A New Chinese ChampionHighlighting the 2013 A Game of Thrones: The Card Game China Championship
Around the same time that we hosted the A Game of Thrones: The Card Game World Championship as part of the 2013 FFG World Championship Weekend, our friends at Game Harbor in China hosted the 2013 A Game of Thrones: The Card Game Chinese National Championship.
Today, we’re pleased to present the highlights from this event, which took place November 10th in Shanghai and drew eighty-three players from fifteen different cities. We’re also pleased to induct the 2013 Chinese National Champion, “K,” into FFG’s Hall of Heroes!
For a full recap of the tournament’s highlights, we draw from the China Championship Tournament Newsletter.
The 2013 Chinese A Game of Thrones: The Card Game National Championship
The A Game of Thrones: The Card Game Chinese Championship was held November 10th in GuLu Garden board game cafe in Shanghai. Eighty-three players from fifteen cities participated.
This tournament was the first time that the championship drew upon the same card pool as the English-language card pool. Accordingly, all six Houses received roughly even player representation, and one player even represented the Neutral Faction, Fei Xue, from NanJing. Not only that, Fei Xue successfully qualified for the elimination rounds after seven tough Swiss round matches on the first day.
Players selected from many different agendas, but the release of the Chapter Packs from the Beyond the Narrow Sea cycle encouraged roughly one-third of all players to avoid starting with any agenda card.
This year, we were also pleased to have three female players from Xi'An join the national tournament.
The tournament’s youngest player was only fourteen years-old. A native of Shanghai, he managed to qualify for the Top 16 with his Martell / Knights of the Hollow Hill deck, and that meant he is now also the youngest player to qualify for the Top 16 in the tournament’s history.
After seven full rounds of intense games, sixteen players from Wuhan, He zhou, Macao, GuangZhou, BeiJing, Shanghai and NanJing qualified for the next day’s elimination rounds.
The 2013 A Game of Thrones: The Card Game Chinese National Championship Top 16
NanJing City was the best represented city in the round of 16, but after the round was over, only one player from NanJing City, Wu, qualified for the next round. Both Top 16 players from BeiJing won and moved to the Top 8. Additionally, in the Top 8, all six Great Houses had their representatives.
In the quarterfinals, K competed against former champion Ouyang Bin. The match between the two Shanghai players was epic, but K pulled through in the end.
Both semifinal matches were fought between players from ShangHai and BeiJing, and Shanghai players won both, meaning that no matter who won, the championship would remain in Shanghai.
The final game was between YiMeng and Biao Yu, known more commonly by his nickname, K. With his Greyjoy deck, YiMeng built up a heavy advantage throughout the game’s beginning phases. He created openings for his characters by leveraging his economic “choke” and making good use of Greyjoy’s many abilities to cancel triggered effects. By the end of the game’s fourth round, YiMeng had earned eleven power to K’s two. Then in round five, K was able to cancel YiMeng’s To Be a Kraken with his Paper Shield, setting up the successful play of Westeros Bleeds in the dominance phase. In the ensuing rounds, K gradually reversed the game and sized the 2013 A Game of Thrones: The Card Game Chinese National Championship!
You can find Biao Yu’s complete deck list at his place of honor in FFG’s Hall of Heroes.
From left to right: Runner-up YiMeng, K, and Eric (3rd place)
More Tournament Action
In addition to the “full environment” Championship that allowed players to draw from all the available card pool, there was also a “limited environment” tournament, in which players built decks from the Core Set, deluxe expansions, and the two most recent cycles of Chapter Packs.
In this tournament, G.Y. from Macao won third place, Yu Shaoshi from HeFei was the runner-up and Wen from Xi’An claimed the Championship.
From left to right: YuShaoshi, Wen, G.Y.
Additionally, as those still involved in the Championship competed in their elimination rounds, all other players formed eight teams and competed in three-versus-three group matches. Team “Never Stop” from NanNing won this team tournament.
Team “Never Stop”
After that, Game Harbor raffled prizes for all players.
Congratulations to K! With his victory, he earned the right to design an A Game of Thrones: The Card Game card to appear in a future expansion.
We also want to congratulate all those all involved the 2013 Chinese Championship. A Game of Thrones: The Card Game continues to grow in China, and we look forward to more reports from future tournaments!
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A New Chinese Champion
