Posts from Siberian Club Championship, also serving as a qualifying round for the CIS championship.

I wish my fellow countrymen success in this event, and I hope they attend a football/hockey game and don't overindulge in poker! It's a shame I couldn't come, but I'll be with you in spirit! :smile20:

Here are the results of the qualifying round:
Format: Place/Nick/Number of Losses
1. Dirty Player 3(0) - CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
2. Dust 2(1)
3/4. Deep Mike/Preds 2(1)
5/6. Van/Ernie 1(2)
7/8. Zadira/Colt 0(3)

Respect to everyone who participated; if there were any organizational issues, please accept our apologies :smile44:

Here are the results from the qualifier:

Uh... Where's the report with the photos?:smile30:

Um... Where's the report with the photos?:smile30:

It will be available later.

Vova aka Zadira, a guest from distant Syktyvkar


Valera aka Colt, moderator of Gugolka from Kemerovo


Erny, Kemerovo


Dust (Novosibirsk) and Van (Kemerovo)


Kostya aka Dirty_Player, Novosibirsk, 1st place


PReDS, Podolsk and Deep Mike, Prokopyevsk


Finally, we got together. Cheers to the meeting! Cheers to the start of the Tournaments!


The process...




Novosibirsk rules!!! :-)



There was poker and football...

Here are the results from the qualifier:
Format: Rank/Nickname/Number of Losses
1. Dirty Player 3(0) - CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
2. Dust 2(1)
3/4. Deep Mike/Preds 2(1)
5/6. Van/Ernie 1(2)
7/8. Zadira/Colt 0(3)

Is this a poker table, like the results of an SNG? )

The football match was great, it's a shame we won't see Siberia again soon - a team that plays with heart and emotion :(

Round 1, Game 1:

Dust (Conflux, Monere) def Colt (Rampart, Kyr), 135(?), Kill em all (fixed), SoD with TE interface

Valera and I agreed out of old friendship to play the good old Kill 'em All. One of our favorite "Siberian" fixes. We played on Impossible - 200%, and finished when, in the parallel game, Zadira and Mike were just finishing their restarts and starting the game.

A dynamic game with Phoenixes on my side, with building a second Capitol and Birds +4 (SoD) + Loga on Monere left the guru no chance to fight. :-)

Sort of Round 1, Game 2.

Since everything ended pretty quickly and waiting for the guys to finish their games who knows when on tedious random was a pain, Valera and I started playing an equally old and good G2.

By the way, I should note that it was Valera who taught my brother - Ernie - Heroes about 10 years ago, and he in turn taught me. So thanks to him, I play and win at this Game!!! Too bad they haven't played seriously for a long time, like in the old days... :-(

Dust (yellow, Sorceress, Barbarian) def Colt (green, Sorceress, ???) Teleporters, 200%, 133(?)

Because the last chest at 117 gave an artifact, I didn't build Phoenixes on the first week. Which, honestly, didn't upset me much, since Valera wasn't even planning to build them. But since the resources and money weren't spent, I decided to invest more heavily, because my neighbor above turned out to be a Warlock. On the second week, Green Dragons came easily, which were immediately recruited and sent along the chain to bother the green Sorceress. Of course, 4 dragons with decent attack tore everything apart there.

Total:
2 fixed games ended before the guys played 2 weeks of random. :smile02: Respect your time - play fixed :cool: , besides, after the game you won't need to spend 30 minutes talking about the unfair generator distribution on your side and the opponent's luck. :D

Round 2:

Dust (red Barbarian, Crag Hack) def Deep Mike (blue Rampart, Kyr) SM map, SoD, if I'm not mistaken, something like 137

