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.

2014 - 8% Update

I just returned from a short trip to China and thought I'd put down in words what I remember from the trip before my memory washes away completely into the sands of time.

Before I get to the details of the trip, an quick update on books I've read so far in 2014:

• The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman: I read this book from start to finish during one gloomy Sunday while my right index finger was healing from a fresh flesh wound inflicted by a vegetable grater. In traditional Neil Gaiman style, the story begins in a very believable world that we're all familiar with, but then suddenly things take a very imaginative turn and mythical things start happening. In this book, a middle-aged man takes a trip to his childhood home and wanders to a lake at the end of the street where memories of his childhood come flooding back. A short novel, it was good but not quite as good as other books I've read by Neil Gaiman, such American Gods and Neverwhere.
• Replay, by Ken Grimwood: Suggested by a former coworker who read it for her book club and thought I'd enjoy it, I read this book in its entirety during the 14-hour flight from Chicago to Beijing. In this time-travel story, a man dies at age 43 in 1988 and comes back to life at age 18 in 1963 during his college days repeatedly (as in more than once and at the same time every time in 1988). The various exploits of the main character during these mysterious time-travel episodes were starting to get a little old when interesting things suddenly started happening after a few "replays" of his formidable years. I probably should have slept more during the long flight but I just couldn't stop reading.

"We'll soar together." - Ken Grimwood, Replay

Now onto the China trip with my mom and my brother. The primary reasons for my trip were my cousin's wedding and seeing relatives who I last saw in 2006. I've never attended a wedding before this one, and being a Chinese wedding it's probably a little different than what I anticipate to see here in the US later this year. There's a lot of superstition surrounding Chinese weddings that I was unaware of, and apparently my brother and I played a key part in that. Also, I had the privilege of being the best man at this wedding for my cousin and would be doing so with zero practice/experience/rehearsal under my belt. According to superstition, the best man and maid of honor need to be single, previously unmarried folk.

We arrived in Beijing Saturday evening, with the wedding the next day (Sunday). According to plan, my brother and I slept in my cousin's bed that night, because superstition says that single folk should sleep there the night before the wedding. Small children should also romp around in that bed at some point before the wedding, which happened at some point before we arrived.

We (the groom, my brother, and myself) got up at 6 in the morning on Sunday, got ready and got dressed, and the groom handed me a stack of red packets of money "for later when I may need them." We then departed in a vehicle adorned with flowers and bow-ties to a hotel to "fetch the bride." The bride, bridesmaids, and friends spent the night at this hotel getting ready for the wedding day. (I should probably mention that all along during this journey wedding photographers and videographers were following along.) Upon arrival at the hotel bedroom with the door closed and barricaded by people, the groom had to prove himself worthy of entering by saying (and singing) various things. After we got in (somewhat forcibly), the bride was seated on the bed in full wedding attire except for her shoes - the groom and I had to find her shoes, which were hidden somewhere in the room. I opened the wardrobe door and a girl jumped out at me asking for red packets - I then proceeded to hand her my entire stack of approximately 8 red packets mainly because I had no idea what I was doing, but that turned out ok because inside the wardrobe she was standing on a pillow with one of the two shoes hidden inside the pillowcase. Locating the second shoe in the room required a hint that my cousin received by handing out more red packets to bridesmaids. After exchanging some more red packets between groomsmen, bridesmaids, groom, and bride, we were on our way out of the hotel with a particular folded-up red blanket in our tow, which would play a key part in the next part of the journey.

The wedding procession (which included a white BMW X-1 adorned with flowers and bow-ties in the front, followed by several black Audi A6's) then headed to the groom's parents' home. Inside the home was an empty bed, and the groom needed to carry the bride without her feet ever touching the ground from the vehicle to the bed and let her down onto the red blanket which also needed to be carried there from inside the vehicle and spread onto the bed in quick fashion lest the bride be dropped too early (we were successful). Dumplings were cooked for the groom and bride, and after eating some dumplings and avidly pronouncing them raw ("sheng," which is homonymous with the Chinese word for "give birth") despite them being fully cooked, some photographs were taken, then everyone was on their way in procession across the city in ruthless Sunday morning Beijing traffic to the hotel where the wedding ceremony took place.

