Thursday in the day – I wonder how much a last minute flight to Florida would be to play in States. Proceed to look up prices and message Florida friends for guidance. Thursday night – click buy on tickets, find a hotel, pack my bag and find the pieces for my team. Friday – go to work, leave an hour early to make it to the airport for my flight that ended up being over 3 hours delayed. Land at midnight, check into the hotel at 1am, shower and crash. Yep, this was a very spontaneous and last minute Florida trip to play in the last ROC States.
I played the same team as I played in ROC Ontario Provincials – you can find the team on the last blog post – but I tweaked the sideline. I removed the trouble alerts/makers and Murn for Deathbringer, The Watcher and Beetlejuice.
Round 1 was against Freeden, a sweet kid who played Darkseid with Captain America’s Shield, Prime Wonder Woman with Green Ring and Utility Belt and Spider-Man. I won initiative and chose to pick map and put us on Kings Tomb. Seeing Darkseid, I Butterfly’d into Griever, although it wasn’t necessary this game I realized after because he didn’t have barrier creation. I don’t remember all the back and forth on this one, but I took out the WW and Spider-Man, through butterfly mind controls and shooting with Starro. He also had the Phone Booth on his team, and he was very unlucky with his rolls and did not get a single successful shape change or super sense roll the whole game – even when reminding him to roll for them. I won 95-0, 1-0.
Round 2 was with Matthew who ran Hawkeye & Hawkeye with Power Gem, Carnage Silver Surfer with Khonshu, Murn with Emod, Sakky with Cloak, legacy Lockjaw with Spin, legacy Leech with Stones of Merlin, Per Degaton, Plastic Man, Mary Jane Watson, Hulk, Weasel and Timebreaker. I won initiative and chose to go 1st, and he put us on Sentinel Factory. I Butterfly’d into WW this game. He Per Degaton’d my Kale into the corner and it took me a bit to figure out getting everyone back into position. He brought Lockjaw forward with Murn and Leech and used Spin to take Groot away from the defend from Colossus and out of Kales bubble and had CSS take him out. Then he brought Beeteljuice out. I TK’d a Walking Wood next to Lockjaw and the flurry left him with 2 clicks left because he didn’t have his toughness being next to Leech. I mind controlled Murn to do the last 2 damage to take him out. He was trying to figure out his next move and kinda reset, moving people with stealth back so I couldn’t see them with Starro and it felt like time went by real quick when time got called and I won 35-20, 2-0.
Round 3 opponent was JD who played Darkseid with Remaker and Zero, Ka-Zar, Black Shirt Porter and Mary Jane Watson. I won initiative and chose to go 1st, and he put us on Prison Jailbreak. I Butterfly’d into Griever this game. We had a ton of turns going back and forth of him not being able to hit me and me KO’ing his Black Shirt and Absorbing Man, again by mind controlling Darkseid with butterfly pogs and shooting with Starro, winning 150-0, 3-0.
Round 4 was against Steve who ran Starbrand with Exospex, Rescue with Trick Arrows, Sakky with Cloak, Steve Rogers with Zero, Brother Voodoo with Axe, K.E.V.I.N. with Khonshu and Black Shirt Porter. He won initiative and decided to pick map and put us on Latveria. I think I Butterfly’d into Cosmo this game so I could shut down pulsewave. I did healing with Starro. He moved up into position around the phone booth. I did more healing, got into position, and brought out Beetlejuice. He got Rescue into a position to try shooting but missed. I took out Rescue with Starro. He came up with Starbrand, missed, and I took her out too. Beeteljuice in this game definitely helped slow him down and prevent some of what he was trying to do. When time was called, I won 145-0, 4-0.
Round 5 was with Josafa who played a swap team of Captain America x2 – one with Bucky’s Arm, Hawkeye & Hawkeye with Trick Arrow, Sakky with Cloak, Steve Rogers, legacy Black Panther and Ant-Man. He 1st swapped out 1 Captain America for Hawkeye & Hawkeye, then swapped out the other Captain America, Steve Rogers and the Hawkeye & Hawkeye he just swapped in back out for She-Hulk (on to the dropped Bucky’s Arm), Falcon, legacy Frogman. I won initiative and he put us on Danny The Street. I Butterfly’d into WW. He legacy Panther’d away Beetlejuice and Butterfly. This game had a ton of crazy back and forth. Ant Man making Frogman and Sakky giant was fantastic for him. He got off a great pulsewave/knockback with Sakky, doing a bunch of damage. I used the Porter heal on Kale. I want to say I shot with Starro and mind controlled through the butterfly. Then I was able to heal back a click on everyone from the Heart Shaped Herb, putting Kale back to full. He came in with a shot with Hawkeye and trick arrow’d Too Dangerous, taking out Kale and 1 Saturnyne. His giant Frogman did some knockback, taking out another Saturnyne and Scott then. I retal’d with Starro on Hawkeye, hitting and having a Walking Wood take him out. I had Colossus mind control Sakky to punch Frogman then shot with Starro on Sakky, Frogman and Ant-Man, finishing off Sakky and Frogman. He took Groot out and I finished off Ant-Man. Time got called we added points and came to 165-155, with Josafa winning. A few minutes later as he’s packing up, he realizes Frogman fell on the ground. So when adding those points in, he got the record changed and I ended up winning 180-165, 5-0.
