Enlightenment X Results
May 8, 2007

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With GMT East being the same weekend as Enlightenment, attendance slipped to 19 players for the first three rounds and 17 for the final round on Sunday. The players were, however, truly enlightened for the weekend as they were blessed with singing from the neighboring Baptist conference. Not quite the ambiance we expected, but we soldiered on nonetheless.

Round 1 got underway Friday evening with 19 players participating for an unfortunate split of three 5-player and one 4-player game. 

In the first game finished, three-time Enlightenment champion Bill Crenshaw was matched with previous champion John Coussis as well as Kevin Sudy, Pierre LeBouef, and Rodd Polsky. Rodd's Venice managed a 36 point victory by leading in Advances over John, followed by Kevin, Bill and Pierre. 

In the second 5-player game, defending and two-time champion and reigning Caesar Jeff Mullet would begin his journey to try and become the first back-to-back winner with Venice. Jeff was matched against perennial contender Ken Gutermuth, Pete Staab, former Caesar Arthur Field, and Thomas Browne. Jeff managed the most advances and least misery to a 44 point win over Thomas followed by Ken, Pete and Arthur in that order.

In the third 5-player game, former champion Chris Byrd was matched with perennial contender Carl Damcke, Greg Stripes, Kathy Stroh, and Mark Neale. Carl's Paris rode a large ending payout and most advances to defeat Greg's Barcelona, followed by Chris, Mark, and Kathy respectively.

The 4 player game saw Ted Mullally, Mark Smith, Eric Eshleman and Terry Coleman vie for the fourth win of the evening. Despite leading in misery, Mark Smith's Venice had enough of an advance lead to hold off Eric's Barcelona, Ted, and Terry.

Saturday morning dawned with all 19 players returning to thefray, leaving us at the odd number still requiring a 4 player game. On the winner's table, misery became the main topic of conversation as defending champion Jeff Mullett chaosed out of the game and made his road to to a title defense very tough. Carl Damcke, with a misery of 300, pulled off his second win in as many games and became the target for the rest of the weekend, winning for a second time as Paris. John Coussis kept up his string of brides maid finishes followed by Mark Smith, Rodd Polsky, and the fallen Jeff.

In the second game to finish, Chris Byrd became the first person over 2000 in advances to win over Tom Browne's Barcelona. Eric Eshleman took third followed by Kevin Sudy and Eric Eshleman.

The third game saw the closest contest of the weekend, Pete Staab took an 11-point victory over Tedd Mullally and 23 points over Ken Gutermuth. Bill Crenshaw was 4th and Mark Neale finished 5th.

In the 4-player game, Arthur Field became the first person to buy all the advances and took Barcelona to a win over Pierre LeBeouf, Kathy Stroh, and Terry Coleman.

Heading into Saturday evening, Carl led the way on the winner's table as the only double winner. He was joined by Arthur Field, Ted Mullally, Carl Damcke, Pete Staab, and Chris Byrd. Ted built a large advance lead and held off strong end game payouts by Arthur to earn his first win of the weekend and keep his hopes alive. Carl finished with an 83% third to place him in good position to guarantee a plaque, followed by Pete Staab and Chris Byrd. This game was the only one in the tournament to exceed the 5-hour time limit and thereby incur a time VP penalty.

In the next game, Ken Gutermuth got to play his favorite Barcelona and used most advances and lowest misery to take his first win of the weekend and keep his hopes alive. John Coussis once again finished second followed by Pierre LeBeouf, Kathy Stroh, and Thomas Browne.

Rodd Polsky joined Carl Damcke with two2 wins as he edged by previous WBC champ Mark Smith. Eric Eshlemen finished third, Kevin Sudy 4th, and three-time champ Bill Crenshaw once again finished well behind the leader in what was rapidly becoming a rare off-year for the AOR guru.

In the highest scoring game of the weekend, Jeff Mullet rebounded from his chaos performance as Genoa to buyout all advances and score 3319 points en route to a win over Greg Stripes who also bought out as Paris but could manage only second with 2735 points. Mark Neale finished third and Terry Coleman fourth.

Bill Crenshaw and Kevin Sudy decided to head home on Sunday morning, leaving the field at 17 for the final round with one 5-player game and our first two six-player games of the weekend. Eight of the 17 remaining players had over 190 points for their two high games to remain in contention for the title and the six plaques to be awarded. Rodd Polsky, Carl Damcke, and Jeff Mullett each had two wins, Ted Mullally, Mark Smith, and Ken Gutermuth had a win and a 95% or better score, and Arthur Field and Chris Byrd had a win and an 85+% score.

