There and Back Again 2023: An OpenTournament for the World

[Goblin King]

Hello everyone,
I’m happy to announce a Middle Earth CCG OPEN Tournament for 2023 in the Sacramento, California of the United State of America.
10th to 12th of November, 2023 (Veteran’s Day weekend in the USA)
The location will be There and Back Café. 1020 11th Street and Capitol Event Center at The MAY Building (next door)
Reserve your ticket to this event using the system on the There and Back Café website https://thereandback.cafe/middle-earth-tournament. Registration is encouraged as it will help the organizer (me) and the venue and the vendors prepare for the event.

The event is from Friday evening through Sunday afternoon. The opening evening is for casual gaming and getting to meet each other at There and Back Cafe. The official tournament games begin on Saturday morning in the Capitol Event Center. They are General Opponent, two-deck format of games. Rounds will be played on Saturday with the final four playing again on Sunday morning (more on this later).

The other games that will be available on each day include: multi-player game cube games, Challenge Deck tournaments and casual games. THE MULTI-PLAYER games require no previous experience with MECCG to play! And after 1 or 2 sessions of those, you will then be ready to participate in the Challenge Deck tournaments that are taking place around the main event.

Two packages will be offered for this event:
Option ONE is a $50 admission to the three days.
Option TWO is $100 and it includes 3 meal tickets (can be used on different days or all the same day) for meals provided by There and Back Café. Alternatively there are restaurants in the immediate area. The tournament will halt for meal breaks on Saturday.

There And Back Café and Capitol Books will have a booth set up in the tournament area. The booth will be selling MECCG SINGLES! and Middle Earth-themed products such as card sleeves, play mats, deck boxes. There are additional gaming supplies and Middle Earth merchandise available in the Café itself or at Capitol Book around the corner.

Schedule of events:

Friday PM: Wizards of Middle Earth 5-player Middle Earth game Cubes (aka ARDA); Nazgul of Middle Earth 9-player game Cube (aka Dark ARDA).
Friday late night: Casual play/Challenge Deck Tournament

Saturday AM: General Opponent semis (2 decks)
Lunch Break
Saturday PM: General Opponent semis
Dinner Break
Saturday late night: Wizards of Middle Earth/Nazgul of Middle Earth / Casual play
(Drinking Game TBD. There are plenty of bars that are walking distance.)

Sunday AM:
Breakfast
General Opponent finals (Top 4 play again round robin if there were 16+ players in semis)
Challenge Deck Tournaments/ Casual play
- Sunday PM: long journey home

Organizer: Me and some friends are volunteering. I will run the tournament bracket and also start the games and run Nazgul of Middle Earth. Volunteers will be running the Challenge Deck tournaments or the ARDA games.
Judges: Larry Page, Chris Davis and Sean.

Now to the actual 2-deck tournament:
As organizer, I'm going to offer a different format for the finals on Sunday. As a pilot program, we will be switching the format so that the deck you played on day one is also what you play in the finals. There has been a long, robust debate about this. It is time to stop arguing about it and have a pilot program in order to test it out.

As you can see, I'm gearing the non-tournament activities towards new or returning players who either have no cards or have not dusted them off in a long time. (But if you haven't played Wizards of ME or Nazgul of ME you really should try these formats because they are a blast!) I think that players in the USA need these options so that they don't feel pressured if they are not very familiar with a game that has been out of print for 24 years.

We have at least 2 Hero ARDA sets (so that's 10 players) and one Minion ARDA (that's 9 players). If you are coming to the event and you have an ARDA (or Dark ARDA) set we can use let me know! We have at least 3 sets of Challenge Decks for those tournaments. This is a great chance to break into the game and (hopefully) also see some of the World's best in action.

There are accommodations in the immediate area (walking distance).There is also a hostel in downtown Sacramento (about 10 blocks away). Less expensive accommodations are available outside the city’s central core, and are near a light rail or bus lines that connect to downtown. A light rail station stop is one block from the café!

