Mid-Week drinks was last night.. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to stay as long as I wanted, but it was still great to see the Zone players in a different social environment.

Our second cascade was defiantly more tougher then the first one was.

Our first game was with Hobart and Raiders, We were lucky with Raiders last time and with us being lower then us on the ladder I was sure they were after as many points as they could get. We tried a tatic that failed from the beginning, team mates lost eachother and we couldnt hold our base enough to cause some major damage. We ended up with a 3rd place.

The next game was against our friends Bendigo and WANK, We were on green for this one which is our stronger colour. Towards the end of the game Blue base was really locked down and we couldnt get those last few bases. We still managed to beat Bendigo, which in the end helped us get above them on the ladder at the end of cascades.

We were stuck in a Canberra sandwich once again with Jaguars on red and Falcons on blue. Falcons held their base towards the end with a 4 – 5 man defense, Unfortunately they diddnt have too many bases and we only needed two more from them. In the end Falcons came 3rd and Jaguars won, which was the opposite of what it should’ve been. This also made Falcons unable to overpass the Dragons for top position on the ladder.

Communication was a huge issue in the next game, The Sabers were very hung over from drinks the night before so it would’ve been good to actually beat them. Raptors held their base well and we missed some crucial bases needed to get a second place.

Luckily in the two final games we won, the first one was against the Widowmakers (2nd) and the NZ Silverbacks (3rd). We were able to cut through the defense at NZs green base and get many bases easily. Surprisingly blue was held well being our lest favored colour.

We really needed a 1st in our last game if we wanted to keep a spot in the top 10. We were up against NZ Kryptonite and Launceston Skybreakers. Similar to the last game, we were able to get in green easy, communication was a big issue in this game as calls were misheard, misinterpreted etc.. But in the end we were able to get a 1st which put us 9th, above Bendigo Blitz.

Tomorrow is the tie off day where Solos finals, Double finals and the start of Teams finals. Being so high on the ladder (and so bad at doubles and solos) we have a whole day off to hopefully relax before our games on Sataurday.

-NinjaJim

The whole day is devoted to Tripples.

The teams Adelaide had this year were:
NinjaJim, Ninja, Azrael

They had all six bases on this year which could all be 4 shot destroyed twice. They also used the older scoring (200 chest, 100 back, 50 for Phasor and Shoulders).

In the first round we felt like we did really well, with a high 58k score.. I got around 23k as I was solo’d the maze while the other two worked together. Bases were the hardest part, but the most rewarding as they are only -100 points per shot and 2701 points per destroy. Only the top 10 scores across all the games got through we of course, finished 11th meaning we had to play in the Repechage 1A game.

After the repecharge game we thought it was all over for us. We got 57k in this one but the team above us got 66k and got through to the next round.

By some miracle we got into Round 2, this was a lot tougher than the previous games and we got sent down to the repercharge once again. We changed our tactics and was able to get into round 3. We couldn’t believe how far we got at this stage, we got into Finals smashing the other 6 teams and coming first directly from Round 3!

Finals was difficult, we played 4 games and the total score determines the winner, with our worst game being dropped. I believe we did fairly well, the results arn’t going to be revealed until the dinner, but its possible that we got Adelaide’s second trophy for this year! Last year our best triples place was 28th. Next up is Cascades 2.. Our draw is a lot harder than the previous!

-NinjaJim

Day 4 was the Doubles tournament.

My partner was Azrael, and we decided to wear or matching shirts every game (I had Bootza, he had Mad Cans from SunnyCoast, I had Nickfriday he had Frop from Fury)

Our first game was fairly high scoring, we both managed to pull all 6 bases and ended up 4th on a high 24,000 score. Only the top 18 scores over all games went though to the next round, the cut off was around 26,000.. so we missed out on direct entry to round 2.

Our next repecharge game didn’t go so well, halfway in I ended up tricking myself with calls saying I already had the base.. when in actual fact I had no bases at all. Tim was able to get his 3 and I managed to get one just at the end. As a team we came 4th from memory.. only the top 2 teams advance in repecharge games.

The draw for our final repecharge game was very surprising. The WHOLE Adelaide Respawn team was in there, along with a double of Shrike players and a Lycans & Hobart A pair as well. I made a bet with a Bendigo player that if we didn’t get a single player from Respawn in round 2, I would but the team a round of drinks.. luckily Ninja and Pal pulled 2nd place and getting through, But after some controversial tactics from a particular player our double diddnt do so well only pulling off a 4th (Out of six).

Our first game is at 7.00pm tonight.. so ill post deets after we’ve played.

