Merry Christmas, if that’s your thing. This is the last Thursday of the year. Soon it will be time to move onward to 2015, and I can’t wait. The past year has been trying for me, like many others, and I’m glad I made it through alive.
Keep going! That’s a good motto for life and its many microcosms. I propose it as the hipster analogue to “don’t stop believing” with appropriately better (or at least deeper and more cerebral) music. Like this:
My largest area of success over the past year has been my growth as a competitive Magic player. Last January I flew out, alone, to Grand Prix Sacramento and navigated the Theros sealed format to my first day two berth. My previous forays into competitive Magic had been mildly successful without being actually successful—I won more matches than I lost, but not by much. I kept going, though, and kept having fun. Sure enough, I broke through out in Sacramento.
I kept going to more grand prix and managed to run off three straight day two performances, including my first pro point and cash prize at Grand Prix Montreal. As I kept going, however, I ran into a string of mediocre performances. Grand Prix Atlanta was a real low point, where I cruised to a double-bye-inflated record of 3-5 before succumbing to the urge to drop. As the year went on, and my three straight day twos morphed into three straight disasters, I could feel doubt creeping in.
What was that? Keep going? Oh yeah, I did. And finally I got to draft again on a Sunday in Orlando. I haven’t had a chance to play in a grand prix since, thanks to moving and such, but I have high hopes for Grand Prix Denver coming up in a week. All my previous competitive success has been in limited tournaments, but now I’m branching out. That is of course due to my success at the other big type of limited tournament—the Pro Tour Qualifier.
My PTQ experience had been much less successful. I’ve written about some of them in this column, while leaving others to my personal memory. Prior to November 1, 2014, my best performance at a PTQ was one top 16. I kept going, partly because it was fun and challenging, but also because that is what you have to do if you refuse to give up. I kept telling myself that as long as I worked and improved and put in time and showed up and put my hat in the ring, eventually it would be my day. Sure enough.
There was also a little thing called Team Draft League that you might have heard of. It’s been all the rage at Hipsters HQ. Hugh and Matt had a vision, people like me supported it eagerly, and we managed to put on four full seasons of team drafting awesomeness. My teams managed to win two of the four seasons. I feel really proud that I was able to do this with two different teams, first with Hunter and Dave and then with Monique and Matt. That’s the epitome of what Team Draft League stands for. Working with people, coming together, succeeding, and then finding new partners and doing it again.
Now as I look into the future and 2015 fast approaches, I no longer have the love and support of weekly Team Draft League matches. I have to venture forth to the Pro Tour in February without the regular practice of the great community we’ve built in Brooklyn. But I know that the spirit remains within me and I have brought it out with me to Denver. Perhaps 2015 will bring a satellite league in the rockies. If Chris Pikula can be jealous of Team Draft League, then it must be something worth spreading.
Finally, I offer this musical excursion of arch hipsterdom as I venture on and ever onward into 2015:
Thanks for following me on this journey. Keep going, on and ever onward. I’ll see you on the flipside!
Carrie O’Hara is Editor-in-Chief of Hipsters of the Coast.