|
|
Bert Schoose (right) continues Jason
Levine's chartermembership in the never-was club in pod #3 as
Jay Roake and Kevin Youells wait on the slow-pokes to finish. |
Phil Rennert (left) and Doug Galullo
battle to no avail in pod #4 since Kate Taillon will have their
number after taking care of Barrington Beavis. |
Not Again!
Battleline continued its' remarkable consistency as
40 folks gathered to compete for the 2009 title. We quickly broke
into groups of four and the preliminary round began.
In group #1, yours truly, went 3-0 including victories over
Great Campaigns expert Ed Beach and Dan "not the
legend" Hoffman.
In group #2 Aaron Fuegi went 3-0 over Defense Minister Steve
Cuccaro and the GM's daughter. Nicole did manage a victory over
said Defense Minister and was the only one of the group to NOT
lose to Aaron by breakthrough.
Group #3 featured new Football Strategy Champ Bert
Schoose dominating Jay Roake, perennial Battleline never
was Jason Levine and former champ Kevin Youells with three breakthroughs.
Group #4 featured last year's runner-up Kate Taillon defeating
Doug Galullo, Phil Rennert and my all time favorite WBC name
Barrington Beavis, heh heh, heh heh
Group #5 had John Corrado going 2-1 over Rob Kilroy, San
Juan expert Thomas Browne, and Bill Banks.
Joe Yaure advanced via tie breaker from group 6.
Dad Chris Yaure handed three breakthrough losses to Barry
Shutt, Steve Oksienik and Steve Raszewski in group #7.
Sean McCulloch managed to advance on a tie breaker over Jason
White, Phillip Sauerand Rick Byrens in group #8.
In Group #9, two-time champ Arthur Field went 2-1 but took
the tie breaker and escaped over James Tyne, Charles Stucker
and young Kevin Emery.
And in our last group Wizard Quest Master Paul Bolduc
took out Rick Scialli, Austin Walzl and Kaarin Engleman.
That created the following elimination matches for the serious
portion of our program: Bert vs Kate, Chris vs Paul, Joe vs Bruce,
Arthur vs Sean and John vs Aaron. Kate, Chris, Bruce and Aaron
all advanced. Sean and Arthur always seem to face each other
and the battles are epic. This year was no exception. In a back
and forth battle Arthur barely prevailed and sent Sean packing
to marry off another sister.
In accordance with WBC rules I got the bye as the defending
champ and odd man out in the next round as Kate battled Chris
and Aaron faced off against Arthur - former laurelists all. Kate
came up a little short on cards again and Arthur advanced after
a good tussle. As the next previous champ, Arthur was given the
second bye to the Final round.
Bruce was able to dispatch Chris with the timely use of a
tactics card to turn the tide in the semi-final.
That set the scene for a battle of the champs from four of
the last five years. Arthur was under pressure from the start
as Bruce laid down a 7-8-9 red straight flush and a higher three
of a kind in the first two flags. Arthur, then needing to protect
against a breakthrough put the purple 10-8 in the third flag.
Bruce countered with three 1's and a prayer. Arthur was able
to use the Traitor card, but Bruce was countered with the Deserter.
Arthur put down Alexander for the purple 9, but Bruce dropped
Mud and the purple 7 was already claimed. When Bruce dropped
the fourth 1, he broke through and collected his third straight
Battleline championship. It would be the only addition
to his collection in what would be a lean year for the Plaque
Master. And to think Arthur could have been the one to stop the
wood streak ... oh, the ever living shame of it all.
|
|
Uh-oh! As if Bruce wasn't enough ...
now there are two of them. |
Aaron Fuegi takes down Kremlin
master Cuccaro in pod #2. |
|