WarcraftMinis asked if I would share my experiences with you all about my trip to Austin, so I figured I could construct some prose detailing both the trip and the actual event. The amount of words I can spill over my trip to Austin for the World Championship could fill several pages as both the experiences and the strategies are deep enough that they would warrant some discussion. Hopefully, I can provide some sort of snapshot into all that is Worlds from a minis player’s perspective as this high level event was worth both the time and money to attend.

The scenario for the Main Event of minis at worlds was “Capture the Flag” and it had some unique restrictions on the map that would essentially devalue some of the top pieces currently established in the meta. After continentals, I had immediately started testing draft with a group of players online who had felt that draft was an obvious choice for part of the format since we had yet to have a draft format at a high level event (well, since the Rochester Charity Tournament at Millennium Games back in January), and we did not know the map or scenario until September. Eventually, the map and format were released which allowed me to test several teams and I had come down to a decision among 4 or 5 bands. They included – Vashj/Bogstrok Crawler/ Rethilgore (The crab is one of the best partners for Vashj on the map and is undervalued currently, he tested very well for us), Parvink /Dralor/Vi’gor (Deployed by both Tony Faber and Scott Watson), Jaina/Jezbella/Savin (Deployed by Jean-Phillippe Theriault), a beast style team like Prowler/Shredder/Rethilgore, Jaina Zoo (with two Kaustrons), or triple Mortimers. I was quickly cycling through multiple teams as all of them had a clear weakness and lost to another set of teams. However, the night before I left for Austin, I had a moment of clarity and realized that there was one team which would excel against most opponents that would not normally: Triple Kaustron.
The biggest threat to triple Kaustron is Velen Wall, but Velen Wall performs poorly on the map due to their high honor and limited mobility. On the other hand, Kaustron does very well against Triple Zomms (3 of which were in the top 8), Mortimers (played by at least 3 players), Zoo (played by one of the top 8), and has an okay matchup against a team with one shredder. From what I can tell, only one Velen Wall team showed up as Leeroy/Velen/Savin. None of the people I played with had tested the team, so I ended up testing the team by myself (against myself) on Vassal (a program us minis players use to play online) while flying to Austin. My initial three tests on the airplane went very well and I was set to play triple Kaustron with 3 Call Fury, 3 Call Old Bones, 2 Call Bloodclaw, and 1 Viper Sting. Looking back, I think this was still the right call despite going 2-2 in the Constructed portion of the tournament.
Due to the lower than expected number of players who showed up for qualifiers for the World Championship, the tournament was pushed back a day. Given that people had not brought their minis to play with, the tournament organizers decided to do draft first. Drafting, in my opinion, is the best sealed format for minis. While the packs are still random and the Monster packs in Spoils of War are still subpar, you at least get to cycle and pick the best from the bad while sealed pack sticks you with only 20 options (and most of those options are obviously bad). Thankfully, my practice paid off as after 2 different drafts and 4 rounds later, I was 3-1. I faced the French national Champion, the North American Continental 2nd place finisher, and two excellent players from France and Germany. My one loss was to Christof Schilling, a successful player from Germany, who went 4-0 in the draft.
Day two was exciting as I was able to deploy my savvy metacall and it lead to solid victories. The first round was against the solid German player Hans Joachim Hoh who had recently won DMF Amsterdam. After time was called, I won the match 8-0 against his Zomms. Match two was against Bryan Michael Berzowsky who fielded Jaina with two Elannas who I was able to squeak a victory against by winning 8-4 after time was called.
Round 3 of constructed was against Ben Isgur’s double shredder match that came down to one roll. If played right, his team should beat mine at least 70% of the time as he was running double Goblin Shredder with Rethilgore. This allowed him to have Fog of War on every tick and prevented my hunters from doing any damage to him. So, being able to come so close despite the odds stacked against me gave me some hope that I was playing correctly. The official match coverage can be found here.
Round 8 (4 of constructed) also received feature match coverage. This match contained my biggest error in the tournament and likely cost me the match. For the first half of the game both of us played conservatively and positioned until one of us were able to make a move. I baited out one of Derek’s Elannas and, after he made an attack on one of my Kaustrons, I was able to quickly burn down his exposed Elanna. After that, I played defensively and hoped to win that way. When he started advancing towards me, I was able to burn a second Elanna down to one, and failed a second die roll to finish off his character. This lead to one of my Kaustrons being exposed and allowed Derek, after time was called, to come in and kill the weakened hunter with Jaina. After this, I attacked jaina with a Kaustron hoping for a crit (as it would allow my fury to again attack his 1 health hunter), but I missed the crit and could not kill another one of his characters. The game became tied at 4-4 and since he had the lower honor total (22 to my 24), he won. Derek went on to win the World Championship.
So, my World Championship attempt ended at 5-3. I had a great set of matchups (two or three national champions, 2 winners of DMFs, I think 5 of my opponents had top 8’ed at their national tournaments) and this lead to having phenomenal tie breakers. Overall, I came in 10th place for the weekend which still had an ample award.
I spent the remainder of the weekend in the Minis DMF (sealed, my least favorite event, went 4-2 for a 19th place) and the league (a new event by UDE introduced at nationals). If you get a chance to go to an organized play with League Play, I highly recommend it. You can play several different minis and card formats, get really good prizes (I came home with 20ish Extend Art WOW cards, a few minis, and a playmat), and it only costs a one-time fee ($5).
This was my first time in Austin and had some fun at various restaurants (the Crepe restaurant was great!), but traveling to competitive gaming events is rarely about the locations. Being able to play against some of the best players in the game and then join them for dinner afterwards offered a great environment to improve my own game. So, if you haven’t thought about going to a competitive event yet, you should definitely do so. Both the prize support and the people in wowminis community are stellar.