Firecrackers happened (as they did throughout the morning every time we reached a destination in the journey), then some waiting around for wedding guests to arrive, then I was briefed for the second or third time by different people on my duties as best man. The wedding ceremony took place in a large dining room of the hotel where guests would be provided with generous lunch food and beverages. During the ceremony, my main duties as best man were keeper of the microphone (handing it to speakers on stage when needed) and keeper of the secret gift that the groom prepared for the bride. There was the entrance of the bride...

...some ceremonial tea-drinking for the bride's and groom's parents...

...some ring-presenting, some words spoken by various guests, a ceremonial wine-pouring into a cascading wine-glass setup...

...and an exchange of secret gifts, then lunch commenced for the guests. The main speaker of the ceremony was fairly entertaining.

Shortly after lunch began, the bride and groom, followed by the maid of honor and best man, go around to each table of guests and have a small drink with each guest as a kind gesture. Some guests may give the couple a red packet during this, because apparently exchanging money is the thing to do in China during special occasions such as these. During these rounds, the best man carries a platter of candy and cigarettes to appease those who may want those, as well as a small jug of alcohol water on the platter to refill the bride's and groom's glasses after doing "cheers" and having a drink with each wedding guest. It's necessary to fill the bride's and groom's glasses with water because there are a lot of wedding guests to drink with and alcohol would either end the ceremony prematurely and/or end poorly. I was fortunate to have the maid of honor doing the refilling of water while I focused on carrying the platter in my jet-lagged haze.

That's about it! May the newlyweds live happily ever after.

The rest of my trip consisted of seeing relatives, eating, sleeping, and visiting the Beijing Olympic Park, including going inside the Bird's Nest and skirting the perimeter of the Water Cube.

Overall, it was a good trip, although somewhat short for me due to various circumstances. The flight from Beijing to San Francisco was pretty packed and a group of high school students on a "study tour" in the US (visiting college campuses) settled down in the seats all around mine. During the flight, I met Echo and Winona (students in the 2 seats next to me who were embarking on their first trip to the US) as well as their teacher (in the seat across the aisle from me who could have been anywhere between 22 and 37 years old if I were to guess). The students struck a conversation with me and were fascinated in my presence as a Cornell alumnus who could speak both English and Mandarin with a Beijing accent. Winona was quiet and shy like myself, but Echo was extremely outgoing and talkative and spoke with me whenever we were both awake during the flight. She was amazed at how straight my teeth were when I smiled and thought it was funny how my talking resembled that of Wang Leehom, who is one of her favorite Chinese music stars. I like to think that this made the flight from PEK -> SFO very short compared to the ORD -> PEK flight, because the flight did feel very short, but maybe that's because I slept for about half the flight.

Farewell 2013

2013 was a pretty good year. We had some variety of team successes in Magic this year, including some PTQ top 8's, several SCG Invitational appearances, a Grand Prix top 8, a Pro Tour appearance, and a Sunday Super Series win. Here's to a good 2014. Happy new year.

I also read/finished 8 books this year:

- American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
- Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman is the man. Great fantasy storytelling.

- The Subtle Knife, by Philip Pullman
- The Amber Spyglass, by Philip Pullman
These are the latter part of His Dark Materials, which I read for the first time in middle school. I decided to read it again and found things that I did not understand back then. They were still solid books.

- Wool, by Hugh Howey
- Shift, by Hugh Howey
- Dust, by Hugh Howey
My brother kept telling me that Wool is the nuts, so I decided to give it a try. After being impressed with Wool I decided to read the rest of the Silo Saga, and it was great. It's a sci-fi trilogy with mind-blowing twists and turns everywhere.

- Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline
Suggested by several people (teammates, coworkers), this one was a blast. Another sci-fi book that was very fun to read. Full of 80's pop culture and geek culture.

Mid-Year Update, 2013 Edition

So far, 2013 can be summarized by "lots of travel and lots of Magic," and I haven't even traveled for work yet.

Travels began in mid-February with a trip to Seattle to hang out with some bros. The trip began on a weekday evening after work with some solo Panda Express at DIA while waiting at the gate.

Once in Seattle, the cuisine...

...and company...

...got infinitely better.

Fast-forward a few months to June and the Denver Comic Con. A few of us went to the Con to play in the Star City Games Invitational Qualifier tournament being held there. For some unknown reason, all of us played in an 80-person FNM (7 rounds with a cut to top 8) the night before to try to win a box of Modern Masters, and after getting home at 2 in the morning all empty-handed we were in line at the Con at 8:30 after a solid breakfast nearby.