Top 8 was against Cornelius who ran Hadari Yao with Exospex, Carnage Silver Surfer with Khonshu, Sakky with Cloak, legacy Cosmo, The Penguin, Prime Elsa Bloodstone with Trick Arrows, The Commissioner, Per Degaton with Reality Gem and S.H.I.E.L.D. Operative. I won initiative and chose to go 1st and he put us on Otherworld. I Butterfly’d into Cosmo so I could shut off pulsewave. He Per Degaton’d my Colossus into the corner. I did my Starro healing and moved Colossus up the elevation so he could get into position next turn. He moved up into position. I did more healing, got into position and brought in Beetlejuice. He got Hadari out and missed with the attack. Per Degaton was close enough and the only one I could see who wasn’t in steath that I could shoot with Starro, so I did and he missed his senses. He tried to get another shot off with Hadari and missed. Then tried to get a shot off with CSS and also missed (other than butterfly pogs to heal). I shot Hadari with Starro and did 2 clicks. I got a flurry off with a Walking Wood and got her off the see through everything clicks. He tried more shots with CSS and missed then brought Hadari back to the team to protect her and get her by the Heart Shaped Herb to heal. Time got called and I won 20-0.
Top 4 opponent was Logan who played Prime Wonder Woman with Green Ring and Utility Belt, Butterfly, Man-Thing, Flashraptor, legacy Rick Jones with Time Platform, Jennifer Kale, Manifold, White Shirt Porter with Yellow Ring and Spider-Man. I won initiative and chose to go 1st and he put us on Robinson Park. We both Butterfly’d into WW. I healed up and got into position. He also did some positioning and brought out Beetlejuice. I started moving butterfly pogs towards him. He positioned a little more. I moved pogs closer. He said he was ready to do his thing and came up with Flashraptor to take out the pogs that were getting close and then a mind control from 11 away with Rick Jones getting the range bump from Manifold’s SHIELD, which missed. I sent more pogs his way which he also KO’d. It was back and forth with more of the same, until he was double token’d with Rick Jones and I made the Flashraptor attack miss on the pogs with Saturnynes so I could finally get them in for a mind control to try and take something out. I was unsuccessful in getting anything out. We had about 8 turns each when time got called, but no one had taken anything out and neither of us willing to break our formation, so it was a roll-off from our 0-0 and I won the roll-off. 
Top 2 was against Josafa again and he went into the same swaps as our round 5 game. I won initiative and wasn’t crazy for where he put us last time so I decided to go 2nd and put us on Kings Tomb. I quickly regretted my decision 2 turns in and realized I should have gone 1st again for a few reasons. 1st, with how forward he came up on his 1st turn, I decided to not heal Starro so he couldn’t snipe the 260 points easy and 2nd because I forgot about the legacy Panther and he took away my WW option, so I chose to Butterfly into Cosmo to shut down pulsewave. So 1st turn for him, he comes up to the middle of the map, putting pressure on me to get defensive fast, which is what I do. He makes Frogman giant, comes in with She-Hulk to break a wall open in front of Kale and then sends Frogman over to knockback Kale both as power and as free and then sidestepping to knockback again to take her out. I made it my mission to take out Frogman as a vendetta, so I punched with Colossus, putting him on last click, forgetting that he had a trait that he couldn’t be knocked back to finish him off, so I had Saturnyne and Porter make attacks to try and finish him off but he got every super sense roll. That allowed him to do more knockback fun to against the Saturnynes/Scott after a Too Dangerous arrow from Hawkeye. She-Hulk flurried taking out more. I mind controlled She-Hulk with Colossus to try and finish off Frogman and Josafa said I deserved to get him and decided to not roll senses, lol. Last attack of the turn was Starro trying a mind control and of course, doesn’t he crit miss and all my probs were used by that point, so out goes Starro as I didn’t heal him this game. He was able to easily pick off my other pieces and eventually got through Colossus for the win, 30-400.
Congrats Josafa on your win! Great team and even better pilot. Loved getting to see you and play you. Great store Chris and thanks for judging with David.
I’m proud of how I played over this ROC series. I played in 3 events, came 1st, 2nd and 3rd and went undefeated at all of them, until I was either knocked out or won.
Now it’s time to get my brain back into modern as we lead up to the Icy Regionals and the ChampionClix Open! Hope to see a bunch of you on the next travels!
Until next time, xoxo