I don't remember much of what happened here, although the game was quite interesting. Maybe Mikhail will tell more details. I only remember that I was starting to get tired after 2 previous games and the alcohol inside me.
My layout was excellent, I think for SM map: 1 external dwelling of Birds, 1 of Ogres, 1 of Orcs, and 3 of Goblins, all placed on the first week in Castle. I didn't build Behemoths due to lack of gold, there were problems with that.
Actually because of that, I went into the Medusa dwelling at 117 without even checking its quantity, just clicking "OK" on autopilot (lost concentration from fatigue and the good layout of external dwellings). In short, 50 Medusas stuffed me with 0 defense for all I was worth. Lost birds, orcs, goblins, -2500 on the hero... After that, everything wasn't so fun anymore. I played the second week completely losing any tempo, or simply put, wasted it entirely, although I was supposed to eat up my treasure zone with +4/4 Atk/Def, 3 Hives, and something else tasty. All of this was postponed by a week, and the second week I was just looking for gold to recruit the army and still build Behemoths, + scouting Dragon Utopias and Griffin Conservatories.
Anyway, it's hard to say, but I think we discussed after the game that Mikhail should have finished the game there, not letting it get to the point where I had something like 35+ Ancient Behemoths, which after taking +4/4 and 3 decent Hives found a couple of Dragon Utopias, Boots, and somehow managed to assemble the "Elixir of Life" :eek: :rolleyes: The plan was simple: upgrade the Bears, recruit everything, and come through the GO with the Elixir and scary Killer Ogres to the opponent, but then at 137 the game crashed on me for some damn reason :confused: , and we decided not to reload, since Misha had nothing to counter - no good magic was given...

Final:

Dust (red Barbarian, Tyraxor) lose Dirty_Player (blue Conflux, Luna), SM map, 131

Let Kostya tell this part, how he was spinning like a papal figure, taking 3 level 3 Griffin Conservatories with "Wall of Fire", and so on.
My layout was also good. I was given 2 external dwellings of Birds, 1 of Behemoths - I wasn't going to complain at all. Also, 2 Dragon Utopias were scouted, and +6 to All - all that was left was to recruit everything on the first day and go collect the goodies. BUT... at the most right and wrong moment on 127(!), Kostyan unexpectedly captures my capital. Respect to him for that - he didn't mess around, went straight forward, and ultimately deservedly took 1st place.
It turned out that I hadn't noticed the passage to the adjacent secondary town (didn't see the Golem, thought there were solid rocks there - I'm a careless dummy, I was already planning to take the level 3 Dragon Utopia the next day :smile09: )
The game, in my opinion, was worthy of the final, although of course Kostyan, besides 9 Angels, was also given Bronchild, who was already running around with an Explorer and Loga, but after Dragon Utopias and upgrading the Bears, I could have put up a fight... but alas - a tragedy of one tempo. :smile02:
__________

Overall, I really enjoyed everything: the tournament, the organization, and especially the wonderful company: guys who traveled halfway across the country to our Siberian backwoods to meet up, drink, and play Heroes and poker! Real respect to them, I hope it's not the last time!

P.S. I'm waiting for reports from the other participants, I also want to read, damn it, your scribbles ;-)

Is this a poker table, like a SNG result? )
The football was great, too bad we won't see each other with Siberia soon - a team that plays with soul, with emotions :(

Yeah, right, Dust went to such a football game at least once in the Premier League ))) By the way, Valenok also showed up at the football with friends! :-) Only the weather was, to put it mildly, not great, everyone got wet and somewhat froze. In such weather, it's better to sit on a warm couch at home with a cool beer ;-)
Well, the score was funny ))) We went into the stadium when it was 2-0 in favor of Siberia, we couldn't believe it at first!? )))

Thanks to the guys for the warm welcome and the patience with which they waited for the absent-minded guest.
Compared to the trip to Novosibirsk, the return journey went smoothly: the only mishap was that my bag's tag tore off while it traveled separately, but at the checkpoint they believed me quickly enough that it was mine.

I feel rested and refreshed, I just need to catch up on sleep:)

Regarding the tournament: the last person I wanted to play against was Kostya, and he felt the same about me, but before the draw he predicted: "You'll see, we'll play in the first round" — and that's exactly what happened.
Dirty_Player (blue, Conflux, Luna, Luna/Nela) def PReDS (red, Barbarian, Tyraxon, Tyraxon), Jebus Cross, 132(?).

