Hi Everyone! Man, this month has just exploded with all sorts of Star Wars goodness! This coming month is going to be just as good! On with the updates... >> Death Star 2: First off, I'd like to thanks everyone who came down to the Death Star II Pre-release event. It was a lot of work for me... But, rewarding. I hope you had a lot of fun! Those of you who didn't make it to the event, I hope you got your DS2 fix with all the spoilers that were running around. I especially want to thank Josh Certo for being an absolute machine at the tournament. I couldn't have done this without you, Man! Paul Feldman was also a great help toward the later games... Thanks Man! 96 players showed up to have fun. Something like 6 DS2 booster boxes were opened. The cool part about that was the Ultr-Rares Luke and the Emperor were pretty even distributed throughout the boxes! They were really that hard to get. The official Release date for Death Star II is July 19th. To celebrate, we'll be having a box opening party at Krier's Cards & Comics in Modesto that evening at 6:00pm. We'll be having a Death Star II sealed deck tournament for anyone that wants to play. The only difference between this sealed deck and other sealed decks is that you won't trade your cards with your opponent... You still get to keep all of your cards... You'll simply take you affiliation and make your decks with that (set the other cards aside). You know you're going to be buying cards... Don't just run home to open your packs, play a little sealed deck, with 'em. >> The Alderaan Regional Championship: Everythings all set and ready to go with this event. It's scheduled for July 29th. It will be at the Goleta Valley Community Center in Santa Barbara, CA. The Young Jedi event will be in the morning at 10:00 or 11:00am. The Star Wars event will be at 2:00pm. There will be 3 rounds (6 games) with a final confrontation. The winner get's a trip to DecipherCon 2000 in Florida to compete in the World Championship. The Entrance fee is $5 per event or $8 for the entire day. All fees can be paid at the door to Cat Ceder, Rogue 14. I will be traveling down there in the morning to run the Star Wars event. I can take up to two additional people. If you want a ride, email me and I'll see what I can do. Keep an eye on my website for all the gory details. >> ComicCon: ComicCon is on the weekend of the 22nd. The Star Wars Open event will take place there. If you don't think you can make it in the Alderaan Regional... Try your luck here. I just found out that I will be running the open event at ComicCon in San Diego. I will be working with Juz from Decipher, I-Ming Chen from LA and my girlfriend, Karry Cannon. Death Star 2 cards will be legal for play during all the Star Wars tournaments at ComicCon! >> The Enduro: This event, slated for July 15th has got everyone talking! 16-18 hours of Straight Star Wars CCG play! This will be the longest Star Wars CCG event in history! For details check out my website at: http://cmikehardy.tripod.com/events/enduro.htm >> Young Jedi: The Enhanced Menace Of Darth Maul set is due out in July as well... No exact date as to when, though. Because of the lack of overall interest and a lack of time, I will not be able to do any more Young Jedi tournaments. I will still try to do updates and maintain a schedule of other tournaments. But, my time is dictated by Star Wars CCG and as they say, "I cannot serve two masters." Let's face it... Star Wars CCG is my first love. And, Young Jedi is... Well... It's the best game that nobody plays. I encourage any of the other Young Jedi directors and potential Jedi Council Members to step up and try to make something of this great game. >> ICQ Wednesday Webmeet: Well, we had our first ICQ Wednesday webmeet and, although very problematic, it was a lot of fun! Thanks to everyone that showed up to jam with me. We'll try this again this coming Wednesday and, hopfully, I'll have all the chat room problems taken care of. >> Website updates: Did you know that I'm making virtually daily updates to my website? Did you know that there are tons of cool decks, strategy articles, card reviews and tournament info on this website? Did you know that I'm doing all of this BY MYSELF!?! I'm still looking for contributors to help make my website really rock! If you have a strategy article, deck design or card review that you'd like to write for the webite. Send it to me! We'd all love to hear it! This site my have my name on it... But, it ain't just MY site. It's our site, it's Northern Alderaan's Site! You've got the knowledge... Share it. >> Coming in August: Loads of great stuff are wating for you in August! Here's a taste: >>> Squadron Member Bounty: I'm hearby placing a bounty on all Squadron Members. If you can beat a Squadron Member in a Sanctioned Tournament game, I will award you with a kill stripe (that you can iron on to your shirt or whatever). Collect ten of these kill stripes and you will be awarded a hefty bounty of 5 Death Star 2 packs! For details, check out my website at: http://cmikehardy.tripod.com/starwarsccg/contests.htm >>> Sac Town vs. Mo Town: The Sacramento vs. Sonora/ Modesto League will begin in early August. This eight week long tournament series will conclude with a duel to see which community is the best! Tomorrow evening I am getting in contact with the other tournament directors and we will iron out all of the details for you. Keep an eye on my website for all the info. Well, that's it for the updates for now. I'll be seeing you throughout the month at the various tournaments that are around here. Be sure to come and visit me on Thursday nights at Great Escape Games for Thursday Gaming Night! We had 8 people there lost night, not including me (EIGHT! That's a freakin' sanctioned tournament!!). See you soon... and... "Stay in Attack Formation!"