Hello Tolkiendili !
I'm Franck Stassin from France.
As introduction I'll explain my journey with MeCCG since the beginning.
COLLECTION
My first experience with CCG wasn't MeCCG.
Like others it was Magic, and with friends we found this new kind of game wonderful.
I totally stopped playing Magic for pecuniary reason (selling out all cards except for one deck) when MeCCG was released in 1995.
I wanted indeed to collect it, being a great fan of Tolkien's work.
MeCCG was released when I just became student like my friends (me at Lille, north of France)
The only other one who bought MeCCG too studied almost at the other end of the country.
For each new extension, we bought card boxes for exciting moment while discovering new cards with wonderful pictures.
Angus Mc Bride, John Howe, Ted Nasmith and Alan Lee are in this order my favorite artists.
I remember for example when opening a MELE booster at the same time, it was inside The One Ring for me and The Lidless Eye for my friend !
Without any true opportunity to play, I focused then on collecting for me and my friend, one version of each english card.
Meanwhile, I tried to trade cards, but at this time it was difficult without Internet.
But I saw once in my favorite shop that a tournament was planned (in Lille).
I went to tournament without playing, and I made several trades with lot of nice players.
I thus had a look to some games and saw how players had fun while playing.
At the end of the following tournament, the organizer taught me basis of playing the game.
It was a great feeling, and was convinced to play the following tournament, which is better than waiting between games.
As a side note, the organizer was a well-known player, Ernst Brun.
GAME
I had great pleasure while playing my first tournaments.
At this time, I played only with cards not in my collection, so I didn't had access to rare cards for playing.
I even didn't had access to some fixed and uncommons and a few commons, because I gave to another friend one of each non-rare card !
Then I had once the opportunity to play a national tournament in Paris.
The event was a 2-headed tournaments, the first one with all english extensions up to MEWH, and the second one with only french extensions up to METD.
I attended second one while all other guys from Lille attended the first one.
For this event I took some rare cards out of my collection to improve my deck which was Awakening of Rhovanion (see
http://www.meccg.net/dforum/viewtopic.php?t=2903).
I unexpectedly won the tournament, and got as prize a complete collector set of french MEDM (which was released few days before).
I became thus aware that group of players from Lille had a very good level, because the first tournament was won too by a player from Lille.
With this victory I was automatically qualified for French nationals, in which I finished at 13th place.
Afterwards I played other tournaments with another deck (see Entmoot
http://www.meccg.net/dforum/viewtopic.php?t=2854), until the end of my studies end of 2000.
VOID
I didn't kept contact with the players when I began to work in Paris.
After some years, I change home from a flat to a house in 2005.
With far bigger place, I took all stuff which was in my parents' house, including naturally MeCCG.
I thus realized I missed 4 cards in my collection.
BACK TO COLLECTION
My goal was then to finish my collection and the one of my friend (who missed almost 25 cards).
I first contacted former French players with help of old list, but it wasn't very efficient.
Only a few kept their collection and none were still playing.
I felt this situation as a disaster for such a wonderful collection/game.
I had more results with Internet, and slowly completed collections.
The last card missing in my collection was Freeze the Flesh, and the one in my friend's collection was Farmer Maggot.
BACK TO GAME
Meanwhile, Ernst Brun (didn't playing anymore too) gave me contact of Dominique Bergeret (aka Darksatin) for trade.
After trade, Dominique had difficulties to convinced me to play a game again, because I hadn't truly motivation after 5 years without playing.
It was again a great feeling while playing and I became then slowly corrupted by the game.
With the fair quality of laser printer, I could print proxies.
I have indeed a collector set only, missing thus 2 versions for each non-unique rare card.
That was naturally a lock for building all thematic decks which came to my mind !
The next step for Dominique was to convince me to attend an international event.
Worlds 2008 in Antwerpen was a great opportunity, because it is only 2 hours far from Paris by train.
Games were very friendly with a fair spirit among dudes, although being a high-level tournament. (see report
http://www.meccg.net/dforum/viewtopic.php?t=2855)
Another hinderance was thus unlocked and I attend just after Walloon Nationals.
The next step was naturally the Lure (see report 2009
http://www.lureofmeccg.org/report.php?l ... ame=franck and report 2010
http://www.lureofmeccg.org/report.php?l ... ame=franck).
GAME STYLE
It was very enjoying at Lure to discover alternative and thematic game formats.
Arda is a great multi-players format with lots of fun.
Scenario formats like Hamburger (and seemingly Cool Play I don't know yet) allow casual play.
Dreamcards dispose of in-depth thematic with amazingly possibilities of different deck.
I like to play thematically, and game is so close to the spirit of Middle-earth that playing a game is like living an adventure in it.
For example I never play with "the ultimate 5" (The Mouth, Adunaphel, Uvatha, Baduila and Daelomin at Home), unless it fits with thematic (for example I add Daelomin at Home only if hazard thematic is drake/dragon).
It is then always a great surprise for opponent if he's playing an hunting Alatar !
Until now I always played hero alignment (except for only 3 times minion).
PRESENT AND FUTURE
As a conclusion, I'm back to the game since 5 years thanks to Dominique who use persuasive words.
Since few weeks I play sometimes on GCCG, which allow playing all year round.
I hope I'll find some online French players in order to registrer a new country for the Nation Cup !
I have now the goal to convince french players to play on GCCG and alternate formats, and old players to play again.
See you soon !