Here are some things to do while you are visiting Sacramento and Northern California:
Walk down to the arena of our professional basketball team (the Sacramento Kings) and have a nice meal.
Walk a little further into Old Sacramento (as in 1850s Gold Rush Era California) and enjoy the Wild West charm of the city’s riverfront history. This section of town offers a tribute to the 1850s with cobblestone streets, raised wooden platforms sidewalks, riverboats and old rustic store fronts. Lots of restaurants and places to wander.

If you want to make a vacation or a holiday of it, then make a day trip to:
Lake Tahoe: Hike the Sierra Nevada Mountains or Lake Tahoe and Sparks, Nevada.
San Francisco: If you are coming in international you may be landing at SF and driving in. “The City” as it is called in Sacramento is entirely its own quest.
Yosemite National Forest: World famous beautiful Valley is about 4 hours South.
Coastal Redwood Forests: World famous trees are between 2 and 4 hours North.

More information to come as we get the registrations page up and running etc.
If this post needs to be moved elsewhere, I'm happy to do so.
Answer the call! Muster for Middle Earth!
Goblin King
aka Ralph

[Red Arrow]

Okay MECCG players, fans, devotees the fires of Amon Din is lit, the red arrows have been sent... LET'S GET READY... to... M-U-S-T-E-R!!!

[Goblin King]

Small but important update:
The actual playing space will be: There and Back Café. 1020 11th Street (on Friday), and Capitol Event Center at The MAY Building on Saturday and Sunday (next door to the cafe).
You can Google both locations for virtual tours which are online.
A registration webpage is forthcoming on the There and Back Cafe webpage. I will update you when it is up and running.
Answer the Call! Muster for Middle Earth!

[Goblin King]

Hello everyone! The tournament registration page has just gone live on the There and Back Cafe webpage. The first 40 people to register will get a pair of special event dice.
https://thereandback.cafe/middle-earth-tournament
Answer the Call! Muster for Middle Earth!

[ajtressler]

Currently looking into whether I can make it to this. No promises, but I am in the middle of putting together Arda and Dark Arda decks that I will bring if I attend. Do you have current lists of the cards in your decks? I've found a few, but every one of them is different.

[Goblin King]

Currently looking into whether I can make it to this. No promises, but I am in the middle of putting together Arda and Dark Arda decks that I will bring if I attend. Do you have current lists of the cards in your decks? I've found a few, but every one of them is different.

Cool ajtressler! Thanks for your efforts to make it out here. (fingers crossed) As far as deck lists, I know the Nazgul of ME version is on this forum. I'm not sure I have a current Wizards of ME version, but it is close to Gandalf Gene's version. The thing about these game cubes is that variety is the spice of life! Every deck is different.

[TradewindRider]

Greetings all, been a while since I posted—am definitely going to be attending the gathering in Sacramento in November! I’ve not been to the There and Back Again cafe in downtown, but the pictures of the interior are awesome and the gaming venue looks great! I was at the Worlds gathering in the Oakland Hills back in 2014 and it was a really nice mansion, but we did have issues with the lighting towards the late afternoon—not a good thing when trying to read the non-English minion resource and hazard cards during the sealed deck event, haha! In any case, I don’t think the lighting is going to be an issue here.

Am looking forward to seeing a number of folks in person, as it’s been a while—the last time I played MECCG is person was at the Strategicon in Los Angeles back in February 2020. Others in the forum, let’s chat things up here, thanks!

TradewindRider

[Goblin King]

Hello Everyone,
I have more news! There and Back Cafe has just announced the First Place Prize for the winner of the There and Back Again 2023 Tournament. It is a replica of the Key to Bag End from The Hobbit movie trilogy! A very fun and thematic prize indeed!
If you haven't registered yet, you still have time to do so and receive a cool pair of hobbit door dice.
But I wouldn't wait too long before registering.
https://thereandback.cafe/middle-earth-tournament

Answer the Call! Muster for Middle Earth!
Goblin King

[Kodi]

Hi friends, we can continue in the Worlds thread!

https://councilofelrond.org/forum/viewt ... =55&t=4901