Saturday 
World Singles Tournament. My team was very similar to my Canadian Nationals winning team with some small tweaks. I played legacy Thanos (and I totally did my nails as the gems from the infinity gauntlet to channel Thanos!), Star Sapphire (who I’ll refer to as Sapphire), Molecule Man (who I’ll be calling Molly), Collector, Hope Summers and Cloak of Levitation with the tarot cards: the fool, mind control deals damage, invuln reduces 3, steal energy heals 2 and all single d6 rolls +1. There were 168 players for the main event. Anyone with a Nats win, 25 ROC points or got a spot from a qualifier got a 1st round bye with 300 points. 108 of the players had a bye so we waited around while the 60 players played their 1st round. When I went to check in, they said yep, you have enough ROC points for the bye and I joked saying I didn’t want to use points because I won Canadian Nats.
As always, if any of my opponent’s are reading this and you remember details that I don’t from any of the games – please message me and I’ll update it!
So Round 1 is a bye giving me a win with 300 points, 1-0.
Round 2 was with Howard. He was playing unthemed team withHuman Torch, Sakaarian Iron Man, The Commissioner, Professor X, The Scarlet Witch, Magik with sword bearer trait, Dazzler, Mad Jim Jaspers and Super Soldier Serum. He swapped out Professor X, Magik and Dazzler for Venom Magneto, Deadpool and Multiple Man. I won map and took us to Negative Zone, equipped (something to note here, when I say I equip, I’m always putting the cloak on Collector) and passed. He brought most of his team up about a third of the way up the map down a side corridor with Deadpool, Venom Mags, Switch and Sakky, putting water under all of them. I rolled 2 gems, picking mind and space and knew exactly what I needed to do from having play tested this scenario of Deadpool/Venom Mags combo. I knew I needed to be adjacent to them because I can’t shoot within 4 of Venom Mags and can’t shoot out of 4 because Deadpool’s water and giving out dolphin. So I TK up Thanos and free phase adjacent and attempt to mc Switch and Sakky but Switch got her shape change so I instead mc Sakky and Venom Mags. I tried punching Deadpool with Venom Mags and missed then used Sakky to punch Venom Mags and hit. He didn’t get his senses so I’m up 35 points. I costed phase back with Thanos and barrier up. He does some repositioning and brings Jasper up with the group and brings forward a little Rookie and Multiple Man. I got a 1 for gems just barrier up. He tried to get Switch close enough to rune but is just a square or two out of reach and instead repositioned and passes. I get 2 gems again do the same thing as the 2nd turn, this time taking out Jaspers. Not too long after time was called and I won 70-0, now 2-0.
Round 3 was against Kalon who was playing Cosmic Thanos with Collector, Molecule Man, Hope Summers, Time Platform and Illusion Generator. I won map and put us on Negative Zone. I wasn’t thinking and should have put us on Eastview Park because he had objects on the main force that were destructible and didn’t clue into it until we were set up on the map. I equip and pass. He moved over to the far corner, where he’d placed his objects but doesn’t get anything equipped. I rolled lousy on gems and didn’t want to overextend so I perplex up both Molly and Sapphire, barriered up well with no one adjacent and waited. He flips the Mind Control tarot card and comes forward with Thanos needing a 6 to hit my Molly and rolls a 5. He prob cons and rolls another 5. My turn I come up and do the exact same thing, going after his Molly (I perplex my attack twice to make sure I hit) and I am successful in hitting. I then retreat back and barrier. He moves up and chooses mind control on his gem, which confused me with how I was barriered. He successfully hits Collector and Thanos with the mind control, and I wasn’t sure what he was going to do, when he went to move Collector out of the barrier – not realizing that phasing is a MOVE and not passive, thinking he could reposition him. I felt bad pulling out the PAC when I stopped him moving Collector, but he took it really well. My next turn I mind control his Hope so I can move her out from behind a wall to take a costed action to shoot her with Thanos for the KO. Time got called soon after that and I won 70-0, now 3-0.
