Earth Rumble VII Skud Pai Sho Tournament

[Cannoli]

"Scoffers set a city aflame,

But wise men turn away wrath."


We are back from the weekend and tonight marks the end of another round. We saw some action over the last couple days so lets recap before we get into the new week and the last stages of this incredible tournament.


"Cry far away as we reach for the day

Blasting our way through the punishment and the pain

Reach for the world as the sky begins to fall

Rising through the darkened ashes praying that I'll see you all"
The match between Sirstotes and Minkey was certainly spectacular, and it is definitely a highlight of the tournament! Minkey began the game with a 4-5 opener, and while Stotes mirrored the first two plants, he soon made it clear he would be taking a different approach from Minkey, planting first his lotus and then his orchid before even getting out a fourth harmonizing tile. Minkey quickly took advantage of this, and took control of the remaining three gates as he continued to work on his harmony ring, a play that would cripple Stotes’ early game offensive viability. Stotes moved around the board with the tiles he did have, blocking Minkey’s ring attempts and holding his orchid in the Northern gate. Eventually, however, Stotes gave up his last gate in favor of breaking down Minkey’s offense, and this gate was taken soon after. Minkey still had Stotes completely on defense, though with a wild orchid to deal with he now had to focus more on rebuilding his offense. Minkey began moving out of the Northern gate, and he was able to get a white 3 and an orchid out, losing the former once again to Stotes’ orchid, though this was trapped with the latter tile. On turn 18, Stotes regained the Northern gate with a chrysanthemum, and finally had the chance to build a proper offensive threat. This turned the tides of the game, and soon Minkey was the one carefully defending without a good offensive option. For the next few turns, the game went on like this, with Minkey blocking Stotes’ ring attempts while trying to get a piece to the Northwest quadrant to rebuild his own offense. Finally, on turn 34, Sirstotes broke through Minkey’s defenses, wheeling away a rhododendron to form his winning ring!
TheRealMomo vs Yagalo ran a whopping 43 turns of non stop action, ending on the razor's edge between a harmony ring and the alt win condition. At the end of the match Yagalo said, "This was definitely one of my more enjoyable games in the tournament with way too many twists and turns to count." He was right! But as long as we are here lets try to count them. TheRealMomo began the match by holding onto 3 gates and making the first threat on turn 7. Yagalo blocked with knotweed and issued his own threat on turn 10. A wild Orchid put a quick end to that and initiated a run of shuffling and planting by both players. On turn 18 TheRealMomo had a serious setup ready, but Yagalo crushed it by both capturing her orchid and breaking up the ring in one move! What followed was an extensive back and forth of planting and blooming and shuffling around which lasted until turn 10 when Yagalo was able to threaten a winning ring again. TheRealMomo blocked and it was back to the shuffle again. Both players were compressing the concentration of tiles tighter and tighter toward the center of the board. It was hard to follow as a spectator, but I did notice Yagalo get dangerously close to making a ring on turn 36. This did not get past TheRealMomo however, and after blocking she appeared to be pushing for the alternate win condition. On turn 43 however she saw the chance and using a wheel to extend the range of a rose made a winning ring.

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The 7th Losers Bracket round of the Earth Rumble VII tournament has begun! Before we dive into the two excellent matches that have yet to come, let’s look at the wonderful games that came to a close yesterday!

LOSERS BRACKET ROUND 6

ZxTinyJ vs Adder was relatively short compared to other recent games, but it ran like a candle with a fuse for a wick! Both players started out with a standard set of accent tiles and a 5-3 planting. ZxTinyJ aggressively preempted Adder on turn 6 with a rock, even though he was not yet threatening to win. Adder did threaten to win on his next turn however, and ZxTinyJ was forced to use his other offensive tile and blocked with a basic flower. Struggling to catch up, ZxTinyJ planted their fourth flower on turn 8. Adder gave him the same grief that he was dealt and poisoned his plan with a knotweed. The next turn Adder planted his rock and set himself in position to make a winning ring. Not to be outdone, ZxTinyJ made a quick, though not advantageous, harmony and used his wheel to shuffle Adder's flowers with a knotweed. Adder repositioned and planted his Orchid in the north gate, conspicuously opposite his Lotus in the south gate. As ZxTinyJ worked to recover despite the duress of this looming danger, Adder cleared his most convoluted corner with a boat threatening again to win. ZxTinyJ could find no way forward but to use his last accent tile to disrupt the arrangement. The wild orchid took revenge, and both players used the reprieve to call in more flower tiles. Adder although having spent every other measure retained his wheel and on turn 17 found the opportunity to use it in a final bound making a harmony ring and advancing through the thinning ranks!

PaiShoAce and BaronAlbatross shared a fantastic game together! Baron elected to use an alternate 3-5 opener, “hoping for a less complicated game by avoiding the… 5-4 pattern.” PaiShoAce mirrored these first two plants, and quickly demonstrated that the game would be no less complicated just because of the 3-5 as he began playing for gate control, a tactic that heavily influenced Baron’s strategy. From there, the pace of much of the game was set, with PaiShoAce utilizing gate control and strategic plants to try to overwhelm his opponent, as Baron played with precision and efficiency, using fewer resources to press just as much of a threat. Though BaronAlbatross made the first ring threat, PaiShoAce quickly pulled ahead in the early game, using a lotus-orchid combo along with clash captures to nearly completely destroy this threat, forcing Baron to reset on offense. BaronAlbatross was able to trap his opponent’s orchid with his own, and though he had to rebuild his offense, PaiShoAce was slow to their own ring threat, which gave Baron a decent amount of time to reset. The pace persisted, and PaiShoAce maintained his tile count significantly above Baron’s, attempting to slowly weave around his opponent’s defenses. However, on turn 30, BaronAlbatross was finally able to sneak a harmony ring past PaiShoAce, and he won the game with a clean wheel finish!