I was so excited when I saw that ChampionClix Opens were running again and this time they were doing 2 in Canada! Alberta got chosen for the west and Ontario for the east. With my lack of travel to the US right now, I decided to look into making the trip out to Lethbridge, Alberta to play in their event.
At first I was not going to because the flight was way too expensive to go right into Lethbridge. But after talking to the tournament organizer, Matt, he suggested that maybe if I fly into Calgary and then carpool the 2 hours to the store, it would be way more economical. He reached out to some guys who were driving and would be passing Calgary on their way and asked to see if they’d be willing to grab me from the airport on their way. Matt was right, it was half the cost of going to Calgary than it was Lethbridge and they said yes to grabbing me! Thanks Derek, Jabin and Zeke (and Zeke, I didn’t knock you out of top cut this time, like you joked to allow me in the car, lol), much appreciated!
The only way this was going to work was if they could meet me Friday afternoon to get to the store to place some battle Royals in the evening. Then the economical flights home were either that same night, technically Sunday morning at 1 AM or at 7 AM. After that, the price is home skyrocketed. Funnily enough, the timing actually worked! They were willing to come the Friday play battle Royals stay over at a hotel, do the event and then their plan was already to drive back home that night, after the event, which means they would be again passing Calgary to drop me at the airport in time to be able to catch that 1 AM flight. It was all meant to be and lined up perfect! This is my first time coming to Alberta and meeting the players of Alberta. The only people that I already knew were people in the car picking me up at the airport because I had met them previously at Canadian Nationals. But everybody else is new to me. It feels weird to be going to a store where I’m not gonna be walking in and automatically getting hugs from half the people in the store because I don’t know any of them!
My trip started off with airport delays. They delayed me five times for a total of four hours and seven minutes in the end on my way there. This means that I wasn’t going to arrive in Alberta until after 6pm, which means not getting to the venue in time for battle royals. Kindly, the venue and Matt were nice enough to put together a battle royal to-go package so that our car could play a battle royal back at the hotel before going to sleep. Zeke kicked our butts! I came in second bringing home a Katana.
Back to the room, I settled myself and tried to fall asleep which I finally did about 2:30 in the morning, MST and of course, my body wakes me at 5:30 MST, because that’s 7:30 EST, when my body is used to waking up for work. I tried to fall back asleep unsuccessfully, so instead I relaxed in a bath and then lay down to rest until my alarm went off. I met the guy’s for breakfast and then off to a new venue to meet new people and get ready for tournament day! 
The team I decided to bring with me to Alberta is main force Betelgeuse with Destroyer Armor, Fenix pog and 3 Kongs. 1 with Gaea, 1 with Seth (because Kong needs Mystics, right?!) and 1 with Khonshu. Sideline are the 3 gods plus Chthon, Mimic and Fortify. My maps are The Tangle, Major Brock’s Bunker and Rivals Respawn. My terrain was Phonebooth, Heart Shaped Herb and a 1×2 elevated. Here’s the hcunits link for the event if you want all the deets I didn’t include for the teams and bracket.
My typical set up was putting Chthon on the Gaea Kong, unless there was a Bloodstone on the team I was facing and then it would go on Betelgeuse instead. My typical first turn was to grab my terrain, using a Kong to pick up the one I wanted least in the matchup in case they Mimic’d me, and left that Kong in place next to the other 2 pieces so the other 2 Kongs could walk through him to pick them up, so they couldn’t be Mimic’d. Seth would take the elevated, Khonshu would take the Phonebooth and Gaea would take the Herb. I’d usually position them with the Seth one closest to the opponent team, with the other 2 just behind.
