All the impressions I was able to collect in Paris last weekend are slowly settling down. I have to say I felt a little overwhelmed right after the tournament. There was excitement – I had done well, in fact, better than expected if you would have asked me a day before, but then again there was also a lot of frustration. If I only would have played a little better in that one match, I could have made top 8. Top 8!

Seems like it wasn’t meant to be this time. In a way, the whole tournament now feels like a huge déjà-vu of the German Nationals last year. I was two wins away from claiming a top 8 spot there as well and it was the first larger scale tournament I participated in. Now, after being used to playing in DMF’s and Nationals more or less, it has been the first time that I participated in an even bigger tournament – the Continentals. Thankfully, I learned a couple of things and therefore, I’m rather positive that I’ll do even better next time.

Speaking of next time, I’m not entirely sure if I can make it to Worlds. Last year, I didn’t have the days off, this year, it’s ridiculously expensive. It seems like a neverending story to me and there’s no happy end in sight yet. I really don’t know what to do, as spending 1500 € on the trip is not an easy decision.

Then again, I feel confident that I can do well there. While I have not been playing on a competitive level for even a full year (German Nationals were my first bigger event and they took place last August) yet, I learned so many things in this short amount of time. The game is just so much more than what you can grasp at first and it’s an amazing experience to dig deeper and deeper into the inner workings of it. You get a “feeling” for certain moves and know when to play which cards. I would love to show off some of these skills at Worlds.

If you would be in my position, what would you do? I’m really curious and can’t wait to get some feedback!

Part 2 of my tournament report from Riederich, the tournament that was held instead of the Realm Championship Season 5, has been put online now as well.

Read about the Draft as well as my top 8 match that marked the end of my success story this time: Suppe für den soul – Realm Champs tournament report part 2.

Last weekend, the Realm Championship Season 5 took place. Or at least it was supposed to; due to the licensing situation between Upper Deck and Blizzard, no official tournament could be held. Instead, the tournament organizer from Reutlingen, Matthias Jedele, took it into his own hands to run a tournament.

The “inofficial Realm Champs” attracted 53 players and pretty much all of the better German, Swiss and Austrian players showed up (well, OK, only 1 Austrian showed up). I was lucky enough to make it to the tops, but lost in the quarter finals.

You can read a lot more about the tournament in my tournament report that will be published as part of my weekly column (that’s taking a break from its break): Suppe für den soul – Realm Champs tournament report.

Unfortunately, my weekly column Suppe für den soul has to take a break – and I can’t even say for sure how long that break’s gonna be.

I’ve summed up all the reasons in the last article for now: Suppe für den soul – commercial break.

Upper Deck and Blizzard didn’t renew their license agreement. This means that from April on, Upper Deck is no longer allowed to publish the WoW TCG.

What happens next isn’t entirely clear at this point. In my weekly column, I tried to give as much background information of what happened and what might happen next: Suppe für den soul – What now?

As a new player to the World of Warcraft TCG, you will often find yourself in a situation where you’re making a greenhorn mistake that is totally avoidable. In many cases, these mistakes will cost you the game, leading to lots of frustration.

I came up with a complete article listing many of these mistakes. It will definitely help you to get started to become a more successful player, so go check it out: Der Versammlungsstein – Greenhorn Mistakes.

This week, the historical issue #100 of Germany’s oldest magazine about Trading Card Games has been released. Unfortunately, it will also be the last issue of it.

It seems the ever changing market for TCG magazines has hit a downward swing – also thanks to the growing importance of the internet where players can find information often faster and, more importantly, cheaper. Nevertheless, it has been quite a ride for the Kartefakt. The magazine was about to be discontinued before, but found a way to make it to the 100.

The final issue features an interesting article about the history of TCG’s on top of the regular features you should all be familiar with by now. Additionally, #16 of the Kartefakt Virtual has been released. I’m not entirely sure if it’s also the final issue, but you might find out rather quick once you take a look at it. You can find it together with some more information about the final issue of the Kartefakt on the homepage: Kartefakt.de.

I would like to thank the amazing team of the Kartefakt for the long lasting work relationship we had. I enjoyed providing the Yu-Gi-Oh! and World of Warcraft content for the magazine and wish the whole team all the best for the future!

This week, I’m talking about how to deal with defeat. The last few qualifier tournaments didn’t really go the way I intended, so it’s about time to look for ways to improve my performance again. And even if you’re not interested in the topic at all, you should like the picture I added!

Suppe für den soul – How to overcome defeat.

The Chain is such a complex element, I had to follow up the first article and give some more detailed information. This article shows exactly what happens when several links are added to the chain and what you should avoid when it comes to responding to other effects.

I spelled out some of the mistakes you can make to further emphasize the importance of chaining in the right moment. In a nutshell: This article should be able to help you a lot taking your game to the next level: Der Versammlungsstein – The Chain, Part 2.

The Core format is shaking up the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. Although it took most players some time to get used to the idea of a Best of One format, the acceptance is now ever growing. Part of the reasons are the potential decks that can be built in the new environment.

This issue of my weekly column presents some of the fancier ideas I could come up with, so check it out: Suppe für den soul – Core Crazyness.