Nice turnout.

Two new faces, Jamie and Maarten, and some people that hadn't played in a while battled it out for the 7th Qualifier seat.
Jamie and Maarten were introduced via BeNeLegacy and as a result I had 13 applications.
After tonight's Qualifier more than half the people Qualified for CubeVitational 2011 will known.

Will Jan claim a seat like last year?
Will a newcomer run away with it like last time?
Will Thomas finally manage to win a Qualifier?
or
Will Rene_N reign supreme after a few near misses?

Pairings

Standings

Congrats to Cedric, coming out of nowhere to claim the 7th Seat.
His Good Stuff Monstrosity was simply too much to handle for Thomas' UB Control.

Deckpix

Cedric 3-0

Thomas 2-1

Mattias 2-1

Jan 2-1

Aaaaand we're back!

Summer approaches fast and so does The CubeVitational 2011, after tonight only two Qualifiers left.
After last month's 2HG Event we were back in old form with an 8man. Floris had completely forgotten but lucky for us (and him;) Tijs' friend, Michael, wanted to try his hand some Cube.

The Pairings

The Results

First timer Michael did a smart thing and built a straight-up awesome monoRed deck, as he didn't know what to expect from my Cube.
Tight play netted him the invite as sixth Qualifier for The CubeVitational 2011. Congrats!
I'm especially happy with his deck considering the time spent and the number of updates towards upgrading Red as a color.

Deckpix

Michael 3-0

Rene_N 2-1

Jan 2-1

Tijs 2-1

Some of my veteran-Cube-attendees had been clamoring for another 2HG event for some time now and because I want to accomodate my playerbase I complied, of course. I started out simply wanting to Qualify the winning team for the CubeVitational 2011 since I had never used anything besides normal draft as a Qualifier format, but I'm still me so I also tried something slightly different: A 2HG League!

Six two player teams would draft the Cube at one table, afterwhich each team would play each team once during a five round tournament. We drafted five 18 card packs to ensure a bit of wheeling, maybe next time I will use four packs instead, not sure. Also, I tried to use Swiss pairing as long as possible to keep the pairings exciting.

It turned out quite nice: The eventual winners drew against the last team in the standings, two teams were still gunning for the crown in the last round, stuff you want to happen in a league. We also managed most games within the timeframe alotted for the matches. I kind of liked the fact that league play made draws possible, but maybe a bit more time per round could prevent the two draws we saw. That could be a pipedream however as Cube-2HG games tend to be well playable within 45 minutes...

The Final Standings

Congrats to Eef and Hylke for qualifying!

Deckpix!

Eef and Hylke 3-1-1

Daan and Erwin 3-2-0

Mattias and Dennis 3-2-0

Joost_B and Thomas 3-2-0

Aaaaaand we're back with another Qualifier!

Pairings

Results

Because Tijs is already Qualfied for the CubeVitational 2011, due to being last year's winner, Geert qualifies despite losing the Final to Tijs.

Deckpix

Tijs 3-0

Geert 2-1

Mattias 2-1

The 2011 Qualifiers returned to the 2 Klaveren last thursday. Compared to previous Qualifiers it was a reasonably unexperienced field. Floris "The Ringer" de Haan had a tough time though and dropped after an 0-2 start. Hylke "The Yoyo" Faber had an exceptionally strong showing and swept the Qualifier with his WU Aggro deck. Hylke, the only player capable going 0-3 into 3-0 the next time, secures the 4th Seat in the 2011 CubeVitational to be held in August 2011. The first seats were claimed by Tijs de Kler (last year's winner), Jesse Zwaan and Mattias Kres (Qualifiers 1 and 2 Winners).

Still 5 spots left to be claimed through Qualifiers however, the next chance being on May 14th 2011 in the 2 Klaveren.

Pairings

Results

Deckpix!

Hylke 3-0

Merrin 2-1

Thijs_H 2-1

Rene_N 2-1

Participants are more than welcome to post draft reports in the comments.

Double Qualifier #1 is in the books. If you ask me the first 16man draft was a great succes. Thanks to everybody for playing. I had a blast and I really loved how all the cards were in the pool, even though the tables didn't play against each other. We had smaller packs (13x3) and because of that we had tougher choices, less options, easier deckbuidling perhaps but still fine decks. Hope to do it again soon!

What surprised me though was the amount of red cards drafted by the 8 players with a positive record. The pic below shows the sorting stacks of after sorting the 8 decks with positive records. Admitted: some of the cards ended up in sideboard, but it still suprised me since red is usually underdrafted.

