(quiet airhorn sounds) It's back and more like the number two than last time, yes it's time for

Netbrummers Startup Tournament 2: 2 Netbrummers 2 Startup featuring The Automata Initiative and Dante from The Devil May Cry Series*!

* if he ever returns my calls

Just like last time, we've got a fun and beginner-friendly tournament coming your way, if your way is Birmingham (or an adjacent region). We’re gonna be playing three rounds to determine who is the best Startup player in all of [insert relevant region here depending on turnout], but more importantly to have a lovely time. It’s going to be very casual, so should be an ideal space for those of you who’ve played a few games and are looking for a friendly space for your first tournament.

Entry is £5, which covers the cost of prizes (including participation prizes which everyone will get). There is a limit of 16 spaces for this tournament.
Geek Retreat are kindly letting us use their space for free, so please buy some food/drink while you're there.

Here are all of the details you need to know, which are mostly copied from the last time I ran this!

Location

We will be at Geek Retreat Birmingham (18b Hall St, Birmingham B18 6BS), which Google Maps says is a twenty minute walk from Birmingham New Street station or a short walk from St Pauls tram station. While it’s free to hire tables at the venue (the entry cost is solely to pay for prizes), they do not allow outside food and drink.

When you get there, go downstairs (that's where the tables are). There is a Digimon event going on at the same time so it may be a little bit of a squeeze, but hopefully it'll be okay.

Timings and Format

The event is on Saturday 26th August (which cutely is exactly six months after the previous Startup tournament), with registration open at 3:30pm and round 1 beginning at 4pm. Please arrive early enough to give yourself time to register! I will be aiming to start as close to 4pm as possible because last time I didn't and then we didn't get much of a food break, so please aim to be there by 3:55pm. Please let me know if this is infeasible - we can work something out.

We’ll be playing three rounds of 65 minutes, with a break between rounds 2 and 3 to get food. We’ll end by 8pm at the latest.

This tournament is in the Startup format, which means that all cards from System Gateway, System Update, Borealis (so Midnight Sun and Parhelion) and the newly-released Automata Intiative are legal. Woah! There probably won't be many Startup decks that use Automata Initiative out for a bit, but you can use Startup decks from the previous Startup and they will still be legal. Please note that Startup has no banlist, and thus there will be no banlist at this tournament.

Prizes

The main prizes for this event are from the 2023 Q1 Game Night Kit, and we will follow their tournament structure. That means the top 8 players each get a lovely set of Tollbooth, and the top 4 players also get a lovely set of Hippo. There are also some Mestnichestvo which you can ask for on the day.