by Roland Wellington
Out of Retirement – A Competitive Player’s Return to Heroclix
Coming Out of Retirement
In May, I participated in the Majestix Open Series Invitational Championship Qualifier in Santa Ana, CA. It had been three years since I last played in a competitive tournament and four years since I traveled to play.
Prior to then, I had been slowly getting out of the game. No longer judging, no longer attending weekly tournaments on a regular basis, and culling my collection. Then the shutdown happened. I sheltered in place. I sold most of my collection on eBay. I was retired from Heroclix. However, like all good professional wrestlers, I came out of retirement for one final run. This is my experience coming back to competitive Heroclix.
Team Build
For reference, here is the team I played at the Qualifier:
Jason of Sparta
Jason Wyngarde
Sky Tyrant 50pts
Power Gem
Peggy Carter (NFAOS 007B) + Entity
A.I.M. Red Squad
300 points
The basics of the Jason Ruler team are: Jason of Sparta carries, activates his once per game effect that says the opponent can’t target you on their next turn, and on your following turn you move in and blow up their team.
Round One – Rookie Mistakes
Right at the beginning of the tournament I made two huge rookie mistakes. You can watch them unfold in real time because my first game back in three years was a featured match on stream.
First mistake, I chose the wrong side of the map. My opponent won map roll and chose map. When looking at the map, I thought it was symmetrical, and both starting areas were the same. They were not, and I happened to choose the starting area that hurt my positioning. I wasn’t able to move my A.I.M. Red Squad next to my main unit. Because of that, Sky Tyrant was not going to have Empower for his attacks, and I had one less figure to engage the opponent. That would be important because…
Second mistake, I did not think Pulse Wave could get past Jason of Sparta’s once per game effect. After I was properly educated, my opponent proceeded to Pulse Wave my team and promptly KO both Sky Tyrant and Jason Wyngarde. Leaving me with two figures left standing, and a third severely out of position.
Round Two – Rust
This is where the rust from coming out of retirement showed. Throughout the game I found myself one square off. One square away from being able to Charge, one square away from being able to Outwit, consistently one square out of position.
These were not mistakes, like moving your prober for an attack and misplacing them. These were examples of not planning where my opponent could be over the next two to three turns. Situations that never would have occurred in my prime.
Round Three – Personal Growth
This round I played “that” team. You know “that” team. The team that is no fun to play against, that the guy is a jerk for running, that isn’t Heroclix. The current version of “that” team is the double Invisible Woman, Wolverine “unkillable” team. Needless to say, I didn’t win. However, this round wasn’t about the game. It was about how I acted after the game.
To say past Roland was a highly competitive player would be an understatement. I hated loosing. I hated loosing more than I enjoyed winning. Loosing affected me more than it should have. It affected me mentally, emotionally, and at times physically.
It was unhealthy. I knew it was unhealthy. It caused me to cut Heroclix, and gaming in general, completely out of my life at one point. However, it also caused me to continually evaluate myself as a player, and as a person. I worked hard not to be that person. I found other ways to enjoy the hobby outside of winning. Judging, training other players, organizing big events in town, prepping Team Vegas to travel to California, or even simply trading on the Realms.
So there I was 0-3; snookered in Round 1, rusty in Round 2, played “that” team in Round 3, and what do I do? I talked with him about how he can make the build better. I didn’t care about loosing. I was having fun playing Heroclix. This realization made my weekend and made me happy I came out of retirement.
Round Four – Realization
Not only did I have a personal realization in between rounds, this game I realized what I was doing wrong with my team. I kept going for the game-ending KO early. One-shot their tentpole and your win the game; miss one roll and you lose. What I should have been doing was going for the quick, easy KOs while weakening their attackers. Let the figures do what they were designed to do and play Heroclix.
Round Five – The Complete Game
It took me five rounds, but I finally felt I played a complete game. No mistakes, never out of position, picked the correct targets, and played a game worthy of the Captain of Team Vegas.
Out of Retirement for How Long?
That’s the $2K question. I will be playing in the Open Series the rest of this year. I’m even running the Las Vegas Majestix Open Series Invitational Championship Qualifier in August.
Beyond that, who knows? Maybe this is a short term TNA run. Or maybe this is that final WWE run that lasts forever.
You can follow Roland on Twitter @LuckyMusolino. Musings on sports, comics, wrestling, and of course, Heroclix.
