ace of aces 

Updated 11/14/2009

2009 WBC Report  

 2010 Status: pending December Membership Trial Vote

Richard Irving, CA

2009 Champion

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Event History
2004    Bruce Young     48
2005     Richard Irving     33
2006    George Deutsch     33
2007     George Deutsch     41
2008     George Deutsch     29
2009    Richard Irving     32
 Laurels

 Rank Name              From  Last  Total
   1. George Deutsch     MD    08     60
   2. Richard Irving     CA    09     56
   3. Grant LaDue        NY    09     36
   4. Bruce Young        SC    07     26
   5. Chris Villeneuve   MI    08     22
   6. Michael Schoose    IL    09     20
   7. Doug Porterfield   VA    07     14
   8. Dan Lawall         WA    06     14
   9. Phil Barcafer      PA    05     12
  10. Bill Ashbaugh      NY    09     10
  11. Paul Weintraub     MD    04      8
  12. Craig Yope         MI    09      8
  13. Ray Stakenas Sr    MI    05      6
  14. Kevin Brown        GA    06      4
  15. Ray Stakenas Jr    MI    05      4
  16. James Pei          TX    04      4
  17. David Zande        MI    08      2

2009 Laurelists                                        Repeating Laurelists 

Grant LaDue, NY
2nd

Michael Schoose, IL
3rd

Joseph Belyeu, AL
4th

Bill Ashbaugh, NY
5th

Craig Yope, MI
6th


Past Winners

Bruce Young, SC
2004

Richard Irving, CA
2005, 2009

George Deutsch, MD
2006-08

 

Grant LaDue (left) and Ilan Woll dogfight in comfort. Did Richthofen amd Brown have it this good?

GM Doug Porterfield (right) duels with
Chris Villeneuve during a late night circus heat.

Snoopy's Roof Needs Patching Again ...

Goggles were donned, scarves were wrapped, and engines primed.  The WBC Ace of Aces flying battle was on.  Pilots were able to fly throughout the week and dogfight whenever and wherever they found opposition.  Daily scheduled Flying Circuses provided specific times for target rich environments in case pilots failed to manage chance encounters during the rest of the day.  The Circuses also allowed new pilots to learn the game and play in minutes (just like real WWI pilots).

Many dogfights occurred during the week.  New pilots arose and defeated past champions and multi-time finalists.  Joe Belyeu learned during the week and, in his first practice flight, defeated past Champion Richard Irving, who had just taught him how to play.  In an unusual reversal, Chris Villeneuve went from being a frequent Finalist to being shot down in six flights and only missed a similar fate in his seventh dogfight due to the pilots losing each other in the clouds with him down on points.  Most of his flights were against pilots that made ace at his expense and thereby qualified for this year's Final Circus.

The top six pilots qualified for the Final Circus based on the results of their earlier dogfights.  Each dogfight result is awarded points and the average result of the dogfights is used to place the pilots.  The Final Circus is a round robin with each pilot flying against each of the other five finalists for five rounds of dogfights.

Round 1: Grant Ladue looking to get over the hump and surpass his previous consecutive 2nd place finishes, started strong against Craig Yope.  Two moves into the dogfight Grant was up 4-0 and won 7-2.  Richard Irving was locked in a tough duel with Joseph Belyeu, deadlocked at 4-4, when Richard pulled away to win 6-4.  Bill Asbaugh and Michael Schoose had to go overtime as they fought to a 6-6 stalemate. Bill managed the next shooting position to win 8 ­ 6.

Round 2: Craig rebounded to strike first against Richard for 2 points, but Irving recovered to win 6-4.  Michael, off the overtime dogfight, flew another tight battle against Joseph, eventually succeeding 6-5.  The last dogfight also was tight as Grant outflew Bill 6-5 to post his second win.

Round 3: Michael flew the best match of the Circus against Richard to record one of only two whitewashes in the Final Circus with a 6-0 shootdown that provided Richard's first defeat. Grant remained unbeaten with a shootdown of Joseph 6-2.  In the longest dogfight of the Final, Craig, flying the Sopwith Camel for the first time, fell to earth again as Bill won 6-5.

Round 4: With both needing a win to stay within hailing distance of Grant, Bill flew against Richard.  The latter prevailed 7-3.  Michael took a 3-2 lead over the unbeaten Grant, but could not finish off the leader.  Grant rebounded for the rest of the damage and won going away, 6-3. Craig and Joseph traded damage with Craig eventually taking a 4-2 lead in a protracted duel.  However, Joseph battled back to tie at 4 and then ended with a victory shot to win 6-4.

Round 5: With fist and second to be decided in the final dogfight, the others completed their flights for "loser laurels". Craig bookended three strong but losing dogfights with blowout losses. Michael ended Craig's quest for his first Final's victory with a 6-2 shootdown. Joseph flew a strong dogfight to record the second whitewash of the Circus, 6-0, against Bill.

The last match between Grant and Richard was for the wood.  While Grant entered undefeated, Richard would win with a victory despite his 3-1 record as the first tie breaker is the head-to-head contest.  Both pilots flew conservatively and danced around for several turns.  However, Richard soon found an opening and gained a tailing position on Grant. Grant continued to bob and weave to avoid any damage. Then Grant tried a U-turn and found that Richard was flying to the same spot as they both put two points of damage on each other (the famous page 20).  Once again Richard gained the upper hand and a tailing position.  Grant successfully avoided for several turns and even lost the tail briefly, but finally Richard found the right maneuver and hit Grant for two more damage points. Grant again got in a poor position and, after a set of turns, tried to sprint out and away, but Richard tried a fast, late left and applied more damage to Grant, now down 4-2. Grant, still trying to find Richard's weakness, moved in front of Richard. Unfortunately for Grant, Richard decided on a slow, straight move to find Grant directly in front for the killing shot.  With the shootdown, Richard won his second WBC Ace of Aces title.

Grant Ladue finished second for the third straight year.  Still, not bad considering he only learned the game at WBC three years ago.

Craig Yope gets the drop on his opponent during a qualifying circus heat. Craig flew well enough to qualify for sixth place laurels.

Ace of Aces is just one of many out-of-print games to live on at WBC, but the only one that is played out of a book.

 GM      Doug Porterfield  [4th Year]   NA
   doug.porterfield@auatac.com   703-930-0295

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