There were some horror stories from the previous day of the Con that involved a line wrapping around the convention center a few times and thousands of people getting turned away because of insufficient door staff. Fortunately, none of those shenanigans happened on Saturday, which was when we were there. Playing a 7-round cut to top 8 tournament on 4 hours of sleep is pretty taxing, but I somehow made top 8 nonetheless. The lack of sleep and food caught up quickly 5 rounds into the tournament (the Clif Bar and cafeteria sandwich didn't do a whole lot for me during the day). After losing a 3-game semifinals to barely miss out on qualifying for the Invitational but walking away with $100, we walked to BD's for probably the best Mongolian BBQ I've ever had.

Later in June was the Luscious Nectar Vegas Man-cation. The trip started with a free alcoholic drink on the flight thanks to Southwest Airlines's birthday.

Now, I understand that typically what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but I'll make some exceptions here. The house that we rented for the week was pretty nice.

Costs were kept low by sharing the house between 13 guys. With 13 guys in a house with only 8 beds (plus numerous couches, both indoors and outdoors), we all got by without any problems.

The main reason for our Vegas trip was Grand Prix Las Vegas, which turned out to be the largest Magic tournament ever at 4500 players (the previous tournament attendance record was just shy of 2700). Our team was featured in the tournament coverage here (photo courtesy of Wizards of the Coast event reporting).

At the end of day 1, 4 out of 13 of us (including myself) made day 2 of the GP, which means we got to draft Modern Masters, and it doesn't get much better than that.

With 454 players in day 2 alone (the size of a small overseas Grand Prix!), 3 of the 4 of us scrubbed out of the money rather quickly. However, the "chatty and affable" Steve ran the tables from a 9-0 start on day 1 to a 3-0 draft on day 2, followed by a 13-0 overall record to be the last undefeated player at GP Vegas. A loss and a draw later, we watch Steve draft and play Affinity for the third time in a single day - this time in the top 8 of the largest Magic tournament ever. That was certainly the highlight of the weekend for us.

I must say that Steve was definitely the best-dressed player in the top 8 with his donkey cufflinks. Overall, the details of our Vegas trip could be summed up with a single photo.

Enough about Vegas for now. Summer kickball with coworkers has been in full swing, and we are something like 3-3 so far, which is already miles better than our 1-X record in the fall season. And yes, we get to drink beer while playing kickball.

Two weeks after Grand Prix Las Vegas, a few of us headed out to Kansas City during the long weekend for yet another Grand Prix. Aside from Magic, we consumed lots of delicious barbecue.

Josh was the only one out of the three of us to make day 2, so on Sunday I decided to play some Dragon's Maze sealed in the Super Sunday Series. After winning 12 games in a row, I took a match loss in round 7, then drew into top 4, where we combined with the top 4 of the Standard tournament for a top 8 draft. I fell into the P1P1 Mirko Vosk trap for the third time in DGR draft, so I ended up with what I thought was a poopy Dimir deck (I passed a Vraska in the RTR pack to take a Rogue's Passage...). Josh and Steve drove out to Buffalo Wild Wings for beers while I was drafting in the top 8, and after the draft I texted them to let them know I may be done very soon because my deck was terrible. They returned to the nearly-empty tournament hall just in time to watch game 3 of the quarterfinals. After watching me win the quarterfinals and the semifinals with my sweet combo of Paranoid Delusions plus a pile of cards, all they could say was this.

Basically, I just kept playing Magic that day until I was told I could not play anymore Magic. For the finals of the tournament, I found myself sitting across perhaps the most successful female Magic player on the professional circuit (photo courtesy of Steve).

After getting my face bashed in by Skaarg Goliath in game 1, I won games 2 and 3 on the back of being a lucksack and milling her good cards to win the Super Sunday Series (there were no Progenitor Mimic, Collective Blessing, or Trostani's Summoner cast against me in the finals because they were all milled). Part of the prize for winning the tournament is an expenses-paid trip to Wizards of the Coast headquarters in Seattle next year to meet and mingle with Wizards R&D members and other Super Sunday Series winners, which is pretty freaking sweet. (And yes, after the finals they told me I could not play anymore Magic that day and that I should go home.)

The M14 prerelease this past weekend was pretty cool. Several well-known professional Magic players were in town for a wedding, and a few of them came out to play in the prerelease with us. I was on Reddit today here, which was also pretty cool I suppose.

