We're now into our fifth week of Skirmish events, and the fight is heating up. Players numbers just keep growing, as the past weekend saw events taking place from the UK to Taipei! While some familiar faces have continued their reign over the meta, some newcomers are beginning to enter the fray. With a mixture of online and in-person events, there's never been a better time to pick up your weapon and join the Skirmish.
LuckyGaming TCG
Taking place on March 20th, North America's LuckyGaming kicked off their online Skirmish event with a bang, as sixty-four players jumped into the fight, and several players streaming their battles live for the world to see. A brand new champion rose to the challenge, as this particular event saw player Colin Honigman win his first event with Kano!
Kano
Blazing Aether
Forked Lightning
Colin's response to his tournament-winning play was a wide grin, visible on Davis 'TowerNumberNine' Kingsley's livestream of the final match. “I opted both the Forked Lightning and the Blazing Aether, just knew it was a risk if he had anything other than a red in hand!”
Davis Kingsley has been a regular participant in Skirmish events, having previously won the CompetEsport Skirmish event in February, in addition to his regular Twitch streams, and authoring several articles over on FABDB. If you'd like to know more about Davis's Dorinthea deck tech, you can check out LSV's video on the subject over on ChannelFireball.
In addition to the winning Kano deck, we also spotted not only Bravo, but a surprise Kassai, Cintari Sellsword sneaking into the Top 8 of this event, courtesy of returning Skirmish player Steve Le! Conversely, frequent Top 8 fixture Rob Cygul switched sides this week, putting down his usual warrior mantle to try his luck with Ira as he tries to overtake Jacob Burns in the race to be the first US player to reach 1,000 XP.
Top 8:
- Colin Honigman - Kano
- Davis Kingsley - Dorinthea
- Chris Ray - Dorinthea
- Steven Chang - Bravo
- Jacob Burns - Dorinthea
- Rob Cygul - Ira, Crimson Haze
- Bryce Morgan - Rhinar
- Steve Le - Kassai, Cintari Sellsword
Kingdom Gaming
Over in the UK, twenty-six players went head to head for Kingdom Gaming's Skirmish event. Runeblade fans stepped up to the plate, with three different Viserai players carving out their spot in the Top 8 cut, accompanied by two Dorinthea's, two Ira's, and a Kano.
In the end, it was Jason Hamer's 'go tall Dorinthea' who came out on top, taking down Adam Philpot's Kano in a hard-fought battle for first place.
Top 8
- Jason Hamer - Dorinthea
- Adam Philpot - Kano
- David Dyson - Viserai
- Sharif Shaaban - Dorinthea
- Dan Tripp - Ira, Crimson Haze
- Simon Denning - Ira, Crimson Haze
- James Armstrong - Viserai
- Tim Coates - Viserai
Kingdom Gaming will also be broadcasting interviews with all Top 8 players over in Episode 4 of their podcast, KingdomCast!
Cat Footprint Kaohsiung
Twenty-six players entered the running on March 20th for CatFootprint Kaohsiung's Skirmish in Taiwan, welcoming many familiar faces from the Taiwan FAB scene.
Ira, Dorinthea, Kano and Viserai numbered among the Top 8, represented by names such as Wang Chung Chi, who made Top 8 at the Taiwan National Championship, and Jou Rueylin and Sid Lin, who both made Top 8 at the Cat Footprint Zhongli Skirmish event last week.
Chung Chi, who also took second place at last week's Skirmish event in Taiwan, faced off against Chang Wei Cheng in an Ira v. Dorinthea matchup.
Top 8:
- Wang Chung Chi - Ira, Crimson Haze
- Chang Wei Cheng - Dorinthea
- Wang Huang Jyun - Dorinthea
- Wen Ray Hua - Kano
- Rueylin Jou - Kano
- Wang Chung Yun - Kano
- Sid Lin - Ira, Crimson Haze
- Zhi Peng Gao - Viserai
Cerberus Games
New Zealand's capital city, Wellington, played host to a double header Skirmish weekend, with players travelling from all over the country to compete in the events. On Saturday afternoon, Cerberus Games in downtown Wellington welcomed forty players through their doors to play in their sealed deck event.
Players cracked packs of Welcome to Rathe Unlimited to build their sealed deck, getting back to basics for this Skirmish. Cayle McCreath, the world's leading player on the lifetime XP board and famed for his dedication to Guardian, picked up the hammer once more as Bravo, managing to open two Crippling Crush in his sealed deck pool, coming out on top of the sealed portion of the event.
