Hi guys! I’ve been pretty busy lately with a yearly tournament I organize called “The Cray Championship”. This is an annual event where players sign-up to play a certain clan/deck (the deck they choose is always their main deck). There is usually little/no overlap between decks, so the results are always interesting. The players then play a round robin or best 2/3 tournament between all other players who signed up for the same clan. The winner becomes the clan champion. Then all clan champions of the same nation play in a round robin tournament. The winner becomes the nation champion. Finally, the nation champions fight in a round robin tournament. The winner is declared the Cray Champion of that year (it’s an annual event). I usually don’t post the results of our tournaments, but I figured you guys might be interested. The tournament is still in progress, but here’s what we’ve done so far! If you like these types of posts and want to hear more of our tournament results (I host a lot of tournaments), let me know. Also, if you’d like to know more about the player’s deck builds, etc. Let me know!

This year we have a total of 52 players competing. Touken Ranbu gets a free pass to the Cray Championship finals because it has no nation.

For context purposes: the Altmile player was our Cray Champion 2017. She is once again competing this year. Last year’s top 6 was: Altmile, Ancient Dragons, Victor, ZTB, Nightrose and Machinings.

Format

1 Participant – Wins by default.

2 Participants – Best 2 out of 3.

3 Participants – Round Robin style – X-0 wins. If no X-0 available, X-1s must engage in a tie breaker.

4 Participants – Round Robin style – X-0 wins. If no X-0 available, X-1s must engage in a tie breaker.

5 Participants – Round Robin style – X-0 wins. If no X-0 available, X-1s must engage in a tie breaker.

6 Participants – Round Robin style – X-0 wins. If no X-0 available, X-1s must engage in a tie breaker.

7 Participants – Round Robin style – X-0 wins. If no X-0 available, X-1s must engage in a tie breaker.

Tiebreaker Format

All players must agree on their representative through the method of their choosing. Available methods include:

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Highest roll of the dice

Sudden death Vanguard Round Robin (Players play a condensed game of Vanguard where they will lose once they are at 4 damage. If players are using LB4 decks, LB4 becomes LB2, LB5 becomes LB3 and Shinken Hissatsu becomes LB1.)

So far in this tournament, all players have chosen Sudden Death as their tiebreaker.

Banlist:

Since this tournament typically takes two months to complete, there are certain sets that aren’t permitted as players aren’t allowed to change their decks after they start playing. This is to prevent changing the variables of the game. The tournament begins on January 1st and ends February 28th.

Allowed:

All sets released in English before January 1st 2018

G-EB02 The Awakening Zoo

Masquerade Master, Harri

Pirate King of the Roseate Twilight, Nightrose

Deck Set: Touken Ranbu -Hanamaru-

Forbidden

All Zeroth dragons

G-EB03 The Galaxy Star Gate

Barcgal, Tick Tock Worker, and Seven Seas Apprentice, Nightrunner as starting Vanguard

Epitome of Knowledge, Silvest

Limited

Tick Tock Worker (1 copy)

Doctoroid Refros (1 copy)

Steam Battler, Ur-Watar (1 copy)

Mick the Ghostie and Family (1 copy)

Seven Seas Apprentice, Nightrunner (1 copy)

Seven Seas Helmsman, Nightcrow (1 copy)

Flash Ripple, Odysseus (2 copies)

Jewel Knight, Swordmy (cannot be used in the same deck as non-Jewel Knight Grade 3s) Since the limitation was in place on January 1st, it is maintained throughout the tournament.

Clan Fight

Royal Paladin

Altmile vs. Blasters

Game 1: Blasters brick. Altmile 1 – Blasters 0.

Game 2: Blasters brick again. Altmile 2 – Blasters 0.

Altmile wins. It was just sad games overall.

Oracle Think Tank



Tsukuyomi vs. Battle Sisters

Game 1: Tsukuyomi wins.

Game 2: Battle Sisters win.

Game 3: Tsukuyomi wins.

An incredibly close match, but Tsukuyomi won because it has the overall better match-up. Tsukuyomi also did some 6th damage (not so) miracle healing. It’s not luck if you knew it was there!

