“Two Seasons: Summer-Autumn 2016” Tournament. Online games for rating (reports, discussions).

A beautiful game. I paid a total of 8K for the Castle and the color. After the rests, I found myself in a tough spot. For the first 2 days, I had 3 heroes, both directions blocked. I got lucky with a nearby hive - 6, I took it on 113 and, through Vivi, snowballed. I never managed to get a strong hitting stack by the end of the week; the GO was very far away. On 122, I scouted two Conservatories in completely opposite directions (they later turned out to be 3+3), but I didn't spend a day on them before heading out, and that probably decided the game. I broke out on 123 with a strong start: 18 Vivi, 220 Troglodytes, 17 Beholder Lords, 25 regular Beholders (very fitting in the box, right before the GO) through the Gold Vaults. The Beholders from the box served as excellent dragon fodder. Right there was a central Tavern. Despite having only enough gold for one hero, I decided to build the Tavern instead of the Lookout Tower. And that also sealed the deal. On 124, on my last moves, I took a Sword of the Chosen and a low-tier Dragon Utopia with a +12 Sword and +12 Shield, and another Sword of the Chosen. Andres appeared right there with his Sultans and, as it turned out a bit later, an Armorer; so without the Sword of the Chosen, I had absolutely nothing to do there. I took the central swamp, gathered 50+ Vivi, and upgraded them. I went for my opponent's respawn and captured their capital. 3900 MP + CV against Andres lacking Air Control was encouraging, but the prolonged absence of Town Portal was very stressful. There followed long and tense wars of chump units, which I mostly lost for the obvious reason of lacking Town Portal (Andres had TP). Finally, on 144, I took a Dragon Utopia in an adjacent zone with the Sword of the Chosen, after which my opponent surrendered. Analysis showed that if not for that Sword of the Chosen, we could have kept running for a very long time, and in the far lategame, Andres would have been quite able to win, not just play for a draw. Thanks for the interesting game!