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The Hydra is looking pretty lonely. |
The finalists consider their wagers. |
Always a titanic struggle ...
The turnout for this year's tournament was staggering. It
figures. I develop a system for more efficient seating that only
handles up to 12 games, and the very first heat has no less than
13. But I'm not really complaining, as we ended up with an almost
30-percent increase over last year, and had more than in all
the years past save one.
The competition in the heats was pretty fierce, with more
two-way and even three-way ties than in recent years. Because
of this, there was more opportunity to express dissatisfaction
at the tie breaker as written in the rules (i.e. the tie goes
to the last one who made a play). Because of this, I am researching
possible alternate tiebreakers, and have started a thread on
this topic at the BoardGameGeek website. Please feel free to
contribute to the discussion at http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/105
From the 33 games in the heats we had 31 winners emerge, with
two winning twice. Fortunately, only 21 of them appeared for
the semis, so I wasn't forced to use tiebreakers, and even allowed
two alternates who also came by to play. Play in the semi-finals
was markedly quick, and we were down to our final five in practically
no time. Of the five games, only one of them could be considered
a blow-out, the others having margins of two points or less,
and one was won by the tiebreaker (see above).
By the end of the first round of the Final, every creature
had a bet on it, but Dan's Ranger ended up dying, possibly because
the others liked the prospect of the draw deck lasting a while.
Dan suffered another blow when his other first-round bet, the
Unicorn went off to pasture, also losing Matt a second-round
bet. So at this point Brooks had two first-round bets surviving,
as did Matt, while Devin and Steve each had one. But, as soon
as Brooks took over backership of the Titan from Steve by adding
his third-round bet to his second, everyone else knew that it
had to go, and go it did. The Cyclops, who had made a surprisingly
long run until this point, was the next to die, taking one of
Brooks' first-round bets with it.
Now the jockeying for the final round began. The surviving
creatures thus far were Devin's Dragon (with secret bets from
Dan and Matt), Matt's Hydra (which hardly ever survives to the
last round, much less with no bets on it past the first round),
Brooks' Troll (with a visible bet from everyone but Matt, as
well as secret bets from Devin and Steve), and Matt's Warlock
(with a secret bet by Brooks). Theoretically, as far as the players
knew every one had a chance to win (some were long shots, requiring
nearly everyone else's secret bets to be dead, but they all were
possible). Unfortunately for everyone else, the awesome power
of the Hydra reared its heads, and Matt managed to kill the Troll
quickly, winning the game in a landslide.
Congratulations to Matt Calkins, our new champion, and I hope
to see even more of you next year!
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GM Greg Crowe has their attention.
If only it were that easy with adults. |
Mark Love lends a hand overseeing
more gladiators. |
Titan: The Arena Junior
In the Juniors event seventeen kids reported for mayhem in
the ring this year, with Rebecca Melton winning for the third
year in a row. The other finalists were:
2nd: Thomas Melton (second again - something tells me they
play some Titan Arena in the Melton household).
3rd: Adam Wojtaszczyk
4th: Willow Menzel
5th: Jordan Shea
6th: Jack Jordan
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