User:Patrick2011b/0.32 Tournament

This tournament ran from August 30, 2024 to September 15, 2024. The tournament page can be found here, while my profile for the tournament can be found here.

I felt like I improved quite a bit as a player since the last tournament, so I entered this one with more ambitious goals this time, including a Minotaur Berserker speedrun for the tier 3 Makhleb banner (win in under 3 hours) and a high value win, followed by some easy combos for another win. Unfortunately, a series of splats early in the tournament forced me to abandon that plan, and while I eventually got a win, my performance in this tournament has been characterized by bad luck and suboptimal play, often in disbelief of that bad luck.

I got invited into The 27 Club this tournament based on improving play during the 0.32 development cycle that saw my all-time win rate go over 10%. The clan in question finished 5th in 0.31 and managed to improve to 4th this tournament. Unfortunately, my underperformance in this tournament has left me the weakest link, though the clan seems to full of really good players, so I have another place to ask (mostly tactical) questions if the main chat on Discord is occupied with something else. I'm hoping to return to the clan next tournament and contribute more than just some gems.

Stats

The tournament had a total of 2,842 players with 421 of them getting at least 1 win. The total win rate for the tournament was 1.73%. I had 17 games in the tournament with 1 win (win rate 5.9%). 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: 34,857 (221st)
• Best High Score: 3,106,034 (195th)
• Lowest Turncount Win: 49,047 (84th)
• Fastest Real Time Win: 4:35:43 (269th)
• Most Pacific Win: 2,240 (T-194th)

Clan Info

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

• Roster: particleface (captain), Patrick2011b, AutarchDCSS, Gryn, GoSagan, angelslayer
• Clan Score: 105,049 (4th)
• Total Wins (by player): particleface 13, AutarchDCSS 13, GoSagan 10, angelslayer 7, Gryn 7, Patrick2011b 1
• Best High Score: 27,018,917 (particleface)
• Lowest Turncount Win: 17,929 (AutarchDCSS)
• Fastest Real Time Win: 1:05:25 (particleface)
• Most Pacific Win: 1,140 (AutarchDCSS)

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.

• GrFi^Makhleb (4 runes and 2 gems (both intact)): After 11 losses with varying levels of progress, I finally managed to get a win in this tournament, and it was a melee character, meaning I was able to get better value this time than my GrFE last tournament. I took the Mark of Annihilation, which meant I replaced the summoning ability with a slow OOD-like projectile, which dealt cold damage based on the upgrade I rolled. Spider gave me a lot more trouble than I expected, mostly because it had a lot of sun moths, and I had no rF at the time. An interesting similarity with my 0.31 tournament win was that I parked Vv both times. The gems I got were in Swamp and Slime.

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.

