The Once and Future Trophy...

It is finally in my hands and here for all of you to see. Behold the trophy for Best Overall in the Refugees of the Olde Worlde GT 2018:

Bask in its glory!

Our friends over at Weapon Masters were kind enough to sponsor us with a blade worthy of a champion. This thing is massive. I've included myself in the next photo for scale, and I am not a small guy by any means:

This will be an impressive wall or mantle piece to start up conversations about your hobby and how you came and slaughtered all who stood in your way of victory at Refugees of the Olde Worlde in the bitter autumn of 2018!

The sword itself is a beautiful showpiece with some great scrollwork on the blade and filigree work on the pommel and crossguard. I wouldn't recommend hitting anyone with it because lawsuits are a thing and they cost money and this sword is not rated for stage or actual combat. I'm not saying you couldn't take out some zombies with it in the case of the apocalypse but honestly this weapon is better suited to raising the property value of whatever home in which it resides simply by announcing that a champion lives there.

Did I mention that it comes with a sexy scabbard, too? No!? Well have a look:

Weapon Masters also did the engraving and customization on the blade so that you will always remember which year it was when you cleaved through your enemies with gusto and claimed the prize that was yours for the taking. Other tournament organizers should take note of this service as it is rather cost effective and is a super cool addition to your tournament, in my not so humble opinion.

I know that it's cost effective because I went ahead and purchased a smaller weapon to give out to our 2nd place overall champion. While not as large as the 1st place trophy, it's still a cool bit of memorabilia for when you recount the tales of how you almost took the championship and will give you something to hold and ponder over as you consider your revenge for next year... Have a look at the 2nd place Overall Champion blade, admittedly it's much smaller, but still pretty cool:

On one side it reads "Refugees of the Olde Worlde" and on the other it reminds you that you came in second overall in 2018, like a real knife in the back that one. But don't worry! There's always next year!

These trophies are a vast improvement over models in my opinion. Especially if those models simply go in a bin or under a desk and only gather dust! Hopefully these are inspiring to some and have driven you to decide on whether or not you want to attend to take your stab (see what I did there?) at taking home the big one!

But Ben, you ask, how can I take Best Overall? How does scoring work for this category?

So far we've discussed how to win in Paint Scores, Sportsmanship, and now let's talk a bit about Battle.

For Battle, each scenario is worth a total of 20 points broken down as follows:

- Up to 10 Battle Points for achieving scenario objectives
-5 Battle points for winning the scenario
-Up to 5 Battle points for attrition. This is scored by how many points of your opponent that you routed in the scenario using this formula.
     If you routed
      -1-499 points of your opponent, you get 1 Battle Point
      -500-999 points of your opponent, you get 2 Battle Points instead of 1
      -1000-1499 points of your opponent, you get 3 Battle Points instead of 2
      -1500-2000 points of your opponent, you get 4 Battle Points instead of 3
      -2001-2200 points of your opponent, you get 5 Battle Points instead of 4

If you table your opponent you get all 20 points for the scenario.

If somebody forfeits to you before the game ends then you will receive all 20 points for that scenario and the person who forfeited will receive 0 points for that scenario.

At Refugees you will play in 5 games (2 Friday night and 3 on Saturday) and you will drop the lowest score that you receive in games 1-4, your 5th game will always count, even if it's your lowest scoring game. So for example, if Brian scores 14 points in game 1, 12 points in game 2, 17 points in game 3, 11 points in game 4, and 10 points in game 5, he will drop his game 4 score of 11 points when deciding his Battle total, which would be 53 points. That score (53) would be what determines his standings for Best General.

Your lowest score in games 1-4 will always be dropped when deciding pairings and the first 2 rounds will be random draw opponents.

To determine your standing for Best Overall, you will combine your Battle Score, Paint Score, and Sportsmanship Score into one. The max that anyone can receive for Battle is 80 points, the best for Paint and Sportsmanship anyone can potentially gain is 40 points. If a person qualifies as either 1st or 2nd Best Overall they become ineligible for Best General, as that's just too many trophies for one arm to carry!

As always, if you have any questions about scoring for this tournament, or you want to register, shoot me an email at refugeesoftheoldeworlde@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

And please visit Weapon Master's website, you can do so by clicking here.

Again, hope to see some of you out and looking forward to rolling some dice with you real soon!