Cactus Game Design Message Boards

For Player, I vote:
- Justin Alstad: I've played him more T2 than anyone else outside CA, and his constant wins have made him the guy to beat in my book.  And that T2 MP game we attempted over AIM with Kirk was legen -- wait for it -- dary.
- Gabe: He's also the king of online play.  I've played him on here a handful of times, and each time I've been destroyed.  He's good.

(Although I agree that Ron Sias should be up here, I think I'm still upset that the others in our T2MP game at Nats ganged up against the west coast kid and let him grab soul #7 before my timeout win.  Sigh.  Maybe next voting season.)

For Contributor, I vote:
- Rob: Being the creator of the game is pretty hard to vote against.
- Bryon: the Californian must vote for our amazing host, but his consistent online presence to help us through the rules, as well as the Nats wins he himself has pulled off, make a pretty solid case for his nomination.

This just seems to be a list of people you know and respect in redemption

Actually, I don't know some of these people at all (Keith Bartram, Joshua Hey, Sam Nurge), and others minimally (Eric Kimmons, Ron Sias).  Again, this is just a starting point.  This list is made of people who just obviously belong to be there.  Probably all of them will end up in the Redemption Hall of Fame eventually.  These players have all won the National Tournament multiple times.  They have been dominant in their eras (or some of them across eras).  These contributors are virtually all in the select group of playtesters, and commonly known to everyone.  We'll do the ballot thing in the spring, don't worry.  I don't think that anyone's going to be upset about any 4 of these people being in the Redemption Hall of Fame.  How about cutting me some slack for trying to be objective here

Bryon Hake -- Two T2 national wins in a row

Thanks for pointing that out.  Info added.

Gee, this is fun. Can we do a Hall of Shame next?

Sure. Nominees:

YourMathTeacher

Vote for exactly one of the above. I'll accept write-ins next time.

Probably all of them will end up in the Redemption Hall of Fame eventually.

Why do we even vote then?  Let's just put 'em in.

I don't think that anyone's going to be upset about any 4 of these people being in the Redemption Hall of Fame.

I think being the first group into the Redemption Hall of Fame is a big deal IF we are supposed to take it seriously.  If this is just going to be one of those good samaritan, let's do it for fun, this would be cool, kind of thing then I'm fine with whatever.  I don't think that's the same as taking it seriously.

I would like to nominate the president of TKP, GotCranberriesQuestionmark as a contributor to the game.

Gabe would be the first to tell you that the Sin in the Camp deck wasn't his idea

btw gabe ASKED cliff crysell if he could use ztomb and SITC.cuz cliff told me.

Clift made the deck and tested it for three years, Gabe and him exchanged emails about the deck and Gabe played with it at nationals.

Just to clear up any confusion on these points...

@ Sean - correct, I built a SitC deck once and it was terrible.  Clift gets 100% credit for the amazing design that won Nationals.  0% Gabe.

@ Red - That is not true.  I didn't ask Clift.  He posted his SitC deck on these boards and asked that someone play it.  I saw his decklist, tried it and realized it was crazy awesome so I played it.  However, T1 ZTomb is 100% my deck.  To my knowledge Clift had nothing to do with that deck.

@ Hiatus - You'd know better than anyone how long and hard Clift worked on the SitC deck to bring it to perfection.  Although I sent him a PM with questions about the deck he didn't get it.  It wasn't until between rounds at Nationals when you called him and put us on the phone together that I ever got to talk to Clift about it.

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I have to agree with the folks that mention that we need to come up with a longer list of candidates.  Some very deserving people have been left off the player and contributor list.  You almost have to take into consideration how long a person has been playing, RNRS titles, and how many Nationals a person has had the chance to attend.  If we're only going to base the players their on Nationals performance, lets at least take a look at people who made the top 3 repeatedly.  Anyone who's played at Nationals will tell you that is no small accomplishment!  There are many noteworthy players who are in the top three time and time again but absent from the ballot.  For contributors you're missing Kevin Shride, Bill Voigt, Mike Wolfe just to name a few.

I don't deserve to be on the player list if people like Kevin Shride, Nathan Voigt, Danile Whitten, Erik Largent, Tyler Stevens, Ben Shadrick and others aren't on there.  In '07 I started out 1-2, then went on to finish 8-2, the biggest loser to ever win Nationals.  In '09 I asked God for the chance to show the kids in CA how important Jesus is.  He chose to give me the opportunity to talk to them publically through winning a couple events, either of which I could have easily finished outside the top 3.

Votes and stories...

Ron Sias gets my first vote.  Besides being a living Redemption legend, winning more events than anyone, more types than anyone and over a longer period of time than anyone - he's an outstanding guy.  If you've never had a chance to talk to Ron, look him up at the next Nationals.  He probably wouldn't like me telling this story but... I saw him trading a kid one of his FSPs for a couple of the new local promos.  The kid asked Kevin Shride and I if it was a fair trade (they had no idea).  We told the kid to take the FSP and run!  That's just a small example of the quality of character you get with Ron.

Justin Alstad gets my second vote.  He's done a number of things that have shaped the game we play today in both T1 and T2.  He has a lot of top 3 National finishes under his belt.  He's always a challenge to play against too.  One thing I like about Justin is his willingness to openly share ideas and help people with strategy, deck building and card combos.  Some might think a player of his caliber would keep that kind of information to them self, but that's not Justin.

This is not a vote, but I must mention that Sam Nurge is a man of outstanding character.  He doesn't lose often but when he does lose he does it with class.  Even after our game at Nationals when we found out that there had been a bad ruling that may have changed the outcome, Sam was a gentlemen.  Many people, myself included, may not have reacted the same way.

Bryon Hake  - Always giving back to the game and doing it with class.  Loves what he does and does it well.

Chris Bany - Responsible (both directly and indirectly) for the largest population of Redemption players anywhere (Minnesota).  Has caused Redemption to change the rules because of his creativity and abuse.  A tough competitor when he plays.  Judges and host more than anyone.

im suprised to not see brian cooper on the nomination list. seriously, who has more fame than brian cooper?

Maybe he belongs in the Hall of Shame with me.

I'll be abstaining from this. It still looks like a list of big tournament winners to me. We already have a hall-of-fame-type-thing for that. Ron may have won a bunch of categories, but what has he actually done for the game? People aren't voted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame based on record sales.

A couple of things here
1. This is another good reason to have a broader nomination process in place before we vote on actuall hall of fame members.

2. There is more than one hall of fame to model this process over.  Several hall of fames look at the overall body of work (which could include wins) such as the Baseball, Basketball and Football hall of fames.  Since redemption is more like a competition/sport than it is a artisit process (such as music) I would not be surprised to see many people who WIN be placed in the Hall of Fame.  In addition to that, The way it is set up now, one whole category of nominees are being nominated for their innovation, support and contribution to the game.  If that does not fit  your criteria then I dont know what will.

im suprised to not see brian cooper on the nomination list. seriously, who has more fame than brian cooper?

Coop is infamous, famous.

In addition to that, The way it is set up now, one whole category of nominees are being nominated for their innovation, support and contribution to the game.

Who is on that list? Playtesters, Cactus employees, Forum mods, and wholesalers. Who is not on that list? The guy who popularized/invented competitive decks with no Heroes. Credibility: zero.

If so, I vote Josh Hey.  I heard stories that he was so good he got bored and left the game.

Josh Hey left because he was not happy with the metagame.

Gee, isn't this fun? How about a Hall of Blame next?

A Hall of Flame for these boards.