First game tonight was against Widowmakers & Hobart B. We were green, which we seem to have a good run on in the past. Our tactics were amazing and were executed by our team well, no one strayed off too far from their positions and base takes were great. I ended up with both bases for a change and came out with the second highest score in the game.. I was on fire.

Yahtzee!!! WE DID IT, Our team ranks were 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th. We vs’d Campbelltown Trojans (Blue) and Albury (Green) and had our game planned perfectly as we did the one before. To phyc us up even more Tim said if we win the next two games we’re getting Dominos for dinner. Unfortunately I missed out on a base.. but still managed to grab the 5th rank. There is a wives tale that if a Yahtzee happeneds the captain shouts a round.. haha good joke.

Third game Sabers & Shrike. Shrike were blue, we were green, this was obviously the first time we actually vs’d each other. We hit them hard at the start, but it back fired as The Sabers were all over us. They had their game sorted, all spots were perfectly defended and not too many of us were able to get their base in the end. We finished our last round robin game with a 2nd.. Over Shrike who we beat by 10,001 points

They released the current team ladder after the last game which now stands like this

Adelaide Respawn – 13th! Adelaide Shrike – 24th

This is significantly higher than last years, showing how well he have progressed as a team. The 16 points we gained tonight alone also helps us quite a fair bit! Our average score is also higher than the team ranked 6th at the moment, meaning we have played in some pretty huge scoring games!.. Ill try add scores later (again)

-NinjaJim

Woke up, my legs were in soo much pain. And thats when i decided I was going to buy skins today.

Today was Masters and Womens as well as teams, unfortunately the reffing roster wasn’t ideal for us with games we need to ref all over the place.

From what i’ve heard Masters games were played with classic rock playing in the background, and also allows for one handed phasor holds. They didn’t release any scores for masters, but accidently left them on the screen for the last game showing GMI as a winner of the last game.

Womens had classic pop songs like “Barbie Girl”… Thats all i’ve heard.

Our first game in teams was against the NZ/WA team “Kkat & Others” and Canberra Jaguars. This was our first game on red, and it went well (it was also really good to have a sleep-in for once). We ended up with a nice 2nd place, below Jaguars.

After some miscommunication our next game was actually 1.5hrs after our first instead of 45mins.. This gave me time to go shopping once again with the Skybreaker bros and get some skins.. For some reason the checkout machine gave me change even when I paid by card :S?!

Our next game went great! It was against WA Lycans and Box Hill “Politically Incorrect”. We held blue well and secured our first win of the tournament.

Our 3rd game of the day was against Kyptonite NZ and Silverback Avengers NZ, we diddnt go so well in this game, as we read the game roster wrong (yet again) and was actually very late for our game, almost missing out on it… Our tactics were scrambled and everyone was all over the place but I believe we still pulled a second placing.

This is the time where the day started to get a little hectic and difficult. We faced Hobart A and Werribee Sabers whilst on red and got hit pretty hard by both sides coming out with a 3rd place but I was able to get a really good solo base take during that game from memory.. as well as another Termination -_-. Next was WA Raiders and WA Knights, which are doing really good as far as the ladder and points show. People didn’t follow plans, tactics went down the drain and we got steamrolled. Ninja ended up with 291 points as his score

Luckily the last game was against Rocklobster and Falcons, we pulled off a second with every player on our team scoring at least Rockys team score.. it was an unfortunate bloodbath that game, but playing the falcons is always fun, and its even better when you’re able to get both bases.

The last game started at 5pm.. we finished reffing at a much later 8ish… Luckily i was able to get some Uni stuff sorted and relax for a bit before the sun went down for a change.

I’ll try and post more accurate scores later on, when i’m not stuck reffing so much haha

-NinjaJim

Today was the real start of the competitions.

Solos was first up, I was in solos games 3 and 7 and it was the first time I was able to go in the maze with a pack on. This year it was done a little different, with 2 round one games based on total score and only a single repechage game.
Only the top 36 scores across all the games advanced into round 2, with the rest of the players facing off in another game with the top 7 advancing to round two.

Unfortunately Adelaide didn’t do so well, with only TheWall and recluse making it to the second round via the repechage game but made it no further.

-Scores to be posted-

A few hours later, teams started.
Our first game was against Launceston Skybreakers and Maroon Raptors.
The Skybreakers actually beat WANK (Western Australian Northbridge Knights) who are the reigning champions a game prior to ours, which didn’t give us much hope for a good place. This was also our first time as a team in the maze, While Skybreakers had already played 3 games earlier that day.

We came 2nd, beating Skybreakers, the maze is very different to what we are used to, with bases being able to be shot from very many different directions!

