It’s… The Spoils™ Web Blarg!

This is going out as a poster with the new batch of starter kits.  I know, I know, waaaaaay overdue.  Hope you dig it.  Continue Reading »

With the conclusion of the 2007 Summer Tour, it’s time to look forward to the next round of major Spoils Tournament Experience events. In particular, the excitement of the big, $13K Tournament series.

As exciting as the $13K’s are, we know that most people reading this are even more interested in when the much-anticipated new set, Seed: Children of the Lingamorph will arrive. Well the two topics are inextricably linked…

This is going to be a little “good news/bad news”. The next $13K scheduled was slated as a Seed Sealed event. The bad news is that Seed is not yet released so we’re unable to hold that event as planned. The official word: we are postponing the St. Louis $13K event until a later date, to be determined.

Now the good news: While we still don’t have an exact date for the release of Seed, we can say with certainty that it will be available by the scheduled date for the Atlanta $13K. So we are pleased to announce that, the $13K event in Atlanta, GA will occur on schedule, December 1, 2007 and the format will be Seed: Children of the Lingamorph Limited (one competition pack and two boosters for the swiss rounds and a booster draft top 8).

More information regarding the release date for Seed, the pre-release schedule and other tournament information will be forthcoming soon™. As soon as we possibly can! Thank you all for your patience and understanding for the delays in Seed. Believe us when we say we are as frustrated as you have been by the delays, but once you get your hands on the set you will NOT be disappointed.

Promise. ☺

It was finally here!  We all meet downstairs to head over to the convention center.  We started with getting each table ready for the demos that where about to take place.  As Spoiler’s for Gen Con our role was to man the demo area, we had Ryan Bushard and Jason Tian helping us this morning since they got a ride to Gen Con on the Bus. 

We all work from 9am till around 6:30pm.  Not to bad a shift or so we thought.  Once the doors opened it was kinda slow since only trade guys where allowed in for the first hour.  Then they opened the flood gates.  We got swarmed Roth had to start a waiting list that just kept growing.  We never could have realized just how popular we where going to be.

We ended up finding out that the Tenacious Games party wasn’t at the same time that we had thought it was.  It was suppose to be scheduled for 10pm, giving all our players enough time to get done with their events.  Sadly they said the first act was going on at 8pm!!!

This meant that we would have no time to get ready.  Once the doors for the hall closed even knowing what little time we had we all still ventured over to the tournament area to say hi to the players.  It was great getting to talk to so many different players all at once.

Finally after being in the tournament area for about 45 minutes, we all headed to get ready in a flash!

Mikita, Kartika, Amanda and Dawna all meet in the lobby and headed over to the party.  Once there we got told that the Spoiler’s and Dawna would be announcing the opening act on stage.  They all decided Dawna would do it, with the girls on stage with her. 

So the announce the opening band Lazyeye, a group that the girls on the bus have grown to love.  They listen to the CD all the time, plus the band wrote a kick but song called to The Victor goes the Spoils.  Which they wrote for the Spoils!

The band came out and they where even better in person!  The Spoilers and Dawna ran around meeting new people who came to the party but didn’t know what the Spoils was all about.

We had a blast and even got to interact with the band during their show!  Once Lazyeye was done we had down time which is never good.  So Dawna and the girls went on stage to have people show us there crazy talents. 

Then the headlining band Bayside started.  They where really good, non of us have ever heard them before but they where actually really good.

The party was a blast after words we went with one guy from Bayside and the guys from Lazyeye to find food.  Then we all headed off to bed for the night.

You can visit Lazeye’s website  at www.lazyeyemusic.com

Also visit Bayside at baysideisacult.com

Today we got up and started making sure everything would be ready for the biggest gaming convention ever.  We all worked really hard to set up the booth.  Our Freeloaders helped us in the set up process along with our great judges Chris Jamison and Nik Lima. 

Once the booth was set Dawna said we had the day off.  And would all be meeting later for dinner at Bucca de beppos.  She ran off to make sure our other Spoilers and judges got to the hotel ok. 