Angel Feather



Celestials vs. Gavrail

Game 1: Gavrail wins.

Game 2: Gavrail wins.

I don’t need to tell you what happened there.

Shadow Paladin



Diablo vs. Luard vs. Claret Sword vs. Witches

Round 1

Game 1: Luard vs. Claret. Luard wins.

Game 2: Witches vs. Diablo. Diablo wins.

Round 2

Game 1: Diablo vs. Luard. Diablo wins.

Game 2: Claret vs. Witches. Claret wins.

Round 3

Game 1: Witches vs. Luard. Luard wins.

Game 2: Claret vs. Diablo. Claret wins.

Results

Diablo 2-1; Luard 2-1; Claret 2-1; Witches 0-3

A three-way tie followed with a three-way tiebreaker. For the tiebreaker, we did a three-way speed round robin. First to four damage loses.

Game 1: Diablo vs. Claret. Diablo wins.

Game 2: Luard vs. Claret. Luard wins.

Game 3: Diablo vs. Luard. Luard wins.

The Diablo player would have won, but he threw the final tiebreaker game. (I learned this later. He could have won the game and then formally conceded to the Luard player but he chose to skew the results instead.)

Results

Luard wins the championship, but Diablo should have won.

Gold Paladin

Gurguit vs. Garmore vs. Ezel vs. Bluish Flames

Round 1

Game 1: Bluish Flames vs. Ezel. Bluish Flames win.

Game 2: Garmore vs. Gurguit. Gurguit wins.

Round 2

Game 1: Gurguit vs. Bluish Flames. Gurguit wins.

Game 2: Ezel vs. Garmore. No results.

Round 3

Game 1: Garmore vs. Bluish Flames. No results.

Game 2: Gurguit vs. Ezel. Gurguit wins.

Unsurprisingly, Gurguit swept. So hard in fact that we never ended the round robin. After Gurguit went 2-0, we proceeded to the final game where Gurguit finished 3-0.

Genesis



Fenrir vs. Witches

Game 1: Fenrir wins.

Game 2: Fenrir wins.

Same thing here. Witches stand no chance. Vogue, vogue, vogue. Fenrir would be a great model if he would only stop trying to be a bad guy and grumpy.

Kagerō

Blademaster vs. Overlord vs. Nouvelle

Game 1: Nouvelle vs. Blademaster. Blademaster wins.

Game 2: Overlord vs. Nouvelle. Overlord wins.

Game 3: Overlord vs. Blademaster. Overlord wins.

Obviously, Overlord takes it and Blademaster comes second.

Nubatama

1 player signed up to play Afterimage. Wins by default. We are hoping for more players in the future to come and make Dragon Empire more diverse. Same can be said for the rest below…

Tachikaze

1 player signed up to play Ancient Dragons. Wins by default. This player was last year’s Dragon Empire representative because Dogma too op.

Murakumo

1 player signed up to play Yasuie. Wins by default.

Narukami



Vanquisher vs. Eradicators

Game 1: Vanquisher wins.

Game 2: Vanquisher wins.

Vanq too strong. Erads too weak.

Nova Grappler

1 player signed up to play Victor. Wins by default. This player was the Star Gate Champion last year.

Dimension Police



Cosmic Hero vs. Dimensional Robos

Game 1: DRobos win.

Game 2: DRobos win.

Close match, but DRobos takes it. To put this in perspective, last year, Cosmic Heros won.

Link Joker

1 player signed up to play Messiah. Wins by default.

Spike Brothers



Dudley vs. Rising

Game 1: Rising wins.

Game 2: Dudleys win.

Game 3: Rising wins.

Close match, but overall Rising came out on top.

Dark Irregulars



Amon vs. Scharhrot Blade Wings

Game 1: Scharhrot wins.

Game 2: Amon wins.

Game 3: Scharhrot wins.

Unsurprisingly Darkness wins. The Amon player was a lot more experienced, but the support just wasn’t there for Amon this year.

Pale Moon

Harri (pure magia) vs. Harri (Nightmare Doll techs)

Game 1: Harri/Alice wins.

Game 2: Harri/Alice wins.

Just goes to show that Alice is a better back-up to old Harri than new Harri is. The Harri with Nightmare doll techs wins through sheer early game application and overall more pressure than what pure Harri has to offer.