Round 1 was against Zeke who played Caveman Wally West with longsword, Flashraptor, Ghost Surfer with Hellcycle, Reverse Flash with stormbreaker, team-up Captain America, Per Degaton with dream ruby, Copycat and Timebreaker. Zeke went 1st and I put us on The Tangle. When we were in the car on the 2 hour drive to the venue, we all shared what we were playing and we knew that this wasn’t a great match-up for Zeke. Juice just takes away so much of what this team does for getting the multiple attacks in. He certainly tried his hardest though, doing his set up and sending over Flashraptor who brought over Caveman and didn’t do anything consequential, then one by one got the others over and just wasn’t able to get through anything of mine, so towards the end he went away from the big stuff to take out Fenix just to get some points. I was able to get through everything he sent over and won 290-10, 1-0
Round 2 was with Corbyn with a team of Ulysses Bloodstone with bloodstone, Supersaur, Zala Jor El with longsword, Reverse Flash, team-up Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Per Degaton and Spirit of the Game. I went 1st and he put us on Little Mogadishu. Because of the Bloodstone, I had to put Chthon on Juice this game. I did my usual first turn of grabbing terrain. He TK’d and came over with Zala and hit, bringing over Ulysses who missed. Then Supersaur came in to hit and also missed and followed up with Reverse-Flash (my forgetting until that moment that he had Spirit of the Game on the board to get the extra action) to get a hit on Kong (I think it was the Seth one). I can’t remember what I took out – it might have been Zala and hurting Reverse Flash to get him off precision and to lower his attack. He brought over the little guys to get some probs in place and was finally able to take out a Kong. The next turn I took out everyone but Ulysses and Reverse-Flash. He used Reverse-Flash to go over and take out Fenix. I finished off Reverse-Flash and worked on Ulysses for many turns until I finally got through his rollouts. 300-70, 2-0
Round 3 opponent was Ben with 200pt Kong, Spider-Ham with trick arrows and Black Symbiote with motorcycle. Ben went 1st and I put us on Respawn. He did a set up turn of walking the Black Symbiote to the lava and passing so he went back to the respawn room, putting him on the elevated and took the lava damage. I did my usual first turn of grabbing stuff. He shoots out the elevated with Spider-Ham and has Kong equip the motorcycle, putting it on senses. I’m not able to get to him on my turn, with him having fewer characters than me, so I can’t double act with my Kongs, so I set them up in kind of a line so he can only get 1 when he comes in. He charges and hits 1 to Stop and it voops to a respawn room and he charges and hits another. I think I fortify one of those. I try charging in with all of them and am unable to successfully hit him with any of them. I’m now close enough that he can quake and take out the ones on Stop and put the last one there. I decide to go after Spidey to try and take him out to at least get some points because I know there’s no way I’m doing anything to his Kong at this point and he keeps rolling senses. He easily takes out my other Kong. Juice does what he can to try and get Spidey out but I’m not successful on him with all his rollouts and he rolls high enough to take out Juice. 15-300, 2-1
Round 4 was against Wade playing legacy Odin with destroyer armor, killoseum Captain America with mjolnir, Scarlet Witch with bag of holding, Star-Lord with trick arrows, Per Degaton and Copycat. I went 1st and he put us on Atlantis Throne Room. I chose one of the sides that have the 2 rows of elevated across from each other and it really hampered his TK lines. I did my usual picking up stuff 1st turn. Without access to sidestep because of Juice, it took him way more steps than necessary to get into position, but he gets Odin TK’d into the Killoseum and shoots out to the Seth Kong, putting it on Stop. I get the other Kongs over and into the Killoseum and to try and get some damage off. I can’t remember what I did or didn’t hit and what the outcome was, but I don’t think it was impactful. He takes out the Gaea Kong between Odin and Cap. I’m now close enough that I get a big quake off and take out all the support, put Cap to his first stop (and knock him back to put him past it) and heal the Seth Kong with the herb. Between Odin and Cap, he takes out the Khonshu Kong. I’m able to finish off Cap with the now healed Seth Kong and start sidestepping Juice up for the prob and attacks. He multi targets, shooting to the back to take out Fenix. The rest of the game is Odin vs Seth Kong and Juice. I keep positioning so Juice is behind Seth and moving away so he’s not adjacent to heal and he has to make the choice to either get an attack in or come next to me for the heal. Eventually, with enough attacks, I’m finally able to take him out. He said I was the only person all day to actually finish him off. 300-140 3-1
This puts me in 2nd seed going into top cut. We break for dinner and head over to the mall so everyone could choose what they wanted with lots of variety. I chose Chinese and got noodles, chicken and veggies. We had some fun conversations over dinner with someone saying how much they love building and being a mastermind at coming up with combinations. I mentioned that I’m a better pilot than builder, especially with practice, and my biggest strength is being able to pivot and figure out a new line the next time I face something I lost to, to try something different (foreshadowing!).
