I had all but written off the game Lightseekers in my local community. Recently the game has had some change in the physical format that left a lot of players upset. They changed prizing and got rid of a lot of other plans that they already had in place like the big event at Origins. Also some other big events like Gold competitions were drastically changed at the last moment. It became a similar story to what I’ve seen in other collectible card games (CCG games) where the sky starts to fall and everybody wants to abandon ship. Lightseekers started to experience the exact same thing, and people started talking about how it was all over. Sell it all. Get rid of everything as fast as you can and stop playing the game became the new norm. And it was infectious. Honestly, I got sucked into it as well. I was ready to dismiss the game, sell off my collection, and move on. Then June 1 came along.
For June 1st, one of our local players and a guru and ambassador to the game Elisha took it upon herself to rebuild this gold event that was going to happen and still not only get prizing from Lightseekers but also obtain prizing from a lot of different individuals, groups of players and businesses. She secured so many prizes that they barely fit on the large counter at the store. She pushed the game almost daily in all forms of social media, made sure people knew when it was, what the prizes were, and all of the details. She advocated for this to still go well. Another big gold event happened right after the announcements and it had around 8 players. By the time June 1 finished 20 players had sat at the tables to make it one of the larger store events that Lightseekers has seen in the US.
I went in with the attitude of “well, this is free so I’ll just go and have a good time.” I did not put a lot of work into a team but instead found one that I thought would work well and asked for a little help on with it would look like. I put in a few reps on the app, a few reps against my son and went in thinking I would get my participation prizes and be happy with that. As the day went on two very different things surprise me with this event.
First off I was surprised at how well my day of playing games turned out. I did not expect to do well and in fact had played in one other big event at PAX last year and did not fair well at all. I went into this one knowing that people had traveled from a distance and expected that my lack of reps and my unfamiliarity with the current meta would be my downfall. As the rounds went on I got a little more confidence and sitting at table 3 in round five I realized I’ve got a pretty good chance to make this cut. After winning and going into the final top eight at seed number four I felt pretty confident that I had done well. I was going to be happy to just collect my top 8 prize and call it a day. I thought I could just take my prizes, head out the door, and be happy with how I did. But as fate would have it that wasn’t in the cards for me. I played my way through a few rounds of top 8 cut against familiar names Testament and Razor Greshu and before I knew it I was in the finals match against the top dog Darkcatcher.
Going into this event I knew Darkcatcher, I knew Shibes, I knew our locals but there were a lot of people I didn’t know. Every person I played was excellent and kind. We had great conversation in the games and after them and each person was polite and wonderful win or lose. It reminded me of the wonderful community in Dice Masters that has and does keep that game afloat. If you play with good people, you draw in good people. And when the best of the game is that way it trickles down. There were no cutthroat players, there were no temper tantrums by the top players. Everyone was just genuinely happy to be playing together.
Which brings me back to the top 2 game. The man who helped me sharpen my team was who I would be playing for the top spot. Darkcatcher took me 2-0 but both games were super close in the end. We posed for silly pictures midgame. We had laughs and conversation on what was being played and how it affected the game. At one point I tried to talk out my plans-it was a good time for both of us. And when I lost, this awesome dude stood up and reach over to give me a hug and a big “good game” came from both of us. No anger, no frustration-just mutual respect between two players. Again, the best parts of Dice Masters were this and I forgot how much I missed that.
This was the second thing that surprised me. This game isn’t dead. It isn’t in the last seconds of its 15 minuets. It has legs. It has a future. And the biggest reason it does is because it has a heart still. A heart that beats with the players who love it. And on this day I met some of the biggest supporters and cheerleaders for this game and the reason it will continue. All games ebb and flow. They all go up, they all go down and some survive. Some don’t. But I will continue to support it, champion it, and play it. For as long as it is there I will enjoy it. Because a good community is what I now see is the part that attracts me to a CCG. I’ve played others and not enjoyed them and the community is a big part of that reason. Lightseekers has it still and because of that I can see it still doing well. At least I hope so-because this is a community I would love to continue to be a part of!
Good thoughts here. Thanks Isaac.