Round 4 was against Bob who was playing a Latveria team with Apocalypse, Doom Annihilating Conqueror, Hope Summers, Annihilation with sword bearer trait and Emotional Modifier. I won map and this time put us on the correct map of Eastview Park. He swaps Doom to Valeria Doom. I pick Space for my gem and perplex up range then TK Thanos out, shoot his Emod for the 10 points and to get it off the map and free phase back to barrier up. He makes some pogs and moves them up. He keeps his main figures in his starting area and keeps sending pogs my way. I keep mind controlling the relevant pogs as they get close enough to do anything and send them after each other – making sure the charge and running shot ones with 3 damage
can’t get close enough to break any barrier. It was a whole lot of that same thing the whole game until time was called and I won 10-0, now 4-0.
Round 5 was against Joy(Jay) playing a Ruler theme team of Scarab, Mad Jim Jasper, Venom Magneto, Dr Doom with Time Platform, Apocalypse and Cloak of Levitation. I won map and put us on Negative Zone. I ask him if he’s rolling his dice for Doom or swapping his Doom and he chooses to stay as DJ Doom and rolls a 3 and 5 on his dice. This time I don’t equip my Cloak because of Scarab and just hold it with Collector. I also shoot out the heavy object I can see to get it off the map and then barrier up. The details of this game are escaping me, but I know I mind controlled his DJ Doom to take out his Scarab. He moved up and used Jasper to swap to the Clay on someone to mind control Thanos – knowing his was giving me 5 points for using it but wanting to try and get points himself. He was successful and was able to KO my Sapphire, being the 1st person to take any points from me all day. Time was called after that, and I won 55-25, now 5-0.
Round 6 was against Easton who was also playing a Ruler team of Apocalypse, Annihilation with sword bearer trait, Scarab, Mad Jim Jaspers, Venom Magneto and Cloak of Levitation. For the first time today, I lose map and he put us on Krakoan Gardens. I’m so glad that the outcome of this game didn’t matter for making the top 32 or not as we were both 5-0 at this point. It’s not often that you get what is essentially a practice game mid tournament, but I was really happy to have it. I’d never faced Easton before and would definitely have felt a little more nervous playing such a top tier player if making the cut or not was on the line! He TK’d a pog out to come steal my cloak and destroy it. He equipped his Cloak on Venom Mags and used Jasper to put the Alchemical Fire on Scarab. He sent a bunch of pogs my way and I needed to keep them away in a similar way that I did in game 4. I knew that I needed to get some points now that my cloak was destroyed. He also switched out the sword to the Emod on Annihilation with Jasper and I knew then that I just needed to wait until I flipped The Fool tarot card, but turn after turn, it was still facing down. He switched to the Clay on Venom Mags and Scarab copied it and mind controlled something, I can’t remember what – it was either someone to punch Molly or it was Molly to do Alchemical damage after, but he was able to KO Molly and I was needing to do all costed barrier from then on. We got down to the last 2 tarot cards and knew it would be soon. I’m sure he could have done more barrier and positioned differently to make it more difficult for me, but The Fool finally flipped as my last tarot card and I was able to finally get a mind control off. I think it was Scarab and Apocalypse I successfully mind controlled and with them I was able to take out his Venom Mags. Right after that time was called and we were tied, 35-35 and I won the roll off to go 6-0, undefeated in Swiss and putting me in 4th seed with 540 points (yes, I know the sheet that was posted says 490 points, something got inputted incorrectly along the way but it wasn’t noticed until then as no points were put up with the pairings before that point and 300 of those points were what I got from the bye and I only gave up 60 points in all of Swiss).
