It’s taken me a while to write on this, but here we go. You can get all the meta news and who won elsewhere.

Tracy Brock

 

DAY ONE:

TRACY BROCK MEMORIAL EVENT

Tourney organizers came up with a wild sealed event.

Tracy Brock Memorial Team Sealed 2023

I was supposed to be on a team with ROC founder Howard Brock (Tracy was his wife) and Scott Porter himself. But our communications got screwed and I thought Howard had gotten Scott to take my slot in the team, not that I was the 2nd and Scott was the third member! I had already joined another team in the meantime.

Howard says, “You owe me a team-up!” Yes sir, that I do! But I feel like I would’ve dragged his team down this night, because I did not do well.

As one of the longest-term players of our team I took the old-school stuff:

  • Experienced Shadowcat (X-Plosion 035)
  • Experienced Iceman (X-Plosion 038)
  • Veteran Clayface (CD 039)
  • Spider-Man (TabApp M-008)
  • Calendar Man

Went 1-2. In Round 1, I completely overlooked Calendar Man’s Prob and that likely cost me the first game. I gave up the third round to Jay Major — our first time playing each other! — on a bad last-minute fielder’s choice of a move.

 

DAY TWO:

SCOTT PORTER VS THE WAREHOUSE

So it was supposed to start 11 a.m. but WizKids be WizKidsing and the product was late. Hung out with former ROC head judge and fast friend Jay Solomon and Emily “Queen of the North” Michele and our new friend Steven, with whom I did a sealed battle royal while waiting for the FedEx truck. I finished dead last place because somehow with three Leadership pieces on my team I only rolled it successfully once all game. (Had like 13 rally dice on Hobgoblin, though. Didn’t use any of them.)

Finally the Avengers60 boosters came. And I was one of the few people who did not mulligan my team, since I pulled SRs in both packs. My team:

Sealed 60th

But … I went just 1-4 in the Swiss rounds following. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

DAY THREE:

SILVER AGE

I fielded a new version of the Juneteenth team from 2021:

Silver Team Worlds

XOS Bishop @ 80 with SVAC Pumpkin Bombs 5

  • Dr. Claire Finn 25
  • Duke Thomas 35
  • Maggott 40
  • Micron 50
  • Teen Lantern @ 30 with Green Lantern Ring 0
  • Tempo 35

= 300 points.

  • Sideline: Black Manta, Black Vulcan, Sentinel, Skull Spy

Went 1-3. Barely lost the first round vs. prime Vision and Mud Man (maybe forgot my sideline TroubAlert), made an unfortunate fielder’s choice against an Agatha/Scarlet Witch team that was also very close to a victory, got a solid win vs. Otherworld Jubilee (opponent waited to transform her, so I closed in and kept her Outwitted while avoiding/healing from GP Apocalypse attacks and KOing his support) but was thoroughly trounced by Hulk and Mad Jim Jaspers shenanigans in the final round.

 

DAY FOUR:

SILVER WORLDS!

After the staggering lack of success this weekend, I questioned if I even wanted to play the final event. But I got talked into it.

There’s a degenerate Mission Point team in Silver Age involving LE Titano, legacy Leech, Miss Minutes and like 10 Ayos. I will never play such a team. But it was a starting place for a Mission-driven squad:

  • Titano (wkD17-G001p)
  • legacy Leech
  • Miss Minutes
  • Ayo (ABPI 021) @ 20 points x2
  • Indigo-1 (BTU ) 60
  • Red X
  • Kingpin (SMBA 037b) @ 35 points
  • Superman (JLU 018) @ 10 points

My goal, aside from winning, was to break my previous record of Mission Points scored: 13.

Went 0-5. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But I scored 18 MPs in the last round, and with literally 20 more seconds of time, I would have won the game outright.

——

The weekend wasn’t complete failure. I played a few Battle Royals and won a few, winning Scott pogs — both Porter and Cramton — and other prizes.

Oh, and of course I got to meet Scott Porter, who really is a friendly, regular kinda fella. Who’s nerdy enough to play HeroClix.

Rurouni and Scott Porter

“Hey, I have that shirt!” he said, pointing to my Final Fantasy VII-inspired garb, before going into a short speech about who’s the most important character in FF7.

MEGA-NERD.