Here at Gen Con we would be testing out Spoilers in Training.  This is the last part of the application process.  Dawna will ask the hopeful girl to come work and event where she can see just how the new girl will interact with the other spoilers and checks to see how she is at working a con.  We would be meeting new hopefuls Amanda aka Holly and Kartika. 

Once we all got together for dinner we did introductions, it was great getting to meet the whole crew that would be working Gen Con.  We had a great group of people. 

Tenacious Staff

Scott Dodson

Ed Liming

Dylan Mayo

Bryan Peterson

Dawna Havnar

Roth Rose

Derek Halpern

Judges and Score Keepers

James Lee

Scott Rohrer

Connie Rohrer

Chris Jamison

Kyle Knudson

Matt Worthen

Nik Lima

Luke Mastalli-Kelly

Spoilers

Mikita

Shay

Rachael

Amy

Amanda (Holly)

Kartika

Hans Hoeh joined us for dinner however Craig had some VS pro circuit stuff to do so we missed getting to see him.  The Dinner went really well and we all got to know each other better.  Near the end we celebrated Rachael’s and Scott Dodson’s birthdays.  Once we where done we all headed back to our rooms to get some rest for the lack of sleep that was to come. 

Today started late again with us checking out of the Hampton and moving to the Hyatt. When all of our stuff was moved we headed over to the mall for lunch and a little shopping. We went up into an arcade called Game Works. Bud and Amy rocked it up with the air hockey and beat every other team. Then Amy went on to beat Bud in one-on-one air hockey. We also played DDR and Mario Kart.

It was Hans’s Birthday.  Craig came up with a plan that we should all go to play Laser tag at a local place.  So Dawna got the rental Van and we all piled in.  And we do mean piled, we had three people in the middle row and three in the back.  The driver and then passenger and one poor fool who had to ride on the floor between the front seats. 

In attendance for this last minute birthday bash we had,

Ryan Bushard

Craig Edwards

Derek Halpern

Dawna Havnar

Rachael Hoak

Hans Hoeh

Bud Leiser

Amy Stone

Jason Tian

We all headed out to the place that we had directions for however as we were where the place should have been Dawna noticed it wasn’t there.  Luckily Craig called the Laser tag place and found out that the address we had was wrong they where further up the road.

Once there we all agreed to play one game to start out.  We went in and got split in to different teams.  After fighting over who would be on what teams we got started. 

Rachael being the free spirit she is refused to have any alliances with either team and went off on her own team.

It was a big place and would have been a blast to play in other then most of our guns didn’t work and poor Ryan had two little kids following him up and down the stairs shooting him in the back the whole time.  We all decided it was time to go get food before we played another round of laser tag.  So off we went to a Mexican restaurant that the locals said would be great food. 

We got there and they could seat us right away.  Amy sat down when she noticed we were at someone else’s table.  Unfortunately we where seated at a table that was already occupied by an army of ants; they where all over her side of the table and under her menu.  We asked to be moved and got split into different tables across from each other.  Many people decided to order food while some of us choose to wait till we got back to the hotel.

After dinner we decided that was really enough for tonight and we should all get some sleep.

Today began with a long drive to Indianapolis.  The bus was rather full on the drive as we had given a ride to Bud, Jason, and Ryan in addition, our players and staff.  The drive was mostly boring except the dance party that we (the Spoilers and Dawna) had in the back while we were packing our stuff.  Try as they might the players and free loaders would not be allowed to join in the packing fun!

Since the bus is going to be in the exhibit hall, all of our stuff needed to be off of the bus and with us.  So we spent the last hour of the drive to Indy making sure that we had everything packed and gathered up. 

We checked into the Hampton Inn, our hotel for the evening (tomorrow we move to the Hyatt which is right next to the convention center) and decided to go to see the movie Stardust.  We had an hour before the movie so we grabbed some dinner before hand. 

Stardust was really funny and awesome until the last 5 minutes (which sucked) regardless of what Craig says. 