• MiBe^Trog: This was my first game of the tournament, and it had some promising gear, including a +2 broad axe of flaming in a shop that I was close to being able to afford. Unfortunately, D:10 had a nasty vault that I couldn't retreat from.
• MiBe^Trog: I got a rune for the first time in this one, and I got 3 gems. I originally planned to do Snake before Shoals, but mutation roulette gave me clarity, which made most of the will checks in Shoals a non-issue, so I did that first. Unfortunately, I also got deformed body from mutation, so my AC and resists were lacking in Snake, and I ended up getting surrounded and quickly killed in Snake:3. Maybe those two practice speedruns that both won were a mirage, and it's not actually that easy. Now that I have gem points for Lair, D, and Shoals, I'll probably be less aggressive in skipping content for future attempts.
• MiBe^Trog: This character was another attempt at a speedrun, and it got to Vaults:5 despite mediocre gear. Unfortunately, I got bad luck with teleports there and couldn't get out after I was doomed. With all my missing consumables, I probably couldn't have won anyway. The run convinced me that I need good items to speedrun and should otherwise actually clear everything I don't need to park.
• DrHu^Hepliaklqana: After failing at speedrunning, I decided to try DrHu and got 2 early deaths before this one, which rolled green and found a triple crossbow. Unfortunately, a fight against Frances didn't go well with a combination of me failing to use abilities/prebuffs and Frances high-rolling against a phantom mirrored version of herself as well as against my attempt to escape. I also found a trove but couldn't enter because the cost was 9 potions of haste.
• MDGl^Dithmenos: This was a pretty standard Axes fighter, and it was doing well, even getting the abyssal rune, but I could never get rElec, and that combined with harm was enough to lose to an electric golem 1v1. Since that was the third combo to get to XL 9 and the second to get a rune, I'm just going to be playing different combos for the Jiyva banner and hope I can eventually break through and get a win.
• CoCj^The Shining One: This was my first attempt at a Nemelex' choice combo, and it was also the first time I made it to Lair with a faded altar. Unfortunately, this character was too squishy to get a rune, let alone win. Maybe the problem was a lack of good spells early, so I had to spread my skills around, which at least got me some tier 1 banners.
• GnWn^Uskayaw: This was my fourth combo to get a rune, and it was my 5th god championed. The other banner point from this character came from peeking into Orc:2 before Lair, though Orc:2 was bad enough that I couldn't clear it until after I did Lair. The death this time was to a Vaults:1 ambush that I tried to fight with a demon trident instead of a randart spear with rElec. The killer was an ironbound thunderhulk, which I phialed forgetting they were immune to silence. I should've used the spear, stairdanced, and/or buffed up for that fight. This splat makes me feel like my skill level goes down in tournaments, though bad luck with items may also be contributing to my underperformance so far.
• MfMo^Fedhas: This was almost a win with a Long Blades character, but Tiamat was way tougher than I anticipated, and she spawned in a floor that had a stair vault (i.e. all the downstairs are in the same vault, and it's not feasible to dive the floor). Before that, I had multiple tough situations in the S branches and later, so my consumables were low, even after finding the Shield of Resistance in Crypt:3. At least I got to try out Overgrow on the Slime loot, though a malevolent alarm forced a reset and some consumables from me.
• MiHu^Ru: This was my last character in the tournament, and I managed to get another tier 1 banner by championing Ru. I pivoted to Long Blades after finding a triple sword and later a +4 scimitar, which I used once I sacrificed hand to go from 1* to 4*. This character died to death yaks in Lair:2, when I should've just fled and waited out the cooldown on Apocalypse. This run also has a "what could have been", as a Hepliaklqana altar was on the same floor as the Ru altar, and there was a longbow in mid-Dungeon, so that would've let me stick with Ranged Weapons.

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 7 MiBe^Trog
• XL 7 MiBe^Trog
• XL 8 MiBe^Trog
• XL 8 MiFi^Wu Jian
• XL 4 DrHu
• XL 5 DrHu^Lugonu
• XL 3 GnWn

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. I didn't earn any tier 3 banners this tournament.

Tier 2

• Collect 5 different runes throughout the tournament.
• Find the silver rune, which is in Vaults.
• Champion 5 gods.
• Get a rune with five different species and backgrounds.
• Get a rune in less than 81 minutes.
• Win a game with Invocations as the highest skill.
• Get a rune before XL 17.
• Kill 54 different uniques throughout the tournament.

Tier 1

• Reach XL 9 in two consecutive games.
• Steal a combo high score that was at least 1,000 points.
• Enter the Crypt.
• Worship a faded altar and reach the Lair.
• Enter Orc:2 before entering Lair.
• Champion Ru.
• Reach XL 9 with a Nemelex' Choice combo.
• Score at least 1,000,000 points in a single game.
• Reach the Temple without using any potions or scrolls.
• Reach Lair:5 with no skill at level 13 or higher (non-Formicid).
• Collect a gem.
• Enter the Temple in under 3,000 turns.
• Kill Sigmund before entering Depths.