End of Era for Ticket to Ride GM!

It was great to be playing Ticket to Ride again at WBC after a three year wait! We welcomed 219 players, many of whom played multiple Heats – on average, each player entered more than two Heats. Our numbers were down from 2019, as some of our regular players could not attend, but we had many new players. People lined up in front of Bradford McCandless, who wore the traditional Caboose Hat to mark the end of the check-in line, but check-in was faster this year as my assistant GMs Nikki Bradford and Marsha Hamel used Andy Latto’s GM assistant spreadsheet not only to record results, but also to check people in. They did a great job. Nikki and Bradford even made their own train-themed facemasks to mark the event!

Glen Pearce achieved a tournament-high score in Heat 4, playing the 1910 version. He drew 13 tickets and made all 13 for a total of 172 points just from tickets! With 57 points from routes and the 15-point Globetrotter bonus it added up to a total of 244, 141 points ahead of the 2nd place player. In another Heat 4 game John Mewshaw went 13 for 14, but despite gaining the Globetrotter bonus, he finished 2nd to Megan Mossman, who went 9 for 9.

Scores tend to be lower in the base Ticket to Ride version. The high score for that version was 156 by Chris Kalmbacher in Heat 1. Chris went 5 for 5 in tickets for 73 points, matched that with 73 points for routes, and capped it with the Longest Route bonus for 10 more. Only 8 out of 126 tables during the Heats played the Europe version, with Cally Perry achieving the high score in Heat 3. She made all 8 tickets for 114 points, added 67 points for routes, and tied Eugene Yee for the Globetrotter bonus for a total of 196.

The “Eyes Bigger Than Your Stomach” award goes to Chad Martin in Heat 1. He took 15 tickets and made only 5. Amazingly enough, Chad finished 2nd behind Katie Kolt on the strength of a large route score and the Longest Route bonus (the 10 tickets Chad failed to complete must have been short ones!)

We gave out 5 special Gold and Silver Choo-Choo awards to players who won 4 or 3 heats, respectively. Tyler Houle and Chris Meyer won 4 heats, earning the Gold Choo-Choo award. Steve Shambeda, Hank Griffin and Aaron Byrd earned Silver Choo-Choo awards.

The top 64 winners who show up for the Quarterfinal qualify and there were 94 heat winners in total. In past years, though we have often had more than 100 winners, we had never had as many as 60 winners show up. This year 64 winners showed up for the Quarterfinal, so we had 16 4-player tables.

From the Quarterfinal on, all the games use the 1910 Mega Game. Typically, players take fewer tickets in the Quarterfinal, as they are more concerned about opponents rushing the end of the game. But some players took the risk. Two players drew and completed 11 tickets – Elliot Parauda and Lee Mewshaw. Not surprisingly, they both won to advance to the Semifinal. Neither had the highest score for the round, however, as Chris Gnech scored 196, completing 7 of 8 tickets for a ticket score of 115.

The 16 Quarterfinal winners showed up to play the Semifinal The Semifinal featured even less ticket drawing – no one drew more than 7 tickets, and John Mewshaw went 7 for 7 to edge out Cally Perry for the win and advance to the Final. John had never won laurels at WBC before, but with his trip to the Final he was guaranteed to win some! His wife Lee was just as happy about his success as he was. The four winners went on to the Final immediately afterward. The top two second place finishers in the Semifinal were Cally Perry (who earned the 5th place plaque) and Glen Pearce (who earned the coveted 6th place sand plaque.)

The Final featured two former champions in addition to John: Henry Allen and Max DuBoff. Brandon Bernard had never won the tournament, though his sister Brittany won back in 2007. Brandon scored 96 for his routes and 10 for the Longest Route but made only 2 of 3 tickets for 22 points to finish 2nd. First place went to Henry Allen, who is the first player ever to have won the tournament twice. Henry made 6 out of 6 tickets for 66 points and added 63 points for routes and the 15-point Globetrotter bonus for a total of 144. Max finished in 3rd and John in 4th. Congratulations to Henry and all of the finalists!

Before this year’s event I announced that 2022 would be my last year as GM. The tournament takes most of my time each year and as I get older it’s harder to keep it up. I have been GM for 13 Ticket to Ride tournaments with more than 200 entrants every year and a total of 2990 entries over the 13 years. I’ve met many great people. I particularly remember the great joy people got from being awarded choo-choo key chains for winning Heats, from seeing the Caboose Hat at the end of the sign-in line, and from seeing faithful players return year after year to play. I plan to be back at WBC next year, playing games.