carcassonne [Updated October 2006]  

 2006 WBC Report  

 2007 Status: pending 2007 GM commitment

Katie McCorry, VA

2006 Champion

Offsite links:

  

Event History
2002    Debbie Gutermuth

  
150
2003    Richard Jones     132
2004     Dan Hoffman     130
2005     Jennifer Drozd     123
2006     Katie McCorry     149

Euro Quest Event History
2003    Scott Buckwalter     37
2004    Ted Mullally     22
2005    Steve Boone     20
2006    Steve Crenshaw     19

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Richard Jones      UK    03     50
  2.  Legend Dan Hoffman MD    06     50
  3.  Scott Buckwalter   MD    04     42
  4.  Debbie Gutermuth   TX    03     33
  5.  Katie McCorry      VA    06     30
  6.  Jennifer Drozd     IL    05     30
  7.  Jay Fox            NJ    03     30
  8.  Laurel Stokes      NJ    05     27
  9.  Steve Crenshaw     VA    06     20
 10.  Steve Boone        MD    05     20
 11.  Ted Mullally       NJ    04     20
 12.  Ray Stakenas II    MI    03     20
 13.  Rob Kircher        RI    06     18
 14.  Olin Hentz         CT    05     18
 15.  Rebecca Hebner     CO    04     18
 16.  Michelle Hymowitz  MD    03     18
 17.  Bob Stibula        PA    02     18
 18.  Karl Henning       CT    06     12
 19.  Sean Vessey        VA    05     12
 20.  Tom McCorry        VA    04     12
 21.  Eric Hymowitz      MD    03     12
 22.  Ken Dunn           MD    02     12
 23.  Verity Hitchings   DE    03     10
 24.  Jonathan Fox       IL    06      9
 25.  Andres Dunn        MD    05      9
 26.  Doug Williamson    VA    04      9
 27.  Robbue Mitchell    VA    03      9
 28.  Matt Miller        NJ    02      9
 29.  JP Roberts         MD    06      8
 30.  Ilan Tadmor        NY    04      8
 31.  Mike Fox           IL    06      6
 32.  Kate Taillon       SC    06      6
 33.  Thomas Stokes      NJ    06      8
 34.  Tim Packwood       MN    05      6
 35.  Lee Sensabaugh     VA    04      6
 36.  Gwen Alvian        MD    03      6
 37.  Thomas Robinson    NC    02      6
 38.  Lisa Gutermuth     TX    03      5
 39.  Bill Crenshaw      VA    06      4
 40.  JP Roberts         MD    05      4
 41.  Hal Haag           MD    04      4
 42.  Charlie Hickok     PA    06      3
 43.  Derek Landel       NJ    05      3
 44.  Luke Kratz         ID    04      3
 45.  Ewan McNay         CT    02      3
 46.  Keith Levy         MD    05      2
  47.  Mark Guttag        VA    02      2 
       

2006 Laurelists

Rob Kircher, RI
2nd

Karl Henning, CT
3rd

Jonathan Fox, IL
4th

Mike Fox, IL
5th

Charlie Hickok, PA
6th


Past Winners

Debbie Gutermuth, TX
2002

Richard Jones, UK
2003

Legend Dan Hoffman, MD
2004

Jennifer Drozd, IL
2005

 Several of the 33 ladies that made up 22% of the field in Carcassonne this year.

 Finalists clockwise from left Mike Fox, Katie McCorry, GM Hymowitz, Jon Fox, Robert Kircher, and Karl Henning.

Six New Laurelists Again ...

Our individual attendance actually increased this year to near-record levels ... so much for the theory that interest in Euros quickly wanes with a "flavor of the month" mentality!  Carcassonne attendance has remained solidly in triple figures for all five years of its inclusion at WBC. It has also not been dominated by anyone as other events have. It may be due to the large player fields or perhaps a higher luck/skill ratio than most, but in eight BPA tournaments there have been only five people who have managed to receive laurels more than once. That's 43 Laurelists out of a possible 48!

I had about ten people come to my demo and all of them played in at least one heat of the tournament so this game continues to attract new players every year. After the first two heats I already had more individual first-try winners than I could possibly qualify for the semi-final round and two participants that won their first two heats so I was sweating the MESE tie-breakers. Needlessly, as it turned out, since not all of the qualifying participants tried to advance.  I needed to pull in several alternates, including one very far own the list to achieve the optimum 25 players for the second round. 

In the five semi-final games, blue was the lucky color since three of the five semi-final winners played blue. Some players have the philosophy of staying in their own little corner of the world, but in all of the games there was a single location that could be called "monastery row" where most or all of the cloisters were played.  None of the semi-finals went over the tone-hour time limit.

There were 33 females in the tournament, roughly one in five, and this ratio held true in the Final as well, but the fair sex beat the odds and won the tournament again for the third time in five years. Carcassonne is truly the ladies' domain. Two brothers were among the finalists, but they were not allowed to take adjacent seats..Katie McCorry drew four cloisters in her first seven tile draws to take an early lead and it would have been very difficult to catch her. 

After the Final ended, I heard the woeful story of one of my AWOL qualifiers who had indeed arrived to play, heard someone standing on a chair screaming, "Winners, report here!" and followed the voice only to find out that his name was not on their list.  They told him to check if he was at the right tournament, and he realized that he'd gone to the San Juan semi-finals instead.

Good luck to those of you who will happily try again next year!  It was a true pleasure GMing the Carcassonne tournament and if I am able to do it next year, I will be there with all of my energy and excitement.  I want to thank all of my "assistant GMs", especially Joanne and my husband Eric, Legend Dan, Dan Matthias, and Pete Eirich.  I hope I didn't forget anyone -- I couldn't have done it without you guys!  Until next time, I hope everyone has a great year!


2006 Euro Quest Laurelists

Steve Crenshaw, VA
1st

Legend Dan Hoffman, MD
2nd

JP Roberts, MD
3rd

Kate Taillon, SC
4th

Bill Crenshaw, VA
5th

 GM      Michelle Hymowitz  [1st Year]   NA 
    NA   NA

2006 Preview Page | View the Icon Key | Return to main BPA page