On the winner's table, Ken Gutermuth bid 4 to play his favorite Barcelona in the only game where everyone bid at least 1. Rodd Polsky chose Venice, Mark Smith Genoa, Ted Mullally Paris, and Jeff Mullett was left with London. Early fueding between London and Paris and Genoa and Paris let Rodd build an early lead with Ken staying close behind. A late push by Tedd left three players in contention as the game entered the last turn. Ken bid 51 to ensure going last while Rodd and Ted managed payouts to edge ahead of Ken in advances but three Spice cards remained in play. As Ken entered his expansion, he held just one spice with industry and would need a strong expansion to pull off the victory. He managed another of his patented last turn heroics with the dice by winning three straight competitions for Spice - allowing him to collect over $600 in Spice payouts to earn the surprising victory. Ted finished second, Rodd third, Mark fourth and Jeff 5th.

In the second game, Carl Damcke's 3 bid was only good for second pick and Venice in our first 6 player game. John Coussis took Barcelona, Arthur Field Genoa, Pierre LeBeouf Hamburg, Greg Stripes London, and Eric Eshlemen Paris. Three players ended within 10 points of each other in advances and 50 points of misery. Arthur managed to keep his hopes alive by garnering his second victory over John Coussis with yet another 2nd place finish. Eric was 3rd, Carl 4th, Pierre 5th, and Greg 6th, leaving the final standings up in the air as no one would manage three wins.

In the final game, Chris Byrd's Venice held on over Thomas Browne, Kathy Stroh, Terry Coleman, Pete Staab, and Mark Neale to earn his second victory and remain in contention.

As the final scores were tabulated, the three Sunday winners finished 1-2-3 as Ken Gutermuth finally managed to win his elusive Enlightenment title. Ken also had the highest four-game score (an honorary benefit only as Enlightenment scoring takes only the top three scores). Chris Byrd finished second, Arthur Field third, Carl Damcke fourth, Ted Mullaly fifth, and Rodd Polsky sixth. Ted was the only plaque winner without two wins. Defending champion Jeff Mullett was the only two-game winner not to place in the top six while John Coussis managed 7th with four(!) 2nd place finishes.

2007 Enlightenment Laurelists

1st:
Ken Gutermuth, TX

2nd:
Chris Byrd, CT

3rd:
Arthur Field, SC

4th:
Carl Damcke, IL

5th:
Ted Mullally, NJ

6th:
Rodd Polsky, PA

A total of 15 Age of Renaissance games were played during the weekend with ten 5-player, three 4-player and two 6-player games. 

Barcelona, Genoa, and Venice led the way with four wins each while the other three went to Paris. Barcelona was the strongest nation of the weekend with seven 2nd place finishes to go with the four wins. We had nine different winners with Champion Ken Gutermuth, Chris Byrd (2nd), Arthur Field (3rd), Carl Damcke (4th), Rodd Polsky (6th) and Jeff Mullet (10th) each notching a pair of victories. Ted Mullally (5th), Mark Smith, and Pete Staab shared the other three wins.

Bidding for capitals continued its downward trend as everyone is becoming more comfortable with playing all of the country's. Out of the total of 74 bids made, 39 of them were for 0. Only one 5 bid and and two 4 bids were made all weekend. The average bid overall was 1.0 with only Barcelona (2.6) averaging over1 and Venice (1.8) averaging 1.

Only two games had someone buy all of the advances and they were both 4-player games (Arthur Field, Jeff Mullett, and Greg Stripes) and one of those individuals (Greg) did not win their game.

Final Standings were as follows: 

 Name

1st Round

2nd Round

3rd Round

4th Round

Total Score

Overall Score
Ken Gutermuth

85

98

108

108

399

314
Chris Byrd

88

109

67

107

371

304
Arthur Field

66

107

86

106

365

299
Carl Damcke

109

108

76

74

367

293
Ted Mullally

87

99

100

91

377

290
Rodd Polsky

108

38

106

75

327

289
John Coussis

98

84

87

99

368

384
Eric Eshleman

94

72

87

99

347

275
Mark Smith

106

57

95

69

327

270
Jeff Mullet

107

-8

109

53

261

269
Thomas Browne

97

78

58

91

324

266
Pete Staab

69

106

72

81

328

259
Pierre LeBoeuf

53

96

74

70

293

240
Terry Coleman

85

72

50

83

290

240
Kathy Stroh

50

82

67

90

289

239
Kevin Sudy

93

67

77

xx

237

237
Greg Stripes

88

62

82

45

277

232
Bill Crenshaw

86

78

67

xx

231

231
Mark Neale

67

71

54

74

266

212
Boardgame Players Association Last updated 5/8/2007 by kae.
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