Romancing the Stones is going through some changes. One of our two primary organizers moved to Connecticut this summer, and the other one is increasingly busy with other commitments. As a result, we’re trying to adopt a new, looser approach to our events: just because we’ve done something one way in the past doesn’t mean we’re locked into that way of doing things!

This year’s Fall Semester was run with that mantra in mind. We were behind on holding a league, to the point that had we launched one in November it wouldn’t have been completed in time for the December Invitational. So, we pivoted. Rather than play six rounds over six weeks, we ran the Fall Semester as a single-day tournament. We did this a few times in the early days of the pandemic, but haven’t returned to that format for several years.

16 players came out to give it a try with us. We deeply appreciate that commitment from every one of them: that meant spending a good six hours at their computers, and for our West Coast and Japanese players, it also meant playing at brutal hours.

In the interest of giving everyone the most Magic for their buck (not that there was an entry fee), we played 5 rounds of swiss and cut to Top 4. It was an exciting finals, with Brian Espinoza coming out on top with his BW Control/Deadguy list. Congrats Brian on the win and earning our penultimate Invitational spot!

For an experiment, the Fall Semester wound up being a really fun day. While we’ll absolutely be running 3 of our classic leagues in 2026, this went well enough that we’d like to mix in a few more of these one-day digital events. Thanks everyone for making it a good time!

  1. Brian Espinoza – Deadguy
  2. Bryan Hockey – Landstill
  3. Stuart Ziarnik – Naya Zoo
  4. Sato Junya – The Solution
  5. Angelo Kortyka – Mono-Blue Fliers – PHOTO MISSING
  6. Galen Lemei – UW Stiflenought
  7. Alvaro Silva – Reanimator
  8. Kai Schafroth – RG Elves
  9. Rob Connolly – Necro Storm
  10. David Bolanos – Deadguy
  11. Chet Miller – Rector
  12. David Dech – Mono Black
  13. Keith Sweeney – Domain
  14. Gabe Hoppe – BW ZI
  15. Brian Tweedy – Tide Control – PHOTO MISSING
  16. Jake Baltz – Tron