Pirates
14 Feb 2010 | Mal Barsing
Pirates, they lurk insidiously at the back of games rooms, and seemingly at the forefront of boisterous activities at certain major events, and never without alcohol. Increasingly of late, groups of this menace have been seen in capital (and large) cities around Australia. Pirate sightings occur as far North as Townsville and as far south as Melbourne. Major sightings occur in Newcastle (a favourite pillaging ground), Morriset (a new playground), Cessnock and Albury.
Seen this logo?
Chances are you’ve had a run in with a Pirate. What or who is Team Pirate? Do they have a plan, a motive? Are they scared of Ninja’s? Do they know any Ninja’s and why does one of the Captains look like a planeswalker? In fact why does the munitions expert/Sergeant at Arms look like a Ball Lightning? Why does our clothing shamelessly plug Good Games? (some of us like D-X, and self promotion, or flagellation. None of which is frowned upon in Team Pirate).
Team Pirate is the meld of some dysfunctional aspects of gaming on the Central Coast. While population wise it region is less than a tenth the size of Sydney, geographically it covers a large area which made for cliques that were negating the growth of the game. Further they didn’t allow for a group think tank or pool of cards to access in order to test decisively and accurately. To cut across the problems the Garruk look-a-like Pirate sought to cut through the ties that were restricting the games growth and let the knowledge blossom. The inception of Team Pirate saw the last breath of the defunct Team CC, and the conversion of RTC into the loveable band of Pirates attacking major events near you. (Well not necessarily near you as we have no one anywhere near Perth, Garruk hasn’t been to Adelaide in years- Jax is frequently in Tasmania, and there is a member in FNQ and Whyalla-WTF?!?!? how did that happen?)
The primary objective of Team Pirate was to solidify the playgroup, raise players awareness and develop a more harmonious local living arrangement between Warhammer and MtG players- Team Pirate has, zero, none, zilch, zip members who play Yugi-Oh, Pokemon, Huntik or most of the other CCG’s, predominantly they’re not old enough to drink, therefore not old enough to Pirate. We do have multiple Warhammer Pirates (they have cool figures that make cool tokens to play with – the other night I was turning a funky looking Orc dude sideways instead of an upside down piece of paper- mad props!) who also travel and pillage their chosen domain. And while we have a small representation of Vs, Battlestar Galactica- for the most part its nigh on impossible to invest the necessary time into playing multiple games well- so we don’t.
Prior to the inception of Team Pirate there had been a few joys from the Central Coast area- from reg’s qualifiers, some states results and a Team PTQ win or 2- for the most part, these results were repeated performances from the established players. Unfortunately, the other guys in the area often fell short of taking that next step up. For the most part, the unification under a team banner, especially that of a Pirate, has elevated the standard of play, increased results and made the quality of the local game stronger. Theft of tech is no longer frowned upon, we are after all Pirates- as such we are expected to share the booty if you will. Not necessarily the prize Booty- the knowledge booty.
Before I go on much longer I have to put to rest a few rumors, misnomers or facts that have been talked about or brought to my attention.
A Team Captain looks like Garruk. I don’t really know how to bust this one, the ever clever Andy Horne found some Pirates at GP Melbourne, showed them the new Garruk, pointing out its likeness. While I don’t necessarily see it more than a few do ( I just received this e-mail – P.S. Mal – Garruk called. Yep, you guessed it, he wants’ his head back.
- Confirmation??) Guess I can add Captain Garruk to the string of Aliases- probably good for a Pirate to have a few stashed personalities in case trouble starts; we all know what they did to Stagnetti- (maybe we ALL don’t then) Speaking of Pirates who look like Magic cards, our Master Gunner looks like a Ball Lightning- No other similarities between magic cards and Pirates as yet have been found.
What was in that water Bottle at GP Melbourne???? Well I wasn’t there, but I know it wasn’t water and it wasn’t rum. It was definitely Alcoholic.
Did M10 lands (and a Pizza box) mysteriously saunter vaguely towards the ground from an upstairs balcony while people were outside during the fire alarm and on day 2 at Nats? True they did, said Pirate also walked from lvl 1 to lvl 2 to catch the lift, dodging security, to get back to his room during the evacuation. No, it wasn’t to catch more sleep, it was to drink more. Solid plan, that steady flow of drink through the night and day 2 pushed him to a PTQ top 8.
The GG’s connection. Though the owners of the gaming chain may or may not have approved of the promo on the shirt (who says No to a free plug??)- GG’s provided us with one store, and then a second outlet in our region after the demise of our previous store. Good Games Gosford has become the unofficial Pirate Headquarters (there is no alcohol allowed there so we can hardly have it as HQ- the lair is somewhere else) and the manager is a long time friend of mine and a consistent Team player. The local store not only saw some newblood, it also heralded the return of miniatures to Gosford. Good Games Morriset is a quick step up the freeway and has a group of guys starting out to tournament Magic. For any of those guys that might read this article, please don’t look at the Pirate incursions as anything but an avenue of growth. We want to help strengthen the region to make the game and player base stronger- if we take some loot on the way, so be it.
Ninja’s. Look there’s some respect, especially for the ginger ninja, but no fear. And no Wenches, Rum or Booty. They have their place, it’s just not on a Pirate ship.
So if you see a Pirate don’t be afraid to approach. We are a vocal bunch, and while yes often under the influence of alcohol, always fun to be around. The Pirates have the GG’s 5K prize firmly in their sights with 5 Pirates qual’d (2 with Byes) and a long qualifier season, look for a Pirate incursion near you.
So ends the rather rudimentary introduction to Team Pirate- I cut back on the Pirate speak so you landlubbers could understand the language. Regional dialects and syntax you see…. Anyway until next time, where we’ll grab some Pirate tech, hopefully open up the door more on individual Pirates and have a look at the meta the Pirates face on the coastal scene. The next Voyage will delve into the events of GG’s 5k Qualifier 1 and 2 at Gosford, as well as number 1 at Morriset.
For discussion.