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Time of Crisis (TCS) WBC 2018 Event Report
Updated November 26, 2018
44 Players Forrest Speck 2018 Status 2019 Status Event History
  2018 Champion   & Laurels
 

Speck Wins Inaugural Time of Crisis Event

The first WBC tournament of Time of Crisis attracted forty-four players who played in nineteen games over two heats (14), a semi-final (4), and a final (1). Congratulations to the finalists, Chuck Wisner, Bill Powers, Doug Mercer and the inaugural champion Forrest Speck.

The GM meant to hand out prizes for highest score and most turns as Emperor. So belated congratulations to Eric Alexopoulos for highest score (84 legacy) and Doug Mercer for most turns as Emperor (seven!). Hopefully you can stop by next year to pick up your prizes.

To alleviate concerns about turn order players were allowed to bid legacy and to choose their turn order in descending bid value. It appears that the players did not share those concerns as out of the 76 player starts only 8 bids were made. The bids ranged in value from one (5 bids) to three (1 bid). The data from the tournament also bore this out as wins by turn order were 1st: 5 wins, 2nd: 6 wins, 3rd: 5 wins, and 4th: 3 wins.

Other interesting data from the tournament: Gallia was the most popular starting province; chosen in 16 of the 19 games. The second most popular starting province was a tight race between Macedonia (9 games), Syria (8 games), and Galatia (8 games). The least popular starting province was Britannia (0 games) followed by Asia (4 games).

The tables for the semifinal were seeded bracket style (Table One: 1st, 8th, 9th, 16th), (Table Two: 2nd, 7th, 10th, 15th), etc. with the player’s seeds calculated by descending order of advancement scores. Instead of bidding legacy, players choose their turn order in descending seed order. The top four seeds heading into the semifinals were Marty Sample (1st), Jeff Burdett (2nd), Anna Kiefte (3rd) and Glenn McMaster (4th). However, in a flurry of March Madness upsets none of the top four top seeds advanced to the finals. When the dust settled Forrest Speck (6th seed), Bill Powers (7th seed), Doug Mercer (8th seed), and playing the part of the 2011 VCU Rams; Chuck Wisner (16th seed) had advanced to the finals.

The finalists were veterans of the game and it showed as the table had zero questions for the GM and completed the game in a little over two hours. As the top seed, Forrest choose to go first and selected Gallia as his starting province. Bill, as the 2nd seed, choose to go second and selected Pannonia as his starting province. In keeping with the symmetry, Doug as the 3rd seed choose to go third and selected Hispania as his starting province. As the 4th seed, Chuck had no choice but to go fourth and selected Galatia as his starting province. The game was a battle for supremacy between the Speck and Powers families who by the end of the game had each been Emperor for 5 turns with only a short reign by Emperor Mercer 1st in the midst of their shifting dynasties. The battle for second was a close affair as only four legacy separated the 2nd through 4th players, but in the end fortune smiled on Emperor Speck and we hope his reign is long and glorious. At least until next year…

With the first year in the books, the GM will be making the following changes for next year’s tournament.

  • Given the lack of bidding by players and the fairly even spread of wins by turn order, bidding for turn order will be eliminated.
  • Being the initial Time of Crisis tournament it was classified as a Beginner tournament. While the two demos were well attended, the game will have been out for over two years at next year’s WBC so the tournament classification will be changed to Advanced.

    The advancement criteria rewarded players who played in both heats, but several players could not attend both heats due to scheduling issues and the semifinals had quite a few alternates due to the same reason. Therefore next year, the tournament will drop the semifinal round and instead will have three heats with the top four players making the finals. To ease scheduling concerns only the top two performances by a player will be considered for advancement.

Thanks again to all the players who participated in the tournament this year and I look forward to seeing you next year!

 
2018 Laurelists Repeating Laurelists: NA
Bill Powers Chuck Wisner Doug Mercer Glenn McMaster Jacob Dyer
2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th
 

Finalists in action.

 
GM  Wray Ferrell [1st Year]  NA
 NA  NA