Reporting on Chan & Roun-Jian's Skud Pai Sho Tournament - Printable Version

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Reporting on Chan & Roun-Jian's Skud Pai Sho Tournament - BaronAlbatross - 08-07-2020

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Goodnight players and fans, rest up and be ready for more extreme summer fun as the tournament continues!

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It is the end of Day 2 and Chan and Ruon-Jian's Ember Island House Party Pai Sho Tournament is blazing on as the sun burns beyond the horizon. There were matches so furious today I could have sworn more than once I saw pixelated petals falling off their tiles as the flowers danced around the boards. Plenty of time could be spent replaying each match, but to keep you informed here are the highlights from the matches completed today.
TotallyPorff the brash Brit hashed out a clean win against bercuse with a balanced ring of roses and jades. It seems bercuse was attempting a flashy strategy having planted five flowers all of different kinds. Hopefully we will get a chance to see that play out in the L-bracket.
c0n0li0 defeated CarolBarra with a bright constelation of harmonies. Early on in the game c0n0li0 harmonized 3 flowers, but CarolBarra held a flower in the top gate preventing a premature loss. C0n0li0's responded by spamming out flowers at the bottom gate and shaking up CarolBarras hard won harmonies with his orchid. Finally CarolBarra was forced to bloom from the top gate and C0n0li0 siezed on the opportunity creating a ring that was double thick at the bottom. C0n0li0's response to the gate guarding seemed unorthodox, but it was effective and I would expect to see it tried again as more players review this match, and I encourage you all to do just that.
ZxTinyJ and ajsm had a lightning fast match, if you were distracted by the volleyball games down the beach for even a moment you would have missed it! Both players quickly deployed and harmonized their flowers, but ZxTinyJ took the win with a very well placed rock which left asjm defenseless to prevent ZxTinyJ from winning the very next turn with a short move and a wheel.
TheSchlunz and Urno1 completed a match today that could only be described as crazy. Like breathing blue fire and floppin like a fish crazy. Crazy! Both players exhausted their accent and special flower tiles and made their way well into their supply of basic flowers. Frankly it was hard to tell just what was going on for much pf the game, but as flowes bloomed moved, captured and wilted, TheSchlunz built up a robust pattern of harmonies. Whether by a grave mistake or as a sign of submission, Urno ended the game by moving a flower from between two of TheSchlunz's pieces thus completing the winning ring. Let me stress that in either case, TheSchlunz worked hard for that win!
LaoShagua defeated Sambrews in 8 turns, a swift and decisive game. Not much more can be said about it, except that at the end LaoShaga felt the odd sensation one gets after clubbing a baby seal. Heres wishing Sambrews better luck in the L-bracket.
payam took a win against mshires1124, by guarding the lower and left gates. mshires1124 failed to get the momentum necessary to prevent payam from making a fast ring of jades and roses.
Perhaps the most notable match today, Yagalo defeated Majora by the rare condition of owning more harmonies after being drained of flowers. My initial reaction to this game was to consider using explitives in my review. One look at the gameboard tells you something went wrong. To be fair both players did for a long time attempt to have a normal match, but play after play things got so out of hand that Yagalo had to sieze the opportunity to dump all their tiles in rapid order as there was no clear path to a harmony ring. A great game to spectate if you happen to be a masochist. Doing so infact caused dall(i)n to lose his mind for quite a while, triggering other players to join him in speaking in many various tongues, which I in German deemed a form of divine judgment against our hubris.
Parts of the world are coming awake now, but from my beach house it looks like I still have a few hours to catch a snooze. With only one day left and many matches left to be completed in this first round, we should expect day 3 to hold some fabulous surprises.