We played BT without experience, tax, or bank. We agreed on morale, but during the resets we had to restart the game, the settings were lost, and we didn't notice it right away.
Dirty once again demonstrated superb play with Luna, while I fell into a financial crisis on Jebus Cross early in the second week — I had built bears in the Citadel at home and in the fort on secondary with an external dwelling, but I found no gold to buy all that, let alone upgrade the bears. Then my prophecy came true — Kostya's GO turned out to be fairies, which the gr. psychos from 4 external dwellings happily wiped out. As a result, I broke into the center much later than Kostya, hung around there for a few days, and surrendered.

After that, I made my way through the losers' bracket quite comfortably (we played as if double elimination, but due to time constraints it was decided that the finalists from the winners' bracket would take 1st and 2nd place, and Deep_Mik and I didn't play for 3rd).

PReDS (blue, Conflux, random, Wystan) def Colt (red, Castle, Caitlin, Christian), smka, 135(?), SoD.
Super layout with monks guarding 2 secondaries and a horde of harpies with an upgraded stack guarding the third. Zero gold at respawn, except for a pre-max crypt on 111, on the first secondary I only broke through the harpies, first softening them with Gird and archers at 42 (exactly 3 harpies), then took the dungeon. On the first secondary — water elementals at the Citadel with an external dwelling, markets, thousands, dungeon without portal. On the second secondary I broke through everything needed, placed phoenixes, and the rest was routine. The visit through the secondary came as a surprise to the red player.

PReDS (red, Dungeon, Shakti, Shakti) def Erny (blue, Castle, Caitlin, ??? (I don't remember)), Balance, 132, TE-lite.
An external dwelling of minotaurs for Dungeon on Balance — that says it all. Quickly got log, earth, found boots. The pressure was that tactics wasn't leveled, and the entrance to the teleport near the opponent was guarded by titans. At my GO — 90+ bulls — it became advanced, 2 angels and a gr. harpies held them off in the first round, and then the minotaurs arrived and sealed the deal. At the exit, a horde of gr. cops and a final fight for the blue player with no chance.

Thanks to everyone for a pleasant and interesting trip.

