#silverspanner

[thegeneralsnotebook]

September Feature: A Tribute to Silver Spanner

A couple of years ago, Emperor Bugle logged on to Reddit and posted the solicitation for the first fully online tournament that had ever been run for the MLP CCG. It would be conducted over the course of three weeks, with matches played over Skype and reported back on the thread. Most audacious of all, it would be conducted according to a quirky ruleset that Bugle had come up with himself. He made the commitment that once this tourney had run its course, another would follow, with a completely different quirk on the rules. He called it Silver Spanner’s Deck Building Tournament, the name coming from a pony who by that point in time had a couple of cards to her name, and seemed a tinkerer of a sort.

By the end of October 2019, Silver Spanner will be embarking upon its 30th iteration, and in spite of having fluctuated somewhat in popularity and participation over the course of that time, it’s still going just fine all these years later. Perhaps even more impressively, Bugle has kept to his promise, delivering not only a brand-new and creatively interesting rule set with every tournament, but also nine especially tough rule sets to really test builders’ creativity. #30 of course promises to another doozy like all of them.

Having been witness to the beginning myself, and having enjoyed several of the earlier instances of the tournament, I thought it appropriate to spend an article looking back on the history of Silver Spanner. This turned out to be even more fascinating of a pursuit than I had expected it to be, as it turned out that a history of Silver Spanner is also a history of the community itself. Finally, I had to pay tribute to the tournament using the method that I know best: by compiling the statistics. Join me, if you will, for a walk down memory lane.

Triumphant Beginnings

It may seem strange when put into perspective, but Silver Spanner has now been around for a little more than three full sets. It was the days of Marks in Time when it first got started, and needless to say, back then things were a little different. Harmony format was still the only way to play the game, and what a different game it was. In fact, I think this line from Bugle’s FAQ on the first tournament might present the best perspective:

Q: Okay, well.. what about the Orange Manes? SOme of them seem pretty strong!

A: Limited options. Unfortunately, almost all of Orange’s Manes are good, and it didn’t feel right to have fewer Orange Manes than any other colour, so I made the best judgement call I could at the moment. However, if enough people ask me to replace Luna: Dream Guide with Apple Bloom before tournament starts, I will do so.

So, indeed, it was a different time. Yet, thinking about the cards and the meta alone doesn’t quite capture everything that was special about that point in the community’s history. Another important distinction was that at that point we didn’t have our Discord server to chat in yet. In fact, most of the community discussion was taking place in Skype at that point. That venerable old Skype room played host to the hype around the Marks spoilers at least, and while I don’t remember exactly when the exodus to Discord happened, it was still a long time before I stopped checking Skype to see what was up.

In those days (as today, really) there was already a thriving trade for casual pickup games over the Internet. With all that was happening, it probably isn’t surprising that Bugle felt there could be room in enough people’s lives to support a single game every week. Clearly he wasn’t wrong, as the first iteration of the tournament attracted sixteen participants, enough for a well-seeded bracket in both the Regular and Novice leagues.

And it is with mention of those leagues that our first pieces of history start to come up. For while in that first tournament the Regular league was highlighted by a number of notable names, it’s the Novice League that I found to be the most interesting.

For some of the names on that list, this was a first humble step in what would eventually turn into a highly successful tenure. For one, woodgazer didn’t spend too much time in the Novice League, and indeed remains one of the most successful Silver Spanner players in the community (more on that at the end). Yet that’s not the most impressive result on this list. I’m looking at /u/ImPancake, who after a few short years would go from Silver Spanner Novice to Continentals Semi-Finalist (and top seed overall) in 2018. Indeed, for many competitors, Silver Spanner was one of the first steps taken on a long road that ended up in physical tournaments and convention playoffs.

