Frank Lamantia

I get there at 10:30 my time or 9:30 their time and I find Russell Hockenberry, he needs to let me borrow some cards. He tells me about the kind of night he had, boy do I feel sorry for him. See, Russell is a cop and he had the night shift on Friday. He tells me horror stories of dragging drunk people weighing 300 pounds into the back of his squad car. *shudder* He hasnt had any sleep at all for 2 days and hes gonna play in the regional. I wish him luck and he does the same, so we gather where the tournament is gonna be held and we catch up with 2 Cincinattians that I know. I finish borrowing cards, turn in my deck lists, then wander around saying hi to everyone I knew.

BTW, I have never played and playtested my decks before, nor played against them. So it'll be interesting how I end up.

Then Alex pairs me up with Michael Harris
Game 1 vs Michael Harris
I think he was a friend of Alex. I get my stuff up and going, Drazin and Vader are at the Security Tower kicking rear. Im playing Monnok everyturn and retrieving it with Drazin, then doing it every turn. I Sense any interupts he plays, Alter any effects, and when he "spreads out" with Obi, Luke, Han and Figgy at a site, I Elis over, Circle Obi, Disarm and Operate on Luke, You Are Beaten Han, and HELLO FIGGY! I hit Figgy up for 17 damage and it was over.
2 +(36)

Game 2 vs Joe Alread
hmmm, I heard rumors about Joe being a real butt head in games and stuff, but he demonstrated himself to be a gentleman by shaking my hand and wishingme good luck before the game and we go at it. He starts Imperial Arrest Order and the Death Star. Me my normal Careful Planning + Tosche Station deal. I don't draw any of my 5 Obi's in my opening 8, so I draw and get one. He draws. I lay down Obi and move him over, expecting no competition from him. He deploys 2 little ability 2 Imps and says my turn. I battle them off and pick up some. He lays down some more. Battle those guys off, pick up some. He finally just saves up for a turn and says my turn. hmmmm, I activate 9 or so, Grimtaash him, dont get anything and draw. I get my stuff for Harvest in the 3 that I drew, so Im a happy camper. He moves over to Obis hut with Darth Vader and Tarkin, so I drop Harc. HA! I get my Harvest set up, so he deploys 3 walkers to Lar's Moisture Farm. uh-oh. He doesnt battle for some reason, so next turn I get my butt out of there. He deploys U-3P0 to block my drain. Hes beating me. I cant get Harvest back online when hes got that fire power there, even with Gift of the Mentor and Harvest. I try my best to beat him, but he just out battles me in the end. He has little but killer drains of 1 at Coruscant and 2 at Kashyyyk. I try to fight them off, to no avail. Basically theres exactly 60 seconds left, I have no cards in hand and 8 in my life force, next turn he's gonna win and it depends if I stall or not whether he gets the 2 victory points. Since I'm not that type of player I draw my remaining force and he wins by 17.
2 +(19)

Next game vs Josh Jacob
Now normally I am a very nice guy during my games. I don't like to verify or stall or ask a lot of questions and require that you do stuff in the right order all the time and most of the time Ill let someone take back actions. Its just the way I play, we all make mistakes, and if Im truely better than they are I can beat them anyway.
Anyways, he starts Dantooine Base Ops and Goo Nee Tay, me with Imperial Arrest Order. I got beat by a Dantooine base deck at Origins so Im not gonna make the same mistake twice and under estimate this guy. I get my Drazin going and he flips his Dantooine objective with Nudjs at every site to prevent beatdown. I attempt to Monnok him lost and put my Monnok in the lost pile, after using 2 I take back my last action but he says I can't since its already in my lost pile. I say whatever and still do it. Later he calls Alex over and Alex gives me a bum ruling on depositing guys in the prison, and he says I can only do it once per turn. He also starts tossing out systems, so I Monnok and get literally 8 Squadrons. He tries to get things going but Im retrieving my ships with Drazin. He deploys EPP Han, EPP Leia and Chewie to my Audience Chamber, then asks if he can take it back and deploy them to my Security Tower. Lemme thinkno. It was about the easiest decision I made all day. But he takes back Leia (it was the last EPP he put out) and deploys it to the Carb Chamber. About this time Alex wanders over and tells me that he did infact make a bum ruling and says Drazin can do prisoner transfer as many times a turn. Next turn Bane comes down and takes her out. Im draining in space for 5 or 6, to his 3 hes got no chance to win. Drain and win by 25.
4 (+44) Lunch break, catch some McDonalds, talk to Brian Fred a bit and walk back to find out I got 30 minutes to waste. So I found some Cinci guys and talked with them, it looks like they are out of the running for a paper weight. I walk around some more and find my room, get a Dr Pepper and wander back. 10 minutes left in the lunch break so I bother Alex Alcade a bit. Anyways, on to game 4.