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Its the end of Day 3 of Chan and Ruon-Jian's Ember Island House Party Pai Sho Tournament, any unfinished games will be closed tomorrow 8/4/2020 at noon US Eastern time, so if you are one of those lolligaggers GET TO THE BOARD! We want to see more matches like we had today, and as a bonus we are keeping the seats empty at the Ember Island Players current act! Here are the highlights from todays completed matches.
Halon_Keiser and parsa's match began with conventional patterns, Halon_Keiser taking an early lead while parsa set up for a left/right 2 gate strategy. At the last moment parsa disrupted with a boat, and by maintaining the pressure on managed to keep Halon_Keiser scattered. parsa took the win by pulling the last flower out of the gate and using a wheel to complete a ring.
Dr_Archadus began his match against joblsshomlssboy in a verr offensive posture, planting his orchid on his first harmony. By holding a flower in the center of the board, both players were left to slowly reconfigure their arrangements until finally by moving the orchid out of the way Dr_Archadus completed a ring and won the match. The good Dr was quoted as saying "i just thought of things on the fly, i had no idea what i was doing". It goes to show that even in the absence of strategic training a strong mind can find success in Skud Pai Sho.
geebung02 defeated Lightheart in a close match, both players began forming rings pretty quickly but geebung02 hung back a bit and used an early orchid to disable Lightheart's tactic. A decisive final move blooming a rose and shifting tiles with a wheel secured the win.
LifeSizeTriangle was moved to the L-bracket by Burce after a tense match including a vigorous orchid battle. When the Orchids locked together Burce had a clear advantage at making a winning ring. LifeSizeTriangle was left scrambling for a defense after Burce captured his orchid and in a few short moves Burce had the win by employing the wheel tile.
Tomorrow opens up round 2 of the tournament, and I know you are all excited to play again and follow your favorites as we edge closer to to the finals. Remember we will begin to see players eliminated from the tournament in this second round, so give it your all! Until then rest up, grab some tea and watch the tides change hour by hour as you contemplate your place in the universe.

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Day 1 of Round 2 was a busy day here on Ember island, we saw an incredible number of matches completed. Before we get into today’s excitement, lets look over the incomplete matches from round 1.
Berserker2Fist was awarded a victory due to complete inactivity form Jrm4.
DragonOfTheNW was awarded victory due to complete inactivity form PaiHoe.
1GreatAdventurer beat Nobys_Nutz by having more harmonies with equal accent tiles when time ran out.
An_introvert_apparently beat 5up3r after 5up3r went afk and did not return.

Now that we are caught up on the last round, let’s dive right in to today’s matches!

Ohreaganoe made quick work of TheShlunz, both players having advanced to the second round by merit. TheShlunz was quick to get flowes out and even managed to threaten Oreaganoe with a clashing flower, but in the end Oreaganoe got the right flowers out of the right gates at the right times and steered himself into the 3rd round with a wheel.

Yagalo appeared to have an early advantage against TotallyPorff, making some quick harmonies while Porffy’s flowers scooted about the board. With victory withing reach for Yagalo, TotallyPorff launched his last flower into the gardens and used a boat to snap in his winning ring. You really have to see the match from the end to know what Porffy was up to, I could see how Yagalo may have been lulled into a false security.

Parsa soundly defeated Cabage_Peddler who must have not realized their sheer peril. Parsa managed to cause Cabbage_Peddler to concentrate their tiles at the top gate, and while he was trying to catch up Parsa’s white lotus bloomed and was launched into place by a well used boat.

C0n0li0 showed another very strong performance against payam, both players going for a quick 2 gate pattern, but mutually blocking one another. C0n0li0 deployed his orchid and gained an advantage by blocking and then capturing several flowers. Once the board was under control, C0n0li0 made a ring using payam’s lotus and a boat to complete the pattern.

Dall(i)n got his first match in the tournament today, facing off against ZxTinyJ and what a match! Both players were clearly operating at another level, both spamming out loads of flowers and working out complex patterns. ZxTinyJ deployed his orchid without a blooming lotus prompting Dall(i)n to get his out, but fully operational. Dall(i)n deftly navigate the whole board with his orchid, capturing, blocking and dodging from point to point. ZxTinyJ used his orchid to block one of Dall(i)n’s harmonies, but crated a catch 22 because moving his orchid at all would allow Dall(i)n to win on his turn. Dall(i)n captured ZxTinyJ’s orchid and from that point on he was completely focused on defense and unable to make a move toward creating a winning ring. In a flurry of disharmony captures and accent tiles Dall(i)n’s flowers drifted into a solid ring and with that he sent ZxTinyJ to the L-Bracket. If you are concerned with facing either of these excellent players in the future, this match is one that you must review in full.

TurtleGamin, our gracious organizer, may he live forever, had a quick match with geebung02. As the flowers began blooming geebung lost his momentum by sending out his orchid. He sent it right after TurtleGamin's red herring... Or red 4...? Regardless TurtleGamin had another waiting in the wings and bloomed it and wheeled a rose into position to make a ring.
samurai took on Berserker2fist with one win under his belt, and although both players are rather new to the game they put on quite a show! Both players got 3 flowers each harmonized in short order, but then samurai launched out with his orchid, full steam with a blooming lotus. Berserker2fist planted his orchid as well but kept his focus on building up a winning arrangement. Both players pulled of some great blocking with accent tiles and made a few captures with clashing flowers, but in the end samurai’s choice of doubling up on boats paid off as he lined up his tiles and removed a boat with his last boat forming the winning ring. Quoth samurai “it was a close one with missed wins on both sides but in the end i won”.

