So today was my last day in Catthorpe before heading back to Leeds. Yay, Leeds.
I'll be back in about a week and a half, but I'll enjoy seeing all my Leeds friends again, it's amazing how much I've missed hanging round with them, not that it wasn't nice seeing all my old friends again from home of course. I can also getting back into football training too. I'm enjoying life at the moment (even if I am single, which to be honest I don't really mind) and things are good. I'm on a crest of a wave...sort of...
Last night was Jani, a Latvian festival celebrating the Spring Equinox (or whatever they call it). I had a fantastic time with my friends, and it was good to spend some proper time with them, as well as beating Murgy 4-1 on Pro Evolution Soccer whilst absolutely hammered (Murgy also beat Ansis 10-1, which is why Ansis should never take me on in a game of PES, it's only going to end in tears).
Went to see my granddad today back at his house. I hadn't been there since my gran's funeral, which is now just under 3 years ago. To be absolutely honest it was quite difficult for me, especially after last night's antics, I could barely stay awake! But seriously, it was to see him again and to spend time with the family.
Whilst there I watched a programme called Geisha Girl on BBC iPlayer. It was a program about a girl who moved from northern Japan to Kyoto to train to become a Maiko, a trainee geisha. It was a fascinating documentary, and I certainly wouldn't want to do it, so I applaud these girls for managing to stay sane in the face of their incredibly hectic schedules! If you want to watch this programme in full, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0074s37/Geisha_Girl/
One more thing, congrats to Jenson Button for his F1 GP win in Melbourne, but two things bug me:
The head of BMW claimed that Kubica would have won the race if Vettel hadn't crashed into him (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/7970668.stm), so here's Heathy's Top Tip. Watch the race, BMW. Button was ahead for the first 55 laps, I doubt Kubica would have caught up in the final 3 seeing as he was locked in a second/third place battle with Vettel at the time of the crash. I'm not saying Kubica isn't a good driver, because he is, but Button absolutely dominated that race from start to finish.
Everyone knows that the new rules were supposed to encourage overtaking, yet there were 3 separate incidents of people crashing because of overtaking. Two of them came down to (in my opinion) reckless driving first by Barichello, then by Vettel. Overtaking is all well and good, but can't they do it without making stupid, unnecessary risks like those displayed. Another Top Tip for Red Bull, if you're driver has no nose cone, I highly suggest against telling your driver to keep on going, that's just plain stupid.
Ok, rant over, back in Leeds on Tuesday, see you then.
I've finally got off my arse and had a haircut. Happy days!
I'm sure you'll all see it in it's infinite (-ly small) glory when I return to Leeds on Tuesday. Whilst we're on that subject, a 6 a.m. bus home? Urgh...
Magic the Gathering is a world-famous collectable card game (it was the precursor to Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! and all subsequent TCG/CCGs), and at the moment it is my number one hobby. In my opinion it is the perfect mix of skill, strategy and yes, at times a little bit of luck.
I started playing in October 2007 after having played Yu-Gi-Oh for two years, deciding that it relied too much on making money and not making the game interesting. It wasn't suprising to see Top 8s of tournaments feature 8 of the same deck. So I decided to give MtG a go, persuaded by the guy who was running it then, Wei Rao. I started off just going to the weekly tournaments, called FNMs (Friday Night Magic, even though we played on Wednesdays...go figure...). Anyways in May 2008 I went to my first major tournament, GP Birmingham (GP stands for Grand Prix, in case you were wondering). I failed spectacularly, and my confidence took a huge knock, even though I did well in a side event later. That didn't matter though, it still hurt.
I then went to GP Madrid two months later, partly for the holiday, but also to get the experience of playing in major tournaments. I did even worse. The next day there was a chance to receive 3 byes (3 automatic wins) for the next GP, which would have been near my birthday, in Copenhagen. I had built a solid deck and though I would do well. After only winning one of my five games I dropped out.
Things carried on like this for some time, my ratings were extremely poor (you start with a rating of 1600, I was on 1540 at the time) and by December 2008 I had enough. The Championships at Manchester would be my final event.
I honestly wasn't enjoying myself, I couldn't concentrate and I just couldn't play well to save my life.
So I was quite shocked to win my first three matches, and even though I only won one of my next three, I made the Top 8 (out of 34). I remember being extremely nervous and I played quite a few misplays in the quarter-finals (the Top 8 play-off is single elimination), but that didn't matter, because at the end of the day I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
I haven't made a Top 8 play-off since but I've come close (11th out of 40 and 10th out of 54) but that day got me playing again, and since then my rating has vastly risen, from 1515 in August 2008 to 1754 now, March 2009, and seeing as the pros are in the 2000s and the better players are at 1800s, that's not too bad.
So here's to more good times with the Team Leeds Magic guys and more improvement and fun in the future!
This is what I like to call the awkward second article, after the smash hit success of my first article (1 comment and rising, people!) I decided to talk about the upcoming Nationals Qualifying season.
In order to explain why I’m writing this article, my aim for 2009 is to make the Nationals, through qualifying or (by some major miracle) ranking. I must explain that when I made this vow 6 months ago my rating was not one you really wanted (1515 composite, stop sniggering at the back there).
Fast forward to now and it’s a very different story (1754 total rating),but the same can be said for a lot of people as well. This season Team Leeds has had a player on the Pro Tour, two players making Day 2 at GPs and Top 8s at three different 2008 Champs, and I’m sure that these won’t become unique events. My point is that Team Leeds is getting stronger and stronger, and if things go our way and we play the way I know we can, I reckon we’ll have at least six, yes SIX players at a National Championships. Rewind back to last year when we only had two representatives (Andy Edwards and Robbie Aluzas), and it would be a massive improvement if many more of us get to Brighton, which I’m sure we will.
Anyways, the format for the majority of the qualifiers is Standard, and I’ve been spending this past week building decks and fitting revision around it, okay screw the revision, it’s mainly been spent deck building! But when you leave me on my own for a very long time, well I tend to go a bit crazy, and this is what happened when I let my imagination go completely out of control...
Deck List
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Chandra Nalaar
3 Ajani Vengeant
2 Liliana Vess
2 Jace Beleren
4 Path to Exile
4 Cryptic Command
3 Broken Ambitions
2 Remove Soul
1 Negate
4 Volcanic Fallout
2 Wrath of God
2 Infest
4 Vivid Creek
3 Vivid Meadow
2 Vivid Marsh
1 Vivid Crag
4 Reflecting Pool
1 Exotic Orchard
4 Rupture Spire
1 Plains
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
I don’t know whether to run this or my new Ziggurat.dec (yes that’s what the archetype of the deck is called!). Let me know your thoughts as well as what you would put in this sideboard!
Later, peoples!
Heathy
Please visit the Team Leeds Magic blog run by Jim Marlow at teamleedsmagic.blogspot.com
I've finally decided to start doing a blog, mainly because I often get bored and often have nothing better to do, so I'll often come on here and just ramble...not that anyone's listening. I suppose this blog's not supposed to be viewed by anyone, and if you stumble across it accidentally, well...um...hi. More posts will come onto here as I can be bothered to write stuff down.
