Nick's Las Vegas Open Recap

Wow, what a great weekend.  A HUGE thank you goes out to Reece, Frankie and the DOZENS of volunteers who made the LVO so awesome.  As a community we appreciate your hard work and are happy for the success of the event.  I can't wait until next year.

This was my first event that had over 100 participants.  Previously I had been to the Throne of Skulls in Vegas which had just under 100 if I remember correctly.  I had five great games over the course of the weekend.  Going into the last round I found myself on Table 9 - giving myself a shot at the top 8 if I scored high enough (and the competition scored low enough).   I came up just short in the last game, giving me a very average (for Eldar) 3-2 record.  This ranked me 45th Overall, 29th in Battle Points and tied for 31st in Painting (did I mention how much I love Torrent of Fires stat tracking system?).

Over the course of the weekend I got to play against the top painted army in the event (Israel Sanchez's Tau), Will Hearrell's Skittles themed Dark Eldar army (he even gave me a bag of Skittles), Obadiah Hampton's awesomely painted and converted Sisters of Battle (winner of Best Sisters of Battle), Nick Rose's Eldar (which made it to the semi-finals day 3), and Grover Shipman's old school Battlewagon Ork list.  Five great games.  If any of my opponents read this, feel free to comment!

Thursday

Chris C and I made the drive out to Vegas from Laguna Beach, CA.  We left at about 2:30 in the afternoon and arrived in Vegas at 7:00 that night.  We drove through a downpour in the desert - which was unusual for a drive out to Vegas.  We brought plenty of snacks, waters and soda to keep us from being famished between rounds and limit the amount of money we had to spend on pricey Vegas food and drink.  We registered Thursday night with no wait and awaited the arrival of our Bay Area and South Carolinian friends.

Friday

We got to sleep in!  No rush to get ready in the morning since the first round didn't start until noon.  I was still pretty tired so I ordered a large Red Eye (large coffee + espresso shot) from the coffee on the casino floor.  I promptly lost $20 playing craps and figured my dice rolling could only get better from here.  Adam, Pete and Chris G all registered Friday morning without delay and they had time to hit the breakfast buffet.

Torrent of Fire made things so much easier.  I got to find out my table number on my smart phone and didn't have to crowd around the projector.  I could also see how my friends were doing in real time.  I did notice a few glitches; like when Chris C's record was listed as 0-2-1 when it had been recorded as 2-1.  One of the top 8 players was also listed at 3-1 and therefore played another 3-1 player before his record was corrected to be 4-0.  He won his last game against the 3-1 player and made it into the top 8.  Not sure how these errors occurred, but that's the nature of the beast.  Big props to Chip for coming out for this event and helping run the ToF side of it.

I got to watch Beerhammer on Friday night - man was that entertaining.  There were a few moments when you come to realize; wow, this is what happens when Warhammer players drink 4 (or more) drinks over the course of a game.  I'm surprised that so many people stayed around for the second game!  I would have been done for after the first.

Saturday

Only having to play 2 games on Saturday made this a very relaxed atmosphere.  I kind of wish Beerhammer occurred on Saturday so people weren't as tired.  The Best Of Awards were great, as was the prize support.  There was open gaming on Saturday night, which was nice since I hadn't seen Chris G. play in a couple of years.

Sunday

I thought about joining the doubles event, but opted to get a head start on driving home.  We went to the Brunch Buffet in Paris (the hotel, duh) and got to talk about our weekend, misadventures, and epic (or not so epic) moments.  I also ate about a half dozen creme brulee's.  We then went back to the hall to watch the tail end of some of the first round games, Chris C picked up a Mega Mat and we started the drive home.