I know I will be way too busy in the comings weeks, so here is a very short little organizers report.

It is hard to come up with the words, this extended weekend full of magic was so much fun. Even from an organizers perspective with all the work and stressing out about getting everything right. The weekend felt like a family reunion, so we must be doing something right. The Finnish Old School community is flourishing and I got so much energy back from seeing all the smiles, hearing the laughter and getting to hang with all great people. Sharing stories of old and making new ones. Fromt he bottom of my heart thank you all participants and Erkka as my co-organizer buddy. Here are some pictures and some words.

The madness began on Thursday. Right after I got home from work I picked up Gordon from the train station. We headed to Cask Room for some punk music and real ale. Soon Pasi and Erkka joined us we dashed to our booking in a very Finnish sour dough pizzeria. They had these cool t-shirt with the word anarchy on it and a picture of pizza and pineapple. I tried to buy one but they were all out. Åland had trouble with flight delays but arrived just in time to get some pizza. It was good to catch up with the guys. I called it a night at a reasonable time as there was a long weekend ahead of us all. The guys were staying at Pasi's place, so of course these mad lads did their best emptying his drink cabinet.

Friday was the main event at my backyard. More of the local gang arrived. I cast a powerful spell to make the weather excellent for pretty much the whole day. We just grilled and chilled. Relaxed in the hot tub. We served some Keldon Warlords beer and Pasi brought a keg full of Tulipekka (the most common beer in Finland). Eventually we had to group up for some Ubers and went to IPA draft (Invasion-Planeshift-Apocalypse) in one of our favorite nerd havens in Save File. Mitja missed the main event at my yard, but got to try my draft deck in couple of games. Also Björn and Mats arrived just in time for the draft. We also slammed some Antti40 games (Alpha40 League Rules variant I came up with for the weekend). We also got the Hese we deserved to end the evening. Finland’s “gift” to the fast food industry. Mayo cannons at ready. Mayo against America and so on…

On Saturday we had 36 players for the second ever Fountain of Youth Open in brewery restaurant Plevna. What a blast, great games all day long (except for when we faced off with Åland in the swiss and in top8, quite favorable matchup for me and bad draws for him). There will be a seperate post with all the decklists in order according to final standings. I finished 5-1 and second in swiss after co-organizer Erkka who was first, the game is rigged! So I won the top8 against TwiddleVault and then lost my top4 against robots 1-2. I played Atogeddon again with a new updated list as I could add Black Lotus and also Braingeyser to go with it. It was brothers war this time around as brothers Niemi battled in the final against each other. Apparently the guys can play in addition to having one of the most amazing card collections I have ever seen. Great job!

The final FOYO standings

1. Miikka Niemi 15p

2. Joni Niemi 15p

3. Antti Turtiainen 15p

4. Tero Lassila 12p

5. Ville Saari 12p

6. Gordon Andersson 13p

7. Erkka Jouste 15p

8. Åland 12p

9. Mitja 12p

10. Lauri Sund 12p

11. Ville Kaukoranta 12p

12. Juha-Matti Vanhatupa 10p

13. Hannu Toppinen 10p

14. Lauri Mattila 9p

15. Jonni Linnasaari 9p

16. Tero Lehtinen 9p

17. Ville Purhonen 9p

18. Valtteri Yli-Länttä 9p

19. Tuukka Muroke 9p

20. Raphaël Gardette 9p

21. Mats Furby 9p

22.Jere Hallikainen 9p

23. Janne Laurila 7p

24. Ilkka Huhtala 7p

25. Pasi Savolainen 7p

26. Samuli Hirvonen 6p

27. Mikko Hyvärinen 6p

28. Björn Iversen 6p

29. Henrik Forsström 6p

30. Joose Fjällström 6p

31. Samuli Tanner 6p

32. Ilpo Numminen 5p

33. Timo Ikonen 3p

34. Roope Eronen 3p

35. Erkka Pynnönen 3p

36. Marco Ornigotti 3p

On Sunday I had a day off from organizing anything. I tried to enjoy Premodern Nationals, but eventually I was just really tired. I decided to play Storm in the morning as it was raining. The other option was Noughty Hermit. No glory for me. The room was full of Oath and RG Goblins. Sphere of Resistance, Port and enough of LD can make life hard for storm, so 1-3 drop and decided to head back home and spend some time with the family. I just felt really spent and worn, also I just really wanted to spend even a little time with the kids and my wife, as I just travelled back from Raging Bull in Amsterdam the last weekend. That's all folks, until the next time!