Wildes Adds Win As Part Of His Four WBC 2019 Titles!

Splendor had hit a massive 297 players in 2018, fueled both by its accessibility and by BPA members' willingness to be bribed by candy. 2019 was planned to just be more of the same, and see if we could top the unique player list again.

A new strategy in 4-player Splendor made itself known at WBC this year. Common consensus is to ignore the game's engine-building aspects in 4p and concentrate on points. However, a possible counter-strategy to this involves removing gold from circulation. By reserving cards to take gold, but then buying level 1 cards instead of spending the gold, it makes it much harder for the point-rush strategy to function efficiently. If done well (or maybe, if luck is on your side) this can force the game long enough for engine-building to pay off. I have only anecdotal evidence of the effectiveness of this, but encourage you to give it a try.

Heat 1 looked promising, as 200 players made an even 50 tables, 1 table more than 2018's first heat. With Sky Roy's assistance and a second laptop borrowed from Andrew Drummond, registration went well, and everyone was playing relatively quickly. Despite this, this heat saw the first time I had to call a game due to time. With a couple time announcements already having been made and only 5 minutes to the end of the scheduled hour, I told a table to get to start player and then play out one last turn each. There was a definite winner, with the scores 11-6-5-2, so nobody at the table seemed too disgruntled, but I'm still sad that it was required.

Heat 2 is where I figured out that we wouldn't be breaking last year's record, with only 139 players, down from 184 for the second heat last year. I'm guessing that Power Grid moving a heat opposite us was the cause. I am planning on moving Splendor around some for next year, and will keep that in mind when rescheduling. Sara Ward chipped in on registration, and we made it to the end of the hour this time without having to cut anyone off.

Heat 3 saw me create a problem for Ticket to Ride. Claire Brosius talked to me ahead of the event about how to make sure that Splendor and the immediately-following TTR heat could avoid each other, but I messed up which way I numbered my tables, leaving Claire in a tough spot - either switching her registration to the opposite side of Seasons from what she had been using (and what her crowd was used to) or waiting a bit longer for Splendor's last tables to clear out. Avoiding back-to-back heats with TTR is another reason to reschedule Splendor. Thanks go to Sky Roy and Nick Page for assistance with registration.

We had exactly 27 double-winners this year, 25 of whom showed up for the playoffs, so we took only the top 2 alternates for the quarterfinals, with 3-player games all the way through. Unfortunately, I had a conflict this year, as the Underwater Cities SF ran exactly opposite the Splendor playoffs, so after starting the Splendor quarters I headed a couple tables over to play in that. Interestingly, almost the same situation was happening on the other side of Splendor, with Saint Petersburg GM Amy Rule handling those finals while also playing in Splendor!

The Splendor finals featured Jefferson Meyer and Chris Wildes, both of whom laurelled in 2017, as well as newcomer Luke McDevitt. Luke's father Jason had actually been in touch with me ahead of time, as they were only at WBC for a few days, and wanted to make sure that they could still play in the tournament after missing Heat 1. Luke spiked both of the heats that he was present for, and then fought his way into the finals. In the end, Chris took the shield in a 15-13-10 game. Luckily for Luke, the playoffs had finished in good time, and with 10 minutes left until the registration desk closed, I was able to get him his 3rd place plaque before he and Jason left the con.

For next year, I am planning to move Splendor earlier in the week, as I have had conflicts with the playoffs in each of the last two years, and also keep running Splendor immediately before Terraforming Mars, leaving me rushed. My current thought is to move the heats to First Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday, with playoffs Thursday, but this will obviously depend on other games as well. I am a bit worried about moving the heats, as Splendor is one of the eight hundred pound gorillas of WBC, but hopefully this can be done without negatively affecting others.