Board Games OR Hero Booster Draft

Sunday morning and afternoon: North American Championship Finals (top four players from semi finals) OR LE Sealed

There will be prizes for everyone in each event, and some of them are quite valuable (the winner of NA Champs receives one of each Spanish Special-Art Promo, for example, as well as a sterling silver One Ring.).

So please, register!  If you want to paypal the money in advance, that is fine, but it is not necessary!

Zarathustra · Post by **Zarathustra** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 4:33 pm

Please, everyone who is coming to nats, bring me your extra avatars -- any alignment!  I need them for a special project...