Raging Bull Series: 2024 Coverage & Results

(Reading tip: This website is best suited for mobile devices, pictures are best watched in landscape mode)

Raging Bull 2024 took place a week ago when I’m writing this post, and as always, organizing it has been quite a journey. I usually start planning early, meaning it’s on my mind for most of the year. Once I transition from thinking “I’ll never organize this again” to “sure, why not,” it becomes a regular flow of steps: picking a date, distributing invites, buying prizes, and looking for merchandise. This year, I received fantastic support. Not only did Evert, Thomas, and Dyan, who have been involved since the first edition, lend a hand, but Juan also offered to help. He created the Raging Bull Beer openers (including 4 unique ones for Evert, Thomas, Dyan & myself) and immediately supported my idea of making the Raging Bull 9-Piece puzzle. Herman contributed by crafting a one-of-a-kind hand-drawn playmat, which was awarded as one of the special prizes. To top it off, Martin, who couldn’t even attend this year, created the first prize: a 3D-printed, gold-painted Raging Bull. When Martin sent it to me, it arrived broken into two pieces. Despite my efforts to glue it back together, Martin wasn’t satisfied, so he made another one, which Marc Heider kindly brought to Amsterdam. If this doesn’t demonstrate what the OS community is all about, I don’t know what does.

For a long time, I had been contemplating the format for the side-event on Friday. Last year, we had a Two-Headed Giant, Brother Highlander Team Unified event. There are plenty of formats to choose from, but Evert and Thomas were convinced it had to be an Ice Age Sealed Deck. Since I had bought a lot of sealed product a few years ago specifically to open during events I could offer it relatively cheap. Still I wasn’t sure how many people would be willing to pay 120 euros to play a side-event. After some inquiries, I was confident that we could get 16 participants, crazy enough we ended up with an impressive 30 players. Having organized multiple ’94-’96 draft and sealed events, I have some experience with the formats and sets involved. The common complaint by those who never play it, is that limited play isn’t very enjoyable with these sets. While Fallen Empires Booster Draft was indeed pretty slow (though still fun), the 4th Edition, Chronicles, and Ice Age sets have been excellent for limited play. At least from my perspective 😉 This was my first time opening Alliances, and I was unsure how well it all would work together in a sealed format. Guess what? It was awesome! When I opened my starter and boosters, the nostalgia was strong, but initially, the cards seemed like a pile of junk. However, after carefully reviewing each card, my deck improved, and my final selection of 40 cards turned out to be quite solid. Some players were definitely luckier than others, and we saw some fantastic card pulls. To name a few: Necropotence, Stormbind, Lake of the Dead, Icy Manipulator, Autumn Willow, and two players even opened Ihsan’s Shade in both of their boosters. How is that even possible?

The last Ice Age Booster Draft was won by Rob, aka Broodjesboer. He was unsure about making the trip to Amsterdam for the sealed event on Friday, so I convinced him by offering him a place to stay. Normally, I don’t like having guests because I’m known for my hangovers and only get about five hours of sleep between Friday and Saturday. Plus, Rob still had to take a 75-minute bus ride to the venue, making my offer less generous than it seemed. Nevertheless, he agreed to come. Having Olle Rade join us for the Ice Age sealed event was pretty special. However, Alex ruined all the fun by first beating me in Round 3 and then defeating Olle in Round 4. Alex went 3-0-1, preventing both Olle and me from going undefeated. Fortunately, Rob never disappoints, and he won the sealed event! It was a relaxed start to the weekend. The Norwegian (aka Daltons), Spanish, and Italian crews played some casual games to get in the mood. For those interested, there are some additional deck pictures of the event at the bottom of this post.

