With the conclusion of the first qualifier yesterday from Boardgame Depot (Bangsar), we now have our first two official finalists for MAGACON – read on to find out who. Tip: It’s all about the popcorn and not sheeps.

 

Here’s a quick sessrep on the proceedings of the 1st Qualifier held at Boardgame Depot on Nov 26 (Sat). Due to some unusual bad traffic jam around the Lucky Garden areas, a few of the competitors were late in arriving – and a couple even had to cancel their participation as they knew they wouldn’t be able to make it on time. L

 

 

Anyway we’ve sufficient numbers to kick-off the qualifier with two tables of Catan; and just for variety purpose we had the (latest) 4th Edition Catan on Table #1 while we used the (previous) 3rd Edition Catan set on Table #2. Obviously some Catan players have not seen the 3rd Edition set before so I hope it was a novelty for them to play on that set. 😉

 

 

There were some questions asked about this competition – format, rules etc so I might as well take this opportunity to address them firsthere.

 

The qualifier is held over a two-round format, with winners from the 1st Round moving on to the 2nd Round to decide the final two winners who shall then qualify for the MAGACON Final which will be held on Dec 17. Each table should ideally have 4 players and is played to 10 points.

 

Let’s suppose there are 8 players; we then divide into two tables of four. The top two winners from each table shall proceed to 2nd Round (of four players) and the top two winners from the 2nd Round shall be the finalists from this qualifer. The finalists would then meet in MAGACON and play in another knock-out format to determine the final Catan Champion!

 

Most of the qualifier venues would have set up their Facebook event to promote this qualifier (or it may be done through Boardgamecafe.net’s Facebook page). To register, simply accept the event invitation at the qualifier of your choice. We would be looking at 8 to max 16 players per qualifier venue.

 

On the competition day, you’ll need to sign-up physically at the qualifier venue and pay the event registration fee (which can range from RM20 onwards). What you’ll get from this registration fee is a MAGACON ticket that allows a single pax to attend both days of the MAGACON event (Dec 17/18). The qualifier host might charge some other cover on top of the Rm20 but that’s at their discretion and normally they would bundle some food/drinks for the cover charge. Read the details in the FB event or if it’s not covered there, feel free to ask the qualifier host. Or drop me an email if you prefer.

 

Yes you can. If you joined one of the early qualifiers and did not make it as the two finalists, you are welcome to join the other qualifiers. However the next entry will still require the purchase of a MAGACON ticket – the tickets are transferable so you can easily pass them to your friends… invite your frens to join us at MAGACON so that we can have fun together!

 

Do let me know if you have any more questions and I’ll do my best to answer them. J

 

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Now back to the BG Depot Qualifier. Table #1 has James Lee, Harris and Adrian Tan fighting it out to determine who’s the Lord of Catan. Theirs was the current 4th edition set.

 

 

Harris (left) and Adrian pondering over their initial move

 

 

The other table has Kevin Tan, Joanna, and Andrew Teh on the 3rd Edition Settlers of Catan set.

 

 

As the games progressed, from appearance it appeared as though Table #2 (above). was moving slowly as you can see the island was not that developed (compared to table #1 below). Looks can be deceiving.

 

 

All of a sudden, I was informed that Table #2’s game has completed! There was a winner!! This fast? It was less than an hour into the session.

 

 

Kevin (red) closed out the game by rushing – successfully – with his Development Card strategy. He has four points in settlements, did the longest road for another 2 VP and (against all odds) managed to get four (of the five) VP cards from Development Card deck. Wow!

 

 

Congrats to Kevin (middle) and thanks too to Joanna and Andrew for their participation. Hmm.. so his popcorn strategy worked? 😛

 

Table #1 continued with their turns… and Adrian (Kevin’s bro) was looking strong with his “sheep farming” strategy. He was the first to spot the awesomely sweet spot with a “10” where he’ll be surrounded by sheeps. Not just that, the Sheep Trading port is just next door!! Haha.. What more do you want?

 

 

But his opponents – Harris and James – were not letting him off so easily. Harris claimed the Longest Road (from James) and then went on to muster a lot of soldiers to take the Largest Army card as well. That puts him very close to the 10-pointer trigger.

 

 

Obviously all those soliders were chasing the robber to only one spot…. Adrian’s (orange) sweet sheep farm!! Blame it on jealous neighbours. LOL.

 

 

Not to be outdone, James (red) disrupted Harris plan by building a settlement right in-between Harris (blue) long road, breaking it up and therefore allowing him (James) to re-claim the Longest Road card.

 

 

… and with 2 Development card containing hidden VPs, James claimed the game for his victory!

 

 

Harris, Adrian and James (right) from Table #1. Congrat James! And no loss to the other two as this was a very tight & close game of Catan.

 

To view pictures from this event

 

The next qualifiers for this coming week shall be at

– OTK Cheras on Friday, Dec 2nd, 8.00 pm onwards (link to event invite)

– FND Mindpost (TTDI) on Saturday, Dec 3rd, 2.00 pm onwards (link to event invite), and

– Meeples (SS15) on Saturday, Dec 3rd, 2:00 pm onwards (link to event invite)

 

See ya!