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Bella Vista, AR--July 16, 2021 

Local Tournament (Open)
Host: Mark Underwood & ReyZen
TXRedemption@gmail.com
The Underwood Residence
36 Knighton Dr, Bella Vista, AR 72715
Type 1 2Player (FREE) Type 2 2Player (FREE)
Starts 5pm

Bella Vista, AR--July 17, 2021

AR State Tournament
Host: Mark Underwood & ReyZen
TXRedemption@gmail.com
The Underwood Residence, 36 Knighton Dr, Bella Vista, AR 72715
Type: Type 1 2Player (FREE), Type 2 2Player (FREE), Type 1 Multi (FREE), Closed Deck 2Player ($20.00) and LoC Booster Draft 2Player ($30.00)
Starts 9am

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LODGING:
Please view suggestions by Prof Underwood:
https://www.cactusforums.com/official-tournaments/ar-back-to-back-localstate-tournaments-(1617-july-2021)/msg604784/#msg604784

I booked this hotel for myself and may cancel if y'all get a hotel where we all could be.
Quality Inn Bentonville-Rogers
215 SE Walton Blvd, Bentonville, AR 72712
(479) 250-9944
https://maps.app.goo.gl/2mFvgwAxyGcKQKG87

We had an AWESOME tournament this past weekend.  As far as I know it was the first Redemption tournament ever held in the state of Arkansas.  And we had 12 players play a total of 8 categories over the 2 days.  6 of the players had never played a single game before, but they picked up on it quickly and are excited to play more.  2 other players have only been playing for about a month.  Here's my memory of the event (which is a bit fuzzier than my old recaps due to me being out of practice, and older).

Saturday's State Tournament

We started bright and early with two events.  The first was a Booster Draft, and the second was a T1-2p event.  The T1-2p event had my kids, Katrina and Jonathan, and Josh's kids, Dannon and Turner.  Dannon had played the night before, but this was Turner's first time playing after he had enjoyed watching his brother play.  And Katrina and Jonathan were a bit less rusty after having also played the night before.  I remember that the championship was between Katrina and Jonathan and ended up with Jonathan winning the game 1 turn before Katrina would have.  So it was super close, and all the kids were super excited about their prizes.

In the booster draft, it was the first time either Jamie or Josh or Liam had played a booster draft.  And it was the first time that any of us had seen most of the cards that we were choosing between (since I've been out of the scene for about 6 years).  Therefore, we were SUPER SLOW at drafting because we had to read everything pretty carefully to understand how it worked.  I even had to get Roy to teach me what the "star of David" symbols meant on cards.  But in the end we were all really happy with our drafts.  I had drafted 90% to win and 10% to get cards.  The other guys had drafted more around the 50/50% range.  So unsurprisingly I ended up with the win after a couple rounds of playing the 2p version of Booster.  I would like to point out that I really enjoyed playing booster in a 2p version after all drafting together in a 4p group.  Booster has a lot of randomness already due to the nature of getting your cards.  So having only a single opponent reduces the randomness of the actual gameplay making it feel more strategic.  And knowing that you can't just give lost souls out like candy to spread them out means that you have to draft enough defense to hold off an opponent long enough to win.  And again, Redemption is at its most fun when there are battles and LS are fought over.  I've heard that this version will be used at Nats this year and I highly support that.

The next two simultaneous events were TEAMS and T1-mp.  I had really been wanting to play TEAMS, but the way the numbers worked out, I ended up being in T1-mp instead.  This time Jonathan and Liam teamed up against Josh's kids, Dannon and Turner.  They just played a single round and the brothers got to an early lead.  But Jonathan and Liam made an epic comeback and ended up taking the win.

Meanwhile Jamie, Josh, and I were playing T1-mp and also did a single round.  But at the end of regulation, I had the victory and the 2 of them tied for 2nd place.  So I chipped in one of my packs to them to make it so they could have even prizes and everyone had a great time.  It was another example of T1-mp being fun when people just use decks that are balanced between offense and defense.

At this point, most people had to leave again to go home.  So we ended up having the final event, Sealed Deck, with just my son Jonathan and myself.  We both traded a LOT of cards with each other and with the booster packs we were amazingly able to turn our starter decks into basically single color offense and defense decks.  It made for a fun match with a lot of non-starter cards, and we enjoyed playing each other for the first time in the tournament.  I ended up on top of that one.

Mark,

It was a blessing to read your tournament account. So wonderful that Roy was able to help you make this happen.

I hope that you guys can plan early enough in advance next year , as we would love to make a stop at Arkansas states as a part of a family vacation, maybe even book one of your escape rooms.

God Bless,

Looking forward to a Kentucky reunion some time next year.

Hey Mark! Good to hear from you! Not sure what our summer will bring but we will see! At the very least , hope to see you at Nationals.