Pronetowander pulled a fast one on whitmore12 in their match today, pulling off a win by leaping from a single harmony to a full ring in one move. The match started with both players forming similar arrangements, but whitmore12 sent a ship to scuttle his opponent’s pattern. That move proved fatal and showed a distinct switch from a focus on winning to a focus on just not losing for whitmore12. Pronetowander sealed his fate by dropping a rock on the horizontal center line, dashing whitmore12’s hope of forging harmonies with his flowers planted at the gates on both sides. whitmore12 in an attempt to further stave off the inevitable botched the use of his second boat, lining Pronetowander up to end the match on his next turn. As someone who practices with Pronetowander I offer this advice to his future opponents. No. Sudden. Moves.
I, BaronAlbatross, the immutable, the humble did face off against the honorable Dr_Archadus. I went for a rapid pattern such as the one employed by Huu in day 1 of the first round. The persistent and flexible strategy paid off, unfortunately for Dr_Archadus he elected to block with a basic flower instead of deploying his planted orchid, allowing me to form my ring by rolling it out with my wheel. I attribute my victory to the super rad DragonForce music video I had playing on the TV nearby.
A bittersweet victory was achieved by LaoShagua after an intense match. Tree, encouraged by the good faith of his mother, burst out with a panoply of flowers, quickly moving toward a winning arrangement. LaoShagua realizing peace was never an option launched an effective reign of terror by way of the orchid. Tree made fantastic moves toward making a ring despite losing many of his tiles, but in the end LaoShagua formed a winning ring using tree’s own lotus. The frank and stark reality is that tree was about to win, until Lao Shagua whipped out an Orchid (Flower Muncher). The Orchid munched on every single one of Tree’s flowers that were in peace. Lao Shagua won the game. Tree was left feeling sad...alone...and sad.

Huu defeated resu532 in what was likely the longest and most perplexing match, which got a great deal of attention on the livestream today. The panel of commentators were perpetually 2 steps behind the players trying to discern their 3d chess level strategies. Both players pushed out a slew of flowers complicating the situation with disharmonies, Huu exhausted his accent tiles, but left himself in a strong position, rearranging flowers until finally resu532, distracted by capturing Huu’s orchid, allowed him to make a ring with no accent tiles. This was a very technical match, and worth reviewing either on the website or via the livestream recording.

parsa used the 5 flower arrangement to overturn Cabbage_Peddler’s cart. Cabbage_Peddler made a good effort to disrupt the pattern, but either intentionally or incidentally parsa held the gate he needed to make a ring until it was too late. A boat carried parsa’s lotus into position completing the winning harmony ring.

BattleKing00 came into round 2 with fury and a swinging hammer against TwoTheSecond. BattleKing00 used his first harmony bonus to disrupt TwoTheSecond’s only harmony with a knotweed, then using his second to roll TwoTheSecond’s flower out of range for further harmonies. Two the second pressed on, fighting back with an orchid and coming within a move of victory before BattleKing00 bashed him off to the other bracket.

Majora and berceuse faced off in the L-bracket and showed us that a loss is not enough to quench the spirit of hardcore Pai Sho players. Majora came out hot forming a solid arrangement, but berceuse responded with some harsh moves. Both players shifted and regrouped, well placed rocks prolonged the match a bit until Majora was able to complete his winning ring with a boat.

Thanks again to TotallyPorff for facilitating a fantastic livestream and for everyone who joined in on chat and live by audio. I would like to note that the revelry today was shadowed by a horrible explosion in Lebanon, our prayers are for the people. With that said let’s keep our heads up and be grateful for what we have and play every match like it’s the last.

