trans america   

Updated 11/17/2011

2011 WBC Report     

 2012 Status: pending December Membership Trial Vote

Janet Ottey, PA

2011 Champion

Links

  Laurels 

Event History
2004    Kevin Wojtaszczyk     44
2006    Tony Vickery     48
2007    Ken Gutermuth     47
2008    Laurel Stokes     56
2009    Roni Breza     55
2010    Patrick Shea     54
2011    Janet Ottey     58
 Laurels

 Rank Name             From Last Total
   1. Ken Gutermuth     TX   10    62
   2. Janet Ottey       PA   11    28
   3. Patrick Shea      VA   10    24
   4. Roni Breza        VA   09    20
   5. Laurel Stokes     NJ   08    20
   6. Tony Vickery      bc   06    20
   7. Kevin Wojtaszczyk NY   06    20
   8. Matt Calkins      VA   08    14
   9. Chris Gnech       PA   11    12
  10. Perrianne Lurie   PA   10    12
  11. April Gardner     VA   08    12
  12. Scott Nerney      RI   07    12
  13. Sean McCulloch    OH   07    10
  14. Nick Smith        uk   11     8
  15. Rob Flowers       MD   10     8
  16. Edward Fu         NY   09     8
  17. Karen McCulloch   OH   07     8
  18. Kathy Stroh       DE   06     8
  19. Fred Minard       PA   04     8
  20. Rob Kircher       RI   11     6
  21. Eric Monte        NY   09     6
  22. Virginia Colin    VA   08     6
  23. Andy Latto        MA   06     6
  24. Cary Morris       NC   11     4
  25. Norman Rule       MD   09     4
  26. William Duke      MD   04     4
  27. Jennifer Gorman   PA   11     2
  28. Jeff Cornett      FL   10     2
  29. Ben Gardner       VA   09     2
  30. Daniel Ottey      PA   08     2
  31. Michelle Hymowitz MD   07     2
  32. Aurora Pack       CO   06     2
  33. Katherine McCorry VA   04     2

2011 Laurelists                                                 Repeating Laurelists:

Chris Gnech, PA
2nd

Nick Smith, uk
3rd

Rob Kircher, RI
4th

Cary Morris, NC
5th

Jennifer Gorman, PA
6th

Past Winners

Kevin Wojtaszczyk, NY
2004

Tony Vickery, BC
2006

Ken Gutermuth, NC
2007

Laurel Stokes, NJ
2008

Roni Breza, VA
2009

Patrick Shea, VA
2010

Janet Ottey, PA
2011
     

Rob Kircher, Elaine Pearson, Jennifer Gorman, Jennifer Thoma and Jason Levine

Janet Ottey entertains Chis Gnech with some humorous pre-Final trash talk.

Stand-in GM Ken Gutermuth and three of his finalists.

Engineers gotta construct tunnels between moves.
Gotta Love those Tie-breakers

Sunday morning at WBC is the time for packing cars and hitting the road to return to the real world—at least for most. A lucky few struggle to complete the last step in one more round for a championship, but those falling in neither of the above categories head to TransAmerica for one last gaming fix (or at least they should)!

Many consider it a disadvantage to move first in a round, so the "house rules" require each player to go first for one round. In the case of a tie, the player who scored the fewest points while going first wins. If there is still a tie, the scores in the second round are compared, and this process continues until there is a clear winner. We had ten 5-player and two 4-player games in the first round, with the winners advancing to a pair of 6-player semi-final tables. The top two scores from each would advance to a 4-player Final. Family members were separated in the first round.

Both winners in the preliminary 4-player tables advanced with five points, which was bested only by Janet Ottey, advancing from her 5-player table with just four points. The highest advancing score was earned by Allyson Thoma, who advanced despite getting seven points in a single round. The most common advancing score was five this year, from both of the 4-player and one of the 5-player tables.

At the first semi-final table, Cary Morris scored 0 in the second and third rounds to earn a bit of a lead, having three points less than his opponents. In the next two rounds, Janet Ottey managed to score back-to-back 0s as well, leaving Cary at 7 and Janet at 8, the next closest being Chris Gnech at 11. In the last round, Chris earned only one point for a total of 12, but, Janet pulled out the win by earning only three points (11 total), edging Cary's 13 total with a last round of six.

The other semi-final table found Nick Smith in the driver's seat with 0 points after two rounds and his closest opponent trailing by six. In the third round, Rob Kircher went out with a move that also connected Jason Levine, resulting in both players earning 0 points in the round. Nick managed to go out again in the fourth and sixth round, with Rob taking the fifth. The others weren't far behind, but it's difficult to compete when you don't end the round at least once.

And thus, the Final table was set with Janet Ottey, Chris Gnech, Nick Smith, and Rob Kircher. At this table, it appears that connecting paid off - Chris connected to others five times, and Janet six times, and both finished the game with six points to Nick and Rob's nine. Janet won the tiebreaker by going out when she went both first and second for her first WBC championship! Heretofore, Janet had been a weekend warrior at WBC but, since she was the only returning laurelist to make the Final, plans to come back for a full week in 2012.


 Trans America Junior

There were 21 little train travellers this year for GM Ewan McNay's Junior tournament. Thomas Morris proved to be the best. Other accomplished train riders were

2nd: Mandy Mossman

3rd: Buddy Sands

4th: Darcy Collinson

5th: Caleb Welker

6th: Allyson Thoma

All aboard!

Thomas gets the royal presentation treatment from GM Ewan McNay.
 GM      Lisa Gutermuth  [5th Year]   NA
    NA   NA

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