Both were playing with the new Harri stride, even though it isn’t out yet. This was cleared with the organizers before the tournament started. Basically, I let them play with it because I didn’t think it was fair that Japan had access to the card and English players didn’t.

Gear Chronicle



Time Leap vs. ZTB

Game 1: ZTB wins.

Game 2: ZTB wins.

ZTB wins. No surprises. And yes, that is Kug-Bau on the poster.

Granblue

Nightrose vs. Seven Seas

Game 1: Nightrose wins.

GAme 2: Nightmist wins.

Game 3: Nightrose wins.

Close match, but Nightrose wins.

Both players were allowed to use the new Nightrose stride. Same reasoning as the new Harri stride.

Bermuda Triangle



Chouchou vs. Prisms

Game 1: Prisms win.

Game 2: Chouchou wins.

Game 3: Chouchou wins.

Chouchou won. It was close though since the first game went to Prisms. Ultimately, the sack gods favoured Chouchou.

Aqua Force

Blue Wave (Angerboil) vs. Blue Wave (Valeos) vs. Thavas vs. Maelstrom vs. Ripples

Round 1

Game 1: Thavas vs. Angerboil. Angerboil wins.

Game 2: Valeos vs. Maelstrom. Maelstrom wins.

Round 2

Game 1: Angerboil vs. Maelstrom. Angerboil wins.

Game 2: Ripples vs. Thavas. Thavas wins.

Round 3

Game 1: Maelstrom vs. Ripples. Ripples win.

Game 2: Valeos vs. Angerboil. Angerboil wins.

Round 4

Game 1: Ripples vs. Valeos. Ripples win.

Game 2: Thavas vs. Maelstrom. Thavas wins.

Round 5

Game 1: Valeos vs. Thavas. Valeos wins.

Game 2: Angerboil vs. Ripples. Ripples win.

Results

Ripples 3-1; Angerboil 3-1; Thavas 2-2; Maelstrom 1-3; Valeos 1-3.

As with Shadow Paladin, we headed into a round robin speed tiebreaker. Very very close game. Ripples would have won, but Angerboil got lucky with heal triggers. And I mean reallllllllly lucky.

Megacolony



Machining vs. Gredora

Game 1: Gredora wins.

Game 2: Machinings win.

Game 3: Machinings win.

Machinings win after a close match, but the Machining player drops out and concedes the title of Megacolony Champion to the Gredora player. This was a bummer since he played exceptionally well and represented Zoo last year…

Great Nature

Honorary Professor vs. Bigbelly

Game 1: Chatnoir wins.

Game 2: Bigbelly wins.

Game 3: Bigbelly wins.

The match was dominated by Honorary Professor. Like completely dominated. They won game 1, but Bigbelly got luckier in games 2 and 3 with crits and heals. Objectively speaking, Honorary Professor should have won. However, triggers are a part of this game so we cannot discredit the fact that the sack gods favoured Bigbelly.

Neo Nectar

Musketeers vs. Ahsha

Game 1: Musketeers win.

Game 2: Ahsha wins.

Game 3: Ahsha wins.

Ahsha wins because Musketeers need to get their early game pieces or they tend to crumble. Musketeers did win game 1 though which surprised everyone. Don’t underestimate them.

Touken Ranbu

1 player signed up to play Touken Ranbu. Wins by default. Since Touken has no nation, they go straight to the Cray Championship finals.

Nation Fight

United Sanctuary

Altmile vs. Tsukuyomi vs. Gavrail vs. Luard vs. Gurguit vs. Fenrir

Round 1

Game 1: Fenrir vs. Altmile. Altmile wins.

Game 2: Tsukuyomi vs. Gurguit. Tsukuyomi wins.

Game 3: Gavrail vs. Luard. Luard wins.

Round 2

Game 1: Gurguit vs. Gavrail. Gavrail wins.

Game 2: Luard vs. Fenrir. Fenrir wins.

Game 3: Altmile vs. Tsukuyomi. Tsukuyomi wins.

Round 3

Game 1: Luard vs. Gurguit. Gurguit wins.

