Overview
The Objective Hex Open VI was a weekly tournament played online via TTS. Essentially, this was just like a normal one day event, except that the pairings were announced each week, and players had that time to schedule and play their games with each other as best fit their schedules. There were a few instances of folks not responding to their opponents, but most of the games did, in fact, happen. Fun was had. There were no real disputes. It ran smoothly. There were 16 players from England, Ireland, and all across the US.
We played a draft format. Players drafted 5, banned 1, and chose 3. Here are the full details.
The Podium
Congratulations to our top 3 finishers!
An honorable mention goes to the Olde Crow and Anthony Moore for finishing 3-1 as well. The tiebreaker was strength of schedule.
Definitely check out The Olde Crow's twitch stream which has a number of games from this tournament.
Salute to New Players
For the following players, this was their first or second official tournament as per Longshanks. They are listed in order of how they finished at this event:
Reamus (2nd overall)
Anthony Moore (5th overall)
Ividron
Mr. Fishopolis
WadeSnaps
Bapulese
Haberusa
Congratulations to ALL OF THESE PLAYERS for participating in a Godtear event and, in some cases, putting us veteran players to shame (particularly me).
Champion Breakdown
Feast your eyes:
For reference, this was a 4 round tournament, and the four scenarios were Death, Change, Chaos, and Knowledge.
I have a few takeaways.
First of all, every champion saw the table. Even Rattlebone came out not once, but twice!
Second, the ban is doing real work. The consensus top two, Kailinn and Raith, saw play only 4 and 5 times, respectively. For perspective, Morrigan was payed 4 times. The ban really suppressed these two and, in so doing, opened space for others. Arguably, this might be to too much suppression of these champions, but I for one enjoyed the freedom to construct a list without having to think about how every choice matched up with Kailinn all the time.
Third, some of these numbers surprise me. Keera only played 3 times in an environment where you can ban Kailinn? 10 instances of Halftusk? More Blackjaw than Shayle? More Morrigan then Grimgut? I'm mildly astounded.
Fourth, although some champions are seeing the table a lot, there is no champion that everyone is taking. Consider the most played champion in the tournament, Rangosh. I am not shy about my love for Rangosh, and clearly others agree because he did see the table a whopping 13 times. However, half of the 16 players in this tournament never selected Rangosh at all.
Overall: this tournament displayed a diverse and healthy selection of champions.
My Own Experience
The tournament played out over the course of 4 weeks, so I don't remember all of it super well. I went 2-2 and finished 9th. I fell in the overall rankings from 2nd to 4th. My good friend Jeff "Gearbox" Mitchell, passed me, and I am very proud since I was the one who first showed Jeff the game.
The tournament played out slowly over a period of 4 weeks, so I do not remember it all in granular detail. Sorry - no TTS diagrams. I will say that I had a great time. Godtear seems to attract a really nice group of people. All of my games were enjoyable and all of my interactions with participants both as a competitor and as a host were pleasant and reasonable. It was great.
As for my mediocre competitive showing... well... I think it's a combination of me slipping a bit whilst others have stepped up. I played lazily at times and, unlike in past tournaments, my opponents did not let me get away with it. At all. It's pretty clear to me that the community's overall play has improved faster than my individual play has. It's great to see. I am motivated to play better. My hat is off to my opponents.