~Ed. Note: Before I even had a chance to get my hands on the game, I purchased a ticket to play in the 1st annual Smash Up tournament at GenCon 2012. I didn't have any impression that I'd win, but I thought it would be a good way to socialize with other players and to get the G&G name out there. That was the plan at least. The reality is that I spent the day prior playing games in Hall E and the JW Marriott until about 4am. That being the case, I chose sleep over the tournament (I know, I know, start flaming...). Luckily, Jason Slingerland of the awesome Building The Game podcast is far more awesome than me. He sacrificed sleep to brave the perils of the tournament to smash some bases, revive some zombies, summon 8 robots a turn, and make a spectacular run. Oh, and he wants Sharks to be a Smash Up faction too.
The Super Awesome Smash Up World Championship
A guest post by Jason Slingerland
The first annual Smash Up tournament consisted of 21 players and a fairly level playing field. Smash Up had been released only days before and most of us, being at Gencon, didn’t spend a lot of time to “practice” beforehand. The player base appeared to be made up of everything from people just looking to have some fun all the way up to pro Magic players. I myself fall somewhere in between, having played in several strategy game world championships previously but not in the last few years.
In the first round I was paired at a table of 3 players, with only the winner moving on. Luckily, I was able to get my top choices for factions: Wizards+Zombies. The combination is very powerful together because Wizards allow you to take a lot of actions, including playing many minions, and Zombies allow you to play extra minions from your graveyard. This was definitely my easiest round, with me winning by several points. I attribute this mostly to my faction combo, which I’d happened to use before the tournament.
From the moment I sat down at my second round table, I was nervous. All of the other players seemed to know the game better than I did. I was able to get Wizards again and then Dinosaurs. I wasn’t really happy with the choice, but it was the best option I had. This round was really rough, with me being in 4th place for quite a bit of it. One of the players had Trickster Zombies. Fortunately, he really wasn’t sure how to use either, as he had never played with them before. Had this not been the case, I'm confident I would not have won. The biggest takeaway for me this round was Tricksters are annoying, and in the hands of someone who knows how to really use them, they can be devastating [ed. note: Tricksters are my favorite faction}. I was able to pull out some awesome Wizard moves in the end and leap ahead, winning by several points in just one turn. Go Wizards!
The final round consisted of 3 players who definitely understood the game better than me. The first guy took Zombies, which makes sense because they are incredibly powerful. I then drew Wizards, the next guy took Aliens and Robots. I was worried that if I didn’t pick up Tricksters, the last guy would and that combo with Zombies would be lethal. So begrudgingly, I took them. The round progressed quickly, with nearly a 3-way tie all the way to the end. In the end, I made a bad move, and the Aliens+Robots guy was able to get to 14. On the next turn he played Invader, an Alien that grants 1VP, and it was game over. I came in 2nd with 13, and the 3rd place guy had 11. All in all it was a great and enjoyable tournament.
Though fun, I was a little disappointed in way AEG handled prizes for the tournament: No trophies or anything fancy, but 1st place got a $50 gift certificate to the AEG booth. That's fantastic, but 2nd and 3rd got nothing. It may seem to give off a sense of entitlement, but when you advertise The Super Awesome Smash Up World Championship, people kind of expect a little more than just a prize for 1st. I wouldn’t let that overshadow the great time but… It certainly did detract a little bit from the otherwise positive experience.
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