Well, we had closed out our first of what will become an Annual event for Berks, the Four Diamonds Winter Blast, a team-tournament of Warhammer 40,000 with the intention to raise money to help fight Pediatric Cancer.
Check out the great coverage and in-depth battle report on Turn-8 Podcast, Episode 30!
This cause is near and dear to the hearts of many folks in our club and in fact as the author of this article, my own daughter Natalie, was diagnosed with Leukemia at the tender age of 15 months old, back in 2007. Thanks to Hershey Medical Center in Hershey Pennsylvania, the Four Diamonds Foundation, and THON...the Penn State Dance Marathon, they came to our aid as a family. They managed to help my daughter beat cancer, provided financial support and covered all medical costs outside of insurance, and other financial support. They also provided social workers, counselors, specialists for the children, and other help that one would not normally think of.
The local students of Penn State Berks Campus also adopted our family into their fold and invested their time into ours, interacting with both of my children and helping our family in many ways. This tournament was a chance for us to give back to those who helped not just us, but so many others.
So with all of that out of the way..... What the heck happened? Well, we pooled our resources and used the Multi-Purpose Room at Penn State Berks and threw a Warhammer 40K Team-Tournment and raised money for THON! (www.thon.org).
We had room for 10 tables, so we set up to have up to 40 players. We ended up with that...as we had 19 teams and fielded our own "ringer" team for the event. We played 3 rounds, each team consisted of 1000 points per player with a modified force organization chart.
We did something very different this time around as well. First of all, each mission was fun, and had a winter theme to it. There was some quirk about each mission that was tied in with winter, snow or storms. We also had no main prize table. Instead each player on each team won raffle tickets. Each prize we had donated or purchased was put up for a basket-style raffle. Players could purchase more tickets between games, but would win 20 tickets per player for a win, 10 for a loss, and 5 tickets each in a loss.
So, with every prize as a raffle, we had a modified force organization chart, some fun twists to missions, the pressure in winning everything at the tournament was lessened a great deal. Players were able to focus on fun and not about high competition. We had food catered at the event, cake, and just a great time overall.
Players got to play 3 games, against other teams. We also allowed and encouraged challenges...so one team could issue a challenge and it was up to the other team to accept it or not. This happened at least ten times during the event.
When it was all said and done, some of our key prizes, like the Horus Heresy Book 1 (Betrayal) from Forge World, and a Contemptor pattern dreadnought, and a full box set of Dark Vengeance for warhammer 40K were available.
It was a wonderful time. For me it was my 12th ever tournament/event that I hosted. It was wonderful. Everyone asked us to make this an annual event...so I think that we will. The students at Penn State Berks were thrilled because we set out a goal to hit $1000 and we did....we raised a grand total of $1008.00 for THON! FTK For The Kids! FTK! For The Kids!
Final results were determined by Battle Points first, and then by sportsmanship as a tie breaker. If we needed to, then we would have gone to head-to-head record if available. But it was not needed.
TEAM Battle points Sportsmanship
1. Brian Zhu/Myke Moll 38 15
2. Jared Neiman/Sean Feather 33 16
3. Jeff Ziegler/Tucker Stienmetz 32 16
4. Jon Kissinger/Johnathan Richards 32 15
5. Dave Setzman/Kevin Troust 31 15
6. Adam Johnston/Steve Smith 27 15
7. Bill Wagner/Chris Opdyke 24 18
8-A. Darryl Hartman/Forest Dougan 23 17
8-B. Andy Miller/Isaac Chiang 23 17
10. Jesse Dixon/Joseph Alati 23 16
11. Ringers (Berks Gaming Club) 23 15
12. Daniel Collison/Josiah Huss 23 13
13. Rob Dugid/Sam Dugid 20 15
14-A. Erik Shirk/Ross Famous 19 15
14-B. Alex Schleicher/Ethan Biancone 19 15
14-C. Ari Peck/Natahaniel Davis 19 15
17. Angel Crespo/Edgar Blum 18 15
18. John Tinney/Tom Lazarek 17 15
19. Eric Bates/Paul Bates 15 16
20. Andrew DiRodio/Micah Allen 11 16
I wanted to share this email I got from Bill Wagner from Turn-8 Podcast.
"Mike I wanted to tell you that I absolutely loved the point limit thing. I really feel that it made the games fun and forced a little balance. Would love to see more of that for next time.
The time you spent explaining each mission was also sweet. At no time did I feel confused or have a WTF are we doing moment. Keep that up.
Breaking the drawing's into 2 was a good idea. It kept things moving. Also get more contempter dreds for me to win. ;)
Thanks again for the great time and I'll see you at spring assault. With my super secret project #2. :D "
Now.....we plan for our next BIG event....Berks Spring Assault 4!.....April 13, 2013.
