Roy Becomes King of Vegas!

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 Heats except when the number of total players required some 5-player games. Although overall attendance was down for the convention, Vegas appears to have taken a bigger hit than most events. After setting a record attendance of over 100 in 2019, we dropped to 64 this year.

Highlights of the Heats

In 2019, Sceadeau D’Tela and Eugene Yee were the first people to ever win all three Heat games. In 2022, Keith Dent joined their ranks.

The ranks of the double heat winners included Sky Roy, DJ Borton (who defeated the GM in both his wins), Erik Schlosser, and Andrew Freeman (son of the GM).

One of Keith’s wins was noteworthy as one of the tightest of the tournament, where he prevailed over fellow Berea, KY resident Derek Glenn by $8 on the tiebreak. (Derek would get his vengeance later in the week in the Race for the Galaxy Final.) It was a tight 5-player game with a murderer’s row field. 3rd was 2014 Champion, Mike Kaltman 2 points back, 4th (the aforementioned 2017 three Heat winning) Sceadeau also 2 back, and in 5th Scott Saccenti, 6 back. Keith’s win was also a tight duel of a “low income” (no endgame points for Revenue or Population) strategy over Derek’s “dominating income” (the full 10 points for having the lead in both population and revenue) strategy.

The “low income” strategy continued to rise in popularity, with 6 wins being accomplished with that strategy this year. Sky Roy continued the Dice Loving Canuck tradition set in 2017 (where fellow Canadian members accomplished 3 of the 4 wins in this fashion that year). In that game, he accomplished one of the two wins this year with the “no Restaurant” strategy. Andrew Freeman accomplished the other “no Restaurant/low income” win. Erik Schlosser, Eric Freeman, and Jarrett Weintraub were the other 3 to accomplish the feat.

Loc Nguyen’s account of the Jarrett Weintraub game can be found at the following link: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/302224/locs-wbc-report-2022?itemid=9104649#9104649.

The “dominating income” (the full 10 points for having the lead in both population and revenue) game was a massively reduced presence on winning boards this year. Where typically there would be at least 5 winning boards, this year only one winning board accomplished the feat. Keith Dent showing his versatility managed it in one of his three heat wins fueled by 7 slots (“Slot King”) to also be the winning board with the most slots this year. You can find Randy Buehler’s account of that game at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/302220/randy-buehlers-2022-wbc-report-achievement-unlocke?itemid=9105393#9105393.

The closest win in the tournament was also the closest one from first to last. Joe Mach tied Brian Hixon at 57 points but prevailed on the tie-breaker by $5. Chris Geggus only a point behind and Sky Roy and a close 4th, 4 behind.

Andrew Freeman’s “No restaurant/low income” win also tied for the most diamond points in a win this year with 10. Mongo Bouchard also accomplished a victory with 10 diamond points.

Matt Craig was the “Lounge King” this year, with a winning board that included 5 lounges. However, his win was even more noteworthy in that it included no slots, a feat that has either never happened or happened only once before.,/p>

Other noteworthy preliminary round wins include Jim Fry having a winning board with only 4 non-slot rooms.

In most years, there are usually a couple games that are 20 point blowouts, but this year the largest margin of victory was only 13 points in a game Steve LeWinter won.

At the beginning of the first heat, the 13 year old progeny of two time tournament champion Steve LeWinter, Sage LeWinter checked in. What was noteworthy is I had just taught them how to play at the demo. After a 3rd place finish in their first heat game, Sage won their second heat game.

Other geeklist entries of preliminary heat games can be found at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/302218/wbc-2022-ryan-feathers-year-3-experiences-pictures?itemid=9106915#9106915 and https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/302257/first-year-back-andrews-geeklist-wbc?itemid=9107076#9107076.

Highlights of the Semifinal

After the three Heats, there were 20 players who had won at least one game. 15 of those winners showed up to the Semifinal, so four 4-player games would decide who would play in the Final.

In the closest Semifinal match, Sage LeWinter (50) prevailed over two of the two heat winners, DJ Borton (47) and fellow young teenager Andrew Freeman (42) dealing them both their first loses of the week. Joe Mach (38) rounded out the table.

Erik Schlosser (59) prevailed over Eyal Mozes (55), Eric Freeman (52) and Rob Flowers (47). A key moment in the game happened with Eric on the button and poised to purchase the Theater, however the Rise in Demand event came out which put the room out of his purchasing power and allowed Erik to buy the room the next turn.