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Well folks we had a knock out first day of round 2 yesterday, and today is what I call in shorthand R2D2, like that beepy dude from the space movies. Wrong saga. We had a handfull of matches completed and we can look forward to quite a few more tomorrow. Much of the W- bracket was completed yesterday but we were not without action there today! The L-Bracket was off the chain today with several noteworthy matches. Let’s check it out!
On the W-Bracket ShepherdL defeated Morbius15… OF COURSE HE DID HE ALWAYS WINS… >:| Sorry. The match went rather quickly, however Morbius15 did make a good effort to block. He seemed to be a bit confused as to what he should do about ShepherdL’s knotweed and never really got his momentum back after it was placed.
On the L-bracket, Fatzo106 stepped up to CatholicChris in the first match completed today. It was a quick match, but cleanly played. Both players moved for a 7 turn win. CatholicChris used an extra harmony bonus to leave a rock in Fatzo106's path, forcing him to try to block with a flower tile which CatholicChris deftly swatted away with a wheel once his pieces were in place.
CarolBarra did not meet anywhere near the level of resistance against mshires1124 as in the match against c0n0li0, and executed a rapid 2 gate formation from the top and bottom gates, completely omitting the other two. Now when CarolBarra had 3 of the 4 flowers in position mshires1124 cut them off with a boat, moving the topleft most flower up a space. Carolbarra bloomed the 4th flower and dropped a knotweed on mshires1124 eliminating their harmonies. Carolbarra then repositioned their top right flower and used the harmony bonus to remove the boat. Now, I’m not telling you how to do your job CarolBarra, but you might have achieved victory a turn earlier by using a wheel next to your top left flower, putting it back in place and rotating the boat out of the way to win 1 turn earlier. Again, you do you, just thought you would like to know.
Well that’s it for today, I can hear the tide coming in on my sandcastles and although I was proud of them, I can always make better ones tomorrow. Have a great night and be ready for more action tomorrow!

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Today was the final day of the second round of Chan and Ruon-Jian's Ember Island House Party Pai Sho Tournament, and what we lacked in volume of games we made up for in quality! Now players do have until 12PM US Eastern tomorrow to finish up their matches, and I am hoping to be able to review a few more games that are still ongoing. Since we don’t have a lot to go over tonight I would like to address a recent change to the official rules that may affect play in rare cases.
From ShinxKruez:
“Note this rule change for end-of-game in Skud Pai Sho in the case of a game not ending in a Harmony Ring...
...The game also will end when a player plays his or her last Basic Flower Tile. When this happens, the player with more remaining Accent Tiles wins. If players have the same amount of Accent Tiles, then the player with the most midline-crossing Harmonies on the board when the game ends wins (the tiles in midline-crossing Harmonies are in different quadrants of the board).”
There was some discussion of making the original rules available as an alternative, but I think we are done talking about the technical junk and the what-ifs. Lets have a look at what you read for, one of the most epic matches of the tournament so far!
Burce and 1GreatAdventurer gave us an excellent treat, their match ending with a 6-flower irregular shaped harmony ring. We saw a strong performance from Burce in the first round, but going in I was not sure what to expect from 1GreatAdventurer as their match was incomplete at the end of the round. This exciting match progressed quickly at first and 1GreatAdventurer took on an early advantage, very nearly making a winning ring before Burce pushed one of his flowers diagonally with a boat. Both players sent out their orchids without either having a blooming lotus. After a short scuffle and attempts to reconfigure the blooming flowers Burce did get his lotus out and immediately began capturing flowers. 1GreatAdventurer did an excellent job of pushing out more flowers in a defensive formation to slow the carnage. Burce balanced his rampage with his focus on victory and continued to move his flowers into position to make a wide ring of harmonies. At the very brink of defeat 1GreatAdventurer captured Burce’s orchid with nothing but a white jade blocking what would otherwise be a winning ring. Clearly 1GreatAdventurer was at a disadvantage as far as making a ring for himself although he did have the flowers on the board necessary to win. Only a few turns later though Burce came straight out with a spinning back hook kick, pushing his resources to the limit and forging an upside down L shaped chain of harmonies around the center of the board including 1GreatAdventurer’s own lotus for mega style points. Watch out L-Bracket players, 1GreatAdventurer has entered your arena and he has the chops to clean up the bracket. Congratulations to Burce for advancing again in the W-Bracket and earning the privilege of facing LaoShagua the Lumberjack in round 3 tomorrow.
Once again players, we have a few hours left to wrap up any unfinished games and we will begin round 3 matches tomorrow at 12PM Eastern time. In the meantime, find a new way to serve your neighbors and loved ones. The endorphins will give you an edge in the upcoming matches!

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RE: Reporting on Chan & Roun-Jian's Skud Pai Sho Tournament - BaronAlbatross - 08-11-2020

Well Ladies and Gentlemen I’m back on the horse after my brief internment at the theater, for those of you who missed it here is what happened.

“Hey guys I escaped. I got a wicked cold Friday afternoon and while I was weak the ember island players put me in a sack and forced me to watch them perform Love Amongst Dragons 3 times a day all weekend. It was brutal. Fortunately I was not too hungry cause all they gave me was fish broth and stale fire flakes. I finally got out this morning, I was feeling better and I insulted one of the actors. I crawled out the back while they had a collective emotional meltdown.”