After the show we went over to the Steak and Shake for dessert.   Everything was going great until Rachael decided to try to force feed Amy shake.  Amy hit the spoon away from her face and hit Rachael with it covering Rachael with shake.  Well, this insult could not go unpunished so Rachael used the spoon to fling more shake at Amy.  Amy in return threw more shake on Rachael and scurried off to the bathroom to clean up. 

Every one else thought that the girls were having a big fight about it when in actuality, they were in the bathroom laughing about the whole experience.  After the Steak and Shake incident, we all headed over to “the circle”, which is a large statue with a traffic circle around it. We wandered all over the monument before getting bored and going back to the hotel to get some rest.  Once there we found the guys had been shut out of there room.  Bud had upgraded their room and moved everything with out telling anyone.  Once all the guys took turns beating Bud down we all headed to bed.

Today was one of the longest events that we have had the entire tour.  We arrived at Misty Mountain Games around 9 am and set up immediately.  We were sharing the venue with a WoW sneak preview so we had to wait a little while to get our registration done. 

Andrew, the head judge, was efficient and courteous to everyone.  The store had a series of Mech warrior virtual reality pods that a group of people could play together in a battle type setting. 

The top 8 of the tournament seemed to have a lot of drama between the players and the spectators.  The Top 8 players are,

Sam Black

Justin Cohen

Craig Edwards

Paul Glozeris

Derek Halpern

Hans Hoeh

Joe Knizacky

Dan Thurston

In the Quarter Finals…

Sam Black Defeated Paul Glozeris

Joe Knizacky Defeated Justin Cohen

Hans Hoeh Defeated Derek Halpern

Craig Edwards Defeated Dan Thurston

In the Semi-Finals…

Joe Knizacky Defeated Sam Black

Before Hans Hoeh and Craig Edwards started their match they agreed that who ever wins their match would take the other player on to the bus with them if they win in the final match.  They then played it out and Craig Edwards ended up winning the match.

In the Finals, there was much debate over how the split would go down.  Joe and Craig decided to split the money evenly to start, but since Joe wanted the points and Craig wanted the bus.  They decided that Joe would take first by paying Craig for the points.  When it came time to split the bus they decided that they would share the hotel room at Gen Con, and Craig would get the bus ride there.  Finally it came down to the Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich a Spoiler trade mark for the leaving of a player.  Joe said the sandwich was worth the points, Craig seemed to disagree. 

So sadly, we said good-bye to Joe and Dan to welcome Craig and Hans on the bus.  After the event ended we headed back to the hotel with intentions of grabbing a bite to eat and going to bed.  During dinner, it started to pour rain like a monsoon.  Dawna and Rachael decided to make a break for it since they where both use to the rain from Seattle.  By the time they got up the hill they where both soaked through.  Craig, the sweet guy that he is, ran up to the hotel to grab the rental car to pick the rest of us up.  Rachael and Dawna used some diplomacy to get the guy at the front deck to allow them to swim in the closed Hot Tube since they where so cold.  Craig and Derek decided to join them in the fun, while Hans decided to sit back and enjoy the fun.  After everyone got dried off, we headed to bed.  Tomorrow we drive to Indianapolis for GenCon.

Today we visited Wizard’s World Chicago to hang out and do a little bit of demoing.  The wonderful guys at InQuest graciously allowed us to use some of their space for our demos.  We demoed for about an hour before getting to let our hair down and look around the convention. 

The only booths we stopped at were the Eye of Judgment booth (a really cool looking game for the PS3) and the Wizkid’s booth to demo the Pirates pocket model game.  When the con’s amusements were no longer amusing we traveled back to the hotel to eat lunch and hit the road towards Madison.  The drive took us about 4 hours with the traffic so we arrived in Madison around 9 pm.  Deciding that we were not hungry just yet, we decided to take a quick dip in the pool and hot tub.  The pool was typical of hotels with the deepest point being 5 feet.  Thus after about 20 minutes of swimming we decided that the hot tub would be a much better place to hang out. 

