|
In Vegas Showdown players bid for and place basic and specialty rooms in an effort to build the best Hotel/Casino on the Las Vegas strip. Four-player games were used in the preliminary rounds except when the number of total players required some 5-player games. For the first time in history, the event broke the 100 player mark after getting into the 90s four times in the last decade. A whopping 82 people showed for the first heat, which caused a little scrambling since I only had table cards available for 19 tables. A good problem to have and one I’ll be prepared to handle next year.
Highlights of the preliminary rounds
For the first time ever, someone managed to win games in all three heats of the event. And in the same year it was not just one someone, but two someones, as both Sceadeau D’Tela and Eugene Yee pulled off the impressive feat.
An account of one of Sceadeau’s heats can be found at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/258924/item/7047005#item7047005.
The ranks of the double winners were heavily populated by Dice Loving Canucks; Nick Page, Duncan McGregor, and newly elected Board member Andrew Drummond. Micah McCormick was the non-Canadian double winner.
The Canucks were big proponents of “low income” strategies (no endgame points for Revenue or Population) with Duncan accounting for two and Andrew one of the four total games where the winner pulled off the feat. One of these games (by Duncan) featured two nightclubs, while the other three (with 2013 winner Doug Faust joining them) were driven by the “no Restaurant” strategy that now appears to be in the back pocket of options for every strong player these days.
You can read Duncan’s accounts of his preliminary games at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/259509/item/7063306#item7063306 and https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/259509/item/7063312#item7063312.
You can read Doug’s account of his preliminary games at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/259454/item/7061177#item7061177.
John Corrado won the tightest game of the tournament. In a 5 player game, he, Cary Morris, and Ben Gardner all tied at 60 points, with their remaining money of $9, $3 and $0 the difference, and Rob Kircher finished only 2 points off the leaders.
Derek Glenn pulled off the most diamond points on a winning board last year with 9. He and Nick Henning bettered that in wins this year with 11 diamond points, but both were trumped by one of Eugene’s wins where he pulled off 12.
In another one of Eugene’s preliminary wins he tied the record set 10 years ago for most slots on a winning board with 8.
David Platnik was the “Lounge King” this year, with a winning board that included 5 lounges. You can read an account of this game from Jeff Wu’s perspective at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/258924/item/7045300#item7045300.
Other noteworthy preliminary round wins include Sceadeau and Matthew Craig having winning boards with each having three Fancy Restaurants and two High Rollers Rooms. Eugene Yee had a winning board with two Sports Books and Andrew Emerick one with two Buffets. Mike Kaltman also had a winning board with two Sports Book and in the process achieved both the highest overall score (90) and the highest margin of victory (28) in the tournament this year. Chris Geggus won a game with only tiles from the three “main” lines (slots, lounges, and restaurants), with only the basic tiles of those types plus 2 each of the fancy versions.
An account of Mike’s game can be found at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/259511/item/7063834#item7063834.
The “dominating income” (the full 10 points for having the lead in both population and revenue) game was a strong presence on winning boards for a third straight year, with 6 players accomplishing it, showing that both big income and low income strategies (and everything in between) can win games. Rodney Bacigalupo, Craig Trader, Scott Saccenti, Grant LaDue, Keith Levy, and Sceadeau (in his 2 HRR and 3 FR game) accomplished this.
Other geeklist entries of preliminary heat games can be found at
Highlights of the semifinals
After the three heats, we had 35 players who had won at least one game, the highest number ever in the tournament. While we had the usual amount of no shows among the semifinalist qualifiers, 3 players with wins had to be turned away.
In the second closest Semifnal match, Andrew Emerick (53) squeezed out a 1 pt win over John Corrado (52), with Eugene Yee close behind (50). Defending champion, Eric Freeman (46), and 2018 3rd place finisher Cary Morris (44) finished well back of the leaders.
In the closest Semifinal match, Matthew Craig (62), edged Mike Kaltman (62) by $3. Chris Geggus (52), Katherine Corley (49) and Sceadeau D’Tela (45) rounded out the scores. A critical play in this one was when Sceadeau bought the Theater for 42 without the Fancy Lounge denying it from Mike who had only 41 at the time. The game ended before Sceadeau could get the Fancy Lounge he needed and place it. You can read both Sceadeau’s and Mike’s recounting of the game at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/259403/item/7060187#item7060187
and https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/259366/item/7058115#item7058115.
2017 Champion, Jeff Wu, would punch his ticket back to the finals and guarantee laurels in the event for the third straight year (every year he has been to the convention) with a 3 pt win over Rodney Bacigalupo (56 to 53). They were followed by (the Lion in Winter event’s gracious host and organizer) Derek Glenn (50), Nick Page (49), and Joseph Carrick (48).
Jeff Wu’s account of his Semifinal game can be found at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/258924/item/7051585#item7051585.
2016 Champion, Nick Henning (53), would return to the finals on the back of a “Big Income” strategy that he favored during his 2016 run. Nick outpaced Duncan McGregor (50), Andrew Drummond (48), Ben Scholl (41), and Brian Hixon (34).
