An Exercise Of Curiosity

So as I sit about my house at noon on Wednesday, I checked my rating (more on this later) after the failure that was GP: Indy. Of course it was a Pastimes event. Which obv means it was the worst run event I have ever attended.

First, they ran out of starters and had to turn an estimated 100 people away.

Second, after the player meeting, deck registration, and deck construction they had about 15 minutes of announcements that probably should have gone out to all players, not just those of use unfortunate enough to have zero byes.

Third, the sound system sucked which caused a lot of people to be unable to hear announcements. There were a lot of people that didn't hear the one where you were supposed to call a judge and have them confirm match results after completing a match but before turning in the slip. There was also a lot of confusion about getting the promo Call of the Herds.

Fourth, it took forever to turn around the rounds. The first four rounds took about two hours each.

Fifth, the only consolation was frequent trips across the street to see the hotel bar, and the sharing of things that make people not care how much the event sucks.

I ended up with an absolutely miserable deck. From the majority of the people I showed it to it was the concensus worst deck. There were rumblings of Paprocki possibly having a worse deck due to playing Zealous Guardian. I didn't actually see Paprocki's deck so I can't confirm this. My deck consisted of 19 dudes, of which only 2 had evasion. And five spells of which the best was Thoughtweft Gambit. I also had zero bombs.

Overall, I felt I played well. I punted one game because I just forgot the four drop in my hand on turn four. None of the games I played were particularly interesting. Due to the miserableness of playing the GP I dropped at 2-2 and went and saw a movie with Paprocki and Asshole Jason. Which was good times. Asshole Jason and I savaged the theater into only charging us Student Tickets. I found out the Asshole Jason refuses to sit throw previews. The first half of the Incredible Hulk was the suck and a nap though the rest of the movie quickly followed. Paprocki napped on and off throughout the movie and the parts he was awake for were also the suck. Asshole Jason managed the superhuman feat of staying awake throughout and said the entire movie was the suck. At this point, I realize I am sober for the first time since Wednesday and go to quickly rectify the problem.

Time for back story on the GP. Two friends and I got ditched at Longshots on Loomis Wednesday night and walked back to Eric's which is approximately a block from Rhyno's rents house (about a 10 minute walk from 76th and Rawson). Thursday, there was some drugs involved (yes they were legal... just more than the quantity recommend). There is a story here, but much more entertaining if told in person. Friday, the pills were still well in effect. Eventually we got to Indy after stopping to have a cig and reprogram Bagha's GPS after finding out I-65 was closed in Gary, IN.

Now that we are in Indy the story begins. Bagha and I arrive at the much fabled Kurt Hahn's house. While Kurt catches a quick nap. Bagha, Kur'ts roommate and Bagha watch the savage cheating of Mike Long in the 98 Nats video. And then we're off to the bar. Drinking ensues while we catch up with Kurt. Later, back at Kurt's, I lay on the floor to pass out and the world is spinning. So I sit up against the wall with my knees to my chest and pass out with my head on top of said knees. At some unknown point during the night I wake up and have to poop. Off to the bathroom and the taking care of the pooping. I feel like absolute shit. Sure enough, here comes the vomiting, followed by a quick nap on the bathroom floor. Then off to the recliner to sleep the rest of the night away. I manage to finish the night's sleep without futher incident.

At the point the story stays much cleaner. I commend you for continuing to read.

Kurt decides to show off his hookah before we leave to go to the convention center and we're off. Look above for coverage on what happened at the GP.

After the movie I run into some people that I know from Magic events. I don't really remember a ton of what happened from that point to the point Bagha, Kurt, two Chicago guys and I end up back at the bar. After two bar hops, Kurt gets an invite to go to a third bar to meet up with four very attractive female friends of Kurt's. Operation Get There is officially go. After some good times and a couple of drinks, Operation Get There has a very high probability of success given the invite back to their apartment for more herbs. There was apparently miscommunication at this point between Kurt and said Attractive Females on destination. We ended up at an after gathering behind the bar Kurt works at while they vanished into What Coulda Been Land.

It was a sizable gathering with approximately 15-20 people there in a parking lot surrounded by a chain link fence. There were a couple houses and a post office loading dock surrounding said fence and significantly, only one entrance/exit. After about 20 minutes I see a bike cop shining his flashlight over the fence. He yells out "Take one more hit then everyone clear out." Back at Kurt's there is some Tetris and then sleeping.

Sunday, there is some SSS drafting. Team Bagha, Pliska, me ends up winning a draft with dog shit for rares. After much effort and a pit stop to not sober land, we assemble -1 Morningtide pack for a LMS draft. We end up saying screw finding the last Morningtide pack, pick new teams and draft with one person using LLS. Four people stayed on the same teams. Another guy (I believe Pliska) and me essentially got traded. Obv my team won again. This time getting me a Mirrorweave and crap. Which I quickly trade my pile of crap to another guy on my team for a Rustic Clachan.

Kurt, a Chicago guy and me stepped outside for more not soberness. It started out just the three of us on the top of the convention center steps and quickly turned into 20 people standing around with the three of huddled in a corner minding our own business.

Bagha and I left quickly after.

The ride back was largely uneventful. Arby's was delicious and we didn't have money to pay for the toll to get into WI.

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So back to the Exercise Of Curiosity. I checked my rating today and saw there are quite a few people from the store with ratings in either Constructed or Limited that are in the ~1900+ range. A few months ago I was chatting with Edd and we were comparing our overall match win percentage from every sanctioned match we have ever played. At the time I believe mine was something like 47%. I figured what the hell. I went and figured it out again (Go to Ratings History and count every match that has a WIN. Ties don't count. Then go to Play Statistics and it will tell you how many total matches you have played then divide those two numbers.) I figure there should be some kind of competition for this (read: motivation for actually doing this) so aside from bragging rights, I will buy the winner of each (Limited and Constructed) into the respective event at a future GU tournament.

The mark to beat is:

Constructed: 50.444%
Limited: 50.769%