 |
 |
 |
|
Scheduling pressures occasionally
force a multi-player Euro into 2-player domains for a glimpse
at how the other half lives. |
A GM's work is never done! Tom
DeMarco seems to be thinking: "Darn those MESE tiebreakers!" |
With more time between games
rather than multi-game heats, a repeat of last year's scoring
problems was avoided. |
Mistress & Observatory
This year, the tournament went fromParadise (last year's location)
to the inferno of Conestoga 3; the air conditioning tried to
keep up with all the expended brain power, but needed the assistance
of a floor fan. This year we played four two-hour heats as opposed
to last year's time-saving, but harder to understand format (two
games in each of three 3-hour heats). This year also saw the
adoption of the standard MESE advancement criteria, which rewards
winning one's first game over winning the most games.
The first heat was held on Wednesday afternoon, and drew 48
contestants for 12 full boards. Gerald Lientz had a Mistress
of Ceremonies (M), an Observatory (O), and also gathered nine
orange (aristocrat) cards for 45 points at game's end to move
from last place and just edge out Duane Wagner(M), with 98 points
to Duane's 97. This game tied for the highest total scores for
all four players with 356. Perrianne Lurie (MOO!) got seven orange
cards to also move from fouth to first as she edged out Tom DeMarco.
For the second heat, 31 contestants stayed to play again, and
28 new entrants signed up to play at 15 boards. Jason Wagner(M)
won his game with a tournament-low 40 points in the lowest total
for all scores of 136 points. Brothers Michael(O) and David(M)
Fox both won their games on tiebreakers, with David's win also
having the tightest bunching; there were only five points separating
the four players. Marvin Birnbaum(M) scored the most points in
all the four-player games at 107, while David Platnick(MO) gathered
ten orange cards on his way to a 120 point victory in the only
3-player game in this year's tournament. Eric Brosius's win was
unique in that all three of his opponents lost five points at
game's end due to having a card left in their hand. At this point
there were four 2-game winners (Gerald, Tim Hall, Blair Morgan,
and Anne Norton), 15 other first-try winners, and four 2nd-try
winners vying for 16 semi-final slots.
The third heat was held Thursday morning, but 9 AMwas apparently
too early for many WBC attendees, as only eight new and 21 returning
players appeared. To allow all games to be four-player games,
the GM chose to sit out the heat, resulting in seven full boards.
David Burkey(MO) and Rob Kilroy(MM) got their second wins, while
three others claimed first-try victories. For the fourth, and
last, heat there were 60 contestants, 22 of whom were having
their first try. Tim(MO) became the only contestant to gain a
third win. He and Tom(M) both scored 104 points in their wins,
Tom's win was the other game that tied at 356 points for the
most points at the entire board, while Tim's lead of 25 points
over second place Lisa Gutermuth(M) was the largest gap between
1st to 2nd place. Michael(MO) and David Fox again both won their
games.
This year, the GM had plenty of time to "crunch the numbers"
against the new MESE advancement criteria and determined the
16 qualifiers and 25 alternates for the semi-final by Friday
afternoon. Saturday morning at 9 AM saw about 25 hopefuls, bleary-eyed
by the fifth day of WBC, gathering again in Conestoga 3 (by now
the room had recovered its temperature equilibrium) for the semi-final
and Final rounds. Five of the 16 qualifiers didn't (or couldn't)
make it, allowing the GM to go nine names deep into the list
of alternates to get the 16 players to fill the semi-final. Alas,
I was the 22nd alternate, and didn't advance. In the semi-finals
Chris Robbins(M) beat out Matthew Miller(OO), Alan Sudy(M) and
Steven Quade; Debbie Davidson got past Larry York(M), Rob(O)
and Perrianne(MO); Michael(MO) outscored Jay Fox(O, and no relation),
Luke Koleszar, and David Burkey(M); while Anne Norton vanquished
Blair(M), Tim(OO), and Barry Barnes(M). The four finalists then
set up and began right away.
Chris, first in the blue phase on Turn 1, grabbed an Observatory
and used it to get an orange card. Debbie got a Pub, but bought
no points with it then. Anne was first in the orange phase and
was delighted to find a Mistress of Ceremonies as one of the
cards available. On Turn 2, Chris used the Observatory to take
another orange card, while the others all played blue and/or
orange upgrade cards. Turn 3 saw Michael gather a Pub and a Mistress
into his hand, Anne picked up a Judge and Debbie the Senator
upgrade. On Turn 4, Michael got the other Observatory during
the blue phase and played the Mistress, while Debbie and Anne
played their Judges. At the end of Turn 4, Anne was way ahead
at 30 points to Debbie's 13, Michael's 12 and Chris's 7 points.
During the green phase of Turn 5, Anne bought enough blue cards
from the discount row to ensure that that would be the last turn
by exhausting the blue card stack. Debbie and Michael used their
Pubs to buy some extra points, but at the end of the final upgrade
phase, Anne was leading with 53 points. No one gained any end-of-game
points for having more than 10 rubles left, no one lost points
for having cards left in their hand, and only Michael had more
orange cards (six for 21 points) than Anne (five for 15 points).
Anne became the second WBC Saint Petersburg champion with
68 points, over Michael in second place with 50 points, Debbie
in third place with 42 and Chris with 24. This was Anne's sixth
year attending WBC, and the first year she took home wood. Six
is her new lucky number as she also gained victories in the Cleopatra
(and the Society of Architects) and Thurn and Taxis,
giving her household bragging rights over the Saint Petersburg
GM, who hasn't won wood since 1998.
Stats: For the second year, the player who started
first in the Orange Phase on the first turn won the most often
at just over 30% of the games. The player who won had a Mistress
in nearly 75% of the games (40 out of 54, and way up from last
year's 54%), including two winners with both Mistresses and at
least seven of those Mistresses played on the first turn. The
players who won ended with an average of 6.1 orange cards, for
an average of 23 points, while the fourth place finisher averaged
4.9 orange cards for an average of 15 points. Out of the 70 points
players lost at game's end from cards left in hand, 40 points
were lost to a player with an Observatory, while none were lost
by the winner of a game. In 31 of the 54 games played the player
who won was in the lead before adding in the points from unique
orange cards, eight games the eventual winner was trailing in
second before adding in the orange cards points, ten times in
third, and five times a player moved from last to first after
including the points from orange cards. Nearly all of the games
lasted either five or six turns, averaging 5.48 turns per game.
The average score for all players was 59 points; for the winners,
it was 71 points.
Possible change for next year: The Mistress of Ceremonies
seems too powerful, especially on the first turn. Should its
power be lessened? Perhaps it should not earn income on the first
turn.
 |
 |
|
GM Tom DeMarco overlooks the
Final with Chris Robbins |
Debbie Davidson of Nebraska
watches Michael Fox
of Illinois make his play. |
|
Tom DeMarco [2nd Year]
720 Wood lane, Cinaminson,
NJ 08077-3976
NA