labyrinth   

Updated Nov. 23, 2013

2013 WBC Report  

 2014 Status: pending December 2013 Membership Trial Vote

Jessica Brown, TX

2013 Champion

Event History
2011    Chris Yaure     33
2012    Patrick Neary     34
2013    Jessica Brown     22

WAM Event History
2013    Greg Ottoman     12

 Laurels

 Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
   1.  Chris Yaure        PA    13     42
   2.  Patrick Neary      NY    12     40
   3.  Jessa Burdett      NY    12     24
   4.  Stefan Mecay       TX    11     24
   5.  Jessica Brown      TX    13     20
   6.  Jeff Burdett       NY    12     16
   7.  Jeromey Martin     GA    11     16
   8.  Phil Yaure         PA    13     12
   9.  Daniel Rauma       fi    12     12
  10.  Martin Sample      NH    11     12
  11.  Greg Ottoman       VA    13     10
  12.  Evan Harris        MD    13     10
  13.  Michael Kiefte     ns    13      8
  14.  Doug Smith         PA    12      8
  15.  Roger Taylor       VA    11      8
  16.  Daniel Hoffman     NC    13      6
  17.  Jeff Finkeldey     OH    13      4
  18.  Mike Confoy        VA    12      4
  19.  Andrew Ruhnke      VA    11      4
  20.  Larry Fryer        MD    13      3
  21.  Kirk Harris        NJ    13      2
  22.  Paul Gaberson      PA    13      1

2013 Laurelists                                                 Repeating Laurelists: 0

Philip Yaure, PA
2nd

Michael Kiefte, ns
3rd

Daniel Hoffman, NC
4th

Evan Harris, MD
5th

Christopher Yaure, PA
6th

Past Winners

Chris Yaure, PA
2011

Patrick Neary, NY
2012

Jessica Brown, TX
2013

Michael Kiefte vs Stefan Mecay

Jessica Brown on her way to victory over David Kiefte.

A Whole New Class of Jihadists ...

The 2013 Labyrinth field shrank by a third in the wake of Bin Laden's demise. Nonetheless, the competition remained fierce. Unlike last year's event, wherein the Jihadist and United States battled to a standstill, this year's tournament saw Jihadist dominance, with them winning 69% of all matches (18/26). Player consensus seemed to be that the Jihadists were favored in a one-deck game due to the difficulty of the U.S. achieving more than twice as many resources by deck end. Indeed, so favored was the Jihadist side by players that only one game saw a player bid to play the U.S.

Player consensus was borne out in the statistics, which revealed that the plurality of Jihadist wins (39%) came by the U.S. failing to have more than twice as many resources at game end. Obviously, the 2014 tournament will need to incorporate some balancing mechanism to make it harder for patient Jihadists to win by deck exhaustion.

However, there were several memorable moments. The mulligan game between Stefan Mecay (U.S.) and Patrick Richardson (Jihadist) saw Patrick's Jihadists winning by achieving a major jihad in regime-changed Pakistan, with Patrick's 11 cells overwhelming the U.S.'s six troops! In the semifinals, Jessica Brown's U.S. defeated Michael Kiefte's Jihadists on the last turn only after Michael failed five minor jihad rolls in a row, any one of which would have given him the win. And Phil Yaure, who would eventually meet Jessica Brown in the Final, exhibited his skillful play by defeating the GM in three close games.

After much back and forth fighting in the two-deck Final, Jessica was able to turn Pakistan to Islamist Rule and grab its three WMDs. Despite the U.S. losing Pakistan, the game remained close, with neither side running away in resources. Victory came approximately halfway through the first deck when Jessica was able to move a single Jihadist cell from the Philippines to the U.S. and place two plots (both WMDs) with Martyrdom Operation. Phil did not have sufficient ops to alert either plot, bringing the Final to a sudden -- and dramatic -- end.

Tournament Statistics:

Total games played: 26

Jihadist / U.S. wins: 18/8

Types of Jihadist wins:

6 adjacent Islamist Rule resources (5/18 = 28%)

WMD detonated in the U.S. (4/18 = 22%)

15 countries at fair/poor and U.S. prestige at 1 (1/18 = 6%)

U.S. < 2x Islamist Rule resources by game end (7/18 = 39%)

U.S. resigned (1/18 = 6%)

Types of U.S. wins:

All cells killed (2/8 = 25%)

12 good governed resources (4/8 = 50%)

U.S. 2x Islamist Rule resources by game end (2/8 = 25%)

Riku Riekkinen and Dan Hoffman join the search for terrorists.

Jason Albert tackles GM Stephen Aslett.
 GM      Stephen Aslett  [1st Year]   NA
    saslett@gmail.com    NA 

2013 Previews | View the Icon Key | Return to main BPA page