Now we are into round 4, but we still need to talk about round 3! Now we did have a small change in how we are managing the L-bracket, TurtleGamin, may he live forever, will be opening up matches as soon as the slots are filled, so keep on your toes because if you finish a match you may be in your next match right away if your next opponent has already wrapped up their game. So with that, lets get into the reviews starting with the W-Bracket.

TurtleGamin opened up his match with samurai by taking over 3 of the 4 gates right away and then
pushing all the flowers into a chain that stretched from north to south. He very nearly completed a 5
flower ring, but samurai dropped a rock in the middle of his chain. This rock seemed oddly placed at (-
4,-1), however it proved to be an amazing obstacle as the game continued. With all his pieces in place,
but blocked by a rock and one of samurai’s flowers, TurtleGamin used his harmony bonus to plant his
orchid. Samurai by now did have 3 flowers arranged and planted another to get closer to building a
winning ring. TurtleGamin took one of samurai’s flowers with the orchid, but samurai quickly shifted
around and started building a new chain between north and south parallel to Turtle’s. Turtle got greedy
with his orchid and left it open for capture, samurai took no time to punish that mistake sweeping up
the orchid and forming a new harmony in one move. Both players shifted their flowers around a bit and
TurtleGamin ramped up flower distribution looking to make an east west ring. At this point samurai
had to break up his formation to block, but did so with the advantage of his orchid now running free
across the center of the board. Both players were very cautious as they looked for ways to make a
capture, but out of the blue TurtleGamin pulled a rose out that had been spending several turns in the
top garden, relocating samurai’s orchid whit a wheel and forming a winning ring. This was a great
game, and a good example of players taking the time and attention to recreate order when the board
gets chaotic.

TotallyPorff got the business side of ShepherdL in their match. Shepherd made a simple formation of
roses and jades, TotallyPorff made an effort to disrupt him with his orchid, sans lotus. ShepherdL mad a
quick harmony with his lotus and dropped a wheel, rotating the orchid out of the way and aligning his
last piece to make a winning ring.

DragonOfTheNW made aggressive moves in his match against Pronetowander, planting a jade against his rhododendron as his third flower. Pronetowander moved his rhododendron into the red garden, leaving DragonOfTheNW with a tile that didn’t match with his other flowers. This left him a couple steps behind in forming a ring. He stopped Pronetowander from taking an easy win by capturing his chrysanthemum with a lilly fresh bloomed from the south gate. He attempted to do the same at the north gate, but Pronetowander feinted flight and then captured the lilly when it pursued. Meanwhile, Pronetowander had been guarding the east and south gates, leaving DragonOfTheNW to dispatch flowers from the north gate. Pronetowander continued arranging his tiles and planted his orchid in the west gate. As a response DragonoftheNW took the bait and planted his orchid as well, failing to block Pronetowander as he bloomed from the south gate to win the match.

I myself BaronAlbatross met my match against C0n0li0 in more ways than one. It’s not every day you face off against your time travel duplicate clone! I’ll post my findings about this below, very illuminating revelations. As far as the match goes, it was a doozy! You can watch Skud’s review at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA9lrEgYL48 or for a brief rundown, just keep reading! So I know that C0n0li0 has a habit of running his orchid early in the game so I used my first harmony to get out my lotus, so as to be prepared. His very next move was to get his orchid out as I expected. I used my next harmony to get my orchid as well, but with the blooming lotus ready. I had begun the 5 flower pattern from north to south, but C0n0li0 had made better progress getting the same pattern from east to west. He dropped a rock along the center line at (-1,0) preventing me from getting a harmony. I responded by moving my orchid straight down, and C0n0li0 brought his up from the south gate blocking one of his harmonies. On his next turn he set his orchid next to mine, reforming his harmony and planting at the south gate on his bonus. This was the pivotal move in the game, and I responded as poorly as humanly possible. I could have easily taken his orchid with my rhododendron at basically any time at this point, but when the orchids locked I just ignored them out of hand. Instead I covered his lotus in knotweed and continued trying to make a ring. C0n0li0 began forming a ring from north to south, leaving his east west formation intact. Two ways to win is a good way to play! I did make an effort to block a few times, but eventually he did get a ring by slipping a jade in the south gate up into position, and including my own lotus in the ring by the north gate. Well played C0n0li0, that was a killer match and you worked hard to advance!

Burce ran a hardcore gate guarding against LaoShagua controlling all but the south gate early in the game. LaoShagua got his lotus and orchid in play, Burce elected to run the orchid without the lotus keeping it immune to capture by the basic flowers. The orchids quicky locked in the southwest garden blocking off one of LaoShagua’s harmonies. LaoShagua built up a glut of flowers at the south gate, but Burce managed to capture his orchid with a white jade. Commanding the south half of the board with the orchid, Burce built up the empty north half and ended the game with a very well placed wheel which simultaneously repositioned one of his flowers and moved LaoShagua’s out of the way.

