What a week end !

I have never done a report before, and not even in English so forgive the errors.

We left Paris in car with Cedric Merlet and Filipe feirera neves the thursday in the afternoon. We talk about the current meta and bloodlines spoilers mainly untill we arrive in the netherlands. We had booked a motel near Utrecht but the reception was closing at 23.00 hours in the night and we realized we won't be at time enough to get our room. So I drove very fast on the road enough to arrive at 22.59 ! One minute left before closing. In our luckyness the girl at the reception is very beautiful and we start to enjoy the netherlands a lot. We just make our card list before sleeping.

We get up early and head to the center in advance so as to have time to take a small breakfast there. Here we meet the others French players Frederic Lafont and Gregory Leloup from strasbourg and 2 others from Lyon I didn't know. We start talking about the meta again and the TOC we played in France to qualify in day 3, only Cedric and Filipe hadn't their byes, but Cedric was really hoping to make day 2 to be qualified (and not to pay 20 euros again).

I can't remember well the game I played during day 1. All I remember is that I met a belgium player first round (yes no bye) that played axe strike in his deck and got a game loss.
Round 2 was epic however, I play against Martin Hechterberger and his sauron roaming. At site 2 he plays 3 advance marauder. I manage them easily and they are all exhausted and no twilight left in pool. So I decide to double move, wingfoot kills 2 and only one is left so I guess I'll be ok. I was wrong ! He plays orc patrol (never thought of him) and makes his minions not roaming, he plays a lot of minions (hopefully gate sentry mainly) with ithil stone too and an advance scout to make everyone roaming back. I just survived with only sam and aragorn still alived. He single move after that and think he will finish me. But luckily I draw companions and I do it to site 9 finally. What an incredible game !
I loose to Tristan Marsman on round 3, I win round four against one of the french player from Lyon and then lost to a player from the netherlands who played sauron roaming and made day 2 too, he wins thanks to the angle and cycling 8 fellowship cards because I had 6 companions and he succed in swarming me at 8. I shouldn't have played this site, well I learnt of my mistake and now play the angle more carefully. I win against a player from England round 6 (can't remember his deck nor his name).
The final round is againt patrick sullivan and the winner of this game will make top 16. the game is relax, maybe too much because the judge is calling time when I am at site 7 and he is at 5 or 6. We are both playing forest guls that take a long time to assign and to choose site and manipulating dices (we hadn't enough tokens) on sudden furry took most of the time too. Anyway Pat is nice enough to let me a full win so that I can pass in top 16. what a great guy !
I finish 15th and advance to day 2 with 5-2.

After smoking a cigarrete with sullivan talking about the game and the fact that tokens manipulating took all the time, I meet the other french players. Greg Leloup make day 2 too but fred Lafont finish 17th !!! and cedric Merlet 19th. He is very sad not to be qualified because he still hasn't his day 3 bye.
I borrow fred lafont's southron threat archery (all in foil !) for the next day because I thought it would be good against all those 9 companions fellowship. I paired it with dwarves and gandalf (for traveled leader).
We then head to a pizzeria in the center of Utrecht for the dinner. Food is good but one of the waitress is very beautiful and we start talking with fred lafont about how the girls are chick in the netherlands. Greg Leloup is turning red while hearing us because he is very (very very) timid with girls, so we finish the night by joking on him while he's hidding his red face in his T-shirt. So funny ;)
We arrived late in the motel so no pretty girl at the reception. Well like this we will be in form for the next day ;)

We meet the French crew the saturday at the game center where we take our breakfast. This time it is a barmaid there and god she is so beautiful ! She has very beautiful blue eyes and fred lafont and I start staring at her. We will stay at the bar all the day because of her just to make raging Greg Leloup because we act like goofy boys. He will finally admit at the end of the week end that yes she is not so bad ! (what ? she was wonderful you mean !).
Fref asks Kenneth what did he brought and he shows him his gondorian fellowship with 3 terrible and evil in it. Phew I feel confident not to have brought forestguls today because everyone would have teched against it.
Cedric Merlet and Filipe are playing the day 1 european qualification tournament.

After that I start my game against Tristan Marsman. We played already the day before and I know the games will be cool because he is such a nice guy. He is playing elves archery (teched against forest guls) and dunland 2 site control. The first game is ending very fast, he forces me to double move to 5 with no retreat and my Gimli is swarmed there. I even didn't have time to play my shadow correctly. We are the first to finish our games so we take our time before the second one, I catch Fred lafont while smoking and he advices me to bid more to start and run the most I can.
This is what I do for the second game. This time my shadow is working and he is at site 6 with a completly exhausted fellowship and threats maxed. But again no retreat shows up and the double move is deadly enough. Tristan advances to the quarter finals and I join the others downstairs at the bar where we passed all the day. Greg Leloup lost against his opponent too and we wait for Cedric and Filipe while laughing at greg's timidity towards women.
Cedric finally got 1st of the day 1 qualification but Filipe didn't make it. We feel sad for him because he won't be able to play the sunday, but happy for Cedric. They met each other round one, geez 550 kilometers together just to play someone you play with all the time. Well it is often like this.
I just watch the match between Bernd Reinhards (who will win the PSE) and Tristan Marsman to see how Bernd's forestguls will do against Tristan's elves. Bernd wins so I think in myself that he will stay with hobbits and forestguls for the sunday. I just feel sad for Tristan because I wanted him to pass.

