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and now a word from our sponsor
....
The turnout was at an all-time low this summer with only 14
players. The main reason why the turnout was lower was probaby
because it was run in continuous format as opposed to having
multiple heats as it did in previous years. Since TV Wars
is a 4-player game, two tables of three and two tables of four
were necessary. The last two people to enter were assigned a
random table to decide which two tables would have four players.
The first round was a 2-hour heat. Table 1 had Michael Destro
(a.k.a. the G.M.) beat Luke Koleszar, and eventually Tom Dunning
who finished second. This game was close for a while and Tom
did have a programming advantage. Landing on sponsor six times
helped me beat Tom as I was able to keep outbidding him on 2-hour
shows. I did this because I couldn't set up a three-hour lineup
anyway since I was out of both half hour and hour long shows,
so each new two-hour show would let me survive an extra rating
war.
The second table had Carolyn Demarco eliminate Derek Landel
1st, followed by Donna Balkan, and Anthony Daw after leading
throughout. The third table stopped playing once Eric Wrobel,
and Josh Githens were eliminated, because both Charles Hickok
and Richard Moyer were under the mistaken impression that they
would both advance. At the time the game stopped playing Charles
and Richard were about even so there was no way to tell who would
have won. The last table was won by Sean Vessey, who beat Kaarin
Engelman, and Ashley Dunn. This game lasted the full two hours
but when the game was called Sean had almost twice as many assets
as Ashley.
It was originally decided that, both 1st and 2nd place finishers
would advance. There was a problem however because two of the
tables had 2nd place finishers who didn't want to play in the
semis, because of scheduling conflicts, and two of the winners,
wanted to jump straight to the final, because they had other
games to attend to later that day. To make matters worse Table
3 stopped when there were only two people left because both Charles
Hickok and Richard Moyer thought they had already advanced and
they put the game away without counting who had more assets.
Since I originally said that there would be a Semi-final I told
Charles and Richard that if they both wanted to play then there
would still be a Semi-Final. Charles Hickok like the true sportsman
that he is, stepped down to let his
tablemate Richard advance to the final, which I thought was very
noble of him, and I take full responsibility for the foul-up.
[GM 101 First lesson: Never schedule an unnecessary semi-final.
With 16 or less players, this should have been a two-round tournament
from the outset.]
GM Michael Destro directs traffic
at the start of the event.
The final would be without timelimit and had the GM, Carolyn
Demarco, first-timer Richard Moyer, and Sean Vessey. Richard
Moyer drew the best shows at the outset however; this worked
to his detriment, as he became the target for everyone else.
Sean, Carolyn, and I all ganged up on him, once we noticed he
had all good shows left. We all choose to steal programs from
him whenever any of us landed on the steal a program space. To
make matters worse for Richard, he couldn't add any more shows
because everyone would decline to bid until he was eliminated.
Richard finished with 25,000.
The game became very bloody after Richard was gone, because
Ratings Wars kept coming up and with three players, the attrition
rate is higher. Once Carolyn had little left, Sean and I stole
her remaining shows. She finished with 3,000. Toward the end,
I stole Sean's only star, even though I knew I could get a better
one from Carolyn. This decision paid off as I took out all of
Sean's shows in the next two ratings wars. Sean finished with
0 and I had 2,000 left.
This was only the second time I won Wood, even though I have
made the final seven out of the last eight years. I think I deserved
it too considering I was able to win that game without landing
on a sponsor once.
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Michael Destro [2nd Year]
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