Next game was against The Canberra A team the Dragons as well as Wombats team, Marsupials revenge. We came 2nd, beating the Marsupials again as green we held it well.

The final game for the night was Bendigo Blitz & Blue steel Raptors. We played as blue on this game and found it difficult to hold the base as well as take others, unfortunately we came out with a 3^rd place for the game.
Before actually playing, I reffed my first Nationals game with the help of an Albury player telling me where green base actually was since I hadn’t even had a team game at that time yet

We also went to a local Westfield during the day and chilled with a few of the Skybreakers players. We loitered in shops, confused people with our shirts and even got my sub way lunch for $3 instead of $13 due to an Eftpos error >=D.
They also had another laser tag place in the shopping centre which we decided to go try out. We were able to get a free game afterwards with some Werribee players that decided to join in. This was a very obvious casual maze, it had a car in it, a crashed plane (With the seats still in it) and an ancient ruin feel to it with only a small number of actual walls In the maze. They also used laser force……….

Scores are coming soon still…

-NinjaJim

First day of comp was LoTR.

We first had the opening ceremony, where rules were explained etc before starting the tournament. I also received my first player shirt from Chook on the Box Hill team.

Round 1:

I did well my first game coming back from being destroyed in the first quarter and pulled a first place. The other 3 games I was able to pull a second place. Unfortunately the last of the games also had a player who dropped out in it, making it a two man game.. This didn’t work out very well for me at all.. and really damaged my overall score. I finished at a solid 38th in the lead-up to Round 2.

Everyone who played did fairly well.

Azrael was able to pick up a First place over reigning champ EliteDude which was great, and managed another first with two second places.

Ninja had a clean record of all first places and one of the highest (in the good way) total scores! and placing second on the Round 2 ascension ladder.

TheWall was similar, finishing with 3 firsts and a second placing him in the top 20 of the ladder. Harkrage placed just above Tim with a couple of firsts and seconds. recluse also just scraped in, getting through to round 2. Unfortunately, FancyBoy did not make it to round 2 which was surprising.

Round 2:

recluse was the first player to go up as ascension starts with lower players making their way up the ladder by winning games, as you lose games you drop into a tier below, but can still keep rising the ladder. He ended up around the 56ish mark. Next up (a vast majority of games later) was me. I was able to score a few wins, allowing me to ascend the ranks and ending up being eliminated only two games before Azrael, finishing at a strong 32ish. Some notable opponents would have to include Cyc for his amazing bum shaking strategies, As well as Vector and UBeH8ing.

Azrael actually descended during Ascension, ending up at 30th from 29th, The wall made it to the top 15, and as Ninja finished second, he only needed 1 win to get into the finals.. which he did. Making him the first player in quite a while to get a Nats trophy!

Other things that happened today.. I got a haircut during the Rounds of LoTR, and took a ton of footage.. but hotel internet.. its going to take 3hrs to upload a 150mb video, so ill like them later -_-

-NinjaJim

We left around 8pm from a cafe where we had dinner on Wednesday the 6/3.

A solid 14 hours straight with minimal breaks drive was pretty intense during the night, but before long we were in Canberra once again. Not much special happened on the way, just the stock standard road tripping adventures and each car had walkie talkies which was handy.

We got Maccas breakfast since the Hotel wasn’t ready yet.. apparently our booking was cancelled on the 15th Of February which could have turned into a MAJOR inconvenience. Luckily for us they were able to shuffle around some rooms and get us in rooms connected by doors which was great! After some exploring we bumped into our first other team Nats player, Runt from Hobart A…

Before heading to the Zone 3 site to receive our welcome packs, we were also greeted by a group of Werribee players in a… unique kinda way. Once we were at the site, we saw many familiar faces including Noofa, Jimmy and Doc in the mix with many others.. This year our membership tags were RFID cards which is more convenient in so many ways and different to any other previous Nationals event. The complementary shirt is also really well designed this year too!

After heading back for a bit, me and Azrael headed off to the site once more to hang out more with the guys and finally gave Noofa the road-trip shirt he has been waiting for since November. We also bumped into more of the ACT guys we hung out with last year including Yarvin, Nickel, Ardur and Gustice along with the BendigoBros. Noofa seemed to love the shirt we put so much effort in to <3. Unfortunately we have had no maze time so far.. so Solos / Team games will be rather interesting tomorrow :S

The day ended up chilling with the Launceston guys for a bit which was pretty awesome!, Man i’m glad i’m not driving on these damn crazy roads though!

LoTR is tomorrow, hopefully i end up with less ticks then last year since we now know covering isn’t actually a thing

-NinjaJim