User:Patrick2011b/0.33 Tournament

This tournament ran from May 2, 2025 to May 18, 2025. The tournament page can be found here, while my profile for the tournament can be found here.

This was my third tournament, after two previous tournaments where I got one win each. I was coming off a disappointing tournament, as I thought I had a chance at top 100 but was only able to get one win. I started that tournament by speedrunning Minotaur Berserker but had to abandon that plan. I think I was too aggressive before, and I found Trog to be not as good as Okawaru, so I decided to use Fighter for speedrunning this time. I managed to get that and another win, and I was hoping to try extended with a beatable high score, but I kept losing and ended up not having enough time, so I had to settle for a non-extended combo high score for my 3rd win. I managed to finish in the top 100 this time, but it remains to be seen how much better I can get as a player, though the fact that I only spend 1-2 hours per day actually playing probably holds me back the most, but I don't feel like increasing my playtime per day.

I returned to The 27 Club, which finished 4th last time in the clan competition and improved to 3rd this time with the addition of tswn, who's better at speedrunning than any previous member. The clan competition was more competitive than usual, so I could see us improving to 2nd or maybe even 1st if the top clans don't grind as hard next time. Discussion among my teammates is getting more strategic, but if I do play next tournament, I'd like to stick around, even if I'm just a passenger.

Stats

The tournament had a total of 2,871 players with 421 getting at least 1 win. The total win rate for the tournament was 1.59%. I had 16 games in the tournament with 3 wins (win rate 18.75%). The leaderboards compress ties, but the ranks given here won't compress ties. For example, if there's a two-way tie for 14th in something, the next lower score will be considered 16th. Here are my scores and ranks for some key categories as well as overall:

• Overall Score: 46,476 (85th)
• Best High Score: 3,368,035 (163rd)
• Lowest Turncount Win: 27,743 (24th)
• Fastest Real Time Win: 2:38:01 (109th)
• Most Pacific Win: 1,479 (19th)

Clan Info

I was in The 27 Club, so I'll give some clan info here:

• Roster: particleface (captain), Patrick2011b, AutarchDCSS, GoSagan, Daunt, tswn
• Clan Score: 116,732 (3rd)
• Total Wins (by player): AutarchDCSS 20, particleface 17, tswn 16, Daunt 10, Patrick2011b 3, GoSagan 3
• Best High Score: 61,832,976 (tswn)
• Lowest Turncount Win: 12,013 (tswn)
• Fastest Real Time Win: 47:42 (tswn)
• Most Pacific Win: 1,200 (tswn)

Wins

This section contains a log and brief writeup for each of my winning characters. The altar in each entry shows what god the character won with, which matters for the piety category. Essentially, each distinct god won is worth 400 tournament points unless the god was either never championed or was Gozag, Ignis, or Xom (those gods don't use the standard 6* piety system), in which case it's only 200 tournament points. The wins are given in chronological order.

• MiFi^Wu Jian (3 runes and 6 gems (5 intact)): I succeeded on a speedrun for the first time in a tournament, giving me a tier 3 banner and some good value. I got Wu Jian from an early altar. The loot was interesting, as I found several good items that happened to have -Int, so I had to pass on a bunch, but at least I got a battleaxe with +3 Int in a Gauntlet, letting me wear gloves with regen from the same gauntlet. I had a few close calls in the midgame and even the orb run, which is not surprising with a build low on defenses (35/19/0 at the end). I can now say that Wu Jian is better for turn count than real time since the martial maneuvers require more though than just o-tabbing.
• DrIE^Ru (4 runes and 5 gems (2 intact)): This win was another milestone for me, as I had never gotten multiple wins in a DCSS competition before (I got exactly 1 win in every CCTT and CCSDT I played before this tournament). I got some good long blades early, so that's the direction I went. I got a randart demon blade from a scroll of acquirement in Lair:4, which carried for most of the game, though my damage rating was lacking late, so I switched to a double sword of freezing. I also managed to get tier 2 of the Sif Muna banner (win with all skills below 20), which was facilitated by Translocations and a hive talisman. I had to park Parghit in Zot:2, and the orb run was a bit eventful, especially when Passage of Golubria didn't work as well as I hoped on D:1. I figured going to extended was the next big source of points after getting 2 wins, but I wasn't able to do that this tournament. As I got Ru from a faded altar, I got a second tier 3 banner for winning with a faded altar god.
• MfMo^Zin (4 runes and 1 gem (intact)): This was my last character in the tournament, and it was a god one-and-won. An early +10 orcbow with a bunch of resists got me to go Ranged Weapons despite a -2 apt. I got pretty unlucky with armor though, so I had a bunch of close calls, some of which was due to inexperience with Zin. In fact, I had so little resists outside of the weapon slot that my teammates had to talk me into using a +9 longbow of freezing after I encountered Tiamat in Zot:3. All the downstairs were pretty close to each other, so I was able to try them one by one. The first two had Vv and Grunn, respectively, so I parked them and tried the third stair. A lack of scrolls of teleportation made a malevolent teleport to the orb chamber a little scary, but I learned Apportation at the last minute and was able to use it and blink to a teleport trap to get out of there and start the orb run. It turns out Zin is really good in the orb run, as I was able to imprison monsters with torment, and Sanctuary was also an option if needed.