The Second Era

When I was going through the various Reddit posts in order to compile the results into a nice neat chart, I was struck by an interesting phenomenon. See, for the first eight tournaments, the player base stayed about the same, fluctuating in size within the group that might be called the Silver Spanner Old Guard. (I was one of those people before surrendering my seat around SS VIII, unable to find the time anymore.) Then, from SS IX to XII, there’s a sudden flurry of new entrants, and some really notable names on that list. Some of them would go on to be pillars of the community, yet here are the first marks they made in online play:

Silver Spanner X was Hithroc’s first kick at things, aside from his own (just as venerable) weekly draft series. Just as with others before, it didn’t take long for him to climb a little higher. He entered into the Regular League almost immediately after his first stint, and hasn’t looked back, even while participating in every Silver Spanner since then. Come November, he’ll have his first foray into a physical tourney in North America when he comes to Ciderfest 2019, and it will be a journey that all started in Silver Spanner. Other notable names that first show up in this era include anamoy, mrzodo aka Joking Luna, Dratta Arcana, Smithers888, and kluij98, most of whom continue their participation up to the present day.

It was also around this time that one of Silver Spanner’s most consequential pieces of legacy first showed up. After its impressive string of success in holding onto a player base and staying active for what was now nearing a year, the tournament was joined on Reddit by another repeating event, that of course being the Core Constructed or “CoCo” events put on by Commentary is Magic. While CoCo is a very different event from Silver Spanner, aiming for nearly the opposite purpose, it is still undeniable that the earlier tournament blazed the trail, in showing that there was a sufficient online community to allow a repeating online tournament to succeed. Both have held their own in the online space for the community, catering in their own way to the desires of its players.

The Third Era

Nor indeed was the sudden onset of new participants that happened around Silver Spanner IX-XII the last time that was going to happen. It was only a matter of time before there was another changing of the guard of sorts, with a new crop of participants coming in around SS XX. This new freshmen class has been a bit more of a steady trickle than a sudden rush like the start of Era 2, but it too has its share of notable names. People like Fizzban, elfinpen, and Horceye, names that are now commonplace on Discord, getting their start here.

Silver Spanner really has been a chronicle of the growth and development of the online community for the game. The record of its history is the record of the game’s history, and surely it brings up fond memories for everyone who has participated in it up to now. I know that it does for me. So, as promised, in celebration of the upcoming 30th running of the tournament, here are some stats.

Player records up to SS XXVIII

On the linked sheet, I have a couple of statistics tracked, and you’re more than welcome to sort by the various columns to see how you stack up when compared to all of the other players who have played in the tournament. These numbers are pulled from all twenty-eight results posts that Bugle has put up over the years. In addition to the main numbers, I thought that I would give out a few awards of recognition myself, for the few who have earned their fame (or infamy):

Silver’s Best Friends (Most tournaments entered) Woodgazer & KingUtopia (tied at 27)

Most Total Wins Woodgazer (55)

Highest Overall Win % Grand Pause (88%)

Highest Win Differential (+/-) (explanation below) Godot (+26)

Bane of the Scorekeeper (Most Ties) Hithroc (5)

The “+/-” metric above is one that perhaps bears a little explanation. This is a new one that I’m trying out, where each win is worth +1 point, each tie is worth +½ point, and each loss is worth -1 point. Thus to an extent one’s +/- score is the differential between one’s total wins and one’s total losses. This has an advantage over win percentage since players that don’t play a lot of games can’t have a high score. The downside is that if you do play a lot of games, it’s easier to get a high +/- score even if your win rate is only marginal. In this case, Godot’s 60 SS games compares with GP’s 25. Thus even though GP’s overall win rate is higher, the absolute difference between the numbers is higher for Godot. I haven’t yet decided if there is any extra information being offered in the new metric, but I thought I may as well include it here.

In any event, Bugle, the conclusion of this article has to go to you. Thank you for all of the work that you’ve put in to keep Silver Spanner going over the course of these years. It’s served as a convenient vector to get more people into the online community, a great way for veterans to test out their deck building skills, and of course a venue where we all can just revel in some absurdity now and then. Never mind the anticipation over the new set; there’s always been a surprise every month, as we’ve learned whatever the new rules are going to be.

So here’s to 30 Silver Spanners, and here’s to many more!