Huu did similarly to Burce in guarding gates, but in the end parsa claimed another victim. parsa ran heavy on the accent tiles to disrupt Huu. Trading blows, Huu mad an interesting move shifting a boat out of a very desirable position for his last flower, but putting said flower 2 moves away. Huu took the lead sending out his orchid to disable parsa’s lotus, but parsa began capturing Huu’s flowers, starting with the lotus. parsa made a false move with the orchid however and Huu captured it, leaving it then in place while both players continued to bloom and arrange flowers. parsa pulled a somewhat unforeseeable win by forming a ring from 4 tiles, only 2 of which had been lined up at the beginning of the turn. Good match parsa! Hit me up for a game sometime!

Dallin dethroned BattleKing00 in a crazy fast match. The players began arranging roses and jades, Dallin getting ahead a bit of BattleKing00 who did attempt to disrupt with a knotweed and a boat, but Dallin had selected 2 boat tiles which he used to clear both tiles. BattleKing00’s last move was something of a defeated sigh, being unable to block in any way he simply shifted one of his flowers out of harmony. Dallin lined up his ring and left with the crown jewels.

Ohreaganoe made a goof in his match against An_introvert_apparently, but managed to bring it all together and win the game. Both players made about equal progress until Ohreaganoe put himself behind by planting a flower that would not harmonize with any of his blooming tiles, and far from a clashing tile to capture. An_introvert_apparently quite nearly won, except that Ohreaganoe stopped him with a rock while he moved out the correct flower and made a winning ring.

Matches from round 2 that were not completed were called as follows.
MidnightLotus vs. DragonOfTheNW, Dragon of the NW wins due to having more accent tiles
Cap vs. tsvi14, tsvi14 win due to inactivity from Cap
electrohex vs. Halon_Keiser, Halon_Keiser wins by the rule of most accent tiles when game finishes
PaiHoe vs. Michael_the_second, Michael_the_second wins due to complete inactivity from PaiHoe
Nobys_Nutz vs. LifeSizeTriangle, Nobys_Nutz wins due to complete inactivity from LifeSizeTriangle
Urno1 vs. Sachouh, Urno1 wins due to Sachouh inactivity
Arswe vs. An_introvert_apparently, Am_introvert_apparently wins due to complete inactivity from Arswe
Jrm4 vs. Mako27, Mako27 wins due to complete inactivity from Jrm4

I THINK we have weeded out all the inactive players now.

I’m about out of time so we will have to cover the L-Bracket tomorrow and start catching up to round 4. Regarding C0n0li0, I am reprinting what I discovered about the future of Pai Sho and the world.

“So this is going to be hard to believe. Honestly I couldn’t believe it myself but the evidence is overwhelming. Cannoli is me. OK not exactly me, but he is a time travel duplicate made by Russian agents from the future. Don’t believe me? Let me lay it out for you. It is the year 2084. The world is under a single government, there is no war, but neither is there peace. The government is not elected, nor are decisions made either democratically or by dictate. Everything is decided by Pai-Sho. Want to pass a new law? Pai Sho decides if it passes. Want to hold public office? You gotta beat the old guy first. Over the last several decades however, the great strategies have been taken away from the masses. Nobody can play on the level of the elites. They only train puppets who will carry out the will of a corrupt secret cabal, and win every time. The world is dotted with resistance groups, old men remember where the borders used to be, they long for the right to live for themselves again, for the liberty to prosper their neighbors. Some resort to violence and terrorism, but the machines always find them. Others have sought out a more harmonious way of regaining their national sovereignty. They play day and night to learn the ways of Pai-Sho, using illegally printed sets sometimes, even rocks on lines in the dirt when a sympathetic print shop is unavailable. Sometimes they make small gains, getting wise and honest men into local offices, helping the people to get the resources they need to survive. Rarely are they able to get very far at all.
One group had a different plan alltogether. They built a time machine. It would have been too complicated to go back in time and try to change the present, besides it would only change one timeline. What they needed was wisdom from the past brought to them then and there. This small group operating out of an obscure abandoned missile silo in the east of former Russia began sending agents back in time. They started by identifying players who once achieved considerable skill. They then went back to their birth years and abducted them, then went back, replaced them and re-abducted one of them thus creating time duplicate clones. They made clones of many players, and I was one of them. They dispersed the clones around the world and across time and raised them under mind control to be pai-sho machines. When they are ready they will be called back to 2084 to storm the government, take control and re-establish national sovereignty and the rights of each individual globaly. Until then they practice and sleep. They are moved from time to time, from place to place and they train. Cannoli is in the process of training to become one of the many players who will save the world of the future, but for now he must master this tournament. Thanks to time travel this is his 12th time playing the tournament. I don’t know much about the kind of life Cannoli has had, but I can see the future will be in good hands when they recall him back to 2084. For our timeline, all we can do is support and encourage... And teach your kids Pai-Sho before they take away our boards

Turns out alternate community tree is actually a time travel duplicate of tree. The clone told me everything.”

