Bleah

Nothing like more than 24 hours straight of heavy rain to ruin one's mood.

Welcome to the meat grinder, guys

I've long thought that the New York Shadowfist scene was probably the strongest in the world. We had three of the top five rated players in the world, holding between them three world championships, one world dueling championship, and a lot of finals appearances in both of the above. We've also got about three others who can give us a good solid run for our money in any game, but who haven't done the non-local tournament scene, so haven't got the ratings that their skill deserves.

We've also got a bunch of other players. They're not bad - we can't take them for granted by any means, and they win their share, but it's an uphill fight.

However, right now, I feel sorry for them.

Jan Malina just moved into town.

Jan is the best Fist player in the world. If you look at the ratings, he's the best player by a pretty wide margin. In my opinion, the margin isn't that big, but it's there. When Jan goes to GenCon, he wins most of the tournaments. He's got two world championships and I think four dueling championships. None of the NYC crew's wins came in years Jan was there. (He's not unbeatable, but it's a tough fight, and he's very good at working the table in a multiplayer game.)