War of the Worlds 21st Century
Style ...
Congratuations to
Alex Gesing who barely beat out Joel Tamburo (last year's unofficial
winner) to receive the Ender Award in 2004. The Ender Award-named
after the Orson Scott Card character-goes to the player who eliminates
the most worlds in the tournament. Although both players eliminated
eight worlds, Alex did it playing just four games, while Joel
played five.
One of the interesting stories out of the first round showed
that Novas (ships with a value of zero) are nice cards to hold
in your hand-even if just for retaliation. Andres Dunn placed
a Nova on Myrmidon in the first round and on Erthizonian in the
second round, taking out James Tyne's two big worlds. Dishing
out "just desserts", James played Novas on Andres'
big powerhouses -Divergence and Ecup Contract-in the fourth and
fifth rounds. Needless to say, the two finished last in their
game. Joseph Burch won that game, finishing nine points ahead
of the second place player.
On average, players needed 12.26 points to win a game. Against
all odds, Kaarin Engelmann managed to win her second heat game
with seven points. The second- and third-place players in that
game-Vincent Sinigaglio and Mark Love-also finished with seven
points. None of the top three declared a secret base. Joel Tamburo
was the only other player in the tournament to win a game without
a secret bet.
The highest score this year was 15 points, achieved by three
players-Mark Mitchell, Sean McCulloch, and Joseph Burch, who
scored 15 points in two different games and went on to win the
final. (The highest score last year was 16 points.) There were
only two players who were knocked down to zero points in the
tournament.
In a third of the tournament games, Myrmidon was the first
world that surrendered. That world and the Erthizonians were
the least likely to make it through to the end of the game. In
40 percent of tournament games, it was the player who went on
to win the game that caused the final surrender.
Divergence continued to be the most popular world for secret
bases. More significantly, almost a third of all winners selected
it, though no player in the final put a secret base on Divergence.
Cylor and Felowi were the second-most popular worlds for secret
bases. On the other end of the spectrum, choosing Kha'Farjimmn
for a secret base or placing no secret base were unpopular choices.
No players who won a game selected Kha'Farjimmn or Myrmidon as
a secret base. Only Rob Flowers lost his secret bet yet went
on to win a game.
As far as attendance in 2004, most of the first-round games-14
out of 18-had five players. All semi-final games and the final
were 4-players. The first heat was particularly poorly attended,
apparently as a result of a conflict with Atlantic Storm.
Perhaps with that issue resolved in 2005, more of you will be
there to compete on Tuesday night. Regardless, I'll make sure
the format is more flexible to accommodate whatever numbers we
get.
Thanks everyone for playing. I hope to see you-and a few of
your friends-at the tournament in 2005!
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