Ticket to Ride

ticket to ride [Updated October 2006]

2006 WBC Report
2007 Status: pending 2007 GM commitment

Eric Monte, NY

2006 Champion

Offsite links:

Event History

2004    Alan Kaiser     151

2005    Blair Morgen     160

2006    Eric Monte     157

Euro Quest Event History

2004    Daniel Karp     45

2005    Tom Dunning     39

2006    Virginia Colin     49

Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Daniel Karp        MD    04     48
  2.  Eric Monte         NY    06     40
  3.  Blair Morgen       NJ    05     40
  4.  Robert Cranshaw    RI    05     36
  5.  Alan Kaiser        OH    04     30
  6.  Virginia Colin     VA    06     26
  7.  Andrew Metrick     PA    06     24
  8.  Michael Richey     VA    06     20
  9.  Tom Dunning        NY    05     20
 10.  Tom McCorry        VA    04     18
 11.  Mike Backstrom     MN    06     16
 12.  Jim Fishkin        FL    05     16
 13.  Jeff Meyer         MA    06     12
 14.  Jean Francis Gagne QC    05     12
 15.  Arthur Field       SC    04     12
 16.  Tamara McGraw      VA    04     12
 17.  Tom DeMarco        NJ    04      9
 18.  Cathy Kratz        ID    04      9
 19.  Larry Loicano      PA    06      8
 20.  Gordon Rodgers     PA    06      8
 21.  Bob Heinzmann      FL    05      8
 22.  Eric Haas          MD    04      6
 23.  Kathleen McCorry   NJ    04      6
 24.  Tom Stokes         NJ    06      6
 25.  Amy O'Neal         VA    06      4
 26.  Bill Duke          MD    06      4
 27.  Barb Flaxington    NJ    05      4
 28.  Marsha Hamel       NJ    05      4
 29.  Mark Guttag        VA    04      3
 30.  Davyd Field        SC    04      3
 31.  Bill Salvatore     MD    06      2
 32.  Chris Entwistle    MD    05      2

2006 Laurelists

Andrew Metrick, PA
2nd

Mike Backstrom, MN
3rd

Jeff Meyer, MA
4th

Gordon Rodgers, PA
5th

Bill Duke, MD
6th

Past Winners

Alan Kaiser, OH
2004

Blair Morgen, NJ
2005


Games with successful sequels such as Ticket to Ride, TTR: Europe and Marklin may use them in the event at the players option with the original as the default version.	Finalists (clockwise from lower left) Andrew Metrick, Mike Backstrom, Eric Monte, GM Tom McCorry, Jeff Meyer and Gordon Rodgers plot the Final destinations.

Riding High ...

In its third appearance at WBC, Ticket to Ride in all its versions assumed the title of biggest event at the convention. The third running of the Ticket to Ride tournament also saw the addition of Ticket to Ride: Marklin to the versions eligible to be played during the tournament. While each round saw only one or two tables of TTR:M, Ticket to Ride: Europe saw an increase in popularity from last year with four or five tables in each heat. The original version however was still the most popular version played throughout the event. The Tuesday heat was the biggest with 21 tables and 88 players. Dave Platnick took the honors for the highest score in any game with 172 points in TTR:M while Bill Salvatore claimed the honors for high score in the original game with 158 points. The lowest winning score in a defensive-minded game belonged to Rick Dutton with 79 points.

There were 36 players who won their first heat game. Three ladies from this group had multiple wins: Valerie Hall, Kathy Kilroy, and Katherine McCorry. In the end we had exactly 25 winners arrive for the semi-final, avoiding the need for a die-roll to determine advancement. It came down to five finalists: Andrew Metrick, Mike Backstrom, Jeff Meyer, Gordon Rodgers, and Eric Monte. Eric made it to the Final table by virtue of the completed tickets tie-breaker in a TTR:E semi-final over Bill Duke earning Bill 6th place laurels instead.

The Final featured lots of mid-game builds and several ticket draws. Andrew started with Helena/Los Angeles and the Los Angeles/New York City tickets. Mike held the Montreal/Atlanta and the Kansas City/Houston ducats. Eric started with Los Angeles/Miami and Portland/Nashville. Jeff held Denver/Pittsburgh and Chicago/New Orleans at the start. Finally Gordon started with Toronto/Miami and Duluth/El Paso tickets. In the end, Eric rode his original two passes plus Seattle/Los Angeles and the longest route to a win with 124 points. Andrew took second (113, with two made tickets), followed by Mike in third (94, five made tickets), Jeff in fourth (86, three made tickets) and Gordon in fifth (68, two made, one missed ticket).

Next year will feature the addition of the new TTR: USA 1910 expansion to the tournament which provides new tickets and the addition of a "most tickets completed" bonus to better balance the original game. Thanks again to all the players for making this one of the biggest and friendliest tournaments each year.