Guest writer Corbin Hosler helped to share live coverage of the weekend via our official accounts, and took photos during the weekend; in this article, he shares his experiences from the weekend, and what the Pro Tour looked like from the perspective of someone on-the-ground at the event.
The first thing you saw were the heroes. Oversized cards representing the champions of Flesh and Blood, it was Yorick and Dorinthea and Bravo who welcomed you to the Meadowlands Expo Center for the event that was known simply as the First Pro Tour.
There was no better welcoming committee. Across the world, it was the heroes of Rathe that originally drew players to the little-known game out of New Zealand. Walking into the Pro Tour, the welcoming committee was a reminder of the first time you picked up an Oldhim deck to learn to play or the time Prism won your local Armory or Chane won the last Calling you attended. Those same heroes had brought hundreds of players to the whirlwind weekend that was Pro Tour New Jersey to compete for the title of the first Pro Tour champion.
The competition that followed was epic, of course – the best gameplay the community had ever seen, an incredible Top 8 and a worthy champion in Pablo Pintor – but that’s not all this moment was about. This gathering was years in the making, with members of the Legend Story Studios team watching their game grow from afar as players across the globe began exploring Flesh and Blood and finding that they wanted more from the game. It all had brought them here, to the first Pro Tour.
So as the hundreds of players who had made their way from across the world converged at the first Pro Tour, the faces of their favorite cards made something clear from the start: whether you came from a far-flung European country, North America or you were a native New Zealander along for the ride, you were home.
That was the message delivered by James White to the players to celebrate the journey that brought them together on eve of the biggest moment to date in the game’s history. Years of local events, of deckbuilding and late-night testing sessions, the thousands of tiny failures and triumphs along the way, everyone in attendance at the aptly named Players Banquet on Thursday night share one story in common: Flesh and Blood had brought them all, from 25 different countries, to share the first Pro Tour. So White and the rest of the LSS team did what all good hosts do: they threw a feast.
Two years of pent-up energy found an outlet that night, and it wasn’t long before players from disparate parts of the world who would spend the weekend competing for $100,000 were sharing tables and slinging stories, and drafts. From the truly massive continent that Team Poland sent (complete with a full of Frostbite tokens featuring iconic Polish locations to share with opponents), to the newly-formed Dragon Shield pro team, to the Irish trio who learned the game together and made sure they attended the first Pro Tour together, to the legions of players from other regions of the world, the international Flesh and Blood community came together for the first time that night.
But a community is much more than just its pro players. When White described the Pro Tour as a historic moment for all of the TCG industry, he left no one out. Flesh and Blood wouldn’t exist without dedicated local playgroups and stores that have fostered the game through its growth, and White made sure to highlight all those local stalwarts that make up the foundation of the gaming industry.
And it’s the rest of the community that springs up around it. When the sold-out hall opened on Friday morning, it wasn’t just the Pro Tour players who filled the cavernous room. It was the artists, and those there to have their favorite artwork signed by Steve Argyle or Federico Musetti. It was the cosplayers. It was the podcasters and other content creators. It was the vendors. It was the judges who spent weeks grilling each other on the finer points of the rules and tournament staff and coverage team who spent weeks on the finer points of show logistics. It was the vendors. It was guests Saint and Rudy and Christine Sprankle and Olivia Gobert-Hicks. It was Legend Story Studio staff doing their best to keep up while taking in all that they had built.
It was, above all else, a community. And as the Pro Tour kicked off on Friday morning with a momentous shout from White, the room let out its collective breath and we were off. With hundreds of players in the Pro Tour and hundreds more on hand to play in the Calling or in a host of community-led side events featuring Ultimate Pit Fight and the Commoner format, it was clear that players were ready to get down to business – as if the late-night battles in every hotel lobby around the convention center hadn’t given that away already.
The Pro Tour led the action on one side of the room – the highly feared “Starvo” deck led by Bravo, Star of the Show dominated the Classic Constructed field on both days of the tournament and was the last remaining unbeaten deck in the hands of Andrew Rothermel – while the rest of the room was abuzz with a different kind of energy. There were rows and rows of tables filled with players drafting or playing Tales of Aria Sealed, while some of the longest lines were for those weren’t looking to play at the moment.