Top 8 I’m paired with Aarron playing Diana with hellcycle, starter Thor with destroyer armor, Zala Jor El with bucky’s arm, Etrigan with longsword, team-up Captain America with mjolnir, Quicksilver with wrecking ball, Per Degaton and Copycat. He went 1st and I put us on The Tangle. I do my usual turn. He comes over with Zala, hits a Kong to Stop. He brings over Thor to pulsewave and I remind him that it won’t KO the Kong on Stop because Stop is protected pulsewave so I’ll be able to use the imperv and reduce by 2. I think I take out Zala and hit Thor off the top clicks. He moves up Per Degaton with Copycat I think and comes over with Diana to get Etrigan over, who he has Ares bomb but misses his attack. I take out Etrigan and I think also Deg and Copycat. I also went to attack Diana and Thor with a 2nd attack from Kong and took them out, but then realized I couldn’t have done that because I no longer had fewer figures and couldn’t double act with Kong, so we wound it back and brought them back and I instead try a mind control with Juice that was unsuccessful. He attacks with Diana and moves up Quicksilver. I take out Diana and I think Thor. He moves up Cap and makes an attack with Quicksilver, again not impactful. I take out Quicksilver. He pulsewaves with Cap and misses. I take him out to finish off the game. His dice really failed him this game. 300-0
Top 4 is with Lyonel who played Betelgeuse with motorcycle, Morlun with destroyer armor, Miles Morales, Per Degaton, White Rabbit Goon and 2 Swarm of Ants. He went 1st and I put us on Tangle. He TK’s the banana pile back to the team and does his support to get out a pog. I move forward to grab my items. He TK’s Morlun up, he charges on Kong – I think there was a Swarm of Ants out there for the empower on these attacks, supports the pog so he can pop out the flurry pog by me and takes out a Kong. I know I need to take out the support so I move to the back and then quake to get rid of the banana pile, a Swarm of Ants, a pog and the White Rabbit Goon, which he rolls to revive and comes back out. White Rabbit Goon heals Morlun for another pog and I think he misses some of these attacks. I think I take out Per Degaton, the other Swarm of Ants, the White Rabbit Goon (who doesn’t come back this time) and Miles here, and he gets Spider-Man in for him. Between Morlun, a pog and his Juice, he takes out another Kong and Fenix. I take out Juice with Kong. My last Kong (Khonshu) and my Juice works their way through the Spider-Man and and finally Morlun to win. Looking at the score, I must have used Fortify at some point but I can’t remember when. 300-125
Top 2 is a rematch with Bens 200pt Kong. This game is streamed if you want to catch it, which also means I can write out this match with much more detail! Going into this game, I thought I had such a small chance of winning with how easily he took me out in Swiss. When we roll for initiative, I win the roll and choose to go 1st. He puts us on Atlantis. I know I need to do things drastically different than the first time we played, so I took my first turn to move Seth to the elevated to pick that up and this time, when moving Khonshu and Gaea through him, instead of going back, I moved them as far up as they could reach to really put pressure on him. I could tell that Ben was having trouble deciding between his usual first turn of KOing his Symbiote and getting the bike or choosing to instead attack me. He chose to attack. I had the Gaea one closest to him because of the highest defense and he misses the 1st attack. He hits the 2nd attack and I decide to Fortify it. He moves the Symbiote up on to the elevated terrain. Beginning of my turn I get to Gaea heal and go back to top. I attack with Gaea/Chthon Kong and successfully hit, then charge with Khonshu and also successfully hit, actually getting him down 5 clicks between the 2 attacks. I move up Seth so he’s in there close enough and ready to go next turn. He quakes to both attack and deal the fall damage to Symbiote and place Twisted Metal, but there wasn’t a great place for him to put it to be optimal for hurting the Symbiote and after my prob, misses the attack on my Kongs. He charges to be able to place the symbiote next to the Twisted Metal with the move, but because of Juice he can’t quake, so he attacks Gaea and puts it to Stop. For his last action he needs to decide between shooting out the Twisted Metal with Spider-Ham or charging in on stop click Gaea to try and take it out and he chose to go in for the attack and I get a successful shape change with both Gaea and Khonshu so he has to target Seth and misses. My next turn either misses all attacks or he successfully rolls out. He takes this next turn to destroy the Twisted Metal to KO the Symbiote and equip the bike to put him on senses for the extra roll-out then charges with Spider-Ham to grab the herb and ends next to his Kong for the heal, but isn’t able to make the attack on my Kong as there were no stairs where he was and he was up an elevation. I hit him back to stop click with the 1st attack but he rolls out of the next 2 attacks. This turn he double fails the willpower rolls and does his Assist From Another World to bring in the sideline Kong but he misses the 1st attack and hits with the 2nd on Khonshu Kong. I only get 2 of my 3 willpowers so I won’t have enough attacks to take him out if I can successfully hit. So I sidestep up Juice to mind control Spider-Ham, forgetting he’s got the trait that I can’t shoot him. Spider-Ham misses an attack on Seth, his Kong double attacks and misses both. I only get 1 successful hit on my turn as he rolls out of the other 2 Kongs attacks, but I have Juice close enough to sidestep in to hit him to the last Stop. He somehow misses both willpower rolls again on Kong so just needs to clear and heal from the herb. I get him back to stop with the 1st attack, he rolls out the 2nd attack and I take out Kong with the 3rd attack. He just clears Spider-Ham. I have enough attacks to get through the rollouts and take out Ham to win 300-5
I want to thank the western Canada community for being so friendly and welcoming. It was great to meet you all and put faces to names that we only see on social media. The store Showcase Comics and Hobbies was big and clean with lots of space and the staff were kind, even helping hook me up with a couple pre-release Digimon packs for my son for his birthday! Thank you to Matt for judging, taking the pics that I put in the blog here and going over recent rulings so everyone was on the same page. I don’t know that people are remembering that face up One Shots don’t get scored, even if you wipe the team – I’d forgotten about that one! Jay at Tokened Up did fantastic coverage with commentary – you should definitely check it out!
Now to decide what to play the next 2 weekends – Ontario CCO this coming weekend and Canadian Nats the following weekend! Do I stick with this team again? Switch it up for something else? I’m sort of feeling Colossus or Killoseum Cap or SOVRH… although the triple Kongs were really fun. Decisions! What do you think I should do? Comment below! And remember to subscribe if you want to get an email when I put a new blog post out!
Until next time, xoxo