Lost in Space
2003's tournament used the same format as in previous years:
Three preliminary heats with every player who wins at least one
game qualifying for the SE semifinals on Saturday morning. There
were a total of 64 different players who played 24 games in the
preliminaries. The one who had to use a space ship to get there
was Ahmet Ilpars all the way from Istanbul, Turkey.
This
year I asked the players to record which players collected and
bartered IOU's. In the 23 games where this was completed, I found
winning players collected on average 4.04 IOU's, runner-ups 3.09,
3rd Place players 3.13, 4th place players 2.96. So collecting
IOU's is helpful, but not necessarily a guaranteed ticket to
victory:
- In all 23 games, a player with most (or tied for the most)
finished first 13 times, second four times, third seven times
and fourth six times.
- In games where one player collected more than anyone else,
the top collector won nine of 16 games. The top collector finished
last in two of these games (including the Final)
- On the other hand, the winner collected the fewest IOU's (including
ties) five times and still won. Twice, the winner collected only
two IOU's.
In the first heat, 34 players played a total of nine games.
A couple were nail biters:
- In Game 3, Thomas Browne needed to a roll a 2 on any of the
four dice to navigate the Cloud to win, but failed. Doug Galullo
delivered two Melf Pelts and would finish $4 dollars short after
delivering both-but he drew a demand for Pelts after his first
sale to get the win. Laurel Stokes was also one sale away from
winning.
- In Game 5, David Long finished a few pips short-too bad he
wasted 20 pips when he rolled 5556 and was stuck against an unfriendly
navigation circle. Alan Ernstein snuck in for the win. The next
player, yours truly, would have won on the next turn.
The second heat featured 36 players and another nine games.:
- In Game 1, Joe Abrams finishes $17 short. Roy Pettis, on the
next turn, visited Joe's port to win the game, which would have
given Joe the necessary money.
- In Game 4, Bill Navolis need to roll 14 or more to win, unfortunately
he still had his Scout ship, which only rolls three dice. The
long shot did not come in and Chuck Foster won his second game.
- In Game 8, Ed Wrobel wins the "Wrong Way" Corrigan
award for having a defective Jump Start sending him everywhere
but where he wanted to go. Andrew Cummins raced away for the
win.
The third heat featured, 24 in six games, unfortunately, there
was no commentary by the players for any of the these games.
(If you want to get mentioned in the final report, write some
comments.)
There were 22 different winners in the Heats, but only 18
showed up bright and early on Saturday for the semi-finals. That
meant five four-player games with two alternates being advanced.
Games were to $3000, instead of the $2000 used in the heats.
I was in another close loss as I finished one pip short! (Aaaarrrrrrrrgggghhh!)
and Ed Wrobel sneaked in for the victory. The other semi-final
winners were Luke Koleszar, Chuck Foster, Steve Dickson, and
Tom DeMarco. Unfortunately, Tom had to leave to GM a final in
his own event, leaving only four players in the championship
game.
Just as well perhaps, since Luke Koleszar just ran away with
the game with $3210. The real battle was for second. Steve Dickson
won that at $2400. Ed Wrobel finished third at $2353 and Chuck
Foster took 4th with $2256.
As always I hoped everyone followed Rule #1 of this tournament-Have
Fun!
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