Tournament Review - English GT, 1st & 2nd July 2017

Venue: Wayland Gaming Centre, Hockley, Essex

Tournament Organiser: Stuart 'Snezzley' Snares

I don't do many 2-day events any more. Between my bipolar struggles and an employment status that I can only describe as 'in flux', there are a great many benefits to being back in my own bed at night. With that said, I wouldn't miss the English GT. As soon as it was announced I was one of the first to pay up and Snezz delivered again.

There were a few technical Gremlins as well as the ones on tables, but they were sorted out quickly. We all had plenty of space, round times were 2 hours and if you couldn't access Bag O Tools then Snezz was quite happy to stand at the front and bellow out the draw.

I did love the atmosphere. Snezz is one of those TOs that's just as likely to be involved in the good-natured teasing as any of the players and it filtered down to most of the field. Certainly on and around the tables I played at, there were no game faces in sight.

Special nod to the painting competition. Lunch on day 1, any entrants set out a single miniature for the players' choice voting. Lunch on day 2, it was full crews for the judges' choice. I did like that idea, means that there's plenty of time to look at everything.

Prizes were generous, considering the low ticket price for the weekend. Nice big trophies for 1st, 2nd and 3rd, players and judges painting, mugs for best in faction and a hotly contested spoon, and what I can only describe as a metric f*ck-ton of store credit that was raffled off. One slight gripe was no best sports, but I appreciate that there aren't many TOs who give that out, and in the Malifaux scene pretty much everybody is awesome anyway.

All in all? Bloody well done Mr Snares. See you next year.

Runners and Riders

Wooden Spoon: Tom Nickerson, Guild

Best Painted (Players Choice): James Henley, Guild with Hoffman's Avatar. And bloody amazing it is too! Check him out on Twitter @henners900.

Best Painted (Judges Choice): Martin Jones, Gremlins. Seriously, the bases on this crew are the best I've ever seen. Martin has stacked them with swamp detritus then poured resin on top so that each model looks like they're standing on a slice of the Bayou. I don't know how he did it but combine it with how well the figures are painted, it looks incredible.
Best 10 Thunders: Troy 'Default' Ashdown

Best Gremlins: Martin Jones

Best Guild: Matt Lewin

Best Outcasts: Tom Thorpe

Best Neverborn: Lukasz 'Lost to Joel But Nicked His Trophy' Rozanski (I kid - enjoy Cap'n!)

3rd Place: Josh Leak, Resurrectionists

2nd Place: James 'Bridesmaid' Doxey, Arcanists (or is it Archanists?)

1st Place: Jamie Varney, Resurrectionists

Big congratulations to everyone!