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RE: Reporting on Chan & Roun-Jian's Skud Pai Sho Tournament - BaronAlbatross - 08-13-2020

Good evening Pai Sho fans! We had a lot of excitement today, but here on paper we are still catching up. Majora has been killing it with livestreams so keep your eyes out for more of that jazz! The L-bracket is burning right along and the W-bracket is on the brink of finals and I for one am OUT OF MY MIND with excitement! Many of the matches recently completed and ongoing are LONG and players are getting a chance to show off their prowess and test their skills to the absolute limit. Now that I have you all rattled, let’s have a look at some more completed matches. Tonight we are going to go over round 2 of the L-Bracket.

payam and Urno1 had a downright ballistic match, both players ending the game without any special flowers or accent tiles to spare. payam went right for a fast north south ring, Urno1 blocked but payam had all the flowers he needed and sent his orchid out to clear his path. Urno1 planted his orchid as well but held it ready protecting his flower on the east side. Both players were tossing out tiles left and right, Urno1 forced payam to expand the arrangement east to west. All the while though Urno1 did not manage quite to make a ring of his own. This went on for some time, payam used the orchid to arrest flowers left and right, but when Urno1 bloomed his orchid payam pounced and captured it, but allowed his to be captured in the process. Both players made a big push to bloom more flowers and in the ensuing chaos payam made a ring by passing over the congested area surrounding the south gate.
Shader17 like many of the W-bracket players opened up by taking control of 3 gates, and holding on to 2 of them in particular until Yagalo bloomed his orchid and sent it into a commanding position in the upper white garden. Shader17 dodged and blocked, but his arrangement lost form and Yagalo managed to squeeze out a winning ring.
Mithrandir42 and ZxTinyJ began their match planting and moving out flowers and forming harmonies. ZxTinyJ took over 3 gates, a little later than the strategy usually prescribes allowing Mithrandir42 to get out the flowers he needed, but not in optimal positions. ZxTinyJ formed up a pattern from east to west while holding the south gate. Both players struggled against one another, shifting and blocking one another for several turns. Mithrandir slipped up, repositioning a rhododendron with a boat, which ZxTinyJ immediately put back in place forming a winning ring.
CatholicChris took a quick victory from Cabbage_Peddler, both players made quick moves and used tiles quickly and often. Cabbage_Peddler seemed to have changed plans early in the game putting him behind while CatholicChris hept the pressure on and pulled together a winning ring despite being pushed around heavily by accent tiles.
Majora defeated resu532 after a totally mind boggling match that ended on the special condition of running out of flowers. It started off normally enough, but it took a dark turn when they both got close to making rings. resu532 came out swinging with his orchid, lotus blooming and both players used clashing flowers to harass and capture one another's flowers. Majora took control of the east side of the board with an uncapturable orchid, holding the north gate as resu532 attempted to form up a ring from north to south. He was very nearly successful but spent his last accent tile to position his pieces. Majora prevented the win with a lone rose standing between resu532 and victory. Majora had no clear path to victory, and changed gears about this time pumping out flowers turn after turn, almost indifferent to the carnage resu532 was wreaking with his orchid. Majora did attempt, or at least feign an attempt to make an east west ring, but it was gobbled up. Only a few turns later Majora planted his last basic flower tile and won the game having saved his wheel and lotus tiles.
1GreatAdventurer got bumped off when he went up against Mako27 in a round as fast as the flash of a blade. 1GreatAdventurer got a great start by taking over 3 gates, but made a fatal mistake in opening up the east gate once Mako27 had formed up 3 of four parts of an east west ring. 1GreatAdventurer fought back using a clashing rose to capture one of Mako27’s jasmines, then blocking another harmony with a rock. Mako27 cleared it all up by blooming another jasmine, overrunning the offending rose and shipping off the rock on the harmony bonus for the win.

Lightheart and tree opened their match by mirroring one another perfectly up to turn 5. Both players played the neutral gardens, mismatching the position of the flowers against the colored gardens. Early on Lightheart attempted to disrupt tree with knotweed, but tree slid his flower out of the way and responded in kind. This move lined tree up to bloom a flower from the west gate and complete his harmony ring. The mighty tree lumbers on.

