Post Reserved for answering questions.
@ all, but especially the ones who will face STANDIN: Can you build a team that you can lead to victory? I believe this will have the following aspects: Can you yourselves build good decks to beat your opponents? Can you predict and counter them with your element? Can you draft a Team that is a capable of doing that whenever you cant? Will you be able to inspire your teammates to do all in their power to fight for the win in every game? Can you infect others with your enthusiasm for your element (if you have any in the first place)? And most importantly: Will you put the necessary time investment in all those things?
I built a team once before, and I believe that I can do it again! While we were ultimately unable to take first place, I learned some valuable lessons about the initial vault-building process, and we managed to make the most of a situation where the chips were very much down. I believe that I make a cooperative teammate who can't lead alone but has the ability to help with building strong group dynamics from a leadership position, and can help others be enthusiastic and successful.
@All: What does being a Master mean? What kind of traits will you exemplify as a Master?
Being a Master means being a player willing to represent your element as the public-facing face, being willing to help new players who wish to learn more about your element, and being diplomatic and understanding under nearly all circumstances. I believe that I have the temperament and background to be a Master that can represent Earth in a positive light through both mentoring and through engaging with others in a non-hostile manner.
@All: Pick a character, real or fictional, to personify yourself. Justify your answer.
There are a number of fictional characters that I enjoy comparing myself to, but in the context of Trials, I'll go with Julian Delphiki (aka Bean) from the Ender's Game books. He's a tactician who has some ability to focus on the larger scale strategies but is at his best when he's allowed to narrow in on small squadrons. In a similar manner, while I have some ability to plan my course through a PVP Event such as Trials, PVP Championships, Sacrifice, or any of the other events I've played in, I'm at my best designing and playing decks for individual games and matches. When I first became master, I used my bans in a manner that enabled me to leverage my upgrade advantage, and built decks to counter MegroN's best remaining plays, counting on the strength of my upgrades to cover me against any suboptimal plays, and this worked exactly as planned. In the PVP World Championships of 2014-15, I deliberately engaged in less mindgating than many of the other top players and focused on the tactics available to me based on the elements and upgrades. Likewise, relative to other players on the forum, I place a greater emphasis on in-game tactics and game-planning, and less emphasis on mindgating. I win or lose on my ability to use my gameplans to their fullest potential. Sometimes, you have to realign the way you think, and remember that the enemy's gate is down.
In terms of personality, Julian is patient but severe, and tries to take his time to think through what needs to be done, before acting in a complete manner. I am (generally) a pretty even-tempered person, and a person who believes in planning things out carefully. When I design events on the forum, I write up my rulesets and seek extensive feedback to iron out all possible problems, and then I prepare to host it. While I can't compare to Julian's raw intellect, I at least do try to match his patience and his willingness to determine his best course of action before, rather than while, executing it.
@Trialists who have previously competed in a different element: A wise woman once asked for this specific category of people to tell them, so she knows who not to vote for. (Well, actually she asked if you're trialling for your favourite element, but eh, it's a similar category. While I might not be as drastic as her, loyalty is an important aspect of being a Master for me. Why should we see you as a representative as the element you have chosen, rather than any others, that you have trialled for prior?
I entered the trials of :light in my first Trial, because at that time, light was my preferred element. I was still a fairly new player, especially to the forums, at that time, and there were things about light that drew me to it. In my second Trial, I switched to my current favorite element, :earth. I successfully became Master, and said that I would always defend a mastership that I held, because I believe that loyalty demands that of me. I did in fact do so when playing in my third Trial, but was ultimately struck down by my former mentor and former master himself, Blacksmith. While I believe that losing to Blacksmith in that Trial was an honorable result, and considered myself "allowed" to choose a new favorite if any other element struck my fancy, I decided that I was still the "Warden Guy", and that :earth was still where I belonged. Thus in my fourth overall trial, and my third consecutive Trial of Earth, I remain in my new element, and should I win the Mastership, will certainly remain in it for the next Trial as well.
Please take a photo of something you dislike.
Pending...
Some great questions from before:
What does your element represent and mean to you outside of the gameplay? What has it done for you, and what would you do for it as a Master?
Earth represents resilience, tirelessness, and a willingness to stand up to opponents, both in life and in the game, without being pushed over. Earth is strong and durable, Earth takes your punches and laughs them in the face, Earth doesn't need to punch back, it just sits there and wins whenever it isn't dead, which is always. Earth represents to me what I consider my greatest trait in life, the ability to choose to not be bothered by things and the ability to endure through adversity. In a gameplay and forum sense, what I can do for Earth is to lead it to further success on the forums and help it regain the respect that it deserves to have (outside of grabbows, which seems to be the only context half the players respect it in).
@All : Analyse your performance in trials so far (both phases) in a critical manner. Where did you go right? Where did you go wrong? What would you change if you could? You have 4 hours. (if someone wants me to answer this, pm)
My phase 1 was fairly decent, the only complaint I have about it was that I had hoped for a 3 with the story I wrote, but came up slightly short and ended up with a 2.
As for my phase 2, everything that could go wrong, did. I played decks that should have been competitive in each of my matches, but was generally extremely unsuccessful in getting the results that I needed. While all of my matches were against strong competitors, I still think that I could have performed better than I did. While I think that I was slightly unlucky to get the results that I did, I also think that I was outplayed in the deckbuilding and underestimated the value of shards in several of my games. I think that given my deckbuilding as compared to my opponents, I probably had win equity of somewhere in the vicinity of 5-6 wins across the four Bo5s, rather than the 2 that I got, but a player who built more accurate decks to the metagame could have come away with ~7-8 wins worth of equity. Although I was slightly unlucky, I was also outplayed, and the two together resulted in a truly dreadful round.
Also, if you were made a Trials Overseer this trials, what would you have done differently?
On that note, do you wish to ever become Trials Overseer?
If I were Trials overseer, I would have changed almost nothing this Trials - I actually think it's the best designed Trials we've ever had. The only thing I would have done differently is tried to get the Phase 1 scores updated more quickly - though I most certainly know how hard it can be to get anything out quickly when working as a multi-member committee. I don't see myself ever being a Trials Overseer, as I think my event planning skills are better utilized in developing new PVP events to run than in running well-established events, though I could certainly be willing if there were a need and if I had the right amount of availability at that time.