Designers' Challenge II Receives Overwhelming Response

Two weeks ago we announced that the Designers Challenge II was underway. Everyone had exactly one week to submit their top deck and hope that it made it into the elite eight for a shot at the crown. We called, you answered!

First a little history...

When we first decided to do a Designers Challenge last year, I was warned by the TCG Studio that there would be a deluge of submissions that would be impossible to manage. When all was said and done, there were exactly 100 deck submissions that battled it out for the title (again, congratulations to Scott Valentine on the win). That number, 100, seemed large at the time but well within feasibility, and the tournament went great! Fast forward a month and we have the Designers Challenge II. I figure, well... the game has been out there for a while longer now and people have been able to get their feet wet in tournaments, so we might get about 250 deck submissions this time.

We received 756 entries in that one week span!!!

I passed out the homework assignments and ten Decipherians pored over hundreds of decks this past weekend to determine which decks made the cut. There were so many decks in fact that we have decided to increase the number of winning decks to 16 and give away Mines of Moria boosters instead of The Fellowship of the Ring cards! This also means that all decks that finish from 5th - 16th place will receive five booster packs of Mines of Moria. To accommodate the increased number of decks and players, we polled the local player base here in Virginia Beach and will be bringing in some locals to play some of the competing decks.

The decks came in from 36 countries (as far away as China, South Africa, and the Philippines) and from all of those deck submissions, here are the top 16:

Congratulations to all of you for being selected to the Top 16. While we, here at Decipher, get ready to battle it out with the decks next Friday (Feb. 1) you have the chance to vote on which of these decks will win the tournament. (Click the radio button above for the deck of your choice and then click "Submit Vote". Please vote only once.) Remember, this is a single elimination tournament: one loss and you are out! We will post the results of your votes on Thursday, January 31st, so you know who the odds-on favorite to win is.

Finally, join us on Friday, February 1st, at 12 noon on a special message board for live updates and coverage from the Designers Challenge tournament. Root for your buddy, root for your favorite deck, pick up some new strategies, or just come to hang out with the Decipher crew.

Kyle Heuer
Promotions Coordinator
Decipher, Inc.
kyle.heuer@decipher.com

January 25, 2002