History | 2007 Odds
Nest of Spies Card Sharks Pull Three-peat
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James Pei—7 |
Rod Fedin—1 |
Stefan Mecay—9 |
Nick Pei—0 |
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Two-time defending champion Nest of Spies, a coalition
of Card Driven Wargamers from four different states, justifiying
their high ranking by the odds makers as the second-highest ranked
team, repeated as champions of the 2007 Team Tournament over a
field of 78 four-member squads. They became the first team to
win three titles, let alone three in a row, by replacing the absent
Dave Dockter with Ron Fedin who contributed the crucial winning
point for his 5th place laurels in Wilderness War. The
team also got their customary seven points from James Pei who
won For The People for the seventh straight year and eight
points from Stefan MeCay repeating as champion of Twilight
Struggle. The latter has become a mega force to be reckoned
with at WBC in only his second year of attendance.
Scoring was inexplicably down for the entire tournament despite
the first-ever inclusion of bonus points awarded for scoring in
any event not previously won. That wasn't the fault of Those
Other Guys who finished in a dead heat for the lead thanks
to four bonus points awarded across the board as all four team
members scored in games they had not previously won. The 17-all
deadlock was broken by the Total Players tie-breaker with Nest
of Spies prevailing 170-161. Those Other Guys could
have also prevailed had three less players competed in the Twilight
Struggle tournament - making that event worth eight points
instead of nine. If you told me that Nest of Spies had
to win a Total Players tie-brekaer with a predominantly Euros
team, I wouldn't have given a nickle for their chances. Still,
not bad for a 111-1 shot.
The year's biggest over-achievers were the Fallen
Angels who overcame 1900 -1 odds to finish seventh and gain
some respect from the odds makers behind 10 points from Chris
Johnson for Ingenius and three points by Dan Eppolito for Saint Petersburg.
The other side of that coin saw 23 teams shutout. The highest
ranked squad to earn nothing but goose eggs was the Ghosts team at 43-1.
Two other teams joined Those Other Guys with depth in
the form of all four members scoring: Bands of Fools which
finished 12th with 12 points and Old Guard which ranked
18th with 10 points.
The Perfect Storm team won the Misery Loves Company
title with 516 entrants for an average of 129 entrants per event.
On the opposite end of the scale, claiming the Big Fish in the
Small Pond category was Pseudoconscripts whose 92 total
entrants averaged only 23 players per event. Big or small, didn't
make much difference as both finished out of the money.
The most frequently named choice for the Team Tournament was Carcassonne which was the selection of seven of the 312
players in the tournament. In all, 118 of our 147 events were
selected by someone with Queen's Gambit, Robo Rally, Settlers
of Catan, Wilderness War, Lost Cities and El Grande all tying for second with six each.
It was a bad year for the Happy Handicapper. Of his top 25
picks in the field of 78 teams, only 12 (48%) made the Top 25
