1st Annual Clix for Kids Charity Event benefitting the Austin Children’s Shelter; An After-Action Report

Hello HeroClix Fans!

On April 29th HeroClix players from all over the Austin-area and beyond gathered at the Dragons Lair Comics & Fantasy to participate in First Annual Clixs for Kids Charity Tournament benefiting the Austin Children’s Shelter.

We invited Mike Wethington (blueatoll on HCRealms.com) to offer up some thoughts on the event, and he has graciously provided us with the following report:

“It was a good night for the kids! Between our online raffle (thanks to all you clixers on the Net!) and our in store tournaments (Heroclix and Warhammer Fantasy) we raised $2483.53 to buy toys, comics, and games for the kids!

Our turnout was solid as we had 20 people attend the event from as far away as Killeen and San Marcos. We’ll get more people next year as the event grows but 20 is a good start!

Buy-in to the tournament was $10.00 and our store was loaded with tons of $1 coins for the event. Nothing is quite as satisfying as the sound of the plink, plink, plink of cold hard cash (with apologies to Sally Brown) hitting the table. Everyone stocked up on change and got down to business.

Rerolls could be done for anything. Literally it was the ‘Hand of the Gods’ and could be used to reroll everything from map rolls (more on that later) to Super Senses to that pesky Crit Miss, all without line of sight, action tokens, or any other requirement. If a dollar hit the table from anyone (even a spectator) you had to reroll them bones.

The format was 300 points, Modern Age, 3 Actions. We’re a diverse bunch here in Austin and fortunately there were very few, if any, min/max teams. Everyone seemed to take the time to build a team that fit their play style more than a sure-win. With the exception of two Pheonix teams, no one played exactly the same build.

We played 3 rounds and then the top two W/L and Points players faced each other in the finals.

Probably the most fun team of the night came from ProMutant (on HCRealms) with a team he called “The Babysitter”.

The Babysitter – 292 Points

Energizer
Mass Master
Lightspeed
Gee
Leech
Molly Hayes
and Nico Minoru as “The Babysitter”!

As you’d expect from the Power Pack, he managed to only rack up 37 points in three rounds but Energizer ate up a lot of debris Magneto was hiding in. Why did he play it? Simple, “For the Kids.”

The first round got underway and everyone was spending money freely in an attempt to get that important first win! The first round netted over $115 in rerolls.

Our second round got started and that round saw the least amount of cash being dropped on rerolls, we only pulled in $74 on rerolls in that round as everyone was saving their money for the big push and the finals.

After a 10 minute break to restock on change, the third round started up and people really began to throw the cash around. We made $147 in that round and as their games began to end, people started dropping money on the outcome of other games, “For the Kids.”

Our final round was between beecaveman and odietamo. The were each playing themed teams:

Beecaveman – Mystical Team – 298 points

Jason Blood (AE Etrigan)
Osiris
Isis
Sargon the Sorcerer
Tombstone
Phone Booth
Kinetic Accelerator

Odietamo – Martial Artist Team – 298

Nightcrawler
Captain America
Mask Killer
Diana Prince
Question
Shield Disrupter
Dynamostat
Kinetic Accelerator

The game got off to a quick start as there the map roll generated cash. Odietamo and spectators paid $3.00 to get the map roll as beecaveman was looking to nerf Captain America on a map like the Prison.

Finally, the SI Crashsite map was selected and the game got underway.

Initially there was a lot of maneuvering for position on the map with Osiris and Nightcrawler parking on their respective Kinetic Accelerators while Jason Blood rapidly Telephone Boothed into Etrigan. Finally it was time for an attack. Osiris rolled on the Kinetic Accelerator first. A spectator (Cbowen333) paid for him to reroll until he rolled a 5 and blew the darn thing up. Osiris then went after Nightcrawler. Between beecaveman’s two PCs and a bunch of cash, Osiris still ended up missing Nightcrawler.

Then it was Nightcrawler’s turn, he also jumped off the Kinetic Accelerator and the same spectator (cbowen333) paid until it also blew up, this time with a 6. Nightcrawler went after Osiris and managed, after some cash hit the table, to hit him and drag him back to the waiting horde. Of course, he took a point of mystics for his trouble and didn’t have any x-men buddies to pump him back up.

Where was Captain America in all of this? Biding his time and avoiding mystics damage.

I should note, through all of this, Isis calmly sat parked in her starting area waiting for her little brother to go down.

Once Osiris finally went down, after taking the Question with him and dealing a ton of mystics damage, it was Sargon’s turn to die. Beecaveman moved him up and attempted to hit Nightcrawler (he needed a 9) with everyone’s favorite turbaned magician. $38 later, with both players tapped out and many spectators pulling up empty pockets, Sargon missed for the last time. What was amazing about this, besides the constant refrain as a dollar hit the table, “It’s for the Kids” was how many times Sargon actually hit Nightcrawler. It must easily have been over 70% of the time.

Well, Sargon went down swinging, taking out the Mask Killer before being killed by Captain America (who took mystics damage).

It was Isis’ turn. Mad at the death of her brother, she was pumped and ready to kill a fuzzy elf. Nightcrawler shapechanged out of the attack and so Diana Prince felt Isis’ wrath.

With a damaged Nightcrawler, damaged Captain America, full strength Isis, and AE’ed Etrigan on the map it got serious. In what can only be described as a battle of roommates, cbowen333 and his roommate Reiner chose sides and started throwing down dollars to make their side win. Eventually, Isis tagged Nightcrawler after another $30 hit the table and that was it for the mutant. With that, time ran out (50 minute round), money had run out, and beecaveman won the tournament on points!

The final round generated another $112 for the kids in rerolls. Lots of action at that table!

Our top prize for the tournament was a complete GSXM LE Set and we also gave away a Dr. Manhattan colossal as a door prize. There were tons of other prizes donated, like a Watchmen Set, posters, comics, custom mods, etc. In the end, we had enough for everyone to come away with a prize!

Thanks to everyone who contributed cash, prizes, and time to the event. We made a lot of kids happy! Look for an even bigger event next year!”

Unfortunately, there are no pictures to share (so far anyhow) as Mike’s camera is being quite selfish and won’t share them! Regardless, it is evident that the event was a great success and that the Austin Children’s Shelter and the community-at-large is very lucky to have Mike and the area-HeroClix players! Keep up the wonderful work everyone!

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