It’s actually the first ingredient per the one that I have in front me. It’s a little high in sugars but people’s bodies and caloric requirements are different. They’re great on a day hike though. A friend of mine just grazes on trail mix during tournaments, which isn’t a bad idea as well, just as long as you have water during the day.
I find that eating super high fat and protein foods, while guzzling caffine work for me, since thats generally what I’m used to. High fat foods will keep you satisfied for longer, and feel more full, and contrary to popular belief, are not bad for you (not any more than anything else). Snacking helps between rounds, but isn’t essential. Also, I typically play decks that wrap up in 30 minutes or less, but I rarely fatigue out, even after 12 hours.
I’m not, but getting in shape and being able to run seems like it could really help. Dress comfortably, and sit with comfortable posture, goes a long way.
Relax between rounds and don’t talk shop or play more games, just relax, put on music, talk to your friends, etc.
Practice your decks so you’re close to autopilot and not overthinking. You’re taxing yourself if you’re trying to figure out HOW to play the deck rather than knowing what to do implicitly.
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Just do stims, I’ve heard they are great for you! (At least they win games.)
I actually take adderall and drink tons of coffee and chain smoke while I work, but I can’t swing it for tournaments. I almost always play stone sober. Stimulants make you edgy and impatient, and I find they make me play too quickly and make dumb mistakes because I just want to hurry things along even more than normal. Beer is fine for a short tournament you don’t care about winning, but it’s really stupid to start drinking during a 10+ hour tournament. You’re either going to end up too drunk to play well or hungover for the quarterfinals.
I agree with the sentiment about taking care of your body for a tournament, especially when they’re long affairs. Good night sleep, eat food, drink water, etc.
Also another important one is to have fun. If you get too caught up in winning/losing and treat every match like it’s the finals, you’re going to exhaust yourself mentally and be sick of playing by the time you’re getting to the end. Chat with your opponents, keep tabs on how your friends are doing in between rounds, stay happy, and try to relax without losing focus.
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This entire post is full of good shit, but this is some of the best advice you can take in Netrunner (and, really, any game) in general. Always having both a long term strategic plan (“how am I going to win this game”) and planning out every turn before you take a single action will not only help manage your mental load during a tournament, but it’ll just make you a better player.
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Body, food, sleep, etc. All said already.
For me there’s a particular mindset I need to be in to play my absolute best and make 0 misplays, and it takes active effort to maintain. If I let it slip, I will assume that I “deserve” to win all my games, play on autopilot, forget to watch what my opponent is doing, and then get mad when I lose to jank as if that’s not “supposed” to happen. In philly I simply told myself before every round, “I will respect my opponent’s deck, and I will earn every win.” Plus, that makes it a lot easier to not go on tilt when you lose.
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I retracted my ‘like’ after you said don’t drink during the long tournaments. Drinking at the beginning of those is key for settling nerves.
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Stay well fed and hydrated. I’m a fan of apples, carrots, hummus, granola bars, and the like for food. Get a decent dinner or lunch during the break in a long tourny. Water and Gatorade to stay hydrated.
Cocaine and beer. Just make sure you have both, because it’s kind of a tightrope walk to stay in the Netrunner zone.
Adderall will work in a pinch if you’re broke or live in some country where you can’t get cocaine.
Obviously this won’t work if you’re some stooge-ass Corp sysop who has to pass drug tests and stuff, but that’s what you get for selling out to The Man, man!
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I had never actually seen or heard this song before right now. I had always imagined something far more innocent when people said I’m in love with the coco. Coco-> coconut seemed logical enough.
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Cocoa Puffs. Cocoa Krispies. Ice T’s wife.
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Man, this is the topic I needed to read before the 7 am wakeup into 12:00 am elimination bracket that was Chicago regionals.
I am always so relieved and exhausted to make top 8 at big tournaments like this that most of the fight is out of me, causing me to play games too casually and make stupid mistakes.