We head to the center of Utrecht by foot (the day before it was very hard to find a place to park the cars) to the burger king. BK went bankrupt in France but not in the netherlands so we're happy to find again and we made the good choice ! Not only we had better and bigger hamburgers and cola but the restaurant was also full of babes ! What a country ! fred lafont and I even changed places to smoke a cigarrete but in fact it was just to stare better at a girl, too bad her boyfriend was there too ;(.
While heading back to our cars, Cedric is talking as usual with his hands and some pretty girls are riding their bicycles and one of them make a hail with her hands and a very beautiful smile because she thought Cedric hailed her whereas he was just talking with his hands. We all turn our heads while walking and I got bumped into a pillar, we all laugh. I am really starting to love this country :)
We head back to Fred lafont's hotel where we take a bier but Greg Leloup is leaving us because he wanted to sleep and his hotel was far away.
Then we head back to our rooms and I make some minor changes for my deck and test against Cedric's enquea corruption. He slaughtered me both time with his deck.

We arrive in advance hoping to see the hot barmaid but this time it is just a deaf old grumpy man so we're sad. Greg Leloup arrives late because he couldn't start sleeping so he went alone in a random bar to have a drink. He didn't realize he entered a "took bar" when a girl sits on his knees just to see her being removed by him because he just wanted to drink, we all laugh loud when he narrates that, it was so funny because he was still red when narrating his night trip !

The tournament begins and the judge told us that it will be only top 4 today. Pairing were weirds, everyone laugh when kenneth is playing Sullivan round 1.

Round 1 : Tristan Marsman again !!!! 4th time I meet him in the week end. He is playing hobbits this time with enquea corruption. The game is very cool and funny but he corrupts me at site 6 I think. I had very bad draws and that it was a hard matchup (since I playtested it against Cedric's one the night before).
0-1

Fred lafont is 0-1 too and he is a bit upset about forestguls and traveled leader being in almost every decks he meets. We start thinking about dropping to play the team tournament because we can't make top 4 with an early game loss, when the judge tell the players that finally it will be a top 8. Since lots of good players were pairing to each others, most of them asked to play for a top 8 I guess. So we decided to stay in the tournament.

Round 2 : a german player. He is playing Dwarves and Sauron roaming. This time I have absolutly no difficulties with my fellowship and I double every sites while the shadow is stopping him very well. I kill him with nazguls when he was at site 5, but I was preparing a double move from 7 to 9 with hobbits anyway.
1-1

Round 3 : An italian player. Less fair play than the german one where I enjoyed more the game. He is playing rohan with merry's sword and my nazguls did nothing of the game. Hopefully I ran with the fellowship against his mumak rider shadow. Wingfoot was good in this game.
2-1

Round 4 : a very nice german player again. He is playing Elves with forest guls. Ugh bad match ups for both fellowship and shadow ! My nazguls did nothing to him and he made so many mistakes with his shadow. Time is called when I am on 8 and he is on 7. He admits after that it is the first time he's playing forestguls and he was not used to it.
3-1

Round 5 : a belgium player that speaks French. When I revealed my fellowship he made an ugly face so I'm thinking, great I will have a good match up. I didn't understand that this face was for me. At site 2 he plays promise keeping and slippery as fishes ! Oh no ninja gollum, my worst match up. Patrick Sullivan is playing near us and tells me "you're in trouble". So I just laugh and decide to double move the most I can just to see where I will die (last time it was on 8). He is playing elves so I can't even try a shadow kill. His first they stole it shows up at site 9 !!!!!!!! I can't believe he had so much bad draws.
4-1

round 6 : Eugénie de Graaf. She is playing ents and beasterlings 2 burden. Again a bad matchup for my hobbits. I move to 3 and sam tanks a bit. When she starts, she is playing saved from the fire on leader of men to fetch leader of company, sent back and skinbark flooding the pool but not enough for a nazgul swarm since all are still roaming. I play nertea to make black rider cheaper and nelya. Skinbark and forest guardian die just to leave frodo and gandalf alone. Great she can't no longer play saved from the fire again untill she will draw another companion. She also made so many mistakes with her shadow, I play tom to remove the 2 burden and move, she plays captain and say maneuver, I answer pass, she says archery, I say pass, she goes on and say assignment, I say pass when she just realized she forgot to add the 2 burdens with small hope. A free site for me. I then play 2 nazguls and lost in the woods to her frodo and gandalf. She plays traveled leader to fetch cavern entrance so that I can't play lost in the woods but she is playing blue ring and tale of great ring is on table. She takes time to think about who will be lower strength with gathering wind and she choose the bad one, frodo is overhelmed ! She was getting tired I guess.
5-1

I did it ! I finish 6th so I can play the quarter finals. Cedric Merlet finishs 7th too so we are both happy to be there. Fred lafont dropped after round 3 because he was a bit upset of the meta and he finished last of the tournament.
We take time before the quarter starts by smoking a cigarrete with fred lafont and Sullivan where we laugh about Greg Leloup and his night trip to his bar. Greg Leloup comes to see us and I didn't know that he was so ill that during the tournament he had to leave the table to vomit in the toilets, 10 seconds late and it would have been on his opponent !!! The drink in the bar didn't pass well it seems. He feels better now so we laugh again together of what happenned in the day.

