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Thinning the herd in the opening rounds. |
Allen Hill again falls to the eventual
champion in the semifinals. |
Finns Take the Early Team Lead
...
Four swiss rounds were played to advance the top eight players
to elimination rounds. The tiebreaker was points based on countries
played with the less frequently played countries from 2011 worth
more. This year each player was only allowed to play each of
the eight different countries once.
The first three rounds were played round-robin in 4-player
pods to move the rounds along briskly. After the third round,
only those with multiple wins played. Two of the 2-1 players
managed a win to move into the top eight. The choice of countries
played was more balanced as France and Russia were played 21
times. Only the US was played less than 13 times. The W-L records
for the countries in winning percentage order were Russia 14-7,
Ottoman Empire 12-7, Spain 10-6, France 11-10, United States
4-4, Britain 7-8, Prussia 5-10, and Austria 1-12.
Four unbeatens advanced with four 3-1 players after tiebreakers
were applied. Only two players, the Hill father and son duo,
who made the SE rounds last year repeated this year.
The Quarterfinals generated the following results:
Nathan Hill's Spanish defeated Dave Stiffler's Prussians.
Allen Hill's Prussians defeated Greg Ottoman's Austrians
Mikko Raimi's French defeated Mathieu Pare-Paquin's Ottomans
Brad Raszewski's French defeated Andrew Long's Prussians.
Brad's British then defeated Nathan's Austrians in the semis
while Mikko defeated Allen in the same matchup. For the third
year in a row, a father and son made it to the semis and once
again went no further. And again, son Nathan's higher points
allowed him to scrape past his father for third place.
Brad had his choice of Austrians and Ottomans left to play
in the Final. Mikko was down to the Austrians and US. The biggest
die roll therefore was before the game even started. Mikko won
the roll took the Austrians. Looking at the results from the
swiss portion this might not have been the best country, but
historically it had been a stronger choice than the US. The end
result was Mikko's first WBC title and a good start for the Finnish
team which won their first first two events as this was Mikko's
team game.
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Brad Raszewski stops Nathan Hill in
the semifinals as the father and son team again are stopped in
the penultimate round. |
GM Any Lewis watches Brad Raszewski
fall to Mikko Raimi who scores for the Finns in the team tournament. |
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