Pairings Pod A

Results Pod A

Jesse 3-0

Mattias 2-1

Johan 2-1

Joost_B 2-1

Pairings Pod B

Results Pod B

Thijs_H 3-0

Geert 2-1

Eef 2-1

Thomas 2-1

Congrats to Jesse and Thijs_H for securing a seat for the CubeVitational 2011. I hope to see you in July for the CubeVitational 2011!

Please leave a comment about your draft, your deck, your matches or something else below.

Thnx.

Alas, it was the last Qualifier..

Direct qualification for the CubeVitational was on the line of course, but there was more to fight for: a safe spot in the ranking, ratingpoints and DCI foils, a Fling for participating and a playset of Kor Firewalker and Sylvan Ranger for the top4.

I'm real happy to notice that the aniticipation is growing. Other Qualified players come over to check on the draft and are curious about who's in the final.  Also people want to know how they need to perform in the ranking or rating to Qualify via that route, or what the k-value if tonight's draft is, and how much drafts there are left...

Yes, color me proud and happy.

My draft started out like this: FPFP Strip Mine, then Incinerate, Staggershock, etc.

The Parings:

The Results:

Johan & Joost. Pre-decider banter!

The final: Game 3.
Joost trying to recover from missed early land drops and under pressure from Johan's Bitterblossom.

Deckpix!

Johan 3-0

Joost_vdM 2-1

Thomas 2-1

Terry 2-1

Four down, two to go. The 2010 Season is pumping into high gear and nearing conclusion.

Eight players sat down last saturday to battle it out for the fourth direct CubeVitational qualification: Tijs, Elmer, Balthasar, Rob, Chris, Chris and Thomas, supplemented by Eduard who had won the last seat through a raffle at the M11 PreRelease part of the AMC organised by Teun Zijp. The first seven players were a mixture of experience and skill: Four players out of the current top6, a well known local and a legacy buff. In contrast: Eduard had never Cubed before, but had done a couple of drafts ("but not that many") so that made him more anxious than curious.

The Pairings:

You've read correctly! Eduard didn't go home without a win. He exptected to go home without a win, so he was quite happy. Hylke's response? Worst. Deck. Ever. If you have 8 mana on turn 3 and still lose, you're doing it wrong...

The Results:

Deckpix:

Elmer 3-0

Tijs 2-1

Thomas 2-1

Balthasar 2-1

No chance. That's what Mattias' opponents seemed to have when he rolled out his WU Artifact mana powered monster of a control deck. A clean sweep makes Mattias the third player to qualify for the CubeVitational 2010.

The Parings:

Round 1
2-0 Mattias vs. Chris_B
2-0 Joost_B vs.Balthasar
0-2 Peter vs. Floris
2-1 Tijs vs. Thomas

Round 2
2-0 Mattias vs. Floris
1-2 Joost_B vs. Tijs
2-1 Peter vs. Chris_B
2-0 Balthasar vs. Thomas

Round 3
2-0 Mattias vs. Tijs
2-0 Floris vs. Joost_B
1-2 Balthasar vs. Peter
2-0 Thomas vs. Chris_B

The Standings:

9 Mattias
6 Tijs
6 Floris
6 Peter
3 Joost_B
3 Balthasar
3 Thomas
0 Chris_B

Deckpix!

Mattias 3-0

Tijs 2-1

Floris 2-1

Peter 2-1

Jan and Johan battled it out yesterday for the second invite to the CubeVitational 2010. Jan was considered the favorite based on match-up. The results:

Round 3
2-0 Jan vs. Johan
0-2 Geert vs. Thomas (BYE)
0-2 Tijs vs. Peter
2-0 Tim (BYE) vs. Floris

The Standings
9 Jan
6 Johan
6 Thomas
6 Peter
3 Geert
3 Tijs
3 Tim
0 Floris

Jan's deck proved to be too much for Johan. Game 1 was a nailbiter however: Johan cheated an early Memnarch and started to steal Jan's lands. A Time Walk and Balance from Jan meant Johan fell one turn short of taking game 1.
Johan had a good start game 2 and ran out both his enablers, Welder and Transmuter. Jan dropped Day of Judgment into Yosei. Johan made an error regarding Horsemanship which ultimaltely proved too much. Jan had an array of options to get rid of Johan's Worship and creatures...

There you have it! Jan secures the second invite.

Jan 3-0

Johan 2-1

Thomas 2-1

Peter 2-1

Geert 1-2 (could've been 2-1 if he hadn't dropped, and beat Thomas)