2017 ROC World Cup Itinerary – George Massu

by George Massu

Headed to ROC Cup in a few weeks? Need an itinerary? Please, allow me to be your Sherpa!

First allow me to introduce some of the ROC staff that helps to coordinate and mount this fun filled weekend event.

                     

Your ROC Chairman and head organizer, Howard Brock. He will most likely be overseeing every detail of the weekend from both the micro and macro perspectives. Someone buy this guy a cup of coffee! He’ll be busy for sure. Tony Burian is the owner of HC Realms and the overarching entity helping to produce the ROC Cup. If you play Heroclix and are competing it is very important to know your head judge for the weekend, Patrick Yapjoco…..oh wait everyone knows who this guy is! Patrick has spent the last few years dominating the game and is now expanding his trade into organizer and arbiter. Your weekend videographer, media organizer and table top announcer will be the better half of “Married with Clix” Amber Collins. In addition to their weekly show they’ll be setting up studio right inside of the ROC Cup! Leslie Ginn and a team of other knowledgeable volunteers will run and maintain some of the side events.

                        

The official kick off of ROCtober is slated for Friday October 13th, however Kevin Afrooz and Scott Cramton (of the podcast “Critical Clix”) are hosting an early kick off to ROC weekend, Thursday night at 7pm with a Team Tournament. Teams will pull random assorted carded and non carded booster packs to build from. Top team earns 50 tourny points per player! I’m sure more than just Heroclix will be running concurrently with this event. If I know Kevin Afrooz expect there to be a concierge close by with plenty of libations!

                Day 1. Friday the 13th (ominous??) 10am starts some of the fun side events like sealed Battle Royales,  ROC and Rolls and Hard ROC’s all with a typical cost of $10-$15 per event per person. 11am kicks off the first super qualifier event for those trying to earn big ROC points for the finale on Sunday. This event has an ante of $25, will run all day and use the 300 modern ROC age limited format. A great follow up to a full day of gaming is an amazing dinner and show hosted by Scott Cramton’s very own “The Murder Mystery Co.” I’ve been to several of these shows and I will say each time I go they are highly entertaining and a great way to unwind and relax. Scott really puts his best foot forward with these dinners. If you haven’t already reserved your ticket then stop reading this article and go do it now, go on, I’ll wait for you to get back, lol! Ok, Now that your belly is full and your day has been jam packed with activity, there’s still one more slice of midnight pie. Matthew Billings is hosting a free to all 600 point golden age limited event. This event is geared towards for either the nocturnal clix player or the insomniac. Personally my bedtime is 10pm, ya’ll have fun I’m off to bed!

                Day 2. Saturday the 14th. This day kicks off an hour earlier at 9am with more Battle Royals, ROC and Rolls and Hard ROC’s, running all day long and again $10-$15 gets you into these events. 12pm noon kicks off another side event, the 3v3 team swiss rounds. This event requires a $90 team ante to enter will be played using 6 boosters and each player will build a 400 point modern limited team. Teams will play until there’s a cut to top 8 teams.  Continuing on, 3pm starts the single Semi-Finals. This is a 2 booster sealed event and it also utilizes the 400 point modern limited format.

                Day 3. Sunday the 15th will begin 10am but taper its event roster to just Battle Royals at $15 per person. These again will run all day long. Running at the same time will be the ROC Championship finale! If you’ve met the pre-requisite and earned a spot in the finals and I know it was a journey to get here.  You’ll have to build your best 300 point modern age team to battle for ROC glory. Congratulations! You’ve made it this far, and proved that you’re prepared to start your real battle. Be mentally ready to grind through 4 rounds of heavy swiss competition. Only the strong will survive this crucible. If you’ve been fortunate enough to make it through swiss the lucky top 32 will take a short recess for food, drink and to mentally settle in the fact that you’re about to head into single elimination and compete for the title to become ROC Champion, Good luck to all who attend I’ll be with you in spirit and will certainly follow along at home with the Married with Clix channel live stream of matches.

Take care Apex readers!

-George Massu