by Roland Wellington
Tournament Report – Las Vegas ICQ
On August 6th & 7th Las Vegas hosted their Majestix Open Series Invitational Championship Qualifier. However, this wasn’t a standard ICQ; this was a Team Vegas event. This was a West Coast Event.
A Diverse Field
Twenty-two players from three different states played in the main event of the Vegas ICQ. Las Vegas, California, and Arizona were all represented vying for a spot in the Open Series Invitational Championship and for a San Diego Comic Con Phoenix Force Sentinel and two Batman/Catwoman exclusive figures.
In addition to the 22 players in the main event, four players attended the event only to play in the Battle Royals hosted by the featured vendor, Troll Skull Games. On top of that, four more players showed up to browse Troll Skull’s singles for sale, sell some HeroClix of their own to Majestix CCG, and just to say hi. That brings the total to a whopping 30 players who walked through the doors to partake in the Vegas ICQ!
West Coast Creativity
With a diverse player base comes creativity. This was exemplified by the two Bronze Age Builder Winners. Tyler VanOrman made the Top 8 with an old school Shatterstar team taking advantage of the new rules of replacement figures. Jon Ybarra made it to the finals of the NIT Bracket with Prime Alyosha Kraven and Chase Michelangelo from the first TMNT set.
The Top 8 of the Vegas ICQ was the most diverse to date. You can view the Top 8 builds here and listen to myself and Pat break down the teams on the Majestix podcast.
What is the NIT Bracket?
For those who don’t follow college basketball, the NIT tournament is held alongside the NCAA Tournament and it’s for all the schools that didn’t make it into March Madness. For the Vegas ICQ, we added something similar.
The players who finished 9th-12th in the final standings were added to the NIT Bracket. On Sunday they participated in a single-elimination bracket and the winner received a custom neoprene ring of their choice, either the WWE Ring or the Boxing Ring.
The NIT Bracket was a way to reward strong play in the preliminary rounds and add something more for the players who attended, and more importantly, traveled to play. Because of this two players from California, one player from Arizona, and one player from Las Vegas got to advance to Day 2 that normally would not have. When it was all said and done, Jesse Cortez from California won the NIT Bracket and earned himself a sweet Boxing Ring.
What Does The Hat Say
Contrary to what we have on our Team Vegas hats, we do embrace Fellowship at our events. To that end, Jordan from Arizona was our Fellowship Award winner for the event and took home a custom painted Angel Die-Cut figure. His opponents had nothing but nice things to say about him, even when he was winning bounties for the first KO of a round.
Vendors & Battle Royales
Troll Skull Games was the featured vendor for the event. In addition to their wide selection of HeroClix singles and product, they also had board games and gaming accessories available at their booth.
They also ran Battle Royals both days of the event. There was no need to wait for players to drop from the main event. The first Battle Royal fired off during the first round and continued all weekend.
A West Coast Event
We don’t just do tournaments in Las Vegas, we do events. We have rivalries, we call out Utah for not showing up, we hang out at the bar after hours, and we know how to run events in this town. Team Vegas is back!
You can follow Roland on Twitter @LuckyMusolino. Musings on sports, comics, wrestling, and of course, Heroclix.
