Carol Haney and Emily Bacon	GM Andy Latto and Chris Kizer

Changing of the Guard ...

Better Late Than Never ...

A change to a 3-heat format for 2012 meant that either two wins or a win in the first heat entered and a second in another heat were needed to qualify for the semifinals. There was one no-show in the top 16, so five of the six players with a first-heat win and a second joined ten double winners and three-time winner Alex Bove in the semifinals. The competition was tough; the three former champions in attendance all qualified, along with two other former finalists, a 2-time Euroquest champion, and two former Euroquest semifinalists. That added up to half the field having been former players at a BPA Final.

The semifinals presented a difficult GM problem. Shortly after one of the games had concluded, the players realized that the winner, Randy Buehler, had used the Cartwright on his last turn despite having no cards in hand, while the rules specify that the Postmaster is the only option with an empty hand. Other players had not scored their final route, knowing that there would be another chance because Randy could not Cartwright (and then forgot this detail a moment later when he used the Cartwright anyway). Disqualifying Randy and awarding the win to the runner-up wasn't a reasonable option, because the score of the player who failed to score his final route, knowing that the game could not end, was artificially low. And the game could not be reconstructed accurately enough to determine what would have happened if Randy had made a legal move and the game continued. Perhaps the only thing that could be done would be to say that the time for correcting errors had expired when the score was agreed to by all, but it felt wrong to award the win based on an illegal move that gave a player a strong advantage. Finally, all the players in the semifinal agreed to call the game a "no result" and play a second game. Randy proved that his ability was not dependent on misunderstanding the rules, as he won the replay as well, and we had our four finalists, albeit much later. I commend all players in this semifinal for their sportsmanship in agreeing to what I think was the fairest resolution of a difficult situation.

But the replay delayed schedule, and those involved only agreed to replay if this would not conflict with their ability to play in the Saint Petersburg elimination rounds. So there was a break, while Amy GM'ed the aforementioned tournament and Randy and Vien played in it. I knew I had found the best solution to the problem when I had found a way to proceed where the only person inconvenienced by the solution was the fourth finalist and GM, me. While the other three finalists were free after the Saint Pete tournament (also won by Randy) was over, this meant that I would have to play and GM the Final of the Thurn and Taxis tournament while simultaneously GM'ing the Innovation tourney.

Occasionally, one player enjoys seemingly perfect luck and coasts to a win, but the Final was marked by bad luck for all four players. Vien had to discard a route, and this put him out of contention. All three of the other finalists at some point used the Administrator to discard six cards to get a look at six new ones, and found the choices poor enough that they opted to take a random card from the deck instead! The key moment came early, when Randy completed his third route; an 8-city monster that scored bonus chits for green, red-orange, and all colors, in addition to the 4-point chit for the first 7-city run. While Andy ultimately scored more bonus chits, Randy's were scored earlier, and counted more. Amy also had an impressive pile of scoring chits, but a couple of extra houses left unplayed spelled her demise, and Randy completed his busy day of winning the T&T semifinals, then winning them again because he didn't want to advance based on an illegal move, and winning the St. Pete tournament, by winning the championship in a 27-26-25 squeaker.

Once again the advantage was with players who went earlier in the turn order. Out of a total of 51 games played, 18, or 35.3 %, were won by those who went first and third, with only nine games, or 17.6 %, won by the fourth-place player. Combining this with data from three previous years, we have a total of 161 games, with first, second, third and fourth to play winning a total of 31%, 22.3%, 27.3% and 19.2% respectively. This is a large enough disparity that I will institute bidding victory points for seating order in the elimination rounds in the future.

Roni Breza and Eric Brosius	Jenn Mongold and Katherine McCorry

2012 Euro Quest Laurelists
Sceadeau D'Tela, PA 1st Kyle Smith, PA 2nd Robert Murray, NJ 3rd Chris Gnech, PA 4th Amy Rule, MD 5th