Galaxy  

Updated 11/30/2009

2009 WBC Report  

 2010 Status: pending 2010 GM commitment

Joe Burch, MD

2009 Champion

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Event History
2000    James Pei     96
2001    Steve Cameron     87
2002     Jon Shambeda     75
2003    Rob Winslow     60
2004     Joseph Burch     58
2005    Sean McCulloch     48 
2006    Dan Eshleman     43
2007    John Keating     46
2008    Mark Mitchell     41
2009    Joe Burch     44
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Rob Winslow        NY    09     68
  2.  Joseph Burch       MD    09     62
  3.  Jon Shambeda       PA    02     58
  4.  John Keating       IL    07     54
  5.  Mark Mitchell      VA    09     48
  6.  David Buchholz     MI    08     48
  7.  Sean McCulloch     OH    05     42
  8.  Jed Shambeda       PA    08     38
  9.  Steve Cameron      PA    06     37
 10.  Martin Sample      NH    08     35
 11.  Steve Shambeda     PA    02     32
 12.  James Pei          TX    00     30
 13.  Joel Tamburo       IL    04     27
 14.  Dan Eshleman       NC    06     20
 15.  Craig Melton       VA    07     18
 16.  Kaarin Engelmann   VA    01     18
 17.  Andy Lewis         DE    02     16
 18.  Danielle Zack      MD    08     15
 19.  Rob Kircher        RI    09     12
 20.  Nick Henning       CT    07     12
 21.  Brendan Crowe      VA    00     12
 22.  Phil White         MD    05      9
 23.  Andres Dunn        MD    04      9
 24.  Rebecca Hebner     CA    08      6
 25.  Jon Miller         DC    00      6
 26.  Rob Buccheri       MD    09      4
 27.  Bill Place         PA    02      4
 28.  William Burch      MD    04      3
 29.  Rick Young         NC    03      3
 30.  Anthony Musella    VA    01      3
 31.  John Ellsworth     IL    00      3
 32.  Tim Evinger        PA    09      2

2009 Laurelists                                                Repeating Laurelists 

Rob Kircher, RI
2nd

Rob Winslow, NY
3rd

Mark Mitchell, VA
4th

Rob Buccheri, MD
5th

Tim Evinger, PA
6th


Past Winners

James Pei, TX
2000

Steve Cameron, PA
2001

Jon Shambeda, PA
2002

Rob Winslow, NY
2003

Joe Burch, MD
2004, 2009

Sean McCulloch, OH
2005

Dan Eshleman, NC
2006

John Keating, IL
2007

Mark Mitchell, VA
2008
 

Rebecca Hebner and Joanna Melton war against David Platnick.

Bill Place is about to lose his Secret Base to Laura Brown's play.

Year of the Tie Breaker ...

I have to say its one thing to be the GM of a WBC tournament, but when you're also the defending champion, it seems like everybody's gunning for you even more so than before. In one of his heats the GM scored a total of five points and had to rely on a tie breaker to win a game in another heat to qualify for the semis. In that semi-final, Tim Evinger had the last card play to end the game and go to the Final or allow yours truly to continue the defense of my 2008 title. He had a choice of playing a card that would kill the Divergence, which was his secret base, or a card that would kill another world in which he had a lot of points. He chose the former, killing off his own secret base and reducing the game to yet, another tie breaker! In the end, Tim still had a few Divergence cards in his hand which were not as valuable as they would've been had he spared them. So, the "lovable" GM went on to play in another Galaxy Final by virtue of having more points in his hand at the end. The fact is, 2009 could very easily be called the Year of the Tie Breaker. I didn't calculate the exact numbers, but it seemed like this tournament had more games decided by tie breaker than any of the previous four years I have been the GM. In fact, in one 5-player game there was a FOUR-way tie for first with each player knotted at 11 points! With that, it was only fitting that the Galaxy Final, for the second year in a row, had to be decided by a tie breaker. Not only that, but it broke the record for the smallest margin of victory as well. Joe Burch edged out Rob Kircher to become the first two-time champion by only two tie breaker points when all of the totals were added from each player's hands!

Including the semis and Final, there were a total of 22 games played, and as usual there was much balance in evidence. The Erithizonians and the Myrmidon were eliminated 16 times each and the Cylor was the leading survivor, but was still victimized nine times. Not surprising was that the Cylor was chosen the most (14 times) and the Myrmidon the least (four times) as secret bases. However, much more surprising was the Erithizonians being chosen as a secret base 12 times. In addition, there were two very brutal games that ended with the winner scoring only eight points. And one of them was a 4-player game which tend to score higher, so this was one where points were at a premium. Another interesting note is that on more than one occasion, the winner eliminated only one world. - the last one to end the game. So, it just goes to show, the key to winning Galaxy isn't always being a death star, but when you do your dirty work.


Defending champ and GM Mark Mitchell fends off the intrusions of Consul Andy Latto and ex-champ Sean McCulloch.

Rob Winslow, Anna Marion, Kaarin Engelmann and Steve Cameron wage the war of the worlds.
 GM      Mark Mitchell  [5th Year]   NA 
    MarkM5963@aol.com    NA  

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