Samurai
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I apologize in advance to everyone for the slight criticism that will be expressed here. I want to immediately clarify that I strongly support real-life gatherings of Heroes of Might and Magic players; I myself have attended three such events, so I want to personally thank Nagan for organizing this meeting – at least for the Dobberman!
Regarding the matter at hand: during the organization of the CIS Championship, I heard some rather offensive (to me) words from Nagan that stuck with me. Specifically, about the Kingisepp tournament – I'm too lazy to look for that post now, but back then, Nagan spoke about Kingisepp in a way that suggested it was more of a gathering of Heroes of Might and Magic players than a tournament, where the main focus was on entertainment and poker, and the participants didn't really care about the game itself. I have been closely following the Kingisepp tournament for 4 years (meaning I've attended 4 tournaments) and even participated in the one before last. I consider this tournament, in which the strongest Heroes of Might and Magic players regularly (almost always) participate (Alex, MikeSPB, Bayazet, Roland), to be the most "conducive" to serious Competitive play: the number of days for games is greater than in the CIS final, plus there's a great venue and a solid, experienced, and respected organizer, Napalm.
So, I decided to look around, read, and find out the opinions of the participants about what Eric organized, since for him, a tournament like Kingisepp doesn't seem to be taken seriously in terms of Competitive play, and Nagan himself has repeatedly noted that regular gatherings of Heroes of Might and Magic players and Competitive play in tournaments have practically ceased to happen recently (and yet, as I said, in the last 4 years – or maybe even more – the strongest players have been coming to Kingisepp and playing).
So, as I understand it from the forum and the opinions of the players, the gathering of Heroes of Might and Magic players was excellent, but there wasn't much of a tournament or Competitive play – a quote: "Everyone was just getting drunk. There wasn't a serious tournament at all."
I apologize to all participants for the criticism; please don't take offense – I am truly happy that you got together.
As for Nagan, I want to say that I am very disappointed by the lack of a strong Competitive element in the tournament. :(