Queen of Hearts
QoH memories - I don't remember what year it was, or who he
was fighting, to be honest, but I remember the year Rel won one of his Queen's
War matches with a dagger and MMs by throwing the MM up in the air as a
distraction and then shanking his opponent hardcore,
I also vividly
remember Panther subbing in at the last minute as Champion for Team Tarnisha in
2001, having had no notice or time to prepare, and winning the tournament.
Dave Hayden/Sir Vawn
One of my favorite memories in the Realms happened at Queen of Hearts. When I was little, before I played as Evitta, I was Skye. I ran around with a bow and arrow and had 2 spells, Protect Item and Heal Limb. My dad and I used to go to Queen of Hearts every year, and I was always super excited for the castle battle. When our team was on offense, I’d shoot a couple of arrows, run around and heal people, then gather arrows and shoot again. This was fun, but my favorite part was being on defense. I’d get boosted into one of the towers and snipe people down with my bow. I felt super cool as a young player in the realms because I was really able to get involved in the fighting. Plus I was pretty dang good with that bow.
Sarah Fournier/Evitta
I remember being impressed by a former player Tiffany Bazinet/Luna. I believe a Queen of Hearts many many years ago was actually her first event. Way back then learning spells took a lot of work and many first event newbies would have considered themselves useless and hung out in the back. Tiffany dove in dragging bodies to healers (oh yeah getting raised on the front line was way less common back then too). The other thing she did was fetch arrows, including on the bridge crawling between her teams legs to reach them. She was the target of many an archer but I don't recall seeing her go down a single time. She embodied doing as much as she could with what she had for resources.
Angie Gray/Phoenix
Queen of Hearts 2 was my very first Realms event. I had talked with my friend Fred for a year about the Realms, and one afternoon he called and said, "There is an event this weekend. We have room in the car. You should come." So there I was, suddenly thrust into the medieval fantasy tournament of my dreams using the rule set I had meticulously studied for a year and set in a world my friends had told be about every week at our Boy Scout meetings. Makhta was running the Newbie tournament that year, and we were quizzed on our rules and history knowledge as well as our ability to fight safely. Imagine my joy when I won the tournament that year and left with a new T-tunic, bracers, and a huge stack of copies of the View from Valehaven. Back then Queen of Hearts had literally every aspect of the Realms in one event - it was a tournament with a feast for dinner and a night quest.
I have many amazing memories from Queen of Hearts - teams I loved so dearly and battles we fought so hard - but that first event was positively magical. At this point I have been active in the Realms for over half my life, and I owe all the joy that has brought me to that one intoxicatingly fun weekend.
Matt Brenner/ King Sir Cecil
I will always remember being nailed in a coffin for Grimloch's monster entrance and being carried up the back stairs to the main building thinking I was going to die.
Or when me and Jaha teased that giant boulder swinging troll on one of the old QoH night quests.
But my favorite was when Team Grimloch dumped water on me during my winning Queen speech thanking everyone for their hard work.
Cal Marsden/Syruss
My favorite queen of hearts memory was fighting with my friends on the snake cult team, and especially doing my puppet show with Masha because she doesn't play much anymore and I really miss her. Even though we were the smallest team and didn't win much I think we embodied the have fun with your friends spirit very well ! I was so proud of us
Nataliya Kostenko/Shadar
Some additional random memories-
Young Nos ripping the heart out of a teddy bear for the mages tourney, Grimloch's Kiss tribute band, the hurricane, the drow from Nifleheim, mugwumps (if you ask Queen Meg they don't exist, Disco Dirk, Team Teng Hua, Mahkta as her team's champion, Elder Wisdom, Blade's War, Fokestone Shadow Puppet Theater (Beep! Bop! Boop!)
Young Nos ripping the heart out of a teddy bear for the mages tourney, Grimloch's Kiss tribute band, the hurricane, the drow from Nifleheim, mugwumps (if you ask Queen Meg they don't exist, Disco Dirk, Team Teng Hua, Mahkta as her team's champion, Elder Wisdom, Blade's War, Fokestone Shadow Puppet Theater (Beep! Bop! Boop!)
