Trains Placed, Tickets Made, Victory!

The Ticket to Ride train kept rolling as 2019 brought out our largest-ever attendance during the Seven Springs era, with 281 players having a wonderful time playing some amazing games. People lined up in front of Bradford McCandless, who wore the traditional Caboose Hat to mark the end of a check-in line that wound out the door and far down the hall. My assistant GMs Sarah Beach and Nikki Bradford did a great job checking people in as usual; working with Sarah and Nikki is one of the highlights of my year! Bradford, Sarah and Nikki did double duty filling in spots to complete games at the last minute when necessary. This year we used Andy Latto’s GM assistant spreadsheet to record scores and seed winners for the quarter-final round, saving at least 6 hours of GM work over the course of the tournament. Andy made a special effort to explain the spreadsheet to me and make changes to customize it for Ticket to Ride; thank you, Andy!

Many notable things occurred during the heats. In Heat 1, a table playing the 1910 version drew a total of 34 tickets and made them all! At that table, Rob Murray made all 10 of his tickets, which at most tables would have earned the Globetrotter bonus, but Faith Wobbeking went 13 for 13 and tied for Longest Route to win with a tournament-high score of 221! Another 1910 table took 45 tickets but “only” made 39, with Anthony Alfieri going 11 for 11. Anthony claimed Longest Route for a winning score of 198, but at that table Bailey Burdett went 12 for 15 to take both the Globetrotter and the “Eyes Bigger than your Stomach” award for most tickets taken during a heat game, finishing second with 143.

Scores tend to be lower in the base Ticket to Ride game than in either of the other versions players could opt for. The average winning score in the base game during the heats was 130, as compared with 156 in games that used the 1910 Mega Game and 150 on the Europe map (though only a few European games were played.) Hannah Oliner earned the highest score in the base game, with 76 VP from making all 4 of her tickets, 82 VP for routes, and 10 VP for Longest Route, for a total of 168. In the 1910 version there were three scores above 200 and another five between 190 and 199.

We gave out 6 special Gold and Silver Choo-Choo awards to players who won 4 or 3 heats, respectively. Henry Allen, a previously tournament champion, won 4 heats, earning the Gold Choo-Choo award. Five players got Silver Choo-Choo awards, with Hannah Oliner won her third Silver Choo-Choo in a row. Other Silver Choo-Choo recipients were Richard Curtin, George Parauda, John Nousek and Michael Frieix.

The top 64 winners who show up for the quarterfinals qualify. There were 110 different people who won at least one heat, but only 58 of them showed up for the quarters. This meant that we awarded 2 byes (to Henry and Hannah) and had 14 4-player quarterfinal games. From the quarter finals on, all the games use the 1910 Mega Game. Typically players take fewer tickets in the quarters, but not at Table 8, where Marcy Morelli won with a score of 206, making 12 out of 13 tickets to edge out Normal Rule, who made 15 out of 18 and scored 197! This table drew 57 tickets and made 46, both of which exceeded the numbers in any of the heat games.

On Sunday morning, 15 of the 16 quarterfinal winners showed up to play the semifinal games (one player unexpectedly qualified for a final in a different tournament and could not play.) The semifinals were relatively sedate compared with the often wild and wooly heats and quarters. The four winners went on to the final immediately afterward. The top two second place finishers in the semifinals were Haakon Monsen of Norway (who earned the 5th place plaque) and Dominic Blais of Canada, who took 6th place (there was no sand plaque this year).

The final was a VA/NJ special: Andy Gardner of VA was first in turn order, followed by George Parauda of NJ, Todd Trahan of VA, and Peggy Ng of NJ. Track laying started early, with Todd playing Houston-New Orleans followed by Los Angeles-Las Vegas and Peggy jumping in quickly with Salt Lake City-Las Vegas, locking up Las Vegas. Andy’s first route was Pittsburgh-St. Louis, and George played in splendid isolation for a while, starting with Montreal-Soult Ste. Marie. Scrambles soon erupted around Los Angeles and New York, with the players playing routes before they were locked out of key cities. Having connected Las Vegas and El Paso, Peggy built a lot of track in the northwest with little opposition, including Seattle-Helena, Portland-Salt Lake City, Portland-San Francisco, and Calgary-Winnipeg. Both Andy and Todd built to connect Los Angeles to Montreal by different routes, and George built from Omaha to Miami by way of Winnipeg and Montreal. Ticket drawing was moderate, with Andy taking tickets three times, George four times, Todd twice, and Peggy not at all.

Peggy ended the game and we counted the scores. We have learned from past experience to count each player’s routes and examine each player’s tickets carefully to make sure there are no errors. As Andy laid down the 8 tickets he had taken, he was stunned to realize that although he had a ticket for Chicago, he had never connected it, even though his track from Pittsburgh to St. Louis ran right past it and he had the card he would have needed in order to make the connection. What a disappointment! He still got the Globetrotter bonus, but the VP loss for not making the ticket dropped him from 1st place to 3rd place. Todd made all five of his tickets, including the one he took on his final turn, and shared Longest Route with George, giving him a score of 140 and the victory.