n00bcoM: Organizer's Report

Due to worldly events, the yearly oldschool tournament n00bcon did not take place on Good Friday last week. But n00bs still rejoiced this Easter, as heroes in the community took it upon them to organize n00bcoM in its wake, an online tournament where the social distancing was thousands of miles between players. As someone who got the chance to play, it was rad as radiation. This is not my story though, today we get a tale from the organizer himself; Florian von Bredow. I'll be back next week with some top8 rants. Until then, enjoy the words of our protector of Easter. /Mg out

Organizer's wisdom or wish-wash. You decide.

After the tournament should be before the tournament. It seems to be a curse of mine that I see and feel mostly what could have been better. Or different.

The world could - no, should - have been in a different place, with countries and leaders acting humane rather than selfish or opportunistic (or just brutally stupid). If countries and their leaders would have acted in the best possible way, there is the possibility that the world would not be in lock-down with thousands and thousands of lives in danger. And there would have been a proper n00bcon.

When Denmark closed the borders, on 13th or 14th of March, it was clear to me that I couldn't go to Gothenburg. As I am not flying and trying to avoid other public transportation, I am relying on my car and open borders to go to mtg-events.

The idea to host an alternative event had been there for some time already, and when it was obvious that more than just me could not go I went and created the event on Facebook. n00bcoM online tournament was born. When the Rotary Pub closed and MG committed to play in n00bcoM as well, it was 100% certain that the event would take place. The rest is history, or better YOUR-story. Excuse the cheap pun, but this is not about me, but about you. Repeating what I said during the announcement before the event (and before I almost got a heart attack as the rooms were not showing and all was about to fail):
I have to thank all of you, those who participated in n00bcoM; those who watched the awesome stream, this 14h monster packed with things we will speak of for some time as well as things we might wish we never had seen; those who will read this; and obviously those who helped me putting this together.

To the stream; with Markus as producer and media-mastermind, and GordonSeb - the wonderful, chaotic and unique commentator-duo who thankfully, surprisingly and honestly tried to stick with my tight schedule as far as the drunkometer allowed them - without which it would not have felt this close to the real deal.

To Christian and Elias with SiaBorg Festival, who literally ran a full and last minute real-life-test-run with the tournament they hosted on Thursday, showing what else to cut from my list of tools.

To Audun, who ran the first virtual testrun and showed me that pre-naming tables as in whereby-rooms was the only way to do this properly. So happy that we could keep our tradition and play a few games after n00bco(n/M) Top 8 had started.

To DFB with whom I can look back at almost 4 years of continuous online play and online tournament hosting. His Google-docs for Hartfjordfestivalen saved a lot of work, and the matchslips saved both SiaBorg's and my own ass.

The biggest applause however goes to Slanfan, the dude who never sleeps. Bingo, trinkets, web-apps you name it. He can do it all, even fixing the broken site when there is only 3 minutes to until first round was about to start and I almost died. Luv ya.

He built a Wheel of Fortune.

Organising an event like this was not a very easy task, let me tell you that much. So thanks for all the overwhelming positive feedback; it is well received. But the True Greatness is in all of you who make the oldschool community and n00bcoM what it is. A safe harbor we can dock our boat even (or especially) during these troubling times, regardless of politics, religions, or diseases. We share something that is hard to come by for most and we should continue to cherish it every single fucking day.

I hope that the world will return to a safer place soon, allowing us to travel again and participate in tournaments so we can experience all the hugs, drinks, laughs and dude-sweats with all our senses again. I feel however that this wont be the last big one-day online event we'll experience, nor the last one I will host.

If you are still wondering what I mean, let me quote "What Would Jason Schwartz Do?" Play Alpha power unsleeved, and throw them at the opponent just for the sake of having fun with friends. Do it for good times and the benefit of friendship rather than monetary value and you are all good.

Hope to see everyone soon irl. Take care, stay safe, wash your hands and be nice!

/FvB

P.S. I also played in the tournament and managed to get my more or less "regular" n00bcon result with 4-3.

P.P.S. Best match of the day was against Danny, after he got defeated in Quarters. He Braingeysered my whole Library of 51 cards in my second turn. The Geysers took place in his turns 14-16 or so, who is counting?

P.P.P.S. For those who are interested: we raised a surplus of 1163,58€ which I will raise to 1200€ to be divided in uneven parts for Slanfan and the bigger to WHO.