Mike Burgess

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Mike Burgess was a Decipher-era Squadron Member, listed as Red 108 from Stanley, UK. The published fan table marks the slot Retired after Decipher's SWCCG run. Trandosite interviewed him on 2 May 2000.[1]

This page is a fan encyclopedia stub. It records only published SWCCG-related facts. It is not a biography and does not add private life.

Squadron listing

Slot Town Status (fan table)
Red 108 Stanley, UK Retired

Decipher recruited volunteer Squadron Members in the 1990s to promote SWCCG locally (tournaments, demos, player support). "FL" is printed on some slots in the surviving tables; the tables do not spell out the abbreviation.



Interviews

Trandosite, 2 May 2000

Interview conducted by Rod Latham on Trandosite.[1]

1. How did you get involved in SWCCG, and then tournament directing?

I was a huge fan of the Star Wars movies and toys as a child but like most other kids moved on to other things as the hype over the original release of the movies began to die down. Years later when they were re-released at the movies this restored my interest mainly because I'd never been able to see A New Hope at the cinema first time round. Well I was only 3 at the time. It was at this point Star Wars merchandise mania started again so I started buying one or two things. My girlfriend was taking an interest in it too so for a joke I bought her some packets of the Merlin Movie trading cards. Being huge kids at heart we found it great fun opening up the packets so we ended up collecting a set each. Hungry for more stuff to collect I noticed a Premiere starter deck in a store one day and thought I'd have a look to see what they were like. I didn't know the first thing about customisable card games so I asked the friendly HMV store assistant what they were. He said he didn't have a clue and so this successfully persuaded me to part with my cash. I decided to give them to my girlfriend as a little gift but when she opened it she wasn't too impressed, I remember her saying something about the amount of instructions!!!" Anyway I took them off her and kept them myself and spent the next month trying to work out how to play. I bought the odd booster every now and then and loved the way the game would be different every time I bought some extra cards. The concept of a CCG was still very new to me and I very quickly became hooked.

I spent a few months fumbling through games with my younger brother but that was about to change, I suddenly had access to the internet. I checked out decipher.com for the first time and when I realised how huge the SWCCG community was I was amazed and I just had to get more involved. After randomly contacting UK players from the Decipher player register I received a reply from Mat Allen who then introduced me to The Kessel Run. So if you want anyone to blame for my presence I guess it's Mat, but I want to thank him. Someone else who played a huge part in the early days was Andrew Sims. Andrew was a huge help particularly when I was having difficulties with rules. If you get to read this Andrew, thanks for all your help, especially with attrition. Andrew also invited me to participate in my first tournament, which incidentally was run by John Shields.

From then on it was simply a case that my interest grew and grew but to be able to attend tournaments I often had to travel some distance. Most of you will know I'm from the North East of England and at the time there was nothing going on up here. I'd found a few players and I believed I could find enough to get some tournaments sanctioned so I took the plunge and decided to become a TD.

2. What is your favourite part of tournament directing?

Firstly it would certainly have to be meeting new people. Star Wars players come from all walks of life and I've met some great people that I wouldn't normally have crossed paths with.

Secondly, and without wanting to sound like a megalomaniac, I simply enjoy organising and running the events. It's a great feeling when the players thank me for running tournaments and it sometimes makes me feel a little proud to have been able to get all these people together to have some great fun.

3. How have you found squadron membership and are you glad you became a Decipher volunteer?

Squadron membership has been great fun and as a result of it I've been involved in some great events. Some of the more major events have been Gen Con 99, last years Regional and this years National Championships. I'm always very nervous directing these sorts of tournaments because there is a lot at stake, but the players always remember to have great fun at the same time and that goes a long way in helping me to relax and enjoy the day too.

4. If you could change one thing about SWCCG, what would it be?

That's a tough one for me because the one thing about SWCCG I've never been 100% happy with is something I probably stand alone on. As a result I feel I'm really sticking my neck out by saying this but in a way it might be a good thing as it may spark some sort of discussion.

I've always had a bit of a problem with the series of 'enhanced' cards. While these cards are particularly great for beginners and do invite new decks and strategies for the more seasoned player, I've found on the whole they have devalued (and I don't mean financially here) the original 'standard' version of many cards. While many of the 'enhanced' cards do have weaknesses they are often an immediate choice in many decks, unless the specific strength of the 'standard' version is required. I'm particularly talking about EPP & ECC here as I feel EJP is by far (IMHO) the best in this series. Maybe I'm completely wrong about them but this is just my opinion and I would welcome (as I'm sure Trandosite would) anyone to put together an article to defend them.