Game 4 vs Joe Lake (Squadron Member)
Some how Joe knows what Im playing for both sides. Whats this about? Oh well, I tense up when I see his Imperial Occupation, but it turns out to be on Yavin 4. I set up Tosche Station w/Obi and get the Lar's farm out, and start tossing out the cool aliens. Like 4th turn Vader and Tarkin visit Obi n company. Clash Vader, and after a small SAC war, I beat on Tarkin for 10. Drain a bit, retrieve with Harvest, and I get some drains off on Yavin 4 system. He deploys Vader and Tarkin again, Clash Vader (again) and beat Tarkin for 20 damage. In about 6 turns hes lost half his deck. I won and he knows it. He tries to put up a fight, but he just cant hold up. In the end he deploys Executor and Bossk in Bus against my Gold Leader in Gold 1, Spiral and Tantive. I lost both unique vettes and next turn drop Gold Leader down to his own Swamp for a 2 drain (PotF was there). Win by 42.
6 +(86)

Game 5 vs Jared Lockwood
Well Jared was at Worlds last year I think so I dont expect to win this one. He starts Dagobah/MWYHL and Wise Advice, me Imp Arrest Order. I get Drazin rolling, Monnok him every turn and retrieve it. He deploys Obi at the AC which goes uncontested all game. Then he puts out Hiding in the Garbage and Electrobinocs on Leia and shuffles through his deck in a few turns? What is this? Then he uses Orrimaarko and Obi for stuff like Off The Edge and On The Edge using Electrobinocs. What the!!?? I Sense and Alter a ton of cards, but they all go to the Used. He retrieves and I get shafted looking for my Disarmed like 3 times in a row. Oh well, I dont remember much about this game, but his drains were too much and I just couldnt get things going.
Also during this game I tried to You Are Beaten my own Drazin (to keep him from getting killed and Alex rules that since I YAB'd him, I can't use him for Special Delivery. dhoa. That sucks. Lose by 24.
6+(62)

Game 6 vs Andy Chen (Who, ironically, was in the hotel room right next to me)
Andy looks like a cool guy so we flip over our stuff, hes playing ISB, so I start Battle Plan instead of Tosche. Mistake. We both get site screwed but I finally draw Tosche Station and get things rolling. I dont remember much about this game, because all I was thinking was "If I lose this game Ill be pissed, but if I win Im guaranteed some crystal". I can hardly concentrate on the game. I set up my Harvest stuff and he tries to battle me off with Vader + Blizzard 2 and some ORS to no avail. We are almost deadlocked he makes a mistake. He deploys 2 ORS at the Audience Chamber. I Harvest one last time, drop Draw Their Fire, Beggar, Nabrun over, Clash an ORS and beat the lone one for 15 damage. He has 12 left to my 35 or so (including cards in hand) so its pretty safe to say I won. I deploy to Kiffex to get in some more drains and the rest of the game is him moving towards me and me draining for 5. Win by 24.
8 +(86)

Well good. I got myself some crystal (6th) and walked around other games. I get extremely nice packs, Chewie of Kash, GMTarkin and Luke Skywalker. I go talk to some people and find out its Joe Mornout and Chad McCory in the finals. I get my pic taken a few times and go watch the finals. First game was Chad playing light vs Joe's dark. Joe was playing his Drazin Manipulator and Chad HBX. I didnt really watch the game because both decks IMO are boring decks to watch, but from what I hear, Chad won by 16.

Second game is Joe's LS Hidden Base/Dagobah/Mains Beatdown thing vs Chads IAO beatdown. Lots of drawing this game. Joe's deck is very weird from what I saw. Descent in the Dark with destiny recyclers and lots of destiny adders. He never flipped HB, instead pulled Dagobah and got alot of sites out. Chad deploys like 3 star destroyers with some pilots at his Death Star along with Presence of the Force. Joe cancels Presence with Clash of Sabers like 3 seconds later. Then Joe deploys Tantive 4, EPP Luke, EPP Leia, EPP Han. Battles, plays I Have A Very Bad Feeling About This (Han version that tripples battle damage), Skywalkers and Dont Get Cocky. Joe drew a ton of good destinies. I think 3 5's 1 6 a 4 and some other junk. 27 total. Chad had like 30 battle damage and lost everything from the location to cover it. Joe lost EPP Luke. Then Chad puts out Come Here You Big Coward next turn (so much for that 3 drain) and stocks up at an Endor site. EPP Obi comes down and he gets Barriered. The way I see it, the games over now. Joe has 24 force left and is getting drained lots. Obi's gonna get whipped next turn and Joe has no drain at all. Joe gives up and Chad won by 21.

So 15 year old Chad McCory of Indianapolis Indiana will be going to Worlds.
Good luck to him!
I'm pretty happy with 6th considering I lost to Joe Alread and Jared Lockwood (Two past Worlds qualifiers).