Old School Player’s Ball 2018 – Results and Full Coverage

The second annual Old School Player’s Ball tournament has finished, and was an incredible day for the community. After drops and no shows, 84 Magicians from 20 states showed up to battle, and we were filled to our capped registration limit within the first day.

The Player’s Ball was held at Revolution Brewery Taproom, in Chicago (Illinois, USA), and was once again organized by Bob Agra and Chicago’s native crew, the Lords of the Pit. Eternal Central helped promote and support these efforts, and the tournament was able to raise over $1500 for charity (going to After School Matters, in this case). Repeating last year’s success, the Player’s Ball has become a marquee event on the gaming calendar, and the plan is to continue this tradition going forward as a summer event, part way between NoobCon and Eternal Weekend’s Old School events. Special thanks must also go fellow Lords Nathan Mullen, for running various tasks and taking photos throughout the event, as well as to Stephen Maldonado, who commissioned and donated the amazing custom playmats that the Top 8 players (and a handful of others) were lucky enough to take home.

The tournament was run as SWISS+1, with eight 50 minute Swiss rounds, using Eternal Central’s recommended Old School 93-94 rules, with no draws allowed (and Sudden Death Chaos Orb flipping if any matches went to time). As we continue to emphasize, the point of Old School is to play Old School, meet new friends, and catch up with old ones.

While last year’s field saw no copies of The Deck, and just a handful of UR Control variants, those decks were aplenty this year. Playing the best and most efficient cards in the format in one big pile can definitely be fun from time to time, even if not very innovative, per se. Alongside a decent control portion, there were plenty of aggro deck, aggro control, combo decks, and unique brews utilizing everything from Ashnod’s Transmogrant to Ring of Ma’Ruf to Living Plane.

Metagame Breakdown

Here is a sortable table that shows all players and associated decks played (you can sort by name, deck type, or prize awarded)
[table id=16 /]

Final Standings

Here are the final standings after the 8 SWISS+1 rounds.
OSPB18FinalStandings

ALL Decks, Alphabetically, by Last Name

Bob Agra – BW Prison

Nicholas Batista – UWR Zoo

Chris Bergeson – Goblins RUG

Ian Blank – Black White Aggro

Brendon Bowersox – ErhnamGeddon UWG

Zach Bowersox – Pink Weenie

Matthew Braun – Tax Edge 5C

Dustin Brossard – RG Aggro

Mark Brothers – ErhnamGeddon UWG

Josh Burgoa – RUG Berserk Aggro

Mike Butzen – URB Control (fewer creatures)

Grant Castleton – Spider Geddon GW

Curt Christian – Power Monolith Combo

James Cooney – Fungal Enchantress

Eliot Davidoff – Living Plane Control

Nicholas Dickerson – Kobolds!

Dominic Dotterrer – Fallen Angel BWG

Jared Doucette – Goblins RG

Danny Dunaway – Disco Eggs

Lorien Elleman – UWR Prison

Dan Ersch – Reanimator

Tyler Etters – ErhnamGeddon RWG

Paul Fiero – Living Plane Control

Dave Firth Bard – Dingus Egg Combo Control

Enrique Flores – Black Blue Aggro

Daniel Friedman – Mono White Control

Cayce Grissom – RUG Zoo

Tom Hagen – ErhnamGeddon UWG

Charlie Hahn – UWB Aggro Control

Matt Hahn – URB Troll Disco

Jon Hammack – The Deck

Adem Hotza – Black Blue Aggro

Kyle Houtman – UWG Zoo

Jaco – Naya Bazaar Zoo

Krishna James – Pink Weenie

Rajah James – Ring of Ma’Urza Tron

Brian Jones – Mono Black Aggro

Greg Kotscharjan – UW Aggro Control

Sam Krohlow – Power Monolith Combo

Andrea Longhi – RG Ramp

Ron Longhi – Black Green Aggro

Will Magrann – Atog 5C

Stephen Maldonado – Naya Bazaar Zoo

Bryan Manolakos – 5C Stasis

Christopher Mason – A full 4th Edition Starter deck

Robert Matthews – White Weenie

Ray Mattson – Turbo Fog

Steve McGrew – UWG Zoo

Andrew McLennan – UWR Control

Adam Merkado-Weiss – Dreams Combo 5C

Mith – Power Monolith Combo

Marland Moore – Workshop Aggro Mono Blue

Matt Moss – Atog URW

Shane Mott – RG Aggro

Jason Paul – URB Control (fewer creatures)

Frank Pedota – UWR Zoo

Benjermin Perry – Mono Black 333

Carter Petray – Transmogrant.dec

Daniel Piquard – Black White Aggro

Stephen Preston – Black Green Nether Aggro

Marcos Quilantan Luna – Red White Burn

Joe Reuschel – 4C Aggro Control

Nick Rohr – Dega Disco

Michael Russo – RUG Zoo

Matt S – The Deck

Brandon Sanders – Mono Black Rack

Steve Sasala – UR AC (8+ creatures)

Bill Schriver – Tax Edge 5C

Shane Semmens – MirrorBall 5C

Matt Sharp – White Weenie

Stephanie Shively – UWR Aggro Control

Erik Swanson – Tax Edge 5C

Mike VanDyke – Workshop Aggro URB

David Velasco – Mono Green Berserk

Robert Vincent – Black White Aggro

Ben Wagnon – RUG Zoo

Derek Walker – Mono Green Stompy

Cam Wall – GW Spirit Force

Aaron West – Storytime (aka UWR Shahrazad)

Robert Westergaard – White Weenie

Jake Wise – RUG Berserk Aggro

Winston Wood – Power Mono-Lich

Chris Wynes – UWR Zoo

Tournament Action and Wrapup

The hashtag for social media for the event was #OldSchoolPlayersBall, which you can use to find more on Twitter, Instagram, etc. Thank you to everybody who came out to play, and we hope to see you again soon. As we move forward experimenting with more changes we hope to make each event more unique and fun. For any corrections, comments, or follow up, please email eternalcentral@gmail.com. Below are just some of the sweet action and community pics from the day.

Friday Night Contracts @ DMen Tap (check out report from that event on LordsofthePit.com this week)