Earth Rumble VII Skud Pai Sho Tournament

[Cannoli]

Welcome Pai Sho fans to the sixth day of the Earth Kingdom Rumble VII! I know you are all excited for round 3 to get underway, but remember we still have matches running in round 2! And there were some seriously high profile matches yesterday that we need to talk about!

WINNER’S BRACKET ROUND 2
TheRealMomo and DerHerrPeer put on an incredible show for us, as we should expect from these players. TheRealMomo opened up with a gratuitous gamut of gate guarding sequestering the bulk of DerHerrPeer's growth to the south gate. On turn 7 TheRealMomo was threatening a winning ring, but a well placed rock turned the tables putting DerHerrPeer a move away from victory and TheRealMomo a few turns back. Both Orchids then came into play and the fighting around them lasted almost 10 turns. On turn 21 DerHerrPeer used his last accent tile to stave off TheRealMomo and as I often tell new players, many matches will come down to who can hold on to their last accent tile the longest. This proved true once again as TheRealMomo was now at liberty to disrupt DerHerrPeer with a boat and then roll into a winning ring with his wheel.

Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone in between, you are not going to BELIEVE how crazy the match was between Adder and Dallin! It’s truly something you have to see to believe! Dallin began the game with his favorite 3-5 opener, yet Adder did something Dallin did not expect, electing to move his rose out of the gate on his first turn rather than planting a second flower tile. Dallin planted in the West gate, likely thinking that Adder could not play well without access to it, yet it was all part of the plan, and Adder planted a jade behind his rose. Surprised or not, Dallin remained composed, and began working towards his first ring threat, using his lotus to make up for his inability to plant basic flower tiles on harmony bonus. Adder quickly took the Southern gate, yet Dallin used part of his opener to further slow that ring attempt down. Dallin planted his orchid after bringing out his lotus, putting pressure on Adder’s ring threat, and was able to keep Adder on the defensive for much of the early game. Adder used both a knotweed and a boat to try to block Dallin, though his placements only stalled temporarily, and he relied more successfully on basic flower tiles to block Dallin’s ring. Adder brought out his orchid and lotus, capturing Dallin’s lotus yet getting captured in the process. Even still, it was enough to even the playing fields, and both players moved their focus back to creating new ring threats. The two players danced back and forth, with Dallin maneuvering around skillfully as Adder pumped out basic flower tiles to both block his opponent and create threats of his own. Dallin soon followed suit, chaining together harmonies to try to get a new angle of attack. Yet neither player could quite find an opening to form a ring, and it soon became clear that the game would go into alternate win conditions. The two players created and blocked midline harmonies, but Adder had the clear advantage—with only one basic flower tile left, he got to decide when the game ended. Adder waited for an opportunity, and when the moment presented itself, he took it, planting his rhododendron and winning the game with more harmonies crossing midlines! What a show these two players put on! We look forward to seeing how each of them fares in their respective brackets!


LOSER’S BRACKET ROUND 1

To anyone who thought the L bracket was going to be a snoozefest, let me tell you; You aren't only wrong, you're downright loopy! Case in point, the first finished match of the day on the L bracket between two relatively new players GoodorBlue and Ultra. Now as in his last match, Ultra struggled to make a cohesive pattern in the beginning, meanwhile GoodorBlue at the same time was being very generous with their accent tiles. Turns 9-14 were an extremely intricate interplay which I will leave to you academic types to interpret, meanwhile neither player appeared to have a clear advantage. On turn 16 however Ultra moved two pieces off the centerline and made a winning ring, truly a top shelf finish.

Markdwagner vs Lamya was an excellent match, and a beautiful demonstration of why rushing out accent tiles can work to a player’s advantage! Lamya started out with a 5-3 opener, and Mark opted to play a 5-4, using the positioning Lamya left open to gain a speed advantage. Even as host, Mark did not seem all too interested in playing for gate control, and he let Lamya use opposite gates to quickly catch up. Instead of panicking and going on defense, however, Mark kept his cool and continued his ring threat, using accent tiles on his harmony bonuses to slow down his opponent. By turn 8, Mark was down to just a wheel, and Lamya still had all of their accent tiles remaining. Despite this, Mark still had an offensive threat, and he pressed it further and further with each turn, until he finally broke through with a beautifully simple four piece ring on turn 16!

CatholicChris vs Morbius15 was an interesting match, and it ended on a surprising note! Morbius began with a 3-5 opener, and CatholicChris followed suit. Morbius elected for a more flexible approach, strategically planting and moving rather than rushing to the first harmony, while CatholicChris went for the traditional 3-5 starter. Chris managed to catch up to Morbius’s ring threat using a rock to slow them down, and Morbius was forced to defend as Chris used a boat to remove their first knotweed block. From there, the two shifted back and forth as CatholicChris blocked Morbius’s attempts to form a harmony on the West side of the board. Impatient, Morbius brought out his lotus, planting an orchid on harmony bonus in order to get rid of Chris’s pesky basic blocks, but this did not faze Chris. Chris allowed his rose to be captured, planting an Eastern jade to begin a new ring threat altogether. Morbius moved his lotus up to threaten a ring, yet this move ended up being his downfall, as CatholicChris used this lotus to win the game on the next turn, securing his place in the next round!

Written by BaronAlbatross and Cannoli