titan: the arena  

Updated 11/30/2008

2008 WBC Report   

 2009 Status: pending 2009 GM commitment

Matt Calkins, VA

2008 Champion

Offsite Links

  Laurels

Event History
1997    Peter Staab        72
1998    Brian Sutton      178
1999    Kaarin Engelmann     115
2000    Alan Witte       97
2001    Rebecca Hebner       56
2002    Joe Sposito       45
2003    Brenden Coomes       47
2004     Devin Flawd       63
2005    Robert Kircher       79
2006     Olin Hentz       74
2007    Harry Flawd       89
2008     Matt Calkins     116
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Rebecca Hebner     CO    02     54
  2.  Alan Witte         NJ    00     50
  3.  Joseph Sposito     NJ    02     40
  4.  Harry Flawd        PA    07     38
  5.  Bruce Monnin       OH    06     38
  6.  Kaarin Engelmann   VA    00     35
  7.  Devin Flawd        PA    08     32
  8.  Matt Calkins       VA    08     30
  9.  Gerald Lientz      VA    07     30
 10.  Olin Hentz         CT    06     30
 11.  Brenden Coomes     OH    03     30
 12.  Buddy Sinigaglio   CO    00     30
 13.  Robert Kircher     RI    06     23
 14.  Dan Eshleman       NC    08     18
 15.  Ewan McNay         CT    07     18
 16.  Keith Levy         MD    01     18
 17.  Jerry Ohlinger     NY    99     18
 18.  Rodd Polsky        PA    02     16
 19.  Eric Gorr          VA    00     15
 20.  James Hopkin       CA    02     14
 21.  Jordan Flawd       CT    06     12
 22.  Dan Eshleman       NC    05     12
 23.  Rob Schoenen       PA    04     12
 24.  Josh Campbell      NY    03     12
 25.  Arthur Field       SC    02     12
 26.  Ken Sheffield      VA    01     12
 27.  Craig Melton       VA    99     12
 28.  Josh Githens       SC    00     10
 29.  Steve Cameron      PA    08      9
 30.  Jim Garvey         NY    07      9
 31.  Greg Thatcher      FL    06      9
 32.  Chris Greenfield   NY    03      9
 33.  Scott Buckwalter   MD    01      9
 34.  John Coussis       IL    99      9
 35.  Abby Cocke         MD    04      8
 36.  Brooks Beyma       MD    08      6
 37.  Dennis Mishler     CT    07      6
 38.  Nick Henning       CT    06      6
 39.  Carmen Petruzelli  PA    05      6
 40.  Mark Love          MD    04      6
 41.  Rob Brode          MD    03      6
 42.  Randy Jackson      OH    99      6
 43.  Morio Taketori    JPN    05      4
 44.  Tracy Graf         MD    04      4
 45.  Lance Ribeiro      NH    02      4
 46.  Greg Thatcher      CA    08      3
 47. Jean-Francois Gagne QC    07      3
 48.  Mark Mitchell      VA    03      3
 49.  Gordon Elgart      CA    01      3
 50.  Jason Ley          WA    99      3
 51.  John Poniske Jr    PA    05      2
 52.  Joe Nemet          PA    04      2

2008 Laurelists                                                 Repeating Laurelists: 0

Dan Eshleman, NC
2nd

Devin Flawd, PA
3rd

Steve Cameron, PA
4th

Brooks Beyma, MD
5th

Greg Thatcher, CA
6th


Past Winners

Peter Staab, PA
1997

Brian Sutton, MD
1998

Kaarin Englemann, VA
1999

Alan Witte, NJ
2000

Rebecca Hebner, CO
2001

Joe Sposito, NJ
2002

Brenden Coomes, OH
2003

Devin Flawd, PA
2004

Robert Kircher, RI
2005

Olin Hentz, CT
2006

Harry Flawd, PA
2007

Matt Calkins, VA
2008
     

 

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!


 

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

 GM     Greg Crowe  (6th year)   NA
   gregcrowe@mindspring.com   NA 

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