battleline [Updated October 2003]  

2003 WBC Report  

 2004 Status: pending 2004 GM commitment

Ken Gutermuth, TX

2003 Champion

2nd: Aaron Fuegi, MA

3rd: Bruce Reiff, OH

4th: Barrington Beavis, UK

5th: Carol Caler, PA

6th: Lance Fogel, PA

Event History
2001    Peter Staab     54
2002    Kevin Youells     36
2003    Ken Gutermuth     44


Offsite links:

AREA Ratings

boardgamegeek

 Laurels
Rank Name

From

Last
Total
 1. Ken Gutermuth

TX

03
30
 2. Aaron Fuegi

MA

03
30
 3. Kevin Youells

FL

02
30
 4. Peter Staab

PA

01
30
 5. Barrington Beavis

UK

03
18
 6. Jonathan Miller

DC

02
18
 7. John Leggat

CA

01
18
 8. Bruce Reiff

OH

03
15
 9. Andrew Cummins

UK

01
12
10. Cliff Ackman

PA

01
  9
11. Carol Caler

PA

03
  6
12. Sean McCulloch

OH

02
  6
13. Kaarin Engelmann

VA

01
  6
14. Lance Fogel

PA

03
  3
15. Gordon Elgert

CA

01
  3

Past Winners

Peter Staab - PA
2001

Kevin Youells - FL
2002
 


Manly or Not ....

The 2003 Battleline Tournament got underway Friday evening in the Valley Ballroom having been booted from it's prior location by the new expanded dealers room. We used terms like "phalanx" and "flank" a lot and fit right in even though some look at Battleline as a euro game. A lot of the usual suspects - former champs Pete Staab and Kevin Youells, Team Tournament goose egg boy Jason Lavine, Manly Men Ken Gutermuth, Bruce Reiff, and Dave Metzger plus several new faces were among the 44 who turned up for a rousing contest of Battleline.

Everyone's breath was held as the names for the group pairings were drawn. Jason Lavine was thrilled when he was not put in the same group as Bruce Reiff who last year ended his Battleline and Team Tourney chances. However, Jason, despite not drawing his nemesis, failed to get out of group play - again. Former Champ Pete Staab wasn't so lucky though, drawing the feared Reiff in his foursome.

The event uses a system partially stolen from Andy Lewis and his Battle Cry tournament where four people are placed in a group and play a round robin. The person with the best record from each of the groups then advances to single elimination with byes granted to those with 3-0 records over those with 2-1 (excepting prior champs). In addition the scoring format heavily weights breakthroughs (three flags in a row) to, hopefully, minimize the number of tiebreakers used. Of course the best way to make sure you advance is to, as Al Davis always says, just win, baby.

The winners of the group play were Aaron Fuegi (group 1), Barrington Beavis (2), Lance Fogel (3), Carol Caler (4), Steve Koleszar(5), Ken Gutermuth(6), Philip Burgin-Young(7), James Gundy (8), Mike Stanley (9), John Emery (10) and Bruce Reiff (11). Aaron, Carol, and Bruce all had three breakthroughs in advancing from their groups, while Steve, Philip, James and John all managed to slip through at 2-1 in their groups.

Those 11 advanced to the single elim portion of the program and through some close games (ask Bruce Reiff about his narrow escape from Steve Kolezar) we were left with a final four of 2002 runnerup Aaron Fuegi vs Barrington Beavis and Manly Men teammates Ken Gutermuth vs Bruce Reiff. Ken and Bruce went back and forth in their titanic struggle with Ken pulling out the 5-4 victory over a disappointed Bruce. Why was Bruce so disappointed? Because Ken had picked another game for the team tourney and failed (yet again) to score team points! Aaron won his game handily to set up the chance to improve over last year's second place. Alas it was not to be as Ken won the game and his second plaque of the convention. Ken would go on to win three plaques this year - of course none of them were in his team event!

A great time was had by all and we look forward to seeing everyone (and a few more) next year for this great game!

 GM      Jeff Mullet  [2nd Year]  NA
    ww1695@dragonbbs.com   NA

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