I’ll write about my games.
First one was against Zadir on SoD, me playing Conflux against his Rampart. The generation was very bad; I immediately used a restart on 113 without leaving the respawn. After that, my opponent started taking restarts despite having a good position, seeing an external dwelling of horses at 1 day's march... Then there was a restart due to an encounter. In short, by the time we started, Dust had already finished. In the end, the generation turned out normal — no bonuses, but birds on the first easily stood up. My opponent miscalculated his strength in real life, having had several sleepless nights, and in the end couldn't take it, went to sleep and surrendered the game )).
The second was against Dust; he described his side. I’ll add mine. Even before the tournament I had a feeling that I wouldn’t win this time, and specifically that I’d lose to Alexey — "his premonitions did not deceive him" (C). At first, there was no reason to complain about the layout: a very big money respawn, a secondary dungeon in the underground, later a secondary in a huge swamp. But there were no external dwellings. In short, territory covering half the map plus the underground, easy building with tons of gold, plus I freed Locus from prison at level 10 with expert Logistics and Armorer skill. As a result, I never decided who was the main hero — Kiril or Locus — and never seriously leveled either of them, though as it turned out there was nothing to level them on. After the first week, everything seemed fine — each respawn had a Griffin Conservatory scouted, though very far apart, and a Dragon Utopia in the underground. After the game, it became clear that having taken 3 angels from two Cons, I should have immediately used the secondary to find a passage to the opponent (the Novosibirsk players said I should have hit a GO with 3–4 crystal dragons, but they’re clearly optimists — going with a two-week Rampart army plus 3 angels on a weak hero into relics; even if I’d managed it, I wouldn’t have been in any state to attack). But on one hand, there was still stuff to clear — 2 Hives and a Con in the swamp and the Utopia — and on the other, I didn’t know what my opponent had; from conversations it was clear he had a great roll, and the passage wasn’t scouted. In a Castle I definitely couldn’t have killed him even if I’d passed through — I could only have pressured him. In the end, I started gathering whatever I had. Due to huge distances and the swamp, it wasn’t very fast despite having two Logistics expert main heroes. And I got a complete bust — the last Con was minimal, the Utopia was also minimal, giving a worthless artifact +4+4 to spell power and that’s it. After that, I rode straight through two underground treasure zones, just wasting two weeks. I can’t recall such worthless treasure zones — I didn’t find a single Hive in them, let alone new Utopias. There were a couple of weak artifacts and useless Pandora’s Boxes; they gave no magic, nor did the mage guild I built at home — complete junk everywhere. So when the game crashed, I decided not to continue. Crag Hack had a huge advantage in both army and stats; my 5 gold dragons and the Vivi from the secondary weren’t going to change anything.
In the third game against Wan, at first I thought I’d just gotten lucky — I very quickly grabbed two secondaries, both native, and Kiril on top of that! I was playing Castle against his Fortress. But it turned out even if there had been four of them, it wouldn’t have mattered much. The respawns were small and poor, with no external Hives and only one Con on the outskirts. In the end, I built Angels in the Castle on my home turf, and on the second week somehow built cavalry in the Citadel on one of the secondaries. I went for the Con — of course it was minimal. There were two Naga Banks — both minimal too. In the underground, I scouted a super treasure zone with 4 Utopias, but I had nothing to go there with. On one of the secondaries, though, I got lucky — for 4 gold and 4 green dragons, I took a Pandora’s Box with level 4 magic, but at that point I didn’t even have Earth skill. Later I did get lucky, got the skill, and gained Resurrection and TP. My opponent, as it turned out, had 7!! Cons, not strong ones, totaling 12 angels, but that was more than enough. On top of that, he had an external dwelling of Hydras almost from the first week. In short, if he’d come to me in the third week, I probably wouldn’t even have put up a fight — I’d have had to go into the treasure zone without leveled Earth magic and with a weak army, and how do you take Utopias, especially one next to which a +4 all stats shield was guarded by 12 black dragons... But Tazar only came at the very end of the third week and didn’t manage to capture my dwelling spawn. A couple of days earlier and I’d have been done. Also, my opponent was running low on time and started making blunders under pressure. So I managed to buy all the spawn with a banner from all resources and flee into the underground for the Utopias. There I also found 3 Hives with 8 Vivi each. Mana was scarce, though, and I could only resurrect the most important things, saving enough mana to restore for TP. The Utopias were compact; I managed to clear all 4 and TP to the last remaining secondary just before it was captured by my opponent's troops. The Utopias were good — helmet +6 all stats, Tome of Earth, Titan’s Cuirass, sandals +2 all stats, I already mentioned the +4 all stats shield. Only I didn’t have a single sword, not even the weakest one. After restoring mana, Kiril took back his castles. Tazar apparently left to clear some treasure zone — luckily not an Inferno one, where I still had a Utopia and Hives scouted. Kiril went there, finally got a Titan’s Sword for stat boost from the Utopia, boots, and found Air magic for control in a Pandora’s Box. The Hives gave a decent number of Vivi. The finale was in the swamp: Tazar sat in the castle with 16 Hydras, 12 Angels, 48 upgraded Hydras, plus black cows and chaff. Kiril had 46 basic Vivi, 134 shooters, 27 Champions, plus Swordsmen and Griffin. Tazar’s army was certainly bigger, but Kiril’s stats were higher, and Tazar had no magic resistance. With expert Tactics and Mass Haste on the first turn, I took heavy losses, but a 2500-damage Explosion decided it. I had enough meat to survive until the opponent’s striking stacks were wiped out. If needed, I planned to summon Earth Elementals.

