Firebreather 2021

Written by Mike Frantz… Monday, March 22th, 2021

The last year being tough is an understatement. While I have made many new friendships because of webcam games and stronger ones because of evening webcam hangs over beers. There is nothing like in person old school magic. There needed to be a light at the end of the Covid tunnel so in September 2020 I announced Glorycon 2 for March 13^th 2021 to give people something to look forward to. Without hope, we just spin our tires in the mud. When January 2021 came around, I knew that we couldn’t do Glorycon 2 as good as we did before. So, I pulled the plug on it even though we had an artist working on a project for the event. I knew we had a bunch of folks who saved the date so I didn’t see the need to completely cancel the weekend but rather change it into an all-new event: The Firebreather.

First off let me just say that it is very clear that I am the absolute worst at naming events. Now this time around I told the whole Old Order crew my event idea, theme, horrible name and asked for other options. Well, they let everyone down by not having a better idea and we got stuck with The Firebreather.

Why Fire? Well, let us roll back to the end of summer 2020. As many of you know I’m an avid scouter. Our usual meeting place was not open due to capacity issues. While the weather was nice, we meet outside in small groups all around the neighborhood. A group of 6 over at a pavilion, a group of 8 in the backyard of a leader’s house, and Zoom meetings for those who wanted to stay safe. Once we turned the clocks back and the weather was getting colder this was no longer an option. We were looking for a larger space to have meetings. The York Springs Fire Company was more than willing to help us out. They had a huge dinning hall, a large coat room, and a back meeting room that we could separate into smaller groups and stay spaced out in order to be as safe as we could while still scouting. The York Springs Fire Company didn’t want a penny for the space so The Fire Breather was born to help those who helped our scout unit, who also help everyone in our community, who also let us use the space for an in person old school magic event. It was a WIN WIN WIN.

So, the next hurtle was how to have a safe in person tourney. Step 1: space and a floor plan. Know the space you are working with and have every person six feet away from all other people. This means your opponent and the people to your left, right, and back. Our venue only had eight-foot tables, so we had to be a bit creative and do double tables for each match. I made wood spacers so that the tables could not be moved together. This set up was so amazingly comfortable. You could go to your table and spread out. Your bag, drink, life pad, playmat, had eight feet of table space. It was glorious. Step 2: Sanitizer and more sanitizer. Each table had its own Lysol wipes, hand sanitizer, spray disinfectant, paper towels, and a trash box for used wipes. Of course a simple rebranding of these items was in order. Step 3: Masks. Everyone needed to wear their mask all the time. Even while playing. The only exception is while eating or drinking and you must be six feet away from anyone while doing it. Step 4: Make sure everyone is following the first 3. This is not a hard task in old school as we already have the one main rule: Don’t be a jerk. We were up front with everyone about these rules and that we had to stick with them the whole time.

Let’s get to what you came here for: old school magic. Doors opened at 10am each person was greeted with hand sanitizer, their own marker to sign the Firebreathing card, and a bag of swag. There was all you could drink water and lemonade. Also 2 coolers filled with beer. $1.00 a can all day. It was also BYOB. At 10:30am we started with 3 rounds of swiss pairings for the 24 attendees. We then took a break for the catered meal which was turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, green beans, pepper slaw, and a roll. 3 different pies with ice cream for dessert and coffee. And as more than one person commented “real lunch ladies to serve it all” who were wonderful.

Following a great meal break we played 2 more rounds of swiss for a total of 5 rounds. As you can see in the photo below we ran the event on the new webapp Tolaria by Slanfan. It ran amazing. We projected the pairings all day and showed the standings from time to time. It really is a one stop shop for TO’s. Thank you Slanfan and team for such a wonderful program. It was one thing that I didn’t need to worry about that day.

After the swiss we had a top 4 playoff and we did something new for the spice awards. When you submitted your deck photo you could label it as “spicy”. We then assembled a “Spice Panel” of judges. Each spicy deck photo was put up on the big screen in front of the judges and the audience. The spicy deck pilot had 3 minutes to tell the judges why their deck is spicy. After all pilots had their opportunity, the judges deliberated and ranked the decks to determine our spice master. Not all decks were spicy. Some just used the stage to say things like “Suck it Mike” or “Die in a fire Levi”. All in good fun and very entertaining. Nate Gates’ High Tide deck took home the Firestorm Phoenix Spice Master card altered by Jeff A. Menges. Second: Jimmy Cooney. Third: Jason Beaupre. Everyone who participated in the spice received a stamped Dragon Engine.

While the spicers were having a great time the top 4 played off. Semifinals: Rubens Campana vs. Jimmy Cooney and Ben Katz vs. Mike Frantz. The finals were a LobstercoM rematch of Rubens vs. Ben with this time Rubens being victorious and taking home the signed Firebreathing Champion card. Congrats Rubens! We also had a special prize card for best deck photo judged by myself, the Beta Fire Elemental went to old school newcomer Nathan Shue.

We had the space till midnight, so we ordered pizza for dinner and many stayed for casual hangs, more beers, and a few games of Ante40k. At the end of the day we were able to write a check to the York Springs Fire Company for $843.00 (includes $312.00 for the meal that they sold us). Thank you for all your support and a fantastic day. Special thanks to the following people: Jeff A. Menges, Mike McLaughlin, Jimmy Cooney, Ben Katz, John Gehling, Jason Beaupre, Nicholas Santini, Levi Baumgardner, Merle Zimmermann, and anyone else who helped along the way.

Mark your calendars. Glorycon 2: February 19^th 2022

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