Saturday marked the Main Event. The start is always the busiest part of the tournament, and I just hope everybody is on time because I’m always on a tight schedule. The Daltons partied a bit too hard on the first evening, which was evident when they arrived just one minute before the event. What a crew—they are truly irreplaceable! Upon arrival, everyone received a beer opener, a 9-piece Raging Bull Puzzle, and a raffle ticket. With 72 players checked in and ready to rumble, I began with a small speech, pressed the pairings on Tolaria, and… Oh no, double pairings. For the third year in a row, something weird happened, but after re-pairing, everything was fixed. After that chaotic first hour, the initial minutes of the round were so rewarding. Everyone was at the start of the event, hoping their deck would perform better than expected, wishing for a bit of luck, and looking forward to great games against great opponents. The rounds flew by, and the match records began to separate the players into two different groups. In the basement, players who hoped for better results were still having fun. The happy hardcore music down there was a reason for some to stay and for others a motivation to win some games and move upstairs. At the top tables, the players appeared more serious, and why wouldn’t they be? If you’ve made it this far, you want to get into that Top 8, don’t you?

After six rounds, there’s a raffle. Richard B and Juriaan win the spice prize, and David Simons wins the third edition of the Angry Mob event. The highest The Deck finishers wins the Revised Grizzly Bear and like last year, it’s again a walk of shame. A 19th place for Manuel Bohm, at least beating his buddy Marc in 20th place. Later that evening I found out that Jordan sneaked in and Old Men of the Sea to hide the fact he was playing The Deck as well, finishing 18th. Malte gets to complete the Raging Bull puzzle, winning an invite for life which he already had anyway. Some people head out for dinner, while others prepare for the Top 8 matches. Olle Rade went undefeated in the Swiss rounds and is joined in the Top 8 by Koen, Svante, Mari, Evert, Purple, Gwenn, and Alex. The basement keeps buzzing with activity and Thomas, Myrthe, and Henk take over the stream. In some great matches, Mari beats Olle, Svante beats Purple, Gwenn beats Evert, and Koen wins against Alex. In the semifinals, both Svante and Koen win their matches, setting the stage for an exciting final. Koen, the reigning Raging Bull champion, transformed his Deadguy Ale on Extra Steroids deck from last year into Deadguy Ale on Acid, playing five colors. Svante brought an idea he spotted from Reindeer all the way to the finals—a mix of Triple S, The Deck, and Robots, with Sages as the main draw engine. The Triple S(age) Deck is likely the new star in the current meta. After some tense games, Svante wins the tournament, and both players receive a well-deserved applause. Koen passes on the ring to Svante. I hand over Martin’s Golden Bull and an RBS playmat, and I am over the moon.

The day couldn’t have been more relaxing for me as the tournament organizer. The vibe among the crowd was fantastic. The basement players enjoyed themselves, and the Top 8 was stacked with great competitors. The finals were a dream come true, and the winner is a great icon within the OS scene. As always, after the tournament, we headed over to the bar across the street. We had random chats, some more beer, and the evening slowly came to an end. An Uber took us home, and Rob and Wouter tried to convince me to go out for one more drink. I refused, only to change my mind two minutes after getting home. More beer wasn’t really what I needed, but why not! It was probably the best Raging Bull so far. After a few more hours, my eyes shut down quickly. The fact that this happened in a bar with loud music banging and loads of people around me says enough. Thank you all for making this edition a blast, proud that I could host you again and hopefully see you very soon!

Livestream

Timmy will cut the livestream into single episodes again. This will take some time. Untill then you can watch the full reply of the livestream here (timestamps are in the comments): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFeRMVMS_hI

To watch the stream from the Ice Age Sealed you can click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufqxrAicRpo

Photo’s

Dyan haven’t uploaded his photo’s yet, check out later to find the link to his gallery.

Tournament Reports

Bulls do have more fun! Day 1 – by Emiel: https://edge-man.com/2024/06/03/bulls-do-have-more-fun-day-1/
Bulls do have more fun! Day 2 – by Emiel: https://edge-man.com/2024/06/10/bulls-do-have-more-fun-day-2/
Just some midrange bullshit – by Svante: https://endofturndrawacard.wordpress.com/2024/06/06/just-some-midrange-bullshit/

Pairings & Results

Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3:

Round 4:

Round 5:

Round 6:

Top 8:

Final Standings:

Participants & Archetypes

Decklists

Event Pictures

Ice Age Sealed Deck