Warmachine: Gencon Masters 2010 Results
Let’s take a look at the faction spread of the Master’s Tournament: (many thanks to Guts’n’Gears for compiling this!)
Jason Flanzer (Khador) – 1st place
Chuck Elswick (Cryx) – 2nd place
Remainder of the Top 8 (in no particular order):
Jake Van Meter (Legion)
Brian Gylling (Protectorate)
Eric Dietsch (Protectorate)
Sam Lam (Protectorate)
Keith Christianson (Cryx)
Louis Coduti (Cryx)
Remainder of the Top 16 (in no particular order):
Matt Kotovsky (Circle)
Nigel Brooks (Khador)
Brandon Andrews (Cygnar)
Matt O’Riley (Protectorate)
Jeremy Constance (Legion)
Malone Screen (Circle)
Jeff Long (Cryx)
Devon Goda (Cryx)
That’s 5 Cryx players, 4 Protectorate players, 2 Circle players, 2 Legion players, 2 Khador players, and one Cygnar player. Without getting all Blood of Kittens, there was also a Skorne player who qualified for the tournament, but was disqualified from a later tournament and hence not allowed to participate in Masters.
What we can Learn about Mk II from these Results:
Making broad generalizations from a single tournament result is generally a bad idea; that said, there’s some interesting data to be mined from these results.
For starters, only 1/4 of the top 16 had Hordes armies. This is somewhat expected, as the Hordes Mk II card decks were released with only weeks to prepare for Gencon with definitive knowledge of what models did (particularly very powerful models [e.g. – Typhon]). While the .pdf released after the field test had only slight differences from the final Mk II cards, it would have difficult to bank on taking (and painting!) a faction you weren’t certain you’d have time to prepare with.
Another interesting result regarding Mk II – its allows for strong players to win without having to take one “uber build” or one faction. Jason Flanzer (aka – JBFlanz of Iron Agenda fame) won his final game using Kommander Sorcha (aka – Sorcha1 or pSorcha) – a feat no one would have predicted based upon the strength of that particular warcaster. The vast majority of players in the top 16 are well known high-level players; this is a welcome change from the days of Mk I where certain warcasters (e.g. – EVlad) were dominanting the tournament scene.
What we can Learn about the Mk II Meta from these Results:
Early predictions for the winner of Masters based solely on faction typically had Cryx and the Retribution at the top of the list, with Circle, Protectorate, and Cygnar in close second. Khador winning certainly drove home that player skill is a massive factor in winning (as is the tournament format – more below).
Retribution’s absence from the Master’s tournament certainly came as a surprise; however, when looking at the format for Masters (potentially 4 rounds, each requiring a different warcaster), this becomes less shocking. While the Retribution have access to 2 very strong warcasters (Rahn and Raven), their options for the remaining 2 rounds suffer from severely bad match-ups.
However, the same could be said of Legion of Everblight, which two players selected for the finals. Dare I say it: Is WM/H close to a point where player skill so greatly outranks model balance that tournament results are reflective of player ability only? Only time (and The Warstore Weekend/Templecon 2011) will tell!
In closing: This is only the tip of the iceberg. The community’s reached an important milestone: Mk II is fully released with only the Hordes Force books left to go. With the announcement of Wrath and some of its goodies, the community has a lot to look forward to and a lot to learn. Viva Mk II!
This article only brushed upon the myriad of results from Gencon, and none of its surprises (new character jacks! Gatormen warlocks! Rumors of new Warmachine model types!?!). If you were at Gencon, or have some special insight into the results above, then please: let’s hear it!