Well, it's about time I wrote down everything I think about this! :)

It all started for me late at night, when Lyokha sent me a text asking me to urgently call him back... And then it took off. I met Vovan at the train station. Then there was a tour. We met Dima and set off. Upon arrival, the Kemerovo guys were already waiting for us at the headquarters with a laid table :) After the feast, some chatting, and also finalizing the rules (by the way, the rules seem great to me for a small number of games and limited time), we started playing cards. I tried my hand at preference, which turned out to be a very interesting game! Some were playing poker, but I easily traded it in for preference. :) About the draw: I really didn't want to run into PReDS, but I was sure it would happen...

Dirty_Player (blue, Conflux, Luna, Neela) def PReDS (red, Stronghold, Tyraxor, Tyraxor) 132, Jebus Cross
We started off lively. 4 external dwellings of magic elementals, a mini-Griffin Conservatory, and several Dragon Fly Hives. On day 1 month 1 week 3, I decided to attack the cerberi, which turned out to be 41 of them, and they sent my army to rest. This was the only time in my entire game that I lost and didn't take a restart :cool: ! Luna took the mini-Griffin Conservatory, then the external dwelling of magic elementals, and the rest fell by day 1 month 1 week 7. I placed them in the castle without birds. On the second week, I recruited, and there were as many as 26 magic elementals!!! While Luna was getting the Titan's armor and Dragon Fly Hives, Nelka found the GO. (Dima joked before that, like, your fairies will be GO) and so it happened. After upgrading the magic elementals, I pass them to Nelka, who, with single units, breaks the dragons to pieces. Since Luna fell behind in the depth of the respawn, it was decided to do business with Nelka, who had leveled up quite a bit after the GO. Killing some other weaklings, she stumbles upon devils guarding Krylia and Chaynik :eek: . They turned out to be 8+7+7+7. After this fight, life became much more fun. Next, a Book of Water came to hand. Taking it, Nelka even outpaced Luna, who had just arrived at the center for the library. Tyraxor appeared, but not quite reachable. So Nelka takes a Dragon Utopia on her native respawn, which contained a Book of Fire, while Luna had 30 spell power!! Then we decided not to continue.

After the game, we went for lunch a.k.a. dinner, and just to walk around the city. Upon returning, we started playing the second game. I got to play against the organizer, which made me happy because I hadn't had a chance to play Ivan before.

Dirty_Player (red, Stronghold, Tyraxor, Tyraxor) def Van (blue, Conflux, Monere, Monere) 127, Jebus Cross
Good start. On the first day, I flagged the external dwelling of bear riders, on the second the mini-Griffin Conservatory. By day 1 month 1 week 4, I had already upgraded 2 bear riders, who were burning everyone no worse than Luna :D By the end of the week, I took another external dwelling. A third one was found, but by day 1 month 1 week 7, I simply didn't make it in time. On the second week, 8 cyclopes were tearing through absolutely everything, including the GO :) Having collected all the good stuff along the way to the central castle, I scouted the blue player. Taking a Dragon Utopia and doubling my mana to 520 with overwhelming stats, I catch up with Monere. Victory!!!

Having won two games and made it to the ITM, I went to sleep thinking about how to beat my rival from Barnaul. At that moment, Mike was leading in his game against Dust, and the probability of his victory was very high. I wanted to watch that game to the end, but I completely passed out. I woke up and found out that I was actually supposed to play against Lyokha! We had played countless times before, but never once finished a game. This was a great opportunity to finish one! After visiting the Beer Academy :cool: we started playing!