Back row: Cayle McCreath, Matt Rogers
Middle row: Adam Little, Gary Lynch, Marius Van Staden, Simon Austin-Wallace
Front row: Nicholas Holding, Jacob Pearson
The Top 8 then drafted their decks for the finals, with two brutes, two ninjas, a warrior and three guardians emerging for their last few battles of the day. Despite strong showings from the Wellington players, in the end it came down to Jacob Pearson's Bravo against Matt Rogers' Katsu, with the Guardian player rising to the ultimate victory.
"Three people drafted Bravo and I had the worst deck" - Jacob Pearson
Top 8:
- Matt Rogers - Katsu
- Jacob Pearson - Bravo
- Gary Lynch - Katsu
- Cayle McCreath - Bravo
- Simon Austin-Wallace - Bravo
- Adam Little - Rhinar
- Nicholas Holding - Rhinar
- Marius Van Staden - Dorinthea
Sushi Knight
Top Wellington store Sushi Knight took their turn to host an an event on the Sunday, Blitz-style. The 24 seat store was completely full for the event as it go underway late morning. Sushi Knight has done a huge amount to promote the game in their community, going so far as to print their own playmats and running events for high school students!
The Top 8 included several long-standing members of the Flesh and Blood community, including Jason Thomson-Sheck, the faithful Dorinthea player, and Kiki Labad, best known for their adventures as Dash and the mysterious Shiyana. Ira and Kano are two popular heroes in the Wellington scene, which was reflected in the deck breakdown for the tournament.
From left to right: Jacob Pearson, Kieran Carnegie, Cayle McCreath, Rhinar, Gavin Wu, Kiki Labad, Matt Rogers, Jason Thomson-Sheck, and Oliver Berry.
The final game saw NZ National Champion Matt Rogers face off against Oliver Berry in an Ira mirror match. It was a fierce battle, but in the end, it was Matt who was left standing once the dust settled.
Top 8:
- Matt Rogers - Ira, Crimson Haze
- Oliver Berry - Ira, Crimson Haze
- Jason Thomson-Sheck - Dorinthea
- Gavin Wu - Kano
- Kiki Labad - Ira, Crimson Haze
- Kieran Carnegie - Kano
- Jacob Pearson - Ira, Crimson Haze
- Cayle McCreath - Ira, Crimson Haze
Matt Rogers deck in from the Sushi Knight tournament was the result of a concerted international testing effort over the previous week. The same list was run by Matt, Hayden Dale of Australia, Dante Delfico of Canada, and Eugene Phua of Singapore, blazing through the weekend's Skirmish events in one final sendoff for Drone of Brutality. Hurricane Technique was a key new card introduced into the build as Hayden took first place at the 22 player Dragon's Lair, Adelaide event and Dante went down in the finals of the 82 player Golden Phoenix Games event, which was taken out by Oliver Chen of Canada.
The Week Ahead
In Week 6, Skirmish events are coming to Poland, Greece, Spain, and Singapore for the first time, as well as the United States, England, New Zealand, Australia, and Taiwan. Dice Jar will be streaming their Skirmish event live over on their YouTube channel, and our friends at Fantasy Shop in Greece have opened up their online Skirmish to international players, with plenty of prizes up for grabs; there's never been a better excuse to join the Skirmish!
North America:
- Game King, MA, USA - March 29th
- Showcase Games, GA, USA - March 29th
- Most Excellent Comics & Gaming, CT, USA - March 30th
Europe/UK:
- HeroFreaks, Comunidad Valenciana, Spain - March 27th
- Fantasy Shop, Septemvriou, Greece - March 27th
- ManaScrew, Northamptonshire, England - March 28th
- CUBE, Greater Poland, Poland - March 28th
Oceania/Asia:
- Valkyrie Gaming, Palmerston North, New Zealand - March 27th
- Dice Jar Games, Dunedin, New Zealand - March 27th
- Good Games Central, Sydney, Australia - March 27th
- CardCellar, Tainan City, Taiwan - March 28th
- The Gamestore at Megazone, Dunedin, New Zealand - March 28th
- Agora Hobby, Singapore - March 28th
Bonus Content
The Skirmish event hosted by ChannelFireball last week was our largest Skirmish event to date, featuring some incredible players. In addition to their usual article content, FAB player Hayden Dale, Champion of The Calling Sydney 2019, wrote a detailed piece analysing the current meta of Skirmish events. If you'd like to check out his article, you can read it here!