World Domination 2001-03 LDL Marauders:
We Have a Winner

by Jens Kreutzer

Well, the good news is that after three years, World Domination 2001-03 has finally been brought to a finish. The bad news is that the final round of the Finals, namely the Constructed round, had to be called off because of a lack of player interest. It is understandable, perhaps, that after three years, enthusiasm starts to wane, but we were just 11 matches away from the finish line, so it�fs really a pity.

Nonetheless, we have a very worthy new Netrunner World Champion: Frederic Chorein (France). Congratulations! Here is the final ranking again:

1. Frederic Chorein (FRA) GMP: 7 [OPP GMP: 12]
2. Byron Bailey (USA) GMP: 7 [OPP GMP: 7]
3. Richard Cripe (USA) GMP: 5
4. Scott Berger (USA) GMP: 4 [OPP GMP: 14]
5. Daniel Schneider (GER) GMP: 4 [OPP GMP: 10]
6. Holger Janssen (GER) GMP: 3 [OPP GMP: 14]
7. Mark Applin (UK) GMP: 3 [OPP GMP: 11]
8. Wilfried Ranque (FRA) GMP: 1 [dropped out]

One match of the Constructed round was actually played by Rik Geysels, who replaced Wilfried Ranque, and Frederic Chorein:

Frederic Chorein - Rik Geysels: C10 - R4; R0 - C10.

This would have given Frederic another GMP, cementing his lead position at 8 GMP, but the match was of course disregarded for the final result. Rik has earned some considerable bragging rights for besting the World Champion, though!

In effect, World Domination 2001-03 has become a pure Sealed tournament, and it could be argued that this is actually a good thing. The Qualifiers and Round 1 were also Sealed tournaments, after all - so why play Constructed in the Finals all of a sudden? In that respect, Frederic has truly proven his merit as Sealed World Champion. I hope that there are no bad feelings because of the ill-fated Constructed round.

Why was there such a lack of player enthusiasm? Apart from the conflict between committing a whole lot of time to online IRC play and shifting priorities in private life, another reason was given: Players have become so out-of-touch with the Constructed environment that it would take too much effort to deliver cutting-edge deck tech worthy of World Domination. I can see that it would be a let-down if busy players were forced to grab a three-years-old Bartmoss clone and play with that, just because there wouldn't be enough time to develop and playtest new strategies (that incorporated Classic, for example). Rather than having a boring Constructed Finals, some players would rather have no Constructed play at all. I can accept that.

Now that we are finished, I would like to thank everybody who helped letting WD 2001-03 happen. This includes all of the players who competed, and also the tournament organizers, directors and judges. Especially the IRC judges proved to be an invaluable help, working countless hours so that other people could play. Thank you! Kudos also go to Douglas Kaufman, who got WD 2001-03 moving, and from who I took over.

The next question to be asked is of course: Will there be another World Domination in 2004 or 2005? First of all, we would need a volunteer who would be willing to organize another WD. I suspect strongly that the age of IRC Netrunner is drawing to a close, because the GatlingEngine is so much more convenient for playing, so another WD on IRC probably won't happen. The first Netrunner tournaments on CCG Workshop have already been played, and another WD seems feasible to do there. Eric Platel is doing a tremendous job as Netrunner project lead, improving the game interface and promoting tournaments. He might be persuaded to organize WD 2004-05, or somebody else might step forward and do it in cooperation with him.

I have some personal thoughts about future World Domination championships which I would like to share. First, I think it would be a good idea to have a pure Constructed WD for a change. Since there is no real "Constructed scene" at the moment due to a lack of competitive meatspace tournaments, nobody really knows which decks are hot and which are not. Classic has not yet been fully integrated into Constructed play in my opinion, though Rent-I-Con and Glacier surely are new favorites. By playing a pure Constructed WD, a new Constructed metagame could develop during the Qualifier round and Round 1 (if there was one), which would then form the backdrop for the Finals. This would be a big push for creativity in deckbuilding, I hope, and would definitely show whether the Revised Constructed format is sound. By the way, I think that Revised Constructed deserves to be given another go before we look for alternative formats (like the Draconian Banned List) - it still hasn't had its moment to shine.

The GatlingEngine allows spectators and the saving of games; it has also become rather stable recently. Therefore, it would be adequate as a platform for WD, save for one problem: There is no logging function yet. The dialogue box could be copy-and-pasted, I guess, but since many game functions (like where a card is installed) are visualized only graphically, somebody would have to take notes (probably the judge). I'm of the opinion that WD matches should be properly recorded and made available online (yes, I will get round to doing that for WD 2001-03). There should also be a tight timeframe to boost player morale, perhaps one week per round. This would demand considerable effort on the part of the organizer, so be warned, but it would be a worthwhile effort. Perhaps letting players hang around in the lobby and play round-robin against anybody who happens to show up would be an option, but a judge would also be needed.

Anyway, I hope that you were reasonably content with my managing of WD 2001-03, and I also hope that there will be another WD in the future (which means that I can play too).

Yours, Jens