Before long, our toes and fingers became wrinkly, so we jumped out and headed down the road to find dinner.  We ended up at Perkins.   Our server, who was amazing, ended up giving us pie slices instead of the sides of fruit that we ordered because the restaurant was out of fruit. 

We were amused by that cause we had already decided to order pie after dinner. 

After dinner Dan tried to take us on in a pillow fight.  Little did he know that we had been sharpening our pillow fighting skills over the last month.  So he quickly got to taste defeat at the hands of the Spoilers.  Now that we where all tired out, it was off to bed for us to get rested for tomorrow’s 5K event at Misty Mountain Games.

We spent most of the morning traveling to DeKalb, Illinois to hold a draft event at On Board Games.  The shop was so amazing!  It was three levels, that where split.  On the top level was the main part of there store.  The second level had a great couch arrangements along with a pool table.  Then the bottom level was where we would hold the event, it also had a great miniatures area.

Once we got there we walked into a debt over different card interactions, since Dawna wasn’t sure she called the amazing R&D guys back in Seattle.  After giving the players the R&D guys answer we all decided it was time to find food. 

We where all so hungry, but did not want to eat more pizza, so we walked two blocks down the street to Pot Belly Sandwiches.  They served sandwiches, salads, soups and delicious milkshakes.  After lunch, we headed back to the venue to start the draft event.  John, one of the store’s owners, ran the event for us so we could just hang out with the players.  We had 20 people for the draft.  We got to meet a ton of new players including everyone from locals to a group of guys who drove all the way from Iowa to play in the event.  Everyone was friendly, outgoing and willing to hang out with us and laugh. 

One of the major amusements was attempting to throw the Bawls bouncy balls down Rachael’s shirt.  She was game and even tried to assist with catching the balls with her cleavage.   She’s very talented you should hear her hand whistling. 

The Top 8 players are,

Craig Edwards

Derek Halpern

Joe Knizacky

Tim Lyons

Paul Marchant

Seth Mc Clure

Dan Thurston

Jason Tian

In the Quarter Finals…

Jason Tian Defeated Paul Marchant

Seth McClure Defeated Joe Knizacky

Dan Thurston Defeated Derek Halpern

Craig Edwards Defeated Tim Lyons

In the Semi-Finals…

Jason Tian Defeated Seth McClure

Craig Edwards Defeated Dan Thurston

In the Finals Jason and Craig decided on a prize split, with Jason taking first place and the points.

During the finals we got to sit down and talk with John and the great guys from Iowa who where from Critical Hit Games.  It was nice just sit there and relax while getting to know the different things players and stores care about.

The event ended late in the evening and we got in the bus to drive back to Chicago.

We woke late, as per our custom, and headed out to lunch at the Olive Garden.  Originally we couldn’t find a table that would seat all 8 of us together.  Dawna through talking with the hostess, decided to try out having us split up in to two different tables, but the boys were too rowdy to allow that. 

After 30 minutes of waiting, we finally got a table and began enjoying their bottomless breadsticks.  Most of us ordered the soup, salad and breadsticks, the unlimited lunch special.  The wait staff we had was amazing.  Through out our travels we have put many restaurants to the test and this one gave us the best service so far. 

After lunch we traveled to the venue, Pastimes Comics for tonight’s constructed event.  We arrived at the venue with plenty of time to spare, so Rachael and Amy passed the time by giving demos and drinking Bawls. 

The event’s turnout was low, but the quality of the players was exceptional.  The store had a large enough play area that they could run multiple events with space to spare.  The store was decorated with a large array of release posters for various games and sets including the Open Beta and First Edition Launch posters. 

The tournament ran 3 rounds with a cut to Top 2.

Your Top 2 players are…

Hans Hoeh and Bud Leiser

They decided to do a prize split with Bud taking the first place and the points. 

Everyone who participated received prizes.  Halfway through the tournament the store owner, Alan, ordered pizza from a local shop.  They made Chicago stuffed pizza, which was delicious.  After the tournament, we headed to the hotel for an early night.  The boys stayed up and played games like gin and poker before heading to bed.