Galaxy [Updated October 2004]  

2004 WBC Report  

 2005 Status: pending 2005 GM commitment

Joseph Burch, MD

2004 Champion:

2nd: Joel Tamburo, IL

3rd: Rob Winslow, NY

4th: Andres Dunn, MD

5th: John Keating, IL

6th: William Burch, MD

Event History
2000    James Pei     96
2001    Steve Cameron     87
2002     Jon Shambeda     75
2003    Rob Winslow     60
2004     Joseph Burch     58


Offsite links:

AREA Ratings

boardgamegeek

 Laurels
Rank Name

From

Last
Total
 1. Jon Shambeda

PA

02
58
 2. Rob Winslow

NY

04
42
 3. David Buchholz

MI

02
36
 4. Steve Shambeda

PA

02
32
 5. Joseph Burch

MD

04
30
 6. Steve Cameron

PA

01
30
 7. James Pei

TX

00
30
 8. Joel Tamburo

IL

04
27
 9. John Keating

IL

04
24
10. Martin Sample

NH

03
18
11. Kaarin Engelmann

VA

01
18
12. Sean McCulloch

OH

03
12
13. Brendan Crowe

VA

00
12
14. Andres Dunn

MD

04
  9
15. Jon Miller

DC

00
  6
16. Bill Place

PA

02
  4
17. William Burch

MD

04
  3
18 Rick Young

NC

03
  3
19. Anthony Musella

VA

01
  3
20. John Ellsworth

IL

00
  3

Past Winners

James Pei - TX
2000

Steve Cameron - PA
2001

Jon Shambeda - PA
2002

Rob Winslow - NY
2003
 


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!

 GM      Kaarin Engelmann  [4th Year]   7824 New London Dr., Springfield, VA 22153 
    kengelm@yahoo.com    NA  

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