5. Newcastle had firmly established itself as one of the centres of tournament action in the UK. What makes your tourneys unique and keeps up a very enviable regular structure?

Well I guess we are very lucky in Newcastle in that while we don't get huge numbers, record attendance is only 14, what we did have was dedicated regulars. At it's peak we were running up to 3 tournaments a month and all were being sanctioned without any worries. While running so many tournaments for the same few people I made a big effort to try and vary the events while still ensuring they were fully legal. One format that was very popular was the Bespin and Beyond series of tournaments, I tried to run as many of those as I could in the limited time we had. Other tactics I tried was to incorporate other side elements to the events, so while playing a standard swiss tournament you also had the chance of winning spot prizes. A couple of things I did were 'bingo' games and 'snowball' tournaments.

'Bingo' games are very simple, I would pick at random 3 games out of the 6 to be the 'bingo' games and I would put 3 boosters of Premiere and 3 boosters of the latest expansion to one side. The first game to finish in these games would win a spot prize, the winner got to chose which booster they wanted and the loser would get the opposite. This was also a little incentive to speed games up as time was often against us on tournament day.

The 'snowball' tournament was also very simple in that the players didn't have to do anything other than play their normal game, it also had an advantage for the players who had very little chance of winning a top prize as they could come away with a decent sized spot prize. In truth every tournament we ran in Newcastle was a 'snowball' tournament and for those who may be interested here's how it worked. Before I started the tournament I would write down a number between 1 and 40 and seal it in an envelope so only I knew the number. I would then take 1 booster of Premiere and 1 booster of the latest expansion and keep it to one side as the 'snowball jackpot'. The first game that day to match their differential to that number would win the jackpot, but if it wasn't won that day the number would be carried over to the next tournament and 2 more boosters would be added to the prize. This could go on for a number of tournaments and in fact once carried over 4 times before it was won. The winner of the jackpot winning game got the choice of half the boosters and the loser received the remainder.

I think the most successful tournament type I ran was the Constructed to Sealed event. Which was basically 3 tournaments in 1. First we played 4 games of swiss as one tournament and then 4 games of sealed as another tournament. There were prizes for both official formats but there was also a prize of a set of WB Premiere for the overall winner. That was one long day but it was great fun. I've still got a couple of spare sets of Premiere so maybe we could try it again sometime.

6. What do you enjoy most about playing the game?

Actually playing the game is something I haven't done very often in the last year or so and to be honest I was never very good at anyway, why else do you think I became a Squadron Member . Being first and foremost a Star Wars fan, when I do play I love to play Mains and Toys. To me this is what SWCCG was originally all about. The modern game is clearly quite different and has a huge variety of deck designs but many of them I would chose not to play. Maybe that's why I'm so hopeless at it.

7. What was your most enjoyable tournament, and why?

As a player my most enjoyable tournament would have to be the Open Regional at Gen Con in 98. This is the only major tournament I've ever played in and I thought it was just brilliant, I'd never seen a tournament so big. The only down side was that Alan Divers insisted on calling my name out as Mike Burgers each time. I'll not tell you how I placed as it will be just too embarrassing. Oh go on then, I finished 2nd off last. I still had great fun though.

As a director I would have to say my most enjoyable tournament was the very first one I ran at McNulty's Internet Café in Newcastle well over a year ago now. It was just such great fun and it was actually this tournament which actually set our record attendance

8. If you could play any player in the world, who would it be?

If I could play any player in the world it would have to be Josh Camblin. You may not know him and neither do I, but I do know he's last in the world rankings so I might just be able to beat him. :) (it took me ages to scroll though the endless pages of player rankings to find this little trivia tit-bit).

9. Where do you see the game of SWCCG going in the next year?

That's a very tough one to answer, however I hope that with the schedule of new products that Decipher has planned for the coming year the future will be very healthy. Also the recent announcement of the change in prize support to Cloud City can only be a good thing for the tournament scene.

And speaking of tournaments, I hope that Decipher continues it's commitment of the 'high profile' tournaments as they have so far this year. There are now 3 major events that I can think of, the Grand Slam, the National/European Championships and of course the Worlds, I hope these can all become annual events as this will ensure that SWCCG is a game worth playing.

10. Any other comments for the Naboo Region and Trandosite readers?

Nah, not really. I've bored you all enough. Keep playing!

Many thanks!

See also


Sources

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Mike Burgess interview, Trandosite (2 May 2000)
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