Game 2: Altmile vs. Gavrail. Altmile wins.

Game 3: Fenrir vs. Tsukuyomi. Fenrir wins.

Round 4

Game 1: Tsukuyomi vs. Gavrail. Tsukuyomi wins.

Game 2: Altmile vs. Luard. Altmile wins.

Game 3: Gurguit vs. Fenrir. Fenrir wins.

Round 5

Game 1: Luard vs. Tsukuyomi. Luard wins.

Game 2: Fenrir vs. Gavrail. Fenrir wins.

Game 3: Gurguit vs. Altmile. Altmile wins.

Results

Altmie 4-1; Fenrir 4-1; Tsukuyomi 3-2; Luard 2-3; Gurguit 1-4; Gavrail 1-4.

Fenrir and Altmile play in a speed tiebreaker, but Saltmile wins, making this the second year in a row that our Altmile player reaches the final round.

Dragon Empire

Overlord vs. Afterimage vs. Ancient Dragons vs. Yasuie vs. Vanquisher

Round 1

Game 1: Shiranui vs. Vanquisher. Vanquisher wins.

Game 2: Ancient Dragons vs. Yasuie. Yasuie wins.

Round 2

Game 1: Ancient Dragons vs.Vanquisher. Ancient Dragons win.

Game 2: Overlord vs. Shiranui. Overlord wins.

Round 3

Game 1: Ancient Dragons vs. Overlord. Overlord wins.

Game 2: Yasuie vs. Vanquisher. Vanquisher wins.

Round 4

Game 1: Overlord vs. Yasuie. Overlord wins.

Game 2: Shiranui vs. Ancient Dragons. Shiranui wins.

Round 5

Game 1: Yasuie vs. Shiranui. Shiranui wins.

Game 2: Overlord vs. Vanquisher. Overlord wins.

Results

Overlord 4-0; Vanquisher 2-2; Shiranui 2-2: Yasuie 1-3; Ancient Dragons 1-3.

Overlord sweeps 4-0. Nothing much to see here. Vanquisher and Afterimage tied for second place and Ancient Dragons and Yasuie for third. Our Overlord player came second last year, only to be outed by Dogma after having to deal with it a second time.

Dark Zone

Rising vs. Scharhrot vs. Harri/Alice vs. ZTB

Round 1

Game 1: Scharhrot vs. Harri. Scharhrot wins.

Game 2: ZTB vs. Rising. ZTB wins.

Round 2

Game 1: Scharhrot vs. Rising. Rising wins.

Game 2: Harri vs. ZTB. Harri wins.

Round 3

Game 1: Scharhrot vs. ZTB. ZTB wins.

Game 2: Harri vs. Rising. Rising wins.

Results

ZTB 2-1; Rising 2-1; Harri 1-2; Scharhrot 1-2.

Rising and ZTB play in a speed tiebreaker. The sack gods bless Rising with the win.

Magallanica

Nightrose vs. Chouchou vs. Angerboil

Game 1: Chouchou vs. Angerboil. Angerboil wins.

Game 2: Chouchou vs. Nightrose. Nightrose wins.

Game 3: Angerboil vs. Nightrose. Angerboil wins.

Angerboil gets lucky with heal triggers for the win. This is becoming a really ridiculous theme.

Zoo

Gredora vs. Ahsha vs. Bigbelly

Game 1: Bigbelly vs. Ahsha. Bigbelly wins.

Game 2: Bigbelly vs. Gredora. Bigbelly wins.

Game 3: Gredora vs. Ahsha. No results.

In game 1, Ahsha uses Verano and Ines to add two perfect guards to her hand. Bigbelly g-guards to first stride into Managarmr. Wins by attacking twice with Talented Rhinos with a crit.

In game 2, Gredora keeps Bigbelly’s field stunned, but leaves him a front row rearguard space to work with. Bigbelly keeps upping the pressure every turn by striding into Balaurl twice, then Bigbelly, then Sahasrara Veera for the win.

Gredora and Ahsha decide to concede the title to Bigbelly and decline playing the final game.

Star Gate

Victor vs. DRobos vs. Messiah

Results TBA. Scheduling conflicts with the Victor player have caused massive delays.