Cache Refresh: What do players say about it? by Fighting Walloon

Originally published at: Cache Refresh: What do players say about it? by Fighting Walloon - StimHack

Discuss the latest article here.

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The most important part of this article to me was:

When the second Cache Refresh tournament begins on July 31, it will be the fifth online event I have run since April. Being able to organize events has increased my enjoyment of the game and also helped me feel like an active contributor to the health of the community. I live in a place where I have to drive more than an hour to find a face-to-face opponent, and I still am not a very good player, but I feel like I’m doing my small part to create spaces in the game where people can have fun and explore new areas. You can do that, too.

Thanks, @FightingWalloon! You run a lot of great events that keep the game interesting and bring in new players. I enjoy your tournament formats and wish I had more time to play in them.

I remember some members of this board giving you a hard time when you were new and asking questions and driving new threads every week. I was worried that you might get discouraged and stop posting. I am really glad to see that you have doubled-down instead and only increased your involvement in this community. In my book, this makes you the best type of Netrunner player: one who welcomes and encourages people (novice and veteran) to get together/online and play.

Thanks for all your hard work organizing these online tournaments, our community is better off with you in it.

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Echo all of this, @FightingWalloon is doing loads to help the online (and maybe meatspace too, I’m not aware) netrunner community keep going and to grow and retain players. Well done sir!

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From @FightingWalloon, “I live in a place where I have to drive more than an hour to find a face-to-face opponent, and I still am not a very good player, but I feel like I’m doing my small part to create spaces in the game where people can have fun and explore new areas.”

Couple things: his contribution is not small and he doesn’t have to think he’s doing anything, he’s doing it. Thanks so much, @FightingWalloon.

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I will throw my endorsement behind this tournament and format. While I’ve always loved netrunner, even in the bleak IG54 days of Mumbad, I think the game is in a great spot, and getting better… Cache refresh makes it all the more exciting, with the limited pool, and forced creative deck building, surprises in every match up…its like opening a core set and playing new all over again at first, and moves into a playful shoving match of tech and counter play as the short ‘meta’ evolves.

The smaller pool is as interesting, or more so than full constructed. I recommend playing the format, but also playing the new season of the tournament. Every player was friendly, accommodating, and easy to work with. If you’re even on the fence, jump in head first, join the channel, and we can all talk deck tech together. This is where current Netrunner, fun Netrunner lives.

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Thanks for the kind comments @BubbaTheGoat, @3N1GM4, and @BizTheDad. I really appreciate it. And thanks for the endorsement @x3r0h0ur. He’s one of my small band of potential face-to-face opponents, a great player who has been very encouraging to me as a developing player.

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If the main purpose of this thread is to talk about what an amazing contribution FightingWalloon has made to the Netrunner community this year, I’m all for that.

Besides all these excellent tournaments, I’ve really been liking his posts on the stimhack forum. He starts really interesting threads and asks thought-provoking questions.

I mean, I suppose we could also talk about these tournaments and this format, which have been really fun.

I guess…

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Yes. I am beginning to regret my final couple paragraphs since that was NOT the point of the article.

TOOOOOO BAD. This is long due.

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I’ve just started running a second in-person Cache Refresh league. The first one was well received, but some of our local players didn’t actually get decks made before it ended, so a second, longer one seemed like the obvious choice of thing to run next. This one will run for about three months.

We are using the bidding, because I think it’s an interesting mechanic for running single-game matches that is worth experimenting with. This is one of the major reasons why I made bidding reference cards. No one has shown up with bid ten PE yet. I think most of us are still getting the hang of bidding. I don’t think it’s anywhere near as awful as some people claim, but I won’t be particularly upset if it disappears from the format.

In general, people seem to be enjoying it. I think around half of the games played at my local Netrunner night the last few weeks have been Cache Refresh games. And I haven’t even sorted out all the prizes for this round yet!

We’ve had increased attendance since I started these leagues, but I think that’s mostly due to other things that happened around the same time - we changed locations, some of our players are done school for the summer, the standard meta is in a better place, etc.

I also played in FightingWalloon’s first online Cache Refresh league. I enjoyed it a lot, though I do kind of wish I could have experimented with changing big boxes.

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I feel Cache Refresh is analogous to Standard from MtG. The format rotates quickly. I suspect it will have dominant decks pretty regularly. (Honestly, the surge of SYNC BOOM! isn’t surprising for anyone who played Core Set, because it turned out MN SEA-Scorch dominated that meta on the Corp side.)

I feel it’s a good side attraction, an appetizer before you jump into the full meat and potatoes of a proper Netrunner format.

Most importantly? It’s a super great place for new players to shoot for. Because acquiring Cache Refresh packs will naturally lead you into the full Netrunner experience in about a year or two.

Oh, yeah. Requisite @FightingWalloon love for running tournaments. I know that I started being active in Magic Judging because of lack of local tournaments, so the feeling is familiar to me.

And weird side question: If an ID like Andy or GRNDL were printed so that they have more starting resources, could you bid more? I think this might be in the ‘We’ll answer this if it ever actually becomes relevant’ pile of questions…

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Not by the current rules, which specifically say that ten is the most you can bid. I’d be surprised to see them change it, even if there were a new Andy/GRNDL.

I’ve partaken in fightingwalloon’s teaching leagues and also want to pass on my thanks for what he does for the game.

I took part in a CR GNK the other day, I am also an inexperienced player; very casual, and with limited time for the game - I can probably give it 4 hours a month.

Two of the guys in the GNK are high class players that expect to make the top cut in any tournament they enter, one of them came second in a large regional recently. I did get owned like always but it felt like it was because they were better at netrunner than me and I did still have a chance and got games close - even won a couple. It didn’t feel like it was because they were using decks that ‘solved’ the format and that I just sat there not knowing what to do whilst they card-game-masturbation-ridiculousness.

I really enjoyed it - I’ll definitely be running the format at the casual pub night I run.

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