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Rob Kircher, Elaine Pearson, Jennifer
Gorman, Jennifer Thoma and Jason Levine |
Janet Ottey entertains Chis Gnech
with some humorous pre-Final trash talk. |
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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
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All aboard! |
Thomas gets the royal presentation
treatment from GM Ewan McNay. |
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