robo rally [updated October 2003]  

2003 WBC Report   

 2004 Status: pending 2004 GM commitment

Brad Johnson, IL

2003 Champion

2nd: David des Jardins, CA

3rd: Clyde Kruskal, MD

4th: Ken Samuel, VA

 5th: Nick Henning, CT

 6th: Patrick Mitchell, DE

Event History
1999     Daniel Lawall      40
2000     Bradley Johnson      41
2001     Jeff Ribeiro      44
2002     Jeff Cornett      42
2003      Brad Johnson      71


Offsite links:

AREA Ratings

boardgamegeek

 Laurels
Rank Name

From

Last
Total
 1. Brad Johnson

IL

03
82
 2. Jeff Cornett

FL

02
40
 3. Jeff Ribeiro

NH

01
40
 4. Dan Lawall

VA

00
39
 5. Jason Levine

NY

01
26
 6. Rich Shipley

MD

02
24
 7. George Seary

NY

01
24
 8. David des Jardins

CA

03
18
 9. Ken Samuel

VA

03
17
10. Bill Navolis

PA

02
16
11. Dan McGowan

ME

01
16
12. Clyde Kruskal

MD

03
12
13. Rodd Polsky

PA

02
12
14. Cliff Ackman

PA

01
12
15. Vic Hutererson

MD

00
12
16. David Davis

OH

99
12
17. David Kyle

PA

99
  9
18. Jeff Power

MI

01
  7
19. Tamara McGraw

SC

00
  6
20. Kevin LeRow

MA

99
  6
21. Nick Henning

CT

03
  6
22. Pat Mitchell

DE

03
  3
23. Steve Cuccaro

MD

00
  3

Past Winners

Daniel Lawall - VA
1999

Brad Johnson - IL
2000

Jeff Ribeiro - NH
2001

Jeff Cornett - FL
2002
     
 


AFL-CIO it ain't ...

This years tournament was a smashing success. The move to two 2-hour heats from one 4-hour single elimination round increased attendance by almost 75%, and meant we were able to play games with more players in the preliminary rounds. Out of 11 games played in the preliminary heats there were 10 winners, with Brad Johnson, a past and now current champion, handily winning games in both heats. Two no-shows to the finals meant we had the perfect eight player field for the final round. As usual the first flag was the most brutal and crowded to get to, with at one point, five robots lined up side-by-side on the conveyor belt behind it. Brad Johnson's Hammer bot managed to pull away from the pack early, and cruise his way to an easy win on turn 17 despite an effort by Brian Schott's Spinbot to stop him from reaching the third flag. In the process, he also managed to save Nick Evinger's Hulk X-90 from certain death near the first flag, however this was really no favor as it left Nick in a difficult spot for getting back to the first flag.

There were some issues that need to be addressed for next year, the first of which is game length. While the final round came in just under the scheduled four hours, several of the preliminary heat games ran the full two hours and I had to adjudicate two tables in the first heat and three in the second. Fortunately my pre-defined adjudication rules made this easy, however ideally it would be nice if all games could finish on time. I intend to adjust this by making the first round boards a little easier next year. Also in question, it seemed that on some tables the adjudication rules, first person to touch the last flag touched wins, actually resulted in play stagnating a bit towards the end with players not even attempting to reach the final flag. I will attempt to rectify this next year by using a suggestion by Tom McCorry to use an optimal hand distance to the next flag (i.e. given the exact cards needed, how many cards would it take to get to the next flag). With the old rule used to break ties.

As always, there were some naysayers on the two-minute programming phase rule, however I also had several people who had not played with such a rule that liked the tension it adds to the game. In my opinion, it is this rule that seperates the robots from the widgets, and I don't expect to change it significantly in the coming year.

 GM      Marc F. Houde  [5th Year]   1044 Lakeview Dr, Stafford, VA 22554 
    march@asg.com   NA

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