1st Maryland Regional MERCS Tournament

This past Sunday I ran the first Maryland Regional MERCS Tournament!  I hope to run one about every three months alternating locations between Games & Stuff (who hosted this one) and Icons Comics & Games.  One of the main reasons I became a MERCS Black Ops representative was to run gaming events such as tournaments, and I've been planning this one for a while.

I worked with Sarah to make this tournament a success.  She is G&S's "minis guru" and put in a lot of effort to make Sunday go better than I had hoped.  We both spread the word via the MERCS Forums, and in the end we had ten players show up!  She snapped this picture of us before we started.

The players at the 1st Maryland Regional MERCS Tournament!

Sarah also went all out and made trophies for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place!  They are beautiful!

Left to Right: 1st, 2nd, 3rd place trophies.

In addition to trophies, the $10 entry fee went toward very generous prize support with the following breakdown: 

1st: Choice of MERCS Starter Box + Gold Trophy

2nd: MERCS Game Mat + Silver Trophy

3rd: $15 Gift Card + Bronze Trophy

It is also a tournament standard at the store that the last place player gets their $10 entry fee back in the form of a gift card, which is cool.  

Our game boards. Many thanks to everyone that set these up for me.

The format for the tournament was as follows:  Everybody plays three games with a 6-turn/1 hour time limit each (in the end the tournament took about four hours), at the end of each game the total Blood on your opponent is your score.  Winner had the highest Blood total across all three games.  Simple.

My feeling at the end of the day, and from those I asked, was that everyone had an intense three hours of gaming!  MERCS is a fast paced game and playing "under the gun" back to back for such awesome prizes made it intense.  That being said in the games I played and what I saw when I looked around I know everyone had a cordial and enjoyable experience.  It was pointed out on the Forums after the tournament that opponents were regularly calling modifiers against themselves (helping the other side win), so clearly everyone was in it for fun, even with those great prizes on the table.

My goal for the day was to have everybody have a good time and for people to get a chance to play somebody they'd never played before.  From what everyone told me after the tournament I'm sure I accomplished my mission.

Thanks to my buddy Thomas (Conphas on the Forums) for taking most of these pictures for me.

I have to call out Michael's CCCs.  Some of the most beautifully painted models I've ever seen. The cable at the feet of the Leader is a great touch.

Me doing some setup, aka "Black Ops'n."

Setting up for Round 1.

Round 1!

Round 2!

Round 3!

The Gracious Winners!

Peter won by a good margin, wish I could have played him.

Brian took second, and called for a round of applause for Sarah & myself. Much appreciated, sir!

Kevin took third.  It was my pleasure, sir!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to play any of the top winners.  Hopefully next time!

Congratulations, gentlemen!

I hope to see you all at our future tournaments!  Thanks again to Games & Stuff for hosting!

And because I love them, here are some random pics of games in progress.

Some KemVar hurt.

KemVar vs USCR

My red CCC vs Winfield's CCC, aka "The Board of Infinite Armor Break."

sefadu vs CCC

Waza with a KemVar Assassin! Oh, but is that a Waza Sniper scoring a head shot?! BOOM!