In the “Group of Death” Semifinal, Matt Craig (79) punched his return ticket to the Vegas Final to be the only returning laurelist from 2019. At his table were Eugene Yee (72), Keith Dent (70), and Micah McCormick (65).

In the 4th Semifinal, Sky Roy (56) vanquished Adam Hurd (50), Rod Spade (47), and Jarett Weintraub (41).

Highlights of the Final

First off, thanks to my dad, James Freeman, for recording the events of the Final which got moved by the finalists to run at the same time as the Race for the Galaxy Heats, I was running.

Turn 1 - With Slot Builders on Strike on the first turn, things got brutal early with Matt overbidding Sky to get a lounge for $12 off the bat.

Turn 3 - Sky overbids Erik and grabs a Fancy Slot for $9 Fancy slots. However, with no slot room yet, he puts in reserve.

Turn 4 - Matt bids $18 for a Night Club, and then Sky gets a Fancy Restaurant for $12 with the other players unable to outbid him (Sage with bids on tiles in the first three rounds and Erik getting a Fancy Lounge in Turn 3). However, without the prerequisite, he puts a second room in reserve.

Turn 6 - Erik grabs a second Fancy Lounge for $18 giving him the only two that have come out so far.

Turn 7 - Sky gets a High Roller Room for $12, and now had bought a third tile without the prerequisite. He now has the Fancy Slot prerequisite and uses the rule that allows him to place “a” tile (not necessarily the one you just purchased) to place the Fancy Slots.

Turn 10 - Matt had taken the first table games for $12 in turn 8 and again bids $12 here, forcing Sky to bid $15 to get the prerequisite room for his High Rollers Room.

Turn 11 - Sky buys a lounge and uses the room placement to get down his High Rollers Room instead.

Turn 16 - 3 events this turn:

• Slot king event come out that gives points for slots and fancy slots. This is bad for Eric and good for everyone else, especially Sage. Sky 5 Sage 7 Erik 2 Matt 4
• Restaurant Builders on Strike.
• Pull Strings comes out with Erik on the button. He chooses the big room stack and pulls the theater, which I think is what he was looking for as he has the only Fancy Lounges so far.

Turn 17 - A critical one. The event is PR scandal - so no one can take Publicity this turn

The money at this turn is Sky $64, Sage $69, Erik $29, and Matt $33. Fancy Lodge bidding opens

• Matt opens the bidding at $25
• Sky overbids Matt for $29
• Sage overbids Sky $33

Erik probably would have taken publicity, if available, but instead bids $9 for a Lounge

Fancy Restaurants the gets bids:

• Mattt bids $33
• Sky overbids Sage for $37

Sage decides that is high enough and settles for a Fancy Slot at $12.

Even with the big buy, Sky still has $27 and more money than Erik with turn order advantage to buy the Theater next turn. In a similar money position, the opportunity was there for Sage to complete the same series of moves.

Turn 18 - Things get even worse for Erik this turn as both the Restaurant events come out giving $6 cash and 6 points to everyone but him.

With that little bit of cash infusion, Sky is able to buy maximum points on the Ad Campaign event and then lock down the Theater for $33.

Ad Campaign Matt-$5 for 2 points, Sky-$10 for 5pts, Sage-$10 for 5pts, and Erik-$10 for 5pts.

Turn 19 - Game end.

Final Fame on the board at the end of the game: Sky 54, Sage 39, Erik 46, Matt 35

Sage finished with the highest Population (20) for 5 points and Matt was 2nd (15) for 3 points. Sky finished third at 14 for 1 point. Erik had 12.

Sage also finished with the highest revenue (19) for 5 points. Matt finished 2nd (16) for 3 points. Sky finished third with 15 for 1 point. Erik was also last here with 9.

Erik and Matt completed both sides and connected for 13 points, while Sky completed one side and connected for 8 points. Sage completed both sides for 10 points.

Sky scored 6 diamond points, while Erik got 2.

Sage finished with a plethora of cash and scored 3 points from it, while Matt scored 1.

Final scores: Sky 70, Sage 62, Erik 61, and Matt 52

Sky’s tableau at the end contained 4 Lounges, 1 Fancy Lounge, 3 Slots, 2 Fancy Slots, 1 Restaurant, 1 Fancy Restaurant, 1 Table Games, 1 High Rollers Room and 1 Theater.