Quarter finals : Guess who ? Tristan Marsman for the 5th time !!!!!!!!!!
I think he is feeling confident because he won all the other matches. But this time I change my starting and bid zero. I kill aragorn early enough after dropping some forest on sitepath and I just have hobbits left that kept dying just to leave ring bound hobbits so that BNAP can't work. I went to 9 with 4 burdens this time.

Cedric Merlet lost to Bas Melis and he tells me that he is playing corsairs so I feel confident for the semi finals because I know I can handle very well corsairs.

Semi-finals : Bas melis. Hobbits (yes 3 hobbits in top 8 with bas, tristan and I) with corsairs.
I run like hell against his shadow that did almost nothing. Rosie Cotton is money to be able to tank castamir easily. Moving with aragorn wingfoot against an exhausted castamir is alos very easy. Birthday present and 3 concerning hobbits helps too. I finish the game with 11 burdens added with birthday present.

I go outside before the final where I smoke a cigarrete with Sullivan where I tell him I can do it against corsairs. Anyway I would be still happy to finish 2nd.

Final : Kenneth Ellingsen. Dwarves and sméagol with corsairs.
I start as usual and move to three. Hopefully he hadn't anything in hand at this time. He move to 2 and stops.
I move to 4 after setting up myself and he plays crags of emyn muil ! The devil I can't double move ! I tank castamir and decides to stop anyway because Rosie is exhausted and I wanted her to be alive (anduin banks site 3). He plays follow sméagol and move to three, in regroup he gets back crags.
I move to five and still have to stop on crags of emyn muil. I'll make double move later I hope. At this time I am afraid he starts running with his dwarves, but no he just tries to win with his shadow. When he move to 4 I finally have the twilight to play nelya and another nazgul to discard follow sméagol so that he can't take back crags of emyn muil.
At this moment the bumper of the clock rings and sullivan tells "start of the regroup guys", nobody reacts and I then tells "ok I am agree" because I am ahead. Kenneth starts laughing out loud at this moment, the best moment maybe.
I move to 6 and tank castamir and 2 black numenorean, I play pathfinder for valley of silverlode as site 7 (site 6 is hobbiton market fetched with anduril) so that I will be able to double move, but he fierce and despair aragorn ! Damned, I still can't double move. He moves to 5 and stops. My shadow is completly useless but still allows me to cycle through it.
I move to 7 where he plays castamir, marauder and plunderer. I know he has fierce and despair in hand, so I have to kill both marauder and plunderer. Hopefully 2 concerning hobbits in hands allows it. I decide to double move to 8 because birthday present still didn't show and few cards are left in the draw deck. Even if sam dies, it will be harder to overwhelm frodo with 3 concerning hobbits in hand.
Then happens this cow yelling from tania de Pauw's computer, everyone laughs when Eugénie tells that it is simple living ;)
Kenneth plays wold battlefield and many minions. Frodo dies because of wind that sped ships. Sullivan asks me in French why I double moved and I answer him that I was wondering that myself when I saw the slaughtering of my fellowship. But sam can't be fierce and depaired now and Kenneth discards Bilbo instead.
During Kenneth's turn I finally draw moving this way and cycle all my nazguls away while he cycles like a crazy man too with don't look at them. I finally reconcile into both birthday present and phial of Galadriel.
I just play phial and move with tolman, sam, rosie and merry. He plays cavern entrance because of the phial and there is not enough twilight to swarm the fellowship.

I did it ! I can't believe it.

Props :
Cédric Merlet and Filipe Feirera Neves for travelling and all the good time we had together, I hope we will do it again next time.
Frédéric Lafont, for being so funny.
Gregory Leloup for being the nicest man in the world.
Nicolas Marcilli and his fellow comrade.
Tristan Marsman for being not only a great player but also a very great man full of fair play and where I had fun to play with although I lost 4 times against you.
Patrick Sullivan for being such a nice guy. Just think to bring more cigarretes nex time ;)
Eugénie de Graaf, only 1999998 tournaments from being a decipher dollar millionar ;)
Markus for listenning to Amon amarth and Larrisa for being beautiful
Kenneth for laughing in a final
The german player with elves and forestguls that was nice
The belgium player for not drawing they stole it before site 9 (désolé je ne me rappelle plus de ton nom)
The barmaid the saturday that had very beautiful eyes
la pipe de l'amitié ;)

Slops :
Decipher lots (Cedric Merlet finished first Day 1 and got nothing !)
Tristan Marsman for not winning the PSE ;)

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