Quarter Century

Yesterday during a hallway meeting at work, one of my task leads announces to everyone, "Tomorrow is Hans's birthday. He will be a half century old!" Needless to say, that was a momentary slip of the tongue and/or mind, as she meant to say quarter century. Someone did jokingly remark how well I looked for being 50 though.

Anyway, I thought I'd write a post on everything that I should have written about in 2012 but neglected to. Basically a recap of interesting events in 2012, complete with photographic commentary in some cases.

TRAVEL

Traveled to Virginia twice for work. Got to see Kevin and the Mullers in the DC area both times. In June while I was in Virginia, there was a massive storm that knocked out power for a few days. The hotel had no electricity, which made the room very hot, the showers very cold, and being at work very desirable.

Went to Chicago for University of Chicago graduation. Also drove south to UIUC to visit the campus.

Went west into Utah for Labor Day weekend. Saw some lakes and a lot of dunes out there. Did a lot of impromptu hiking.

DRAGON BOAT

Raytheon Rowing Racers returned to the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival this year, this time with a Hong Kong team and a Flag-Catcher team. I had the privilege of being the flag-catcher hanging over the front end of the boat, which was interesting.

MISCELLANEOUS

Learned how to bake banana bread (or rather, found a recipe online and followed the instructions carefully).

Took the homegrown big-as-my-arm zucchini that my uncle gave me and turned that into 4 meals' worth of zucchini pasta (again, another recipe I found online).

Went out dancing at a country bar on a Wednesday night with some coworkers (they convinced me to join them). Had more than a few drinks, hung out with coworkers (including my team lead), learned the two-step and three-step, pretended to line dance with the crowd (also known as line dancing with your head cocked backwards to see what everyone else is doing so you could imitate that), and watched some mechanical bull-riding.

Saw the biggest bottle of Cholula I've ever seen at CB & Potts during Svien's last night in Denver outing. Sadly, the waitress told us the bottle wasn't for sale.

Met up with Brian in Minnesota during the winter holiday and played some Ascension with him and his friend.

Read some books. Stephen King's 11/22/63 was pretty good. Reminds me of The Butterfly Effect. Currently reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman since Ken told me I should. Still have a ton of books to read.

Saw some movies too. Silver Linings Playbook has to be my favorite movie of 2012.

MTG

I played in 5 Grand Prix in 2012, making Day 2 in three of them and cashing one of them (top 64).

At GP Lincoln in February, which was the first Modern format GP ever, I played Jund and finished Day 1 at 7-2 (which is the minimum record needed for advancing to Day 2), losing to Zoo with Kessig Wolf Run in round 6 and to the mirror match in round 9. Being my first GP Day 2, I had no idea what to expect on Sunday, but what I did learn was that GP Day 2's are rather rough. Starting Day 2 in 45th place and going 0-2 in the first two rounds (punting to Martyr and losing to timely topdecks from U/R Storm), I then won against U/W Control and Melira Pod before punting to Twin and losing to U/W Control to finish 71st in a 96-player Day 2 (note that top 64 makes prize) out of 716 total players. Highlights of the tournament include beating a Melira Pod player in round 3 on the verge of defeat (he was about to pod into Sun Titan to stabilize the game, but drew the one Sun Titan in his deck that turn instead while on 4 lands), having a U/R Storm player in round 7 so flustered after mulliganing to 5 that she cast Gitaxian Probe on turn 1 and forgot to play a land before passing the turn to me, and beating a Melira Pod player in round 13 for exactsies the turn before my own Dark Confidant would have killed me by revealing Bloodbraid Elf while at 4 life. Also, the 5 of us who traveled to Lincoln together decided that eating 6-packs and a pound from Taco Johns for 2 nights in a row was a good idea (to be fair, our options for food in Lincoln were rather limited).

About a month later, I played in a local Pro Tour Qualifier (also Modern format) to a 4th place finish, my first and so far only PTQ top 8. R/G Tron was the breakout deck of the week, having won an online PTQ the previous weekend, and I was convinced last-minute to put Jund aside and play R/G Tron instead. The PTQ was 120 players, 7 rounds of swiss before single-elimination top 8. I managed to start 5-0 (didn't drop a single game either) and drew the last two rounds into the top 8 cut. I beat U/R Storm in the quarterfinals, then promptly lost to U/W/R Delver, who ended up winning the PTQ. The deck was a blast to play - I mean, who doesn't like casting turn 3 Wurmcoil Engine or Karn, or Mindslavering the opponent? Highlights of this tournament include killing a Melira Pod with his own combo after Mindslavering him, and beating Tempered Steel while at 9 poison both games.