Dirty_Player (blue, Conflux, Luna, Broghild) def Dust_HL (red, Stronghold, Tyraxor, Tyraxor) 131, 2sm4d(3)
The layout is normal. On the respawn, I immediately found an external dwelling of welders and a Griffin Conservatory on weeks 3-4. Broghild arrived and got the log. I captured a necro secondary town next to which there was an exit to the treasure zone. In the treasure zone, a Prison was visible, guarded by 5-9 upgraded bear riders, plus an Air Sphere. I decided to hit them on week 1, which I did towards the end. Inside was Adelaide level 5, which upset me a bit, but the Sphere of Air is an excellent trump card for a rush. Birds were built in the stronghold on week 1, and Broghild also got an Explorer! On the second week, I captured the native secondary town, next to which a second Griffin Conservatory and a Dragon Fly Hive were found. The Griffin Conservatory near the castle turned out to be level 3 (guarded by liches, which killed the bird, although the computer suggested not losing it :smile11: ) I didn't go into the Conservatory immediately, but just spent the night in it. During Lyokha's turn, I thought out a capture plan. Still, only 10 power, and a level 3-4 Conservatory with Ghost Dragons. I finally decided to go in, and it turned out not to be in vain. The level 3 fell, and with the angels, everything else breaks without problems. I took the second Conservatory, sent Broghild through the adjacent secondary town. Meanwhile, in the castle, I was building a mage guild; on the 2nd floor, I got lightning bolt, and on the 4th floor, berserk :smile41: . On day 1 month 2 week 7, Broghild, having 3600 movement points with some to spare, reaches the enemy capital, where Luna is being recruited. The chains were broken, the growth was taken, the plan succeeded. On day 1 month 3 week 1, Brogh scouts Tyraxor in a secondary town, and Luna reaches him just in time. In the final fight, the Barbarians had no chance!

After the game, in high spirits, I went to visit an old friend from Kemerovo, at whose place we sat down to play poker on Stars, and not according to bankroll... After losing quite a bit, we still managed to pull the session to +$6 for the two of us :D :D :D .

The next day was departure from Kemerovo. As usual, everything was stretched to the last moment, just to barely make it to the football match, where guests from glorious Novokuznetsk were already meeting us. We were 6 minutes late for the football. It seems like such a small thing, but Sibir was already leading 2:0 against St. Petersburg's Zenit!!! :smile11: But we started off well and conceded 5 goals! :smile32: Sibir leaves the Premier League, and we left the stadium. After settling the delegation at a safe house, I went home. Let them tell you what happened there :D The next day, I picked up Zadira and put him on train 067, which would deliver him to his native Syktyvkar in a few days!

THE END!

P.S.: I want to thank all my opponents for the intense games, in each of which victory came with great difficulty. Thanks to the guests from faraway cities for coming to Siberia! I was very glad to see Dima - PReDS again and to meet Vovan - Zadira! I was very happy to meet the founders of the Kemerovo school of heroes for the pleasant conversation and the preference game ;) Special thanks to Ivan for the warm welcome and excellent organization! Everything was very decent and of a high standard! Thanks to everyone who cheered for me. And also a special thanks to Luna, who brought me victory — I knew you wouldn't let me down, my friend!!! :)

...
And a special thanks to Luna, who brought me the victory, I knew you wouldn't let me down, friend!!! :)

And now, all together:
LUNA! LUNA! LUNA-A-A!

And now, all together:
MOON! MOON! MOON-A-A!

:D

Moon! Moon! Fathers, fathers,
They all trusted her offline,
And hopes, and dreams...

Moon! Moon! A wall of fire...
We missed her so much on the respawn points,
Her "burning warmth"...

:smile13: :smile49:

;) :cool: :smile54: :smile54: :smile54: :smile49: :smile13: :smile12: :smile03: :smile02: :smile01:

I want to express my huge gratitude to the guys, thank you for the warm welcome, everything was great!!! Now I'm sitting at the station in Kirov and have no idea how to get out of here, and I've almost spent all my money at the train restaurant)))

Yes, as mentioned above, I miscalculated my strength and at the beginning of the tournament, I wasn't really focused on it, but I had a lot of fun, but all this negativity washes away with poker)) I lost in Heroes, but I punished everyone in cards and made a good profit for a relaxing time at the restaurant))) I'll post photos later.

And here it is! Meet the mascot of the Siberian team of heroes, faithfully accompanying us from tournament to tournament!
This time, it's not as glamorous as last time, but still... :D


Participants of the competition, and I must say, they are sober! :p


PReDS and Siberian pancakes


The football match ended in the rain, but the score was almost dry :rolleyes: