battleline [updated October 2002]

BAT  3 prizes Beginners Swiss Elim Continuous 
  18   
       17  Round 2 19  Round 3 20  Final   
       

  Salon EF  

Kevin Youells, FL

2002 Champion

2nd: Jonathan Miller, DC

3rd: Aaron Fuegi, Cambridge, MA

4th: Barrington Beavis, UK

5th: Sean McCulloch, MA

6th: Bruce Reiff, OH

Event History
2001    Peter Staab     54
2002    Kevin Youells     36


AREA Ratings


GM: Jeff Mullet

Past Winners

Peter Staab - PA
2001
 

A Teammate Scorned ....

36 leaders directed their forces along the battle line in an attempt to overwhelm their opponents at this years WBC. This was my first year GMing an event at the WBC. Many thanks to Assistant Gms Bruce Reiff and Peter Staab. I highly recommend getting two seasoned veterans as assistants for any first timers out there pondering giving back to the con.

We broke down into groups of four as much as possible. We played everyone in our groups once each in a round robin type tournament. The person with the best record advanced to a single elimination bracket. We gave everyone two hours to complete the three games. Luckily, everyone played within the time limit and no games had to be adjudicated.

Tie breaking procedures were as follows: 1) Head to head, 2) Best record in games with those tied, 3) Biggest differential. Breakthroughs were considered a 6-0 win, so most people seemed to go for breakthroughs as opposed to Envelopments.

After random seating was figured out I of course got in the group with the defending champion. I was lucky enough to advance from my group but my victory dance was short-lived. I was out in my first game of single elimination. Oh well. At least I could watch the action of the final four.

There was some side drama to the action which is worth mentioning. Jason Levine had agreed to be on the Manly Men's second team, "Debbie and the Boys" with Battleline as his team game. A few weeks before the deadline he decided to defect to another team. "I guess I'll have to make sure Jason is knocked out right away in the Battleline tourney then," Bruce Reiff joked at the time. Sure enough, Bruce and Jason ended up in the same round robin group. Jason grimaced and Bruce made good on his threat.

The 36 players were then whittled down to the final four with Kevin Youells vs. Barrington Beavis and Aaron Fuegi vs. Jonathan Miller. The semi-finals and finals were best two-out-of-three unless both players agreed to one game. Kevin bested Barrington with a breakthrough and a 5 to 4 Envelopment. Jonathan needed three games to beat Aaron winning 5 to 2, losing 4 to 5 and finally winning on a breakthrough.

Kevin and Jonathan, both being pressed for time agreed to a one game final. Kevin started with a very good hand. He had a few high cards and a straight flush 6-7-8 from the get-go. Jonathan's was not quite as good, but not terribly bad. He had a few high cards in his hand also, though none already with a straight flush. As one would expect, Kevin started out with a flag or two advantage over Jonathan, but his luck started running out. After several turns, Kevin had nothing but ones, twos and threes in his hand with none of them being a straight flush. The tide had started to drastically turn in Jonathan's favor. There was a Traitor in the midst of Kevin's troops, thanks to a tactics card played by Jonathan At this point, Jonathan was about too win on a breakthrough. Kevin got a temporary reprieve due to a muddy battle field, thanks to playing a tactics card of his own. Jonathan would not be down for long. He again set himself up for a breakthrough win on his next turn, but a timely Fog began to roll in saving Kevin once again with a game saving tactics card. Demoralized, Jonathan's troops could not muster a breakthrough and were eventually enveloped by Kevin's forces with a 5 to 4 win.

 GM      Jeff Mullet  [1st Year]  NA
    ww1695@dragonbbs.com   NA

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