Jumbos Win Big!

Quite to my surprise, I won a small local DBA tournament today! There were only six players, we had three rounds (instead of the four I had expected), but I somehow managed to pull out a victory in each stage and got a nice wee trophy in the end.

The beautifully painted Tamil Indian army (work of my friend Frank Popecki) has not had the greatest track record so far, but they did very well, crushing and trumpeting (the Elephants) and slicing (the Blades) and filling the enemy with deadly arrows (the Bow) in one battle after another. The last fight was definitely the hardest, but I managed to master my usual predisposition to charge forward in disarray and force my opponent to come to me, which eventually allowed me to break him down in a series of 1 on 2 or 1 on 3 combats.

Rather fun! Kudos to my friend Chris at Huzzah Hobbies for hosting it and to all the chaps who turned up.

from victory to defeat

Man, DC lost tonight and lost badly. 1-3 against one of the few other teams even close to as bad as we are. We weren't helped by simply atrocious officiating by one of the worst teams of referees I've seen this season. But you make your own luck and you play through bad calls, and we simply couldn't do that. There are flashes of real skill out there, and there's definitely a core of good players to build on next season. (Of course, DCU fans have reason to question whether our president and GM can tell which are which and to wonder if they'll let go good ones and keep the bad ones.) But right now they need to have a requiem mass for the season and send all the players off to the regen tank to grow new collateral ligaments and hamstrings for next season.

I think "Viva La Vida" about sums up United right now...

I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own

I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing
"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"

One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand