fbpx

Sweet Tweets: #71Countries1Cup

This edition of Sweet Tweets covers what went on in the Magic world last week, from the inaugural World Magic Cup at Gen Con to the release of the full contents of From the Vault: Realms.

By

The first annual World Magic Cup (#MTGWMC) took place at @Gen_Con last weekend, and it took the Magic community and the Twitterverse by storm! An astounding 71 teams from countries across the globe showed up at the three-day event, battling in Innistrad Block, Standard, Modern, and Team Sealed for the chance to be crowned champions of the world. The days were long, the opposition was tough, and the cards were, as always, unpredictable. What a long, strange trip it was.

For some, the trip was literally longer and stranger than for others. What do I mean? Well, if you weren’t paying close attention to social media, you might have missed the fact that Team Japan took a cab to the event. Tim Willoughby (@timswheelbarrow) wrote a nice little piece here on the ordeal, but allow me to summarize: the four members of Team Japan and another Hall of Famer along for the ride, Shuhei Nakamura (@Nakashu_) were set to fly into Indianapolis on Thursday, but a delay in Tokyo and a hold up at customs saw them miss their connecting flight in Washington, DC. And while Shuhei was quickly on the next flight (his world traveler status helped out there I imagine), the members of his country’s national team were still in dire straits.

So they booked a cab. A thirteen-hour, $1400 cab. From Washington, DC to Indianapolis, Indiana. Wow.

I was glued to my TweetDeck to keep abreast of the developing story. Here are a few highlights from #TeamJapan’s Excellent Adventure:

Unfortunately for the Japanese squad, the harrowing journey took its toll, and they failed to make it past Day 1.

With one of the giants of the game out of the running, things looked good for the remaining ‘super teams’ like @bmkibler‘s USA, @PVDDR‘s Brazil, and the Slovak Republic. Only the veteran-laden Slovaks, including @RobertJurkovic, made it to the elimination rounds, where they fell to the eventual champions. So which heavyweight of #MTG was crowned the first ever winners of the World Magic Cup? And which powerhouse team made the finals to create a showdown of massive proportions, setting the bar that all future finals will be based on?

It turned out to be Chinese Taipei, which defeated Puerto Rico.

Not exactly what most were expecting.

But the pair of plucky underdogs was nonetheless dominant. The most impressive single player finish was turned in by Chinese Taipei’s captain and the Asia Pacific region’s Tzu-Ching Kuo (@tztyt), who went undefeated over the weekend in matches played and paved the way for the small Asian island’s incredible victory. The social networks were all atwitter in the lead-up to the finals and exploded when the final handshake was completed. Here are a few choice cuts from the Top 8:

Gen Con and the World Magic Cup weren’t the only things to make a big splash in the world of Magic last weekend. Wizards of the Coast (@wizards_magic) also announced what’s in their latest From the Vault premium box set, #FTVRealms. Fifteen of Magic’s most iconic lands featuring some beautiful new artwork, new templating, and the first foil copies of some of the cards are included in the box, and of course Twitter had something to say about the collection. Here are some opinions from Twitter, because as they say, it’s good to have land:

And finally, during the coverage of the WMC at Gen Con, the folks at Magic (@dailymtg) announced fourteen new dates for the Grand Prix schedule for the end of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013. Reaction was instantaneous and, for the most part, positive for the announced cities. Some people even took to Twitter to discuss their feelings:

Tweet away, Tweet away / You shout me down, but I won’t troll / I am Titanium!

Reuben Bresler

@MoxReuby

Coverage Coordinator and Twitter Admiral for StarCityGames.com

Listen to the @InContention podcast! It’s the official podcast of the StarCityGames.com Open Series with @kstube, @affinityforblue, and me. Listen in at InContentionMagic.com. Our most recent episode, No Country For Cup Win, can be found here.