Super Sunday Series Championships 2014

I was fortunate enough to qualify for and participate in the first-ever Super Sunday Series Championships at the Wizards of the Coast headquarters in Renton, WA. For this first one, 39 total players from 20 different countries came. I think there were all of 9 or 10 players from the US, including myself. With flight, hotel, and meals all paid for by the tournament organizer and the chance to meet Magic R&D and other Wizards employees and well as a tour of the Wizards of the Coast offices, it was a sweet deal. The two restaurants that we ate at Saturday night and Sunday night even printed up custom menus for us.

I started the tournament drafting a not stellar U/G draft deck (and lost to the Boon Satyr + Courser of Kruphix U/G deck in round 3) and played R/G Monsters for the Standard portion due to my inability to carve off any time for testing due to work. While the tournament itself didn't go so well for me (finishing 3-6 and 37th place out of 39), the trip was a blast and I would participate again if given the opportunity. Some highlights from the weekend:

• Meeting a bunch of Germans who got a kick out of my name, since I'm not German and also not from China
• Playing against opponents from 8 different countries for the 9 rounds of the tournament (Czech Republic, USA, Japan, Germany, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Spain)
• Doing infinite free booster drafts during downtime, even at the restaurants after eating dinner
• Hearing about how insanely expensive Magic is overseas and feeling fortunate that I play this game in the US. For example, in Australia a $6 card that you can buy in the US will sell for $30.
• Learning that kangaroos are actually disliked in Australia, but dingoes and koalas are ok
• Listening to the Germans trolling each other
• Drafting with Marshall Sutcliffe, Randy Buehler and other WotC employees and asking Helene Bergeot to draft with us, but alas she said she doesn't know how to play Magic :(
• Lots of free food and drinks over the weekend
• Seeing 2 inches of snowfall in Seattle on Saturday night and watching all the locals freak out because apparently it never snows in Seattle and therefore they don't know how to drive in snow. Also, a handful of people who came from warm climates (South America, Australia, etc.) had never seen snow in their lives before so it was very enlightening to them.