Between Artist Alley, the prize wall, and a chance to meet Saint Hung of Fabled Hunters and Rudy of Alpha Investments or lead game developer Chris Gehring, there was something happening in every corner of the room for attendees. Walk into the hall and you’re just as likely to be greeted by a Bravo wielding an oversized hammer are you a judge directing you to your draft pod. Walk a few more rows and you’ll catch cosplayer EHamontree playing a round of Sealed in full Iyslander costume, while caster and emcee of the Pro Tour Matt “Flake” Di Marco takes a photo with a fan in the background. Past the excited lines at the artist and vendor booths, there’s a 10-foot-tall Fresh and Buds podcast human billboard. Across the room, one competitor is showing off their life-size Viserai pillow, while two seats down father and son duo Josh and Zach are in between rounds and sharing the game that help bring their family together. The longest line was reserved for those patiently waiting for their opportunity to meet White, without whom none of this would have been possible.
And that’s just what was happening throughout the day. For anyone interested, there were several one-of-a-kind events that made the Pro Tour feel different from anything that had come before. That begins with the cosplay competition, which while a competition in name (and some cool prizes were awarded) was more akin to a class reunion as friends new and old shared their passion for the heroes of Rathe.
Speaking of one-of-a-kind events, Welcome to Rathe boxes were broken out of the vault for an alpha draft that will never be forgotten. No matter where you wandered, there was something new happening around every corner – and very possibly for the first time ever.
It was a spectacle, from start to finish. And for those who had been on this journey since its beginning, it was a very, very long way from the dark meetings of early 2020. It may have seemed inconceivable looking around at the pack hall of energized players, but the reality is that the first Pro Tour was far from assured.
In fact, none of this was. As the pandemic shut down the world and shipping ground to a halt, difficult conversations were beginning in Auckland. It’s hard to imagine anything more damaging than the last two years to a game designed specifically to be played in person, and for a few trying and tumultuous months the future of the game itself was in question.
The community they built had their backs. From online content to discord servers to webcam games Flesh and Blood found a way to not just survive, but to thrive. Meetings became about how to manage growing problems, not problems of growing. The roots that had been laid at the local level were blossoming across the world, and it all led to the first Pro Tour.
That culminated with the first-ever PT Top 8 on Sunday. In the years to come, tens of thousands of players will compete across the world just for a chance to earn a seat at the Pro Tour, to earn their opportunity to compete against Calling winners like Hayden Dale, Matt Rogers, or national champions like Tariq Patel. All just to have an outside chance at making a Pro Tour Top 8.
That’s something eight players from seven countries – Alexander Vore, Jacob Shaker, Florin-Cristian Loghin, Maciej Janik, Viliam Kubik, Pablo Pintor, Isaak Krut, and Sasha Markovic – will always have, whether they go on to win the World Championship or retire quietly.
And one of them has a whole lot more. Pintor’s run to the title was legendary to follow, and the Spaniard drew a crowd as the Top 8 played out on Sunday. Fabled Academy was one of the many content creators documenting the historic moment, and dozens of players crowded around the feature match while more were gathered in the viewing area and thousands watched live online.
Pintor’s run did not disappoint; all of his Top 8 matches went down to the wire and every decision was the biggest of his tournament life to that point.
Watching all the action from just off to the side was very exhausted but very exhilarated game designer. White was on a legendary run of his own, battling jet lag (including one restless night of an hour of sleep), but he was determined to guarantee that no one who had come to New Jersey to see him would miss that opportunity. Now, after a tireless weekend on his feet, White was not going to miss the pinnacle of his game.
Pintor was playing his reliable Chane deck, while his finals opponent was Florin-Cristian Loghin on the soon-to-be-living legend Bravo, Star of the Show brew. A near-flawless game from both players followed, and with a perfectly executed Chane setup it was Pintor who won it all.
Four days of the first Pro Tour had led to this moment, and four years of dedication from White and the rest of the LSS team – but most of all from the community itself – had finally culminated in a picture-perfect moment for not just Pablo Pintor, but everyone who had brought the game to this point. As the Pro Tour wound down, the last thing you saw were the real heroes of the game, finally all together to celebrate. In the flesh.
The story of the first Pro Tour doesn’t quite end there. As most players and staff flew home to a very deserved rest, others were caught up in another familiar staple of tournament travel: airport delays. A rash of canceled flights out of New York stranded hundreds of Flesh and Blood players in the airport, and you can be sure they made the most of it.
Because after four days of nonstop Flesh and Blood, who isn’t up for a game with a Pro Tour champion?
Corbin Hosler is a Flesh and Blood player and storyteller. The opinions expressed in the above article are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Legend Story Studios.