An account of the Semifinal from Duncan and Andrew’s perspectives can be found at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/259509/item/7063337#item7063337 and https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/259362/item/7060203#item7060203.
The last Semifnal game featured Sara Ward, Alex Freeman, Micah McCormick, Sky Roy, and Keith Levy. A mistake was discovered at the final scoring where one player placed a Space Age Sportsbook when they did not have the pre-requisite Sports Book.
Sky gave a good accounting of what happened on his blog https://brightcapegamer.blogspot.com/2019/07/rough-calls.html.
I’m thankful the players helped me reach an amicable conclusion for the game. In the end it was a tough fought game with all the players within 3 points of one another and Sara Ward prevailing to the final.
Highlights of the final
First off, thanks to my dad, James Freeman, for recording the events of the final, which allowed me to play in an opposing Quarterfinal.
Turn 3– An early Ad Campaign forces a tough decision from the players when early money is critical. In the end only Andrew decides to pay money for points and pays $10 to get 5pts.
Turn 4 – Sara makes good on her $12 investment in Table games on Turn 2 when the High Rollers Room flopped by taking the HRR for $12.
Turn 5 – The second (and last) Lounge event (Lounge Lizard) flops and only Andrew got anything from either, getting $2 and 2 points on the rest of the table. Matt gets a Fancy Lounge this turn for $12. Wondering if Sara could have gotten away with getting the HRR for less than $12 if she had waited a turn to buy it with no other Table Games yet to appear.
Turn 6 – Slot King event appears and everyone scores 2 or 3 points except for Matt who has been shut out on slots so far
Turn 8 – The last slots are bought for $5 each.
Turn 10 – Slot builder strike, lounge builder strike, and PR scandal all flip on the same turn, so everyone takes Renovate except Nick who takes a Restaurant for 15.
Turn 12 - Items start to get expensive. Matt pays 29 for a Fancy Restaurant and Sarah pays 25 for a Fancy Lounge (but gets a point for her troubles due to the Visionary event and overbidding Andrew).
Turn 13 – Jeff gets the Dragon Room for $37. The last restaurant goes this round.
Turn 14 – A Sale! event this turn allows Nick to get a Nightclub for 25 and Andrew a Fancy Lounge for 18.
Turn 15 – A rise in demand, causes a Lounge to be the only thing bid on, with Nick bidding $12 over Sarah’s $9.
Turn 16 – Sarah bids $33 for a Night Club and gets outbid by Jeff at $37. Sarah then pays full price $18 for a Fancy Slot. Everyone else takes publicity.
Turn 17 – A Slot Tournament event goosed everyone with a little cash. Matt bid $42 for the Five Star Steakhouse. Nick bid $12 for a lounge. The slot tournament cash boost was critical for Andrew as it gave him the money he needed to outbid Matt’s for the Five Star Steakhouse at $47. Jeff then bid $18 for the Buffet. Sarah went $21 for the Buffet, then Matt went $25 for the Buffet. Jeff then went $15 for a Lounge, then Sarah went $29 for the Buffet.
Turn 18 - The Theater flops this turn. Nick pays full price for it, $52. Matt buys a Fancy Restaurant for $33. At the end of the bidding round, Nick realizes that he does not have the prerequisite Fancy Lounge to place the Theater.
Turn 20 - The game now has three empty piles and will pull an event and end the game. The Pull String event was pulled. It states that you cannot choose a tile from an empty pile, so the event was skipped and another chosen. However, I will clarify in future event previews, that all events MUST draw a tile, so the Pull Strings event will end the game when there are three empty piles. The extra event drawn was Famous Chef (points for Restaurants and Fancy restaurants) which gave Matt a huge score boost of 15 points, Nick 6, Andrew 6, Jeff 3, and Sarah 3.
Final Fame on the board at the end of the game: Andrew 46, Matt 37, Jeff 37, Nick 37, Sara 29.
Matt finished with the highest Population (19) for 5 points and Sara was 2nd (17) for 3 points. Andrew finished third at 16 for 1 point. Jeff and Nick had 13.
Sara finished with the highest revenue (19) for 5 points. Jeff finished 2nd (17) for 3 points. Matt and Nick finished tied for third with 12, so neither scored. Andrew trailed behind with 11.
Jeff, Sara, and Nick completed both sides and connected for 13 points, while Matt completed one side and connected for 8 points. Andrew just connected for 3 points.
Andrew scored a whopping 10 diamond points, while Sara got 3 and Matt 1.
No one had a lot of cash on hand at the end, with Matt, Jeff, and Andrew scoring 1 point for leftover money.
Final scores
Andrew 61, Jeff 54, Sara 53, Matt 52, and Nick with 50.
It turned out that the final Famous Chef result would have only changed who was in 4th and 5th place.
Andrew’s tableau at the end contained 1 Lounge, 2 Fancy Lounges, 3 Slots, 1 Fancy Slot, 1 Restaurant, 1 Fancy Restaurant, and 1 Five Star Steakhouse.
You can read Jeff Wu account of the finals at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/258924/item/7052779#item7052779.
|
Eric Freeman [11th Year]
NA
NA