So, I ended up taking Best Overall in the "Unranked" Category. What does that mean? Well, TSHFT uses a ranking system similar to Chess tournaments, and those players who have participated before go into either the "low" or the "high" rank based upon their prior performance. Those players who have never before participated go into their own "unranked" category. There is a Best Overall for each category, and all three categories compete for the TSHFT champion (which I believe is highest total Battlepoints). I am now the proud owner of a NIB Tau Pirahna (lol).
Translating that into a more normal format, my total score (including Battlepoints, Paint and Sports) was second out of all players at the Tournament, behind only the undefeated TSHFT Champion. I was fourth highest in Battlepoints IIRC, and so in a more standard venue I would have walked away with either Best Overall or Second Best Overall (the TSHFT Champion had both the highest Overall and highest Battlepoints score, so it would have depended upon exactly what the prize structure was).
Why does this matter? Well, it doesn't really, except for my personal goal of achieving at high levels in every aspect of the hobby. I think that this weekend I accomplished that at a higher level than I ever have before, and I am very pleased.
My paint score was the third highest at the event, my Sports score was perfect, and I even got a decent number of Favorite Opponent and Player's Choice votes. That makes me extremely proud.
If you haven't read my first post, you may not understand why it's important to me to do well in all aspects of the game. I suspect that you read this and this if you want to understand more. Basically, I started out as a baby seal, converted to a hyper-competitive player, and then came to a place where I realized that you can enjoy painting, modelling, fluff AND playing to win, and be a gentleman to boot. That's the goal. So, performing well in all areas is really important to me for that reason.
I ended up winning my fourth game solidly against Grey Knights and losing badly in the 5th game at the top table against the undefeated Champ who was playing a completely mechanized Dark Eldar force. I will discuss those games in more detail at a future time. Suffice to say, I feel like I played both games well and the last game just didn't go my way for a variety of reasons which I can talk about later. The point being, I don't feel like I made any major mistakes on my second day, meaning that my player skill was improving as well (I made several mistakes against Fluger).
So all in all, an excellent weekend, a great learning experience and good fun all around. I met a lot of really cool dudes many of whom seemed excited about a project we will be starting up soon...
Would go again. ;D
