Eight years of Romancing the Stones…it boggles the mind. Apart from 2020, ever year we’ve cobbled together an organized season of events that culminate in a battle of our year’s best players. While our individual tournaments and leagues are fun in their own right, the year-long dangling chance of getting an invite lends so much extra weight to playing. And the Invitationals themselves have been great stories: the early years saw Bryan Hockey dominate, winning three out of our first four (with a welcome interlude by Andrew Webb), and almost grabbing a fourth title in 2023 before Stuart Ziarnik stopped him in the finals. And in 2024, Chase Hoppe pivoted a 1-2 start to an insane victory on Combo Dredge.

2025 was trickier. As mentioned in the Fall Semester writeup, with one of our TO’s moving to Connecticut it became tougher to organize events on the ground and to make sure everything stayed on track for a well-rounded Invitational. Fortunately we stuck the landing, and on December 6th hosted 10 players at our traditional venue, Tweedy’s:

  • Chase Hoppe - Season 6 / 2024 Champion
  • Caleb Ray - 1st place at Festival of Friendship Vintage
  • Paul Garrett - 1st place at RTS36
  • Andrew Webb - 3rd place in the Dance Party Middle School League
  • Ryan Bartley - 1st place at RTS37
  • Ben Kendrick - 2nd place at RTS38
  • David Gleicher - School’s Out
  • Gabe Hoppe - Houston Hurricane Weekend
  • Brian Espinoza - Fall Semester
  • Kai Schafroth - 2nd place at RTS39

The meta could have been more diverse, but certainly could have been less. In Vintage, PO and Lurrus were well represented, but we also saw some Shops, Doomday, and Bazaar. Middle School was 40% Landstill, but otherwise had a nice spread. You can see the decklists HERE.

As per previous years our local treasure Bobby Scheidemann’s work was on display. Bobby designed an incredible playmat and a “Salty & Restricted” proxy playset for all 10 players, as well as a Lotto Lotus Trophy for first place. Regular RTS player David Dech also donated a VHS copy of Romancing The Stone, which just might have to be a new tradition. /assets/images/2025-12-06/Playmat 2025.jpg /assets/images/2025-12-06/Salty.png /assets/images/2025-12-06/Lotto Lotus.png /assets/images/2025-12-06/VHS.jpg

It’s hard to overstate how incredible Bobby’s work is and how it’s shaped our series. After many years of doing these for us Bobby is likely stepping away in 2026 – it’s just so much work – and we’re incredibly grateful for what he’s done for us.

Our usual stream guru Rob wasn’t available, thanks to new dad responsibilities. Thankfully, Espinoza volunteered to do double duty, both playing and streaming! You can watch the replay on his Twitch.

After 3 rounds of Vintage and 3 rounds of Middle School, we cut to our Top 4: Gabe Hoppe, Kai Schafroth, Paul Garrett, and Ryan Bartley. In a wonderfully serendipitous victory, Gabe Hoppe took it down one year after his brother, Chase, won the last Invitational. Congrats Gabe on your title of Romancing the Stones 2025 Champion!

Thanks again to the 10 players for traveling, to Tweedy, Espinoza, Bobby, and Rob for running the damn thing, and to our whole community for making the Invitational special. See you in December 2026!