The Legacy of Queen of Hearts
by David Hayden
I’m going to preach for a little bit, and then ask for a favor, but it’s really a favor for you, so you should really thank me and then help if you can.
I’m going to preach for a little bit, and then ask for a favor, but it’s really a favor for you, so you should really thank me and then help if you can.
So I don't know about the rest of you, but one of the things
I love about the Realms is the rich history we have of Moments - those amazing
occasions where the convergence of the right people and situation provide us
with something truly epic to witness and experience. If you think about all of
the "Realms stories" that get told, they're mostly about Moments. I
bet most of you just thought of a few. As an event, Queen of Hearts has those
moments in spades. (Which is why you should go this weekend and not be deterred
by a little rain, it's not like it's a hurricane. Again.)
Anyway, part of remembering those Moments is remembering
history. QoH is 25 this year - that’s a massive amount of history, and a ton of
Moments. But one thing that's missing from the Queen of Hearts site that we
used to have is a chunk of that history, which was the list of winners for each
tourney. What's the big deal, you ask, people win tourneys all the time? Fair
point, that's true. But if you like those stories of moments, then it's really
helpful to have a starting place to get to them.
Someone could look at the list and be like "Wait,
Panther won Champion in 2001 and then again in 2017, 16 years later? That's
crazy, how did that happen?" And then you could ask someone about it and maybe
get a story about a Moment (2001 definitely was one, ask me, or better yet,
Panther, some time.)
Or someone might ask about some amazing bardics over the
years and I'd point to that list and tell them
about the first time Janna sang on the "big stage" in the Realms in 2004 with Dahal and gave me actual chills, or Brighthammer and Dahal actually delivering The Greatest Song in the World in 2006, or the first time I heard Kiira sing - the Grimloch lullaby in 2009, or Folkestone Puppet Theater. Now it's not like I'll ever forget those Moments, those are seared into my brain. But having them written down provides a solid point of reference for our shared history.
Now the reason the list is not there anymore is that we, as a community, are not always great about taking note of those Moments, and Jason understandably didn’t want a list with a bunch of empty spaces up there. The QoH staff puts a ridiculous amount of time and effort into preparing for the event, and if there were years in the past when a tourney list got misplaced at the end of an incredibly grueling weekend, only a heartless cretin would blame them for a name getting lost in the shuffle. I’ve been trying to fill in those gaps over the last decade or so, and I’m confident if we could get most of them filled out and I coded the list for him, that’d he’d add it back on.
So, that favor I’m asking of you – if you went to a QoH between 2006 and 2016, take a look at this spreadsheet(https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ybIwKAnIF6R31zo6RLLvK83x2c3Pc99Iy1w9jUa2vPQ/edit?usp=sharing), and help me fill in the blanks. If you won a tourney previously, let me know which one (you can comment directly on the sheet or drop me an email/PM). If you ran or fought on a team and think you know who might have been your team’s entrant for a tourney, drop me a line.
And here’s hoping I’ll see you on the field this weekend, and we’ll get to witness a few more Moments together.
about the first time Janna sang on the "big stage" in the Realms in 2004 with Dahal and gave me actual chills, or Brighthammer and Dahal actually delivering The Greatest Song in the World in 2006, or the first time I heard Kiira sing - the Grimloch lullaby in 2009, or Folkestone Puppet Theater. Now it's not like I'll ever forget those Moments, those are seared into my brain. But having them written down provides a solid point of reference for our shared history.
Now the reason the list is not there anymore is that we, as a community, are not always great about taking note of those Moments, and Jason understandably didn’t want a list with a bunch of empty spaces up there. The QoH staff puts a ridiculous amount of time and effort into preparing for the event, and if there were years in the past when a tourney list got misplaced at the end of an incredibly grueling weekend, only a heartless cretin would blame them for a name getting lost in the shuffle. I’ve been trying to fill in those gaps over the last decade or so, and I’m confident if we could get most of them filled out and I coded the list for him, that’d he’d add it back on.
So, that favor I’m asking of you – if you went to a QoH between 2006 and 2016, take a look at this spreadsheet(https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ybIwKAnIF6R31zo6RLLvK83x2c3Pc99Iy1w9jUa2vPQ/edit?usp=sharing), and help me fill in the blanks. If you won a tourney previously, let me know which one (you can comment directly on the sheet or drop me an email/PM). If you ran or fought on a team and think you know who might have been your team’s entrant for a tourney, drop me a line.
And here’s hoping I’ll see you on the field this weekend, and we’ll get to witness a few more Moments together.