hammer of the scots   

Updated Nov. 12, 2014

2014 WBC Report   

 2015 Status: pending 2014 GM commitment

Malcolm Smith, VA

2013-14 Champion

Event History
2003    Phil Barcafer    55
2004    Lyman Moquin    29
2005    George Seary    29
2006    George Seary    25
2007     George Seary    17
2008     George Seary    23
2009    Lyman Moquin    16
2010    Lyman Moquin    24
2011    Malcolm Smith    24
2012    Lyman Moquin    15
2013    Malcolm Smith    16
2014    Malcolm Smith    21

Block Party History
2004    Bruce Reiff    23
2005    Ric Young    21
2006     Ric Manns    12

PBeM Event History
2006    Hank Burkhalter    31
2008     George Seary    30
2010    Hank Burkhalter    22

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  George Seary       NY    10    219
  2.  Lyman Moquin       DC    14    205
  3.  Malcolm Smith      VA    14    108
  4.  Rick Young         NC    06    108
  5.  Hank Burkhalter    GA    10     87
  6.  Ric Manns          IN    09     68
  7.  Fred Bauer         VA    14     66
  8.  Phil Barcafer      PA    05     53
  9.  Bruce Reiff        OH    06     51
 10.  Ron Draker         VA    14     36
 11.  Bill O'Neal        NY    08     33
 12.  Susanne Tuch       NY    10     32
 13.  Phil Rennert       MD    13     30
 14.  Rob Taylor         MI    10     30
 15.  Jeff Mullet        OH    06     30
 16.  Ray Freeman        CA    11     27
 17.  Stuart Pierce      VA    04     24
 18.  Troy Daniels       OH    06     22
 19.  Mike Dauer         TX    10     21
 20.  Steve Koleszar     VA    14     18
 21.  Nicholas Benedict  CA    07     18
 22.  Chris Byrd         CT    06     16
 23.  David Platnick     VA    10     15
 24.  Tom Drueding       FL    03     15
 25.  Tim Hall           UT    11     13
 26.  Tom Good           NC    14     12
 27.  Keith Wixson       NJ    10     12
 28.  Joe Pabis          VA    08     12
 29.  Alfred Smith       NC    06     12
 30.  Grant Dalgliesh    WA    12      9
 31.  Rick Kirchner      KY    05      9
 32.  Sean McCulloch     OH    04      9
 33.  Barry Smith        NY    04      8
 34.  Steve Lollis       MD    08      6
 35.  Derek Miller       VA    07      6
 36.  Brad Bellomo       NJ    04      4
 37.  Robert Hammond     on    12      3
 38.  Paul Barrett       uk    08      3
 39.  Mike Zehnal        OH    05      3
 40.  Jake Busch         OH    06      2
 41.  Charles Stucker    IN    06      1

2014 Laurelists
Repeating Laurelists: 

Fred Bauer, VA
2nd

Tom Good, NC
3rd

Steve Koleszar, VA
4th

Lyman Moquin, DC
5th

Ron Draker, VA
6th

Past Winners

Phil Barcafer, PA
2003

Lyman Moquin, DC
2004, 2009-10, 2012

George Seary, NY
2005-2008

Malcolm Smith, VA
2011, 2013-14

 

 Tom Good and Johnny Wilson

Carl Adamec vs Daniel Collinson

Malcolm Smith vs Pete Winkel

 Israeli Yossi Dvora vs Tripp Killin

 Fred Bauer vs Scott Foremny

Independence Indeed . . .

Still A KGB matter ...

With present day Scots pondering freedom from the English again, a well attended demo expanded the field in this, the 12th year of the Highlanders vs Longshanks rumble. A number of energetic new players attended and advanced to the elimination rounds. That said, the KGB crew was again dominant, pitting brother vs. brother in the later rounds, and ultimately hogging yet another crown. The new format of Single Elim with a Mulligan round seemed to suit the crowd, and has the intended effect of no longer requiring any "scorekeeping" of nobles or other "tie breakers" that never seemed satisfying in the past. The focus is now simply on WINNING!

Early rounds favored the English, both in bidding and victories by a margin of 6:4. However, as in previous tournaments, the bids both declined, and favored the Scots by the end. The only exceptions to this appears to be the "metagame", where experienced opponents now know what the other guy favors (based on previous encounters), and may purposely bid a higher number just to deny them the use of their favored side.

With the mulligan out of the way, 11 warriors advanced to the elimination round, and six remained thereafter. Four were members of the KGB, three actually on the same team (Malcolm Smith, Ron Draker and Lyman Moquin). The others were previous multi-year contenders Fred Bauer and Steve Koleszar, and relative newcomer Tom Good. Only later would the author see the solicitation that Tom had placed in the Open Gaming bulletin board looking for a pickup game . . . apparently Tom had been working out and eating his Wheaties, because he bested last year's runner-up Ron Draker in the quarters to advance to the semifinals. There, he would play defending champ Malcolm, who had just squeaked by Steve with a 7/7 tie as the Scots. Fred finally got some revenge on Lyman in the quarterfinals for their 2010 championship showdown, taking Lyman's favored English with a fairly high bid, then breaking the Scots early and often.

This left three survivors and necessitated a bye for Fred, since Malcolm had taken one earlier. Tom fought the good fight, but went down to the reigning champion, setting the stage for Fred and Malcolm. Malcolm was up to the task of defending his crown and took his third HOS shield in the process.

Clearly, the tourney is well stocked with "sharks", but there was a renewed contingent of new players that competed for the first time and have been playing a game in the offseason that is now over a decade old. The number of players and games played was up significantly, and the general "feel" was that of quicker play - due to mastery of the game and competent opposition. Overall, a satisfying year for Hammer of the Scots devotees.

Barry Eynon vs Randy MacInnis
 GM     Lyman Moquin [2nd Year]  NA
   moquis@aol.com   703-906-9648

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