|
|
Phil Rennert passes through pod play
with a 3-0 slate. Jeff Mullet and Peter Eldridge complete the
round robin pod matches in the background. |
Huston Johnson and Erik Arneson battle
it out. Behind them, Barrington Beavis loses to Nicole Reiff.
He would redeem himself against the elder Reiff later. |
Where are the Lollipop Guild When
You Need Them?
40 players - the same number we've had in the last three odd-numbered
years - yielded ten group winners to advance to the elimination
rounds. This year proved unusual in that only three of the ten
- Chris Yaure, Sean McCulloch and Bruce Reiff - made it through
the preliminaries unscathed with three wins. Four of the 2-1
players therefore needed to survive a play-in round to make the
elite eight.
In the first playoff game Barrington Beavis defeated Gordon
Rodgers. Barrington's only defeat heretofore came at the hands
of Nicole Reiff. Unfortunately for her dad, that proved to be
the only Reiff that had his number. In the other qualifying game
Rob Kircher downed Dan Strock.
This set up quarter-finals of Barrington vs Reiff, Eric Filipkowski
vs Andy Latto, Phil Rennert vs Chris Yaure and McCulloch vs Kircher.
There were 96 championship plaques spread amongst the ten qualifiers,
showing that while Battleline is a simple game to learn,
there is an element of skill involved. Of course, Bruce had nearly
half of those himself.
McCulloch remained unbeaten while slipping past Kircher. Meanwhile,
Yaure set up a clash of the unbeatens in the next round by dispatching
wargamer extraordinaire Rennert.
In the upper half of the bracket Filipkowski sent Euro master
Latto packing. But in the game of the day, heck the game of the
decade in some quarters, Barrington crushed the plaque king and
thereby gained gaming immortality and Greenwood's eternal gratitude
as the man who ended "the streak". Not just the defending
champion's four-year Battleline streak, but his "win-at-least-one-title-every
year" streak which had gone on since the beginning of time.
Bruce had the traitor, deserter and fog and STILL couldn't manage
to win. Outside in the corridor, Don Greenwood was doing his
happy dance, because with this defeat, followers of "the
streak" knew that this year Bruce was truly vulnerable.
The only thing missing was a parade of munchkins breaking into
chorus with "The Wicked Witch is Dead".
In the semis, Barrington continued his roll by dispatching
Eric Filipkowski and in the battle of unbeatens, perennial Battleline
bridesmaid McCulloch denied Yaure. In the Final, the Barrington
train ran out of steam and Sean pulled off a rare win for Cabbies
in 2011. If Bruce didn't win, he could at least take solace in
that he can visit "his" Battleline plaque since
it now resides just a few miles from his house in Columbus!
|
|
Sean McCulloch tops Chase Johnson
en route to a 6-0 record and his first Battleline title. |
Lyman Moquin battles 2006 champ Thomas
Browne. Behind them, Chris Moffa and Andy Latto complete pod
play. |
|