Well, this past weekend was the third annual ChiCon and the second that I’ve made it to, and let me say that it was an absolute blast. Simply amazing in every regard. After the wondrous events of last year, my expectations were pretty high, but let me say that they most certainly met, regardless. The sheer generosity of AJ, patience of Ktom, and culinary skills of The Shiek all know no bounds. A most heartfelt thanks goes to those responsible for this going off without a hitch from my scrubbiest opponent, to the most talented rules fanatics, to…….. well….. everyone involved in the smallest way (even Guiness, the world’s largest, and possibly laziest dog). Hopefully I didn’t forget to thank anyone.
This was a bit of an odd trip for me since my usual traveling companion for major AGOT events, Dobbler, was unable to go. Thankfully, some of the Columbia, MO crew were going and quite willing to let me tag along for a ride. The weekend before ChiCon, a local player here, Joel, randomly told me that he would be able to attend. Unfortunately, our reigning World Champion, Sam Tham, was unable to attend since he was feeling rather under the weather. Still, Dan, Bowen, Joel and I made the trek across what appeared to be an increasingly icy wasteland as we traveled further north. Fortunately for us, the roads were all amazingly clear, and no more winter weather came down as we drove.
We arrived at the Casino of Mundelein just after eleven on Friday night, so we missed out on the multiplayer event, but with Joel’s school schedule we just couldn’t have made it otherwise. Crazy professors threatening to fail him if he misses another class….. I have no idea when they started that sort of thing. 
Anyway, it was good to drop in and get the feel of things as we wandered around and saw who was there. I always love the first arrival at an event like this and seeing the friends that I don’t get to see often enough by far.
We left about midnight and got ourselves settled into the hotel for some deckbuilding and playtesting for the main event. Joel had been playing a 45 card Greyjoy rush deck that was pretty solid, but I felt was probably a little too heavy on saves with 15 or so in the deck… We streamlined it some and he set to playing a few games with Bowen. While this was going on, Dan was attempting to put together a Greyjoy mill deck. Bowen had been advising, but I took over for Dan to bounce ideas off of as our roommates played. With a few hours out of the way and several games played, we settled in for some needed sleep. By the time I pulled my lazy self out of the bed to shower, Bowen was constructing a totally new deck for the day as he was unsatisfied with his Lannister Army deck’s performance in the playtest games. In many ways it was all too soon when we found ourselves once again in the basement of the Casino of Mundelein, getting registered for one of the best events ever…
Filed under: A Game of Thrones