Notable Losses

This section contains a log and brief writeup for each losing character that I consider notable enough for a writeup. If an entry has an altar in it, it means the character championed that god (i.e. reached 6* piety at some point). Essentially, each distinct god championed is worth 200 tournament points, though Gozag, Ignis, and Xom don't use the standard 6* piety system and therefore can't be championed. The games are given in chronological order.

• MiFi^Ignis: This was my first character to get a banner, as I got Ignis from a faded altar and reached Lair. D:8 had a good antique armor shop with 2 randart plates and a magic shield, and I managed to buy one of the plates, which was +9. Unfortunately, Rupert proved too much for this character.
• DrHu^Hepliaklqana: This character followed my first win and got a few banners and uniques but made the mistake of fighting Jorgrun and a centaur warrior in the open. I got a hand cannon of freezing from an early shop and managed to enchant it to +9, but the rest of my gear was nothing special. I couldn't quite champion Hepliaklqana, so that god remained open for piety points.
• GrWn^Hepliaklqana: This Wanderer ended up with an Unarmed and Evocations start, and I got to retry Hep right away, as there was an altar on D:2. I managed to get a rune this time but couldn't get away from a bunch of meliai in Spider:4. My armor was too good to pivot to talismans (fortress was the best I found, but I needed too much XP elsewhere). At least I got the Shoals gem and some uniques, but I was still searching for my 2nd win at this point. For the Jiyva banner, this was the 3rd combo to reach XL 9 and the 2nd to get a rune.
• MDFE^Dithmenos: I decided to try Mountain Dwarf Fire Elementalist for a high score run since those seemed like attainable species and background high scores. Unfortunately, I got bad luck on loot and spells with this character and couldn't get a rune. The randart hand axe and amulet of magic regeneration made MP mostly a non-issue, but I had no resists, poor defenses, and a lack of long-range AoE. I may have been better off doing Snake first, as LRD would've worked better there, and I had a ring of poison resistance. I still think extended is the best way to improve my tournament score, but another look at the combo scoreboard puts Demonspawn and a few other backgrounds in play.
• DsFE^Cheibriados: There's not much to say about this character, but I've always put characters that reached Lair in this section (unless they were won), and the death here did drop my confidence. This character, like some of my other losses, got unlucky with loot, including spells (i.e. I couldn't build for any higher level spells). There was probably a better way to fight the salamander, but it kept highrolling against me. I'm now convinced FE is low-tier, unless it's just my consistent lack of luck in tournaments, so I'll see if another background would work better without its high score being too high.
• TeAE^Vehumet: I managed to get the Spider rune and gem this time, so I got some tournament points at least, but I got shafted from Elf:1 to Elf:2 and kept getting bad teleports, finishing in a room full of elves, some of them high-tier. If there's such a thing as an RNG death in the late game, this might be it. In terms of tournament points, the next two losses would've drop me a percentage point each in the win rate category, but I only needed one more runer for Jiyva 2, and I didn't try a Nemelex' Choice combo yet, so there were still tournament points to gain.

Early Deaths

This section lists the characters that didn't get far enough to really contribute to the tournament. Logs and writeups aren't included in this section. The games are listed in chronological order.

• XL 1 MiFi
• XL 6 MiFi^Uskayaw
• XL 8 CoHu^Uskayaw
• XL 9 CoHu^Uskayaw
• XL 2 MDFE
• XL 2 DsFE
• XL 3 DsFE

Banners

This section lists the banners I earned in the tournament by tier, with each banner giving a brief description of how it was earned.

Tier 3

• Worship a faded altar and win.
• Win in under 3 hours.

Tier 2

• Collect 5 different runes throughout the tournament.
• Steal a combo high score for a previously won combo.
• Find the silver rune, which is in Vaults.
• Champion 5 gods.
• Get a rune with five different species and backgrounds.
• Win with Invocations as the highest skill.
• Win with no skill at level 20 or higher.
• Win with at least 3 gems intact.
• Get a rune before XL 17.
• Kill at least 54 uniques throughout the tournament.

Tier 1

• Reach XL 9 in two consecutive games.
• Enter the Crypt.
• Reach Orc:2 before entering Lair.
• Champion Ru.
• Score at least 1,000,000 points in a single game.
• Reach the Temple without using any potions or scrolls.
• Kill Sigmund before entering Depths.
• Enter the Temple in under 3,000 turns.