Top 32 with Kaleb in a near mirror match. The only differences were 1 tarot card and 2 maps. This was the best game of the day. It was so close at every moment and could have been anyone’s game at any time and Kaleb was a fantastic opponent. I’m going to be super critical of myself here in this game where I can clearly identify a few things I could have done differently, even though I know I played a great game. It all starts with a map roll. I was really hoping to win map so I could steal his cloak, but no luck there as he won map. He puts us on Negative Zone so I put my cloak in the far corner to make him overextend if he wants to get it. I was surprised, but he chose not to. He counted it and was debating it, but in the end decided not to. He equipped his cloak on Thanos (this will be important later). I grab my cloak with Collector to hold and come back into my starting area and barrier up. I start with Molly’s free smoke/barrier and then barrier with Sapphire’s. The moment I start putting down Sapphires, I realize that I’ve completely mispositioned, put down Molly’s barrier poorly and now need to try and make the best of it. I was just going through the motions of normal barrier and not correct barrier for facing a Thanos. I don’t remember his gem rolls, but he for sure chooses space and mind. He TK’s up Thanos, moves up his Molly to turn barriers and smoke to water so he can see my Molly with his Thanos. He needed to use his free space move to reposition Thanos so he wasn’t shooting through hindering in order to see my Molly and used a costed action to KO him. Next he used his mc to bring Collector closer to him and to drop the cloak he was holding next to Thanos. He went to free space back with my cloak but forgot that he’d already used the free Space to reposition, so he was stuck there with me. I moved Collector back into my starting area and brought the cloak back with me. I think I had mind and time for my gems and I mind controlled his Molly and Thanos, moving Molly out of hindering so his Thanos could see him and take him out then move his Thanos back away from my team. I barriered up, properly this time with no one adjacent to anyone else for an opposing mind control. Now we’re tied 30-30. I think he went back to his starting area and did some barrier himself, but he had Collector and Star Sapphire able to see each other. I took the opportunity to come up and mind control them both (figured I’d do both in case Collector got his senses, but he was really my target). I resolve Sapphire, doing nothing and then attack with Collector on Sapphire, thinking I was doing 3 damage with Collector because I now had 2 Collectors on my force in that moment and that was how it was ruled at Canadian Nats. Kaleb questioned that, so we called over a judge (we ended up with 2 judges to come up with the decision) and they agreed with Kaleb that it was only the 2 damage, not 3 that I thought it should have been (and after getting home and listening to a podcast, I learned that they ruled the same way as Canadian Nats in the Silver tournament at Worlds – I really wish it would have been consistent). I move on with my turn as it was ruled – so, this means that Sapphire lives and it was an error on my part for not asking how it was going to be ruled before doing it. If it had been ruled how I thought it was going to, I think I’m in a really good position by still having on board barrier when he wouldn’t have. I think this was the turn I finally got the cloak equipped on my Collector. Next turn he comes up and is able to take out my Sapphire and then I finish off his Sapphire. 55-55. The next turn we swap pieces again, this time it’s our Hope for Hope and I think he also hit my Collector at the same time (I think the mind control card was up for one of us? I didn’t get my senses so he was a hit target and took the tarot card damage). That Hope turn was where I made another big mistake. I completely forgot that his Thanos was equipped and forgot to roll for Destroyer – this was the first game I was attacked for damage all day with someone equipped. I’m so used to how I play it with Collector equipped and didn’t think about his Thanos being equipped (and as I’m writing this, I’m realizing that I also didn’t roll for Destroyer on the Molly KO too AND he didn’t roll for his Destroyer when I used his Thanos to KO his Molly either!) and now we’re 95-95. We’re now both down to only having Thanos and Collector each. He attacks my Collector and I don’t get my senses, so my Collector is KO’d. I flip the tarot card that is single D6 rolls have +1. I attack his Collector and he rolls a 4 on his senses and because of my tarot card, it’s successful and he stays alive. Time gets called and I lost 95-120.
I had a great run and it was the best I’ve ever done at Worlds. I’ve never made the cut before, so that was exciting in and of itself. They didn’t record our scores to know where exactly we landed – but mine was easy enough to figure out. I was the only 6-0 to not make it out of the top 32 so that makes me the only 6-1 which would put me in 17th place. 17 out of 168 – I’ll take it! So super proud of myself and how I played. Every game was fun and I had great opponents who were pleasures to play against. Exactly how it should be!
After the long day of playing, we went back to the hotel and grabbed dinner. I loved that cobb salad so much the first night that I had to get it again. This time it was so gross and I regretted every moment of it. So disappointing.
Part 4 coming soon! If you haven’t signed up for my emails to get the notification when my new blog posts go up, what are you waiting for!
Until next time, xoxo