Bendigo hosts the Victorian GT for a second year and it brought some big names and monster lists!
The sky was clear and the road full of travelers all headed to the lush bowling greens of the Bendigo Club for the first GT of the year in Victoria, brought to you proudly by Measured Gaming.
This is the second time the Vic GT has been held. Its origins lay in the Great Ticket Shortage of 2021 Saggy-T where a number of players (thirsting for a tournament in an otherwise dry season) missed out on getting to the much loved SAGT. In the absence of a hobby fix the good people at Measured Gaming introduced a 3rd annual tournament in their local Bendigo scene. As such, it draws a number of high profile and Masters level competitors. The Bendigo boys always try to put on a good show and this year was no exception.
Overview
Battleplans were announced in the player pack ahead of the tournament allowing players to design lists for the best possible outcomes.
Format | 2-Day, 5-Rounds, 2000pts |
Date | 12-13 March, 2022 |
Battleplans | Game 1 - Tectonic Interference Game 2 - Feral Foray Game 3 - First Blood Game 4 - The Veins of Ghur Game 5 - Savage Gains |
Players | 54 |
The meta was full of a lot of Cities of Sigmar (heavily populated with Stormcast Eternals), Stormcast 'shootcuckery' raptor/dragon/fulminator combos and a smattering of other filth (aka netlists). It was expected that the player base would reflect this at the event, and it pretty much did.
A fantastic article featuring some power lists and favourites was put together by Pete over at the Plastic Craic blog. You can read it here.
Friday Night
The Friday night of a Measured Gaming event is a staple of the whole experience. There is of course the setup-phase, followed by the drinking-phase, followed by the responsible-player-egress-phase then finally the more-drinking-than-we-really-should-the-night-before-a-tournament-phase for the chosen few. Did we see a few seedy players on Saturday? You bet your ass we did.
Day 1
Round 1 saw the play-dates (grudge matches) that were pre-arranged get underway.
Plenty of matches finished early for an extended lunch break. Big shout-out to the staff of the Bendigo Club who managed to keep the food and drinks flowing.
Rounds 2 and 3 went off without issue (apparently it was so devoid of drama that some people fell asleep) and everybody gathered round for the famous festivities of the Saturday Night Prize Draw!
Saturday Night Price Draw
Arguably the best part of Vic GT is the Saturday night prize draw. Here's how it works:
A name is randomly drawn from the pool of players.
The players have a choice - either accept the mystery prize in a box selected by our host and prize-giver extraordinaire, OR roll the oversized inflatable dice to try and get a 6 to choose something from the showcase 'big-ticket' prizes. But here's the catch - fail to roll that 6 and you walk away with nothing!
Rinse and repeat until all the prizes have been given away.
So why would you risk rolling instead of a sure thing mystery prize? Simple - there are a bunch of booby prizes littered throughout including 40k kits, random stuff from other games, single models that nobody wants and best of all, packets of SAO biscuits (If you don't know why this is funny go and look up Soggy SAO).
There's nothing quite like it. The bar staff all come and watch. Every time someone chooses the mystery box they're hounded by shouts of 'What's in the box?!?!?' from the crowd. The crowd helps each player make their decision about rolling the dice or taking the box in a cacophony of demands and fanfare. Its like watching the price is right if it were being held in front of the crowd who attends the darts.
Day 2
Now players were really in the thick of it. Those sitting on 3-0 were gearing up for a solid 2 rounds of tight gaming, deep speculation and almighty strategy. Everyone else was just having fun and enjoying the experience of being back at a tourney. Dice were rolled, models were removed and a few quiet bevvies were had.
Overall the feedback was positive from attendees and I'm sure we'll see a few of them return next year for the 3rd annual Vic GT. Big thanks to Brushy for TO-ing and to the guys at Measured Gaming for putting on another great event.
Loved it! Probably the best tournament I've been to so far.
- John Mac
Results
1st - Joel Graham
2nd - Dave Kerr
3rd - Joel McGrath
Last place (Wooden Spoon) - Matt Holt
Best Sports - Hugh Craill
Runners up - Dave Cunning, Dave Kerr
Choke on Your Own Filth award (worst result with a power list): Adam Bray
Coolest Army - Philip Smith
Runners up - Luke Ingram, Zenith Mils-Shorter
Best Newcomer - Sebastian Ulrichs
Most Improved Player - Dan Edwards
Philip Smith (winner of coolest army) and his Living Cities Krondys.