titan 2  

Updated 11/26/2008

2008 WBC Report    

 2009 Status: pending 2009 GM commitment

Aaron Fuegi, MA

2008 Champion

Offsite Links

  Laurels

Event History
1994    Paul Goliwas      26
1995    Bruno Wolff      26
1996    Brian Sutton      17
1997    Brian Sutton      29
1998    Ed Rothenheber      39
1999    Jason Ley     32
2000    Brian Sutton     36
2001    Andrew Gross     30
2002    Dan Strock     36
2003    Aaron Fuegi     25
2004    David des Jardins     24
2005    David des Jardins     24
2006    John Sharp III     26
2007     Sean McCulloch     22
2008    Aaron Fuegi     29
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Aaron Fuegi        MA    08    118
  2.  David des Jardins  CA    08    101
  3.  Brian Sutton       MD    08     69
  4.  Dan Strock         PA    06     55
  5.  Andrew Gross       WA    03     49
  6.  Jason Ley          WA    08     35
  7.  John Sharp III     FL    06     32
  8.  Ed Rothenheber     MD    08     30
  9.  Sean McCulloch     OH    07     30
 10.  David Finberg      MA    03     30
 11.  Clifford Smith     PA    05     28
 12.  David Platnick     VA    01     24
 13.  Bruno Wolff        WI    05     20
 14.  Jeff Cornett       FL    06     18
 15.  Bill Dufton        CA    02     16
 16.  Hide Hisanaga    Japan   07     12
 17.  Ben Foy            MD    02     12
 18.  Chuck Nail         GA    02     12
 19.  Larry Lingle       PA    01     12
 20.  Geofrrey Pounder   ON    07      9
 21.  Steve Koleszar     VA    01      8
 22.  Dave Burkey        PA    04      4
 23.  Nick Page          ON    08      3
 24.  Rick Northey       MA    05      3
 25.  Jason Russ         VA    99      2

2008 Laurelists                                          Repeating Laurelists:

Ed Rothenheber, MD
2nd

David desjardins, CA
3rd

Jason Ley, WA
4th

Brian Sutton, MD
5th

Nick Page, ON
6th


Past Winners

Paul Goliwas, MD
1994

Bruno Wolff, WI
1995

Brian Sutton, MD
1996-1997, 2000

Ed Rothenheber, MD
1998

Jason Ley, WA
1999

Andrew Gross, WA
2001

Dan Strock, PA
2002

Aaron Fuegi, MA
2003, 2008

David des Jardins, CA
2004-2005

John Sharp III, FL
2006

Sean McCulloch, OH
2007
       

Craig Melton battles Bruno Wolff.

Ex-champs Ed Rothenberger and Aaron Fuegi play for a second title.

Intermittent Titan ...

Wednesday morning ranks as one of the most exciting moments at WBC every year, as the 2-player Titan hopefuls gather to see who they will play in the first round. The selection method is random, with the only constraint being that past champions will not be meeting each other in the first round. Happily, we had eight of the 11 former champs on hand. Once first round pairings have been made, the tournament bracket is created, placing each ongoing game into a random slot, with games including past champions into seeded locations within the bracket.

2008 saw an increase in players from the previous year, and there was an odd number, meaning that one player would not have a first round opponent. As it turned out, there was also one player who requested to be included and would be unable to make the 10 am start time. It does not always work out this way. Compare with last year when two players who requested a late start that also happened to be roommates were required to play each other in the first round.
The first round included two upsets, as past champions Dan Strock and Sean McCulloch were ousted by Nick Page and Rick Northey, respectively. Six other past champions made it through the first round. Mike Rogozinski outlasted Eric Monte in the longest game of the tournament at 7 hours 50 minutes. As an experiment to confirm average length of the matches, players were asked to record the start and stop time of each match. After 28 games in 2008, the average length of time to finish a match was found to be 2 hours 28 minutes. The two fastest games were both recorded by Aaron Fuegi, who has demonstrated a propensity for rolling sixes on the first move or two and recruiting warlocks. His semi-final win took a mere 20 minutes. It is this variability in the duration of matches that makes it impossible to have regularly scheduled starting times other than in the first round.

In the second round, Nick, and the six past champions each won their games, while Rick advanced with the only bye of the bracket. One of the more interesting final scores was Geoff Pounder 662 to Ed Rothenheber's total of 69, with Ed winning the final battle. It is pretty unusual to outscore your opponent ten to one and still lose. David Finberg, arguably the most skilled player in the field who had not previously won the tournament, bowed out to two-time champion Brian Sutton. In the quarter-finals, Brian lost to another two-time champion David DesJardins, Bruno Wolff was put out of his misery in an hour by Ed Rothenheber, Jason Ley spent nearly four hours advancing past Rick Northey in a remarkably low scoring 246 to 108 match for that length of time, and Aaron schooled Nick Page in 25 minutes. The presence of six past champions in the quarters made this the most powerful field in memory for this stage of the tournament. Both semi-finals were quick, but noonetheless interesting. Jason moved first against Aaron. In his first three moves, he recruited a troll, a second gargoyle, and a Cyclops in his Titan stack. Aaron rolled a 6 each time and recruited two warlocks, the second in a tower within striking distance of Jason's Titan. Aaron did not know it was Jason's Titan stack, he was actually convinced it was the Angel instead, but the warlocks this early in the game plus the Angel call would be decisive against either lord, even six on seven. On his third turn he attacked the stack that he could reach. This is the match that lasted twenty minutes. Jason would recoup later by winning the multi-player tournament.

In the semi-final pitting David against Ed, the decisive battle occurred in the jungle. David attacked with two Cyclops and two gargoyles against Ed's three Cyclops. Since the attacker will eventually be facing a fourth Cyclops at defender's fourth movement turn, this battle only makes sense if the Angel is called into battle. David made his first kill on attacker's third movement turn and was ready with the Angel, but an unusual situation developed. If Ed could kill the last attacking creatures after this next movement phase, it would be too late for the Angel. But the new recruit would need three movement points to get into the fray, and without the additional dice, the attackers would not all perish. So Ed down-recruited to the Gargoyle, which was able to fly the needed three spaces, and the extra four dice provided enough hits to finish the last attacking creature. No Angel summon, Ed wins. However, even more important was the 60 points gained, putting Ed at 88. He was able to attack a small stack with his Titan stack shortly after this battle, earning the Angel in his Titan stack and giving him the firepower needed to attack and defeat David's Titan within a few turns. 

The most unusual aspect of the Final was the intermittent play. Both players had alternative events at noon on Friday. They set up at 11:10 and played for fifty minutes, adjourning until they could get back together. They played an additional hour and a half from 4:30 to six, followed by a second adjournment for additional WBC events. They reconvened at 10pm, where Aaron Fuegi prevailed in a final battle, ending at 10:23, final score Aaron 361, Ed 576. The playing time was 2 hours 35 minutes but the elapsed time to completion was just short of 12 hours.

It was a very enjoyable year, and the 2-player tournament ran smoothly. I look forward to seeing all of you again next year.

 GM      Rich Atwater  [5th Year]  NA 
    kmarma@comcast.net   (253) 241-6829

2008 Preview Page | View the Icon Key | Return to main BPA page