Info

Jon Land and myself left for Buffalo on Friday afternoon and had a really easy drive. We got to the Bertrand house (hereafter to be called the "X-Mansion) at a little after 10:00. Being the first one's there, Howard gave us first choice of sleeping accommodations. I had a room all to myself. The later the guys arrived, the more people they had to share the floor space with. Gary Martin, Brian Hildreth and the Brinkley's ( Bob, Regina, Jen, Brian, Ben and Jess) showed up about one hour after Jon and I got there. The Brinkley's stayed in a home owned by Howard's sister that was just around the corner from the X-Mansion but they spent most of the time with all of us at the X-Mansion. We played a few games and talked until about 2 AM before I went to bed. I just don't stay up all night any more before a tournament. Jon and some of the others stayed up longer. I heard some others come in and later found out that the Mass contingent ( Lee Valentine, Mo, Mark and Joe) arrived not to much sooner than the Cincinnati guys (Chris Vezina and Scott Flint), who got in about 5 AM. It's a good thing the X-Mansion has plenty of room.
I was awaken by the sound of someone knocking on the door and after no one else got up, I went and answered it. It was Jen and her mom, Regina, and they had come to help fix breakfast for everyone. I went down stairs to the Danger Room and talked to the late arrivals who had chosen not to sleep for fear of not being able to get back up after only  one or two hours of sleep. When I went back upstairs, Howard's wife, Maria was there. She was in the process of fixing the best breakfast I have ever seen! The ladies out did themselves with the food. There was so much there that it looked like a restaurant's buffet. This was one of three great meals severed by our host.
After all that food, we rolled ourselves out to the cars and off we went. Chris and Scott rode with me and the others were in three cars. I some how managed to get separated from the caravan and got lost. It was a bad start to the tournament. We finally found the place after asking 1500 people if the knew were it was. Half of them said yes and gave us wrong directions. The other half had no idea were the place was. We drove past it three times before we found someone who at least pointed us in the right direction. When we drove over to it, there was Gary and Howard waiting out by the rode to try to flag us down. We walked in just as the pairings were being announced. They stopped and added us and the tournament was off and running, about one hour late. My mind was not in a good state to be playing after the ordeal of just getting there and things didn't look any better when I was paired against Gary.  My Beyonder/White Queen deck would have to work hard for everything it could get this day. Dupes in the first two hands put me in a hole and Gary almost let me out of it before he finally bet for the game and I just didn't have enough to stop him. I don't remember who I played in round two but he had a Landau, Luckman & Lake deck with any heroes. Most of you know how I feel about any heroes, so I was very happy to look over there and see no battlesite. It was a good game but I won rather easily. Round three was against Darcy (The Spider) and was the second funniest game I had all day! It was great playing someone that really plays for the love of the game and has fun, win or lose. That's just not always the case in a tournament. The Spider had me in a hole with venture's of three and two in the first two hands. He won both hands and I didn't win a venture until hand three when I had ventured one. He was doing really good until my KO event came up. After that, he went down hill. I was now 2-1 and needed a win to ensure single elim. I was somehow paired against Aaron Lipzenski, who was 1-2 with his 4FP deck. This was my toughest game, winning even though he knocked out all my heroes. I had ventured for the game and he got to the point where everyone of his attacks would knock me out but still not win the venture for him.
The first round of single elim I was paired against Scott Flint. I love to play Scott but being good friends, I hate to play him early in single elim. I would prefer to play him in the finals. He just wanted to play me whenever he could. We both started smacking each other about how this would be the last game of the day for them and so fourth. Near the end, Scott kept talking trash but I shut up because I knew he was right and I just might get put out. I was close to winning venture but I was down to just White Queen and he had H4H. We both had a few discards and he informed me that it was almost over and I agreed with him. I looked at my missions, and since I got to go first, I ventured three for the game. He drew his card and had to discard a Dark Beast activator. I almost died. I was planning to play Acrobatics offensively but that activator was for his negate in the battlesite which he had not played yet. H4H had a JW and a level 8 power card placed on them. I had ventured for the game and now my plan would not work. We each played a couple cards and defended all attacks until I got a level four power card through. He then played the JW and I took it knowing the level 8 power card was coming. He said "No follow up" and the look on my face should have given away everything! The game was now mine for the taking and I did just that! He defended my last attack and I played acrobatics on his. All he had left was he Dark Beast activator. All he could do was negate the Acrobatics, he couldn't attack me and and I won. It was a very good game on both sides of the table.
Round two was against Kyle Smith and his deck of Adam Warlock, Malice, Scarlet Witch and Spider-Woman in reserve. He got to go first but he had two discards so he only ventured one while I ventured two. His first play was to get DOW on the table. This would be my best game of the day. He defended my attack and conceded. I never played an activator on his DOW.  Take that, you Any Hero lovers! Kyle never ventured for the game and after I managed to drag the game into the power pack, it was all over.
Round three was against Tyler Bertrand and it was back and forth the whole game. It was close but he beat me and ended up losing to his brother, Derek, in the championship game.
Round four was to see who got third and fourth place. I had to play Eric Yim who had Invisible Woman, Blue Beetle, Spawn and Deathbird in reserve. He won the first to ventures but after my KO event, he only won one more hand.
I got the Image Inducer insert and some X-Men packs for finishing third and I had one of the funniest tournament ever, despite the very bad start.

We played another tournament in the Danger Room back at the Mansion that night but I was tired and didn't do well. Scott Flint put me out in the first round of single elim and he almost made up for what I did to him earlier at the Regional. Everyone stayed up way too late that night but with so much fun going on, how could you go to sleep?
The next morning was more of the same great food and Maria insisted that we make a sandwich or two to take on the road for the long drives home. Thanks, Mom!

All in all, I would have to say that this weekend was one of my favorite weekends, in or out, of Overpower. Thank you, Bertrand family for making it an event to remember!!