The Emperor’s Journal 2 - December 2017 Greetings Galactic Citizens and SW CCG Players, Welcome to our second newsletter. I have gathered all the information about the most important things that happened in the past half year, and of course also some insight into what will happen in the near future. Many thanks to all the volunteers who helped by providing an article or help for this newsletter: Chris Kelly, Dan Tartaglione, Gosse Zeilstra, Kevin Jaap, Matt Carulli, Mitch Nieland and Tamas Papp! I especially want to thank you guys for providing something on short notice in the busy period between the Set 8 release and the winter holidays. We have tried to keep the articles centered on Set 8, and I hope you like what we’ve come up with. I hope you enjoy this second newsletter. May the Force be with you! Chris (Euro Emperor) Menzel Marketing Advocate Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 2 Major News of the past months Set 7 & Set 8 released Set 7 was a mid-sized set of 28 cards, which was released in July, and featured the remaining main characters from Rogue 1 (Baze Malbus, Chirrut Imwe and super baddie Director Krennic), and some more from Episode 7 (a DS pirate crew, General Leia, the Profundity, and some LS resistance members) and the Rebels TV show (Sabine and the Ghost), as well a several nice player cards. Set 8 is a just released larger set of almost 60 cards and the largest we had in a long time. It is the first set that reflects a bit of what we did in the legacy area in regard to establishing new objectives and giving several helper cards to different deck types, so that the meta game should be shaken up quite a bit. Read on to find some strategy articled form my fellow marketing team members elsewhere in this newsletter. Set 7 can be found here Set 8 can be found here Demo Decks Expansion 2 is out We also have a new demo deck expansion for out new and returning players that replaces your familiar cards from the basic set with combo cards and other strategies, which make your decks more effective. You can also learn more about shields, and optional starting possibilities. Read all about Demo Deck Expansion 2 here Star Wars CCG Documentary This may very well become a dream come true for many of us SW CCG fans all over the World. Experienced filmmaker Brandon Baity and long-time top tier player Brian “Twigg” Terwilliger from Team Albany are working on a Star Wars CCG documentary. This movie is about the history and rise and fall of Decipher and the continuing life of the game through the Players Committee. We have already made some connections to ensure this will be a high quality video, and you can get your first taste at the gofundme pagefrom Brandon, where you can help to collect $ 10.000 to make this a reality. Go and help fund this once in a lifetime project here Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 3 Mark Walseth is inducted into the Hall of Fame It has been discussed for a few years already, but this year in August 2017 it was finally the right time to enshrine Mark Walseth into the Hall of Fame at the World Championship in his home town of Minneapolis, MN. In the year 2000 teacher Mark Walseth had started a Star Wars Program at the Middle School in Rosemount, which was about to become one of the cornerstones for our organization. He had a yearly 8th grade class that played and participated in tournaments Mark organized and hosted. There was an average of about 8-10 members per year, some of whom are still active and successful in the game almost 2 decades later. Mitch Nieland was in his first class, followed by Charly Arlandson in the second, and Jake Nelson. He taught them the game, first by using 40 card Premiere decks, and later objectives and their related support cards, so that you could play at a higher level more quickly. Mark would then teach you the phases, card interactions, and general tactics of the game. He held after school programs at least twice a week for 2 hours just teaching the game, letting people from all ages get together (whether it was the older players, or 8th graders). It also taught you how to communicate with other people that you may not otherwise communicate with. He just did a fantastic job offering that space to all the kids who may not have had a place to play sports, etc. Mark is one of the biggest Tournament Organizers in the World, and aside from the known formats, has also always created innovative new tournament formats or programs (Jedi Padawan Format, Bounty Hunters Format, Rosemount Championship, or an exchange system of volunteering time for rare cards). Mark has been super generous, and has given away many thousands of dollars of cards to the kids over the years. As his own legendary prize and community support became more depleted, other parts of the community became aware of his project, and how he relentlessly helped his students and therefore “created” new players (there must be around 50+ different players that play the game in the Rosemount area on and off in the past years). The other communities started sending cards and prize to Mark with which he could continue to support the Bespin Region till his last class in 2016. His work is not at an end, though, and Mr. Walseth is working with the PC to transfer his program to an online version of it, which would allow us to reach even more young students as potential players, and offer them what Mark has so successfully done in 16 years in his area. Volunteer Awards The following dedicated players have also received a Volunteer Award for their peerless work for the game. Jeremy Gardener (for our all over website supervision), Tom Marlin (for creating uncomparable software, see later in this newsletter) and Troy Biesterfeld (for his creation of GEMP). Excuse the small news notice, gentlemen but we to hear more of and about each of them in more detail in future editions of the newsletter. Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 4 Upcoming Events Major Event Updates The World Championship was held in Bloomington, MN from 8- European Tournaments 2018 10th August 2017, and had 59 The European Tournaments for all of 2018 have already been posted players in total . Phil Aasen is and you can start booking your flights and prep your decks: the new World Champ after defeating Jonathan Chu in the 17th February 2018: European MPC in Hannover, Germany finals. More details are here: http://www.starwarsccg.org/fo 18th February 2018: Germany National in Hannover, Germany rums/viewforum.php?f=1009 th The European Championship 17 March 2018: Denmark National in Horsens, Denmark th was held in Bochum from 8-10 th September in Bochum with 45 14 April 2018: Ryloth Regional in Tilburg, Netherlands players. Bastian Winkelhaus th returned after a 10 year hiatus 5 May 2018: Toola Regional in Copenhagen, Denmark th to claim his 5 EC championship nd after defeating Ziemowit Skwara 2 June 2018: Naboo Regional in Bromborough/Liverpool , UK in the finals. More details here: 16th June 2018: Ralltiir Regional in Munich, Germany http://www.starwarsccg.org/for ums/viewforum.php?f=1012 30th June 2018: Hungary National in Budapest, Hungary Texas Mini Worlds were held th in October 2017 in Houston, and 4 August 2018: Polish National in Krakow, Poland there were 17 players. Steve Baroni won against Tom Haid 21-23th September: Europeans in Bochum, Germany in the finals. http://www.starwarsccg.org/for ums/viewforum.php?f=1010 Currently Posted US Tournaments 2018 Major Online Events The majority of the US events will be posted later, but the two main events, The MPC and Worlds, are up already, as well as one event in The first GEMPC with 36 players was held in the first quarter of California in January. 2017 by Batmouse. th th Here are the bracket results. 5 -7 January 2018: Match Play Championship in New Brunswick, NJ Batmouse’s second GEMPC is 7th January 2018 Canto Royale in Oakland, CA still running in the last quarter of 2017. We have 64 players. 4th-7th October 2018: World Championship in Morristown, NJ Follow the bracket here. Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 5 The Emperor’s Prize - Der Prize ist heiss! In this new column I’m trying to keep you updated on new prize support and some “merchandise” we are giving away at major events, online events and other opportunities. We’ve been working on some interesting things over the past few months, and these items will show up during the next season, so keep your eyes out for them. Since we are often asked… these items are not for sale in the SWCCG PC shop. They are strictly made for prize support and are intended to increase tournament participation. History of Prize Support in the US and Europe Since the beginning of the Players Committee prize support has been handled differently in the US and in Europe. It might be something that not all players are aware of, and there is no “right” or “wrong” here, but it may be interesting to know, so I would like to share this history with you. The US has always been the cornerstone of Players Committee and provides at least an estimated 70-75% of the active player base for the Star Wars CCG.