I have no problem being eliminated while trying my best but it sucks when the reason is huge blunders. I think I had a good shot of winning Nationals if I had done something as simple as count my clicks before playing a turn. Similarly in Chicago after a day of solid decision making in Swiss, I made costly errors in nearly every match up in elimination.
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Actually coconut water if we want to stay on topic and mention healthy shit to take to tournaments.
You want to stay hydrated at GenCon? Better fall in love with the coco(nut water).
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As a former competitive Warhammer 40k player, I can tell you that stamina is absolutely key to an event like this. Staying on your feet, hunching over 6x4’ tables for hours on end is harder than it seems! 
Stamina is an interesting factor because it’s a lot harder to develop “more stamina” than it is to learn more about the game. Proper sleep, good breakfast, eating snacks and a lunch that’s not too heavy, not overdoing it with the alcohol… 
Something else you should consider doing is taking Vitamin C supplements for a few days before a major tourney. Here’s a little anecdote for why it’s a good idea:
My brother got a pretty bad cold just a day before our Store Championship. He seemed okay at first, playing as well as he usually did despite a sore throat and congestion, going practically undefeated and ending up first seed after the swiss. However, fatigue began to set in during his first Elimination round game, and he ended up losing pretty badly due to an inability to think clearly. By the time his next elim game began, he was practically half-asleep. He was matched up against someone he had already encountered and beaten pretty handily earlier in the day, so it should have been an easy matchup… but the game that he should have won easily ended up a crushing defeat due to simply being too tired to think clearly.
Taking a good vitamin supplement, high doses of Vitamin C beforehand, and remembering to stay well-hydrated can help alleviate this somewhat.
This. I’m actually really guilty of this. Not that I’m a MLG Pro-tier player or anything, but I do the exact same thing: get overconfident, lose to jank or a player I perceive to be “bad” and then go on tilt because “That’s not supposed to happen.” There’s a guy at our store that I dread playing because he’s kind of a strange cat, he always plays goofy shit, and I start to go on tilt before we even begin playing because I’ve lost to his weird shit too many times. I’ve tried to get mentally better about this sort of thing, but I still go on full-tilt when I get a double-loss.
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lol 10 chars
Speaking of which, I have a friend who’s going on tilt trying to get prepared for Regionals. He’s got his Corp deck nailed down, but he’s having a terrible time trying to get a Runner deck settled on. He’s a Criminal/Shaper player mainly, and he was playing a copy of @xiebelvoule 's Ken Tenma deck and doing really well with it, but as we all know, Criminal has slid down the power charts recently. I’ve advised him to play a Prepaid Kate deck, but he says he doesn’t want to be like everybody else… It took a hell of a lot of arm-twisting to get him to play Xie’s Ken deck. After he played it a bit, he loved it.
Something you should know about him is that he’s a bit of an “experimenter” and he’s always trying out slightly oddball deck ideas and trying to make them work. He wants to do well and get in Elims and all that, but he seems to want to do it on his terms and with decks he designed.
I wouldn’t have a problem with that, but it’s like 3 weeks to Regionals and he has a different Runner deck every other day. I don’t want to pressure him into running a netdeck because I know he won’t be happy, but I also know he’ll be upset if he takes a deck and does poorly with it, too.
He doesn’t want to be running yet another Kate deck, but he hates MaxX and Noise with a passion, and Criminal is letting him down severely. He’s stressing out like mad, and I don’t want him to hate Netrunner before Regionals even gets here…
What do?
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Show him Escher, assure him that it’s the most fun card in the game, and one of the most skill testing, simply because of the vast array of possibilities with it, and let him know that he will blindside people left right and center with it if he uses it well.
And when he still thinks Kate is boring or easy or whatever, just get him on the Career Fair Val train.
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lost cause.
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Play a classic deck with new cards! Such as Desperado/Sucker Kate, Gabe big rig, or glory run (now Hades Shard) Noise with cards like Net Ready Eyes, Enhaned Vision, and Adjusted Chronotype respectfully. You don’t have too go that far back, but take something to catch the meta off guard. What is old is new agian!!