Tomorrow we will be catching up with W-bracket round 4 and getting current on L-bracket 3. L-Bracket 4 is also in progress so we will see if we can get into that as well. Even though the bulk of the matches are behind us, the best matches are still ahead so keep checking in here, watch the matches as the run and check in with TotallyPorff, Majora and their various guests on Twitch. Update on the Ember Island Players, I reported my experience, but the inspector did not believe me so they are not being investigated at this time. Apparently a reputation for being tactless makes you harmless in the eyes of the law. Don’t get caught alone and keep your eyes open. I fear greatly they will come up with a new means for revenge.

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Tomorrow the W-bracket goes into the semifinals, that’s right the winner of the W-bracket will be named in the next few days! Stay tuned in all the regular channels because it is going to be a whirlwind and you don’t want to miss a second! As an editorial note, I would like to clarify for the sake of his HONOR!!! that Majora did not intend to win by depleting his flowers, but had hoped to win by a ring, even at the end of the match against resu523. Alright now that we have done some housekeeping, lets get up to date with the fourth round of the W-Bracket.
The first match we are going to look at is a highly anticipated faceoff between our noble host TurtleGamin, may he live forever, and ShepherdL. TurtleGamin went after a 5 flower mono red pattern from north to south while ShepherL went for an east west 4 flower arrangement. Instead of planting his last flower, TurtleGamin shook things up by planting his orchid at the east gate and then pushed it out to arrest a flower and block a harmony. ShepherdL bloomed his fourth flower and put his own orchid in the east gate behind TurtleGamin's. ShepherdL then moved to make his last harmony, but fumbled with his harmony bonus, rendering both of his easternmost flowers captured by TurtleGamin's orchid. In order to keep his orchid from being captured, TurtleGamin used 2 flowers to make the last corner of his ring instead of bringing out his lotus. ShepherdL could only block by moving a rhododendrom, but it was not enough as TurtleGamin moved it along with his wheel making a winning ring.
Pronetowander achieved sente early in his match against C0n0li0. C0n0li0 as he has often done in this tournament planted his orchid early on, but Pronetowander punished this move severely, taking advantage of the timing to bring out his fourth flower and plant an orchid himself. C0n0li0 placed a rock in the way, but was left following Pronetowander around blocking his flowers until he ran out of options and Pronetowander completed his winning ring.

Burce and parsa went head to head in a hot match under the blazing Ember Island sun. Burce started the game by filling out the north east and west gates while parsa blitzed out to get his pieces in place. With the other 3 gates blocked, parsa was forced to bloom his fourth flower from the south gate, even though it needed placement in the northwest neutral garden. Burce meanwhile had begun an east to west formation starting at the east and then using a boat to move one of parsa’s flowers out of place with a boat as he moved out of the west gate. parsa responded by doing the same to Burce as he repositioned his flower, but Burce bloomed his orchid on the next turn blocking another harmony. Despite the opposition, parsa managed to get his fourth flower close to a winning position, forcing Burce to move one of his flowers out of place to block another harmony in the chain. Both players continued shifting their flowers around and planting new ones. Burce built up a similar pattern to the one parsa was working on and with his flowers in close proximity to parsa’s. Burce now was commanding the board only one turn from victory for several turns as parsa was forced to use every turn staving off defeat. Unable to get out ahead, parsa’s blocking flower was put aside by Burce’s wheel giving him a winning ring.

ohreahanoe and Dallin went head to head match that went off like a chain of firecrackers. ohreganoe as
host began the match by taking up the north, south and west gates while Dallin began positioning his two pieces. When he began blooming flowers he started off a very tight north south arrangement. Dallin gurarded the south gate where ohreaganoe needed to plant a final flower, but ohreaganoe did not waste any time and sent his orchid from the east gate to arrest a jade. Dallin also sent out his orchid without a blooming lotus, and after some confusion on ohreaganoe’s part it was revealed that this was so that it could not be captured by basic flowers. Dallin captured ohreaganoe’s orchid and began moving his flowers into position. ohreaganoe blocked deftly, but Dallin managed to slip past him and made a winning ring.

I said it once and I’ll say it again tomorrow begins the final round of the W-bracket so we will be covering that and catching up with the happenings on the L-bracket as well as we quickly approach the thrilling conclusion to this amazing tournament. Drink plenty of water in the heat of the day and enjoy your tea when the cool breezes come in from the ocean. Players keep sharp because the end is near!

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