A week after the PTQ was GP Salt Lake City (Standard format). It was also the Gold Rush, which added a little more incentive to attend, as if having all of your friends attend wasn't enough. I decided to play U/W Delver, since it was the only Standard deck I felt comfortable playing that would give me a reasonable shot of doing well with. After opening a lousy Frankenstein's Monster in the Gold Rush (a friend opened a solid Mox Emerald, which he shipped for $300 to a dealer on site), I finished Day 1 of the GP at 7-2 again, losing to U/W Humans in round 6 and White Wolf Run in round 9. I then proceeded to fall apart on Day 2 again, going 2-4 for a combined 9-6 record and 104th place out of 1133 total players. Highlights of this tournament include locking in Day 2 in round 8 with Mutagenic Growth against a lethal trampling Inkmoth Nexus (then Dissipating his Elesh Norn the next turn for the rub-ins), as well as drunk karaoke on Sunday night in Salt Lake City.

GP Minneapolis (Standard format) was about a month and a half later, in May. I decided to play in it after a week of work in Virginia. I didn't do so well, started 4-0 with R/G Aggro and lost the next 5 rounds in a row. On Day 2 I decided to play in the Standard Sealed side event. Playing U/W fliers, I started 1-2 and won out, finishing 5-2.

In August was the Star City Open Series in Denver. I decided to play U/W Delver in Standard and Hive Mind in legacy, finishing 5-4 for no prize in Standard and 5-3 for 32nd place and $100 in Legacy. Highlights of the Legacy Open include having an opponent cast Show and Tell to put Emrakul into play, allowing me to put Hive Mind into play and killing him next turn.

GP San Jose was in October, a week after Return to Ravnica was released. The GP was Team Sealed format, the first time in several years that such a GP was held. My team had won a Grand Prix Trial, so we started the tournament with 2 byes. Our sealed pool wasn't the greatest - there was a nutty Selesnya deck with 5 rares and Guildmage (which I played), then the rest gave us a U/R/w Doorkeeper/Lobber Crew control deck and a Jund deck with no real focus. After the tournament we realized that we should have just played an aggressive Rakdos build as our third deck, but that's what happens when you play in a fresh new format that no one's really familiar with yet. The GP had 571 teams (1713 players), which meant 11 rounds on Day 1, with a 9-2 record needed for Day 2. Our team lost in rounds 4, 9, and 11. It kind of sucked to lose in round 11 to miss Day 2, especially because round 11 ended shortly before 1 am. However, 42nd place out of 571 teams wasn't too bad, we thought. I decided to play in California States on Day 2, which I quickly bombed out of. Highlights of this tournament include beating a double Collective Blessing deck, beating Mercurial Chemister two games in a row, and watching my teammate sideboard from U/R/w Control into Izzet Aggro and beating his opponents after they decide to play second in sideboarded games. We then went out drinking in the bars of San Jose that Sunday night.

GP Chicago (Modern format) came about a month later. I thought it'd be nice to visit Ken and play in a GP, which is what we did. I had not touched Modern since the PTQ in March, so I decided to play R/G Tron again, especially since it stayed relatively under the radar at Pro Tour Seattle and GP Lyon the previous two weekends, and Jund was still a popular deck. I finished Day 1 at 7-2 yet again, losing in round 4 to G/W Hatebears and round 9 to Robots. This time, I didn't crash as hard on Day 2 as I have before, going 4-2 for a total 11-4 and 49th place out of 1113 players for $200 and 1 pro point (first one). Highlights of this tournament include going 4-1 against Jund over the course of the GP, beating Robots through a Blood Moon (it involved his Inkmonth Nexi being turned off and me Ghost Quartering my land in response for a basic Forest), overloading a Vandalblast against Robots to clear his 4 creatures and his Glimmervoid, locking in Day 2 in round 8 by having my Infect opponent attack his turn 1 Inkmonth Nexus into my Nature's Claim (which he thought was a different card after seeing it with Gitaxian Probe) which left him stuck on 1 Island until I ate it with Karn a few turns later, and drawing a total of 7 Relic of Progenitus over the course of 2 games against Eggs in round 14 (he had a hard time fighting through those).

Overall, quite an eventful year for MTG for me, and I'm looking forward to more in 2013. I'm fortunate to have good friends and teammates.