- down 8% from 2006.
2007 Top 25 Teams in Order of Finish
Rank |
Name |
Odds |
Player 1 |
Player 2 |
Player 3 |
Player 4 |
Points |
Entrants |
1 |
Nest of Spies |
27-1 |
James Pei/FTP/7 |
Ron Fedin/WNW/1 |
Stefan Mecay/TWS/9 |
N. Pei/HWD/0 |
17 |
174 |
2 |
Those Other Guys |
111-1 |
Keith Levy/BLR/8 |
Peter Putnam/CYL/3 |
Rod Spade/POF/4 |
Jim Sparks/WAW/2 |
17 |
161 |
3 |
Da Boys |
45-1 |
Harry Flawd/SSB/8 |
Devin Flawd/PDT/8 |
Jordan Flawd/TTA/0 |
M Yoshikawa/MMS/0 |
16 |
206 |
4 |
Greenville Mafia: Death |
37-1 |
Arthur Field/COL/8 |
Ralph Gleaton/RRY/0 |
Mike Hazel/ELG/4 |
John Emery/UPF/2 |
14 |
189 |
5 |
CABS: Manly Men |
22-1 |
Bruce Reiff/FBS/8 |
K Gutermuth/WPS/3 |
Jeff Mullet/AOR/3 |
Dave Metzger/812/0 |
14 |
120 |
6 |
Reservoir Dogs |
47-1 |
Matt Fagan/DUN/0 |
P Barcafer/NW5/0 |
Jim Doughan/BKN/7 |
JR Tracy/ASL/7 |
14 |
118 |
7 |
Fallen Angels |
1900-1 |
M Nickoloff/RA/0 |
Chis Johnson/ING/10 |
Shannon Beets/AMR/0 |
D Eppolitto/SPB/3 |
13 |
403 |
8 |
Polish Lancers |
64-1 |
John Poniske/WTP/0 |
Ric Young/TWS/5 |
Paul Gaberson/WNW/8 |
Bruce Wigdor/UPF/0 |
13 |
167 |
9 |
Greenville Mafia: Famine |
82-1 |
David Gantt/ACQ/0 |
Bill Beckman/SSB/3 |
Bryan Collars/HIS/9 |
Henry Pfeiffer/M44/0 |
12 |
243 |
10 |
Greenville Mafia: War |
45-1 |
Davyd Field/TKL/2 |
Josh Githens/CMS/10 |
Scott Pfeiffer/NW5/0 |
Ross Jones/SUC/0 |
12 |
225 |
11 |
Central FL Gamers |
46-1 |
Scott Cornett/SCT/2 |
Jeff Cornett/E&T/0 |
Kevin Youells/ACV/8 |
Paul Hakken/8XX/2 |
12 |
149 |
12 |
Band of Fools |
34-1 |
Gary Dickson/TRC/2 |
Steve Dickson/MOV/2 |
Ray freeman/TIM/1 |
Tom Gregorio/BWD/7 |
12 |
120 |
13 |
Nickel City Gamers |
119-1 |
Grant LaDue/WNW/0 |
L Wojt'czyk/LST/0 |
M Wojt'czyk/CAR/3 |
K Wojt'czyk/WOR/8 |
11 |
309 |
14 |
Baby Seals |
36-1 |
Jason Levine/FDE/0 |
Ewan McNay/BRI/2 |
Pete Reese/POG/1 |
George Young/WTP/8 |
11 |
169 |
15 |
CABS: Pete's Angels |
65-1 |
Pete Stein/KRM/8 |
Deb Gutermuth/EPB/2 |
L Gutermuth/FMR/0 |
Rhonda Reiff/LID/0 |
10 |
360 |
16 |
El Chupacabra |
76-1 |
Bru Bernard/VNC/0 |
Bra Bernard/ABN/2 |
George Deutsch/AOA/8 |
Dan Eshleman/GXY/0 |
10 |
192 |
17 |
3 Old Farts & Ray |
80-1 |
Ken Whitesell/FBS/0 |
C Villeneuve/AOA/0 |
Ray Stakenas/CBC/3 |
R Stakenas II/UPF/7 |
10 |
151 |
18 |
Old Guard |
46-1 |
F Pafenberg/B81/3 |
Randy Heller/BWd/2 |
Bill Morse/QGB/2 |
Bob Ryan/ANZ/3 |
10 |
129 |
19 |
Shockers |
65-1 |
M Musella/WAT/7 |
Keith Schoose/TWS/0 |
John Popiden/PGG/2 |
Bert Schoose/ BAT/0 |
9 |
146 |
20 |
AREA |
60-1 |
John Sharp/VIP/2 |
Bob Hamel/WAS/0 |
Ed Menzel/GBG/7 |
Bruno Wolff/TT2/0 |
9 |
136 |
21 |
MITSGS |
52-1 |
A Applebaum/VIP/0 |
Marty Sample/ACS/0 |
Dave Finberg/TT2/0 |
Aaron fuegi/TTN/8 |
8 |
224 |
22 |
Perfect Storm |
220-1 |
V Kyrkos/MOV/0 |
Eric Monte/TTR/0 |
Josh Gifford/PGD/0 |
M Kyrkos/PRO/6 |
6 |
516 |
23 |
Four Winds |
80-1 |
Allen Kaplan/CCA/3 |
Chris Bauch/MMS/0 |
Duane Curry/ACS/0 |
Terry Coleman/DIF/3 |
6 |
220 |
24 |
Team Delaware XIV |
42-1 |
T Hitchings/WAS/0 |
W Rohrbeck/WSM/6 |
Vince Meconi/AFK/0 |
E Hitchings/EIS/0 |
6 |
114 |
25 |
Yoel Blocks for Jay 2 |
156-1 |
Rob Flowers/TKL/0 |
Boaz Gura/POF/5 |
R McFadden/TWS/0 |
Al Schwartz/ELG/0 |
5 |
262 |
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