Competitive musings from SCGCon PGH

SCGCon Pittsburgh: Hard Lessons

I got home from SCGCon Pittsburgh 5 minutes ago. My head is full of thoughts and I’m going to dump them out here both for you to learn from them and to help process them myself.

I played in the Modern 10K main event and the Legacy 5k Sunday event.

Other than random decks requested on the channel, I’ve not thought about Modern at all lately. I’m focusing on my Eternal Weekends and don’t have bandwidth to master 3 formats. I was honestly a little exasperated that the 10K was even happening because I didn’t want to work on Modern but I’m also not going to skip a local 10K.

I’m local to Pittsburgh and was hosting friends for the weekend. Coordinating rides and arrivals and getting to/from the venue was all happening on top of normal event responsibilities and I ended up getting home Friday night much later than I’d hoped. I welcomed the last of my guests and helped get them settled in after 11PM that night.

I stared at Bean lists late into the night with the event less than 10 hours away. Eventually I couldn't find the right list on theory alone with no reps so I registered stock Rakdos Scam.

Why was I up late the night before the event figuring out my deck? Was there not an hour I could have done that sometime earlier in the week? I know I caught up on some shows, played some video games, caught a little midday nap or two on the couch… like I didn’t know I had this event in a few days and this work had to be done? I left it for the night before.

I went 6-2 in games played (prize split and scooped round 9). In the 2 games I lost, one was a nuanced decision that didn’t end up going my way, the other was a preposterous punt that if I’d played a few games before the tournament I’d never make. I also don’t think I’d make that punt if I’d gotten a full night’s sleep either, even on zero reps. The deck is nuts, and I’m not ice cold on the format or how Magic works, but I drew all the cards I needed for that X-2 to be X-0, I just hadn’t done the work to know how to use them. Go. To. Bed. Do. The. Work.

The Legacy 5k is the opposite end of the spectrum. I’ve put a ton of work into my list, I’m dialed in on the format, and this event was my final paper Swiss event before EW Prague.

Once again, I ended up going to bed hours later than I’d hoped because I was responsible for getting my guests home from the event, we needed to eat, etc. I literally stood in the hall for 2 full hours Saturday night because someone in my car fired a side draft right as the Modern 10K was finishing. I ended up in bed after midnight, again.

I ate breakfast at 9 AM, started playing rounds, one thing lead to another, and suddenly I’m 4-0 and it’s 2:30 in the afternoon. I was hungry and starting to feel it. I told myself to just win the next one then you’ll have 2 hours to eat and relax as you draw into top 8. I gritted my teeth and won an insane round 5, feeling at my physical limit but all was going to plan.

Then I got paired down to someone at 4-0-1. He needed a win and a draw over the next 2 rounds. I tried to get him with “You have to beat me or your next opponent. Who would you rather bet against?” It didn’t work and we battled. We started late because we’re a feature match, we had a judge call that caused a time extension, and then the match went to turn 5 of turns where we were both topdecking but he got just what he needed on the last extra turn to take it. The round turned over immediately and my round 7 opponent was asking if I wanted to draw before I even picked up my cards from this match.

At this point it’s after 4:00, I still haven’t eaten since 9, I’m hangry as hell, physically and emotionally distressed and not OK to play Magic right away. I gladly agreed to draw and left the hall immediately to get food. I didn’t look at the standings until 20 minutes later when I was sitting with a sandwich across the street, that’s when I realized that I wasn’t safe to draw and had probably just put myself in 9th. An hour of waiting around, hoping for a very specific series of results to bust the bracket and let me in, I finished 9th.

I’m one of the strongest players in this event, I’m in my most comfortable format, I’m in my playstyle wheelhouse with what I believe to be the best deck in the room, and I put myself out of top 8 without even fighting for it.

This isn’t a bad beat story though, it’s a cautionary tale.

If my R6 opponent just didn’t have a draw the bracket would be cleaner… Why did I have to be the one to get the pair down...? If he just didn’t draw exactly what he needed 2 turns in a row during turns while I drew lands… If my deck had given me just 1 more removal spell at any point in our last the game… Blah blah blah…

Miss me with that. Those aren’t reasons, they’re excuses. At the end of the day, I did not win the matches I needed to win. In fact I didn’t even compete in one of the matches I needed to win because of a series of decisions I had made outside of the games leading up to that point.

Why didn’t I tell the judge I needed a minute to collect myself between round 6 and 7? Take a little walk, drink some water, look at the standings. Why didn’t I tell my friend last night he needed to get an Uber back home because I didn’t have 2 hours to stand around for his impulse late-night draft to finish? Why didn’t I follow my own advice that I’m always giving to anyone who listens: Put snacks in your bag, get enough sleep, stay hydrated, monitor your physical condition as the day goes on. I know this shit, I teach this shit, and I didn’t do any of it. I didn’t take care of the things I was in control of and I didn’t advocate for myself in the spots I didn’t have control of.

Final competitive record for the weekend: 11-3-1

Money made from the 2 events: $225 ($135 profit over entry fees)

Is that a good weekend? I guess. Many casual-competitive tournament go-ers would be celebrating with a steak dinner after a weekend like that.

Did I take every reasonable measure to make the weekend successful? Not even close.

11-3-1, $225. A modern in-game punt and a Legacy external life punt away from 13-1-1 and potentially thousands of dollars. It was all right there in my hands.

If reading this sounds like I’m being harsh on myself, that’s because I am.

I’m not spiraling out, I don’t hate myself or attribute undue self-worth to any individual tournament result. I’m not worried that my friends dislike me and my family will disown me or my fans will unsubscribe or any other dramatic nonsense, that’s not what this is. I’m putting these things in writing to hold myself accountable for the basic steps required to be successful.

So many players in similar positions would bemoan luck, bad beats, find somewhere to shift the blame so they don’t have to hold it. I want to hold it. I want to stare straight into it and I want it to burn so I don’t forget this feeling.

I didn’t get unlucky, I did a bad job.

It’s ok if you, reader, don’t think about Magic, or competition in general, like this. Maybe you’re comfortable putting your losses in hands of mystical forces rather than cold truths. Maybe you’re just on vacation and have no designs on winning or improving, that’s cool too. I bet this isn’t your job though. It is mine.

In 3 days I’ll be flying across the world to represent myself and my sponsors in a foreign land. I will not let myself stay up late, get hungry, get distracted, get sloppy. Losing is ok. Losing happens. If I do my best and it’s not my day, that’s the grind baby.

Failing to show up and compete at my true level is not acceptable. There’s work to do here and I’m not on vacation.