Here's a short (and a little bit overdue) report about my participation in the Hungarian Championships which were held back in late November.
This was the first time I took part in a non-online championship, and to tell you the truth I needed some research to find out where and when it would take place at all (even the publisher Piatnik had no idea) and how I would be able to participate. As it turned out there is no official agreement with the publisher lately, therefore the Hungarian champion cannot participate in the World Championships held in Essen (even this year Hungary was not represented there which is a shame since almost all other Central European countries had a player there). Well, I was a little bit disappointed hearing that but at least I didn't need to worry about that special factor.
Actually I didn't know what to expect from this championship. Considering that most of the players, unlike me, came from qualification tournaments (I got a wild card thanks to one of the organizers) my first two games were surprisingly easy (139:93, 109:74). It was obvious that my opponents didn't even know what kind of tile configurations can be found in the base game set as on some occasions they trapped their own followers.
Just for fun I mention that my first ever championship game (which was my first new edition game as well) broke a record (at least I was told that): at the previous championships no game lasted longer than 45 minutes which was declared as time limit for a single game, but this time my opponent was thinking so much during the game that we had to finish the game without playing the last 6 tiles. Not that it mattered.
So I started with 2/2 but as the first part of the tournament consisted of 3 rounds of head-to-head games in Swiss system, my 3rd game promised to be more difficult against another player with already two wins. Indeed, this one was a tough game but near the end I had the feeling of having a slight lead so I even helped my opponent at her last tile giving her an additional point. I was quite surprised (moreover, a bit shocked) then that the final result became 88:88. Actually this draw helped both of us to reach the semi-finals.
My semi final game was decided quite early as I was able to trap two of my opponent's followers after playing only the first 15 or so tiles. It was a huge advantage which eventually led to my most convincing victory of the whole day (159:104).
As my previous opponent also won her semi-final we faced each other one more time in the final. This game was even more difficult than our previous one. My opponent played well, had the lead most of the time, but in the end I had a very good chance to win the main farm (which would have changed the outcome of the game): I only needed one of the two remaining RRXX tiles to join another farmer there. Unfortunately my opponent drew both. This way I lost the game by 101:114 (I attached a photo of the final landscape; I played with yellow) and finished 2nd at the championships. But as I mentioned earlier even the winner did not qualify to next year's world championship. I had a conversation with one of the organisers after the tournament and he promised to take steps to change that and to try to come to an agreement with the publisher next year. I hope he will succeed.