New Champion for a Charter Tournament!

Wa-a-y back at the original Avaloncon tournament in Camp Hill, PA, 34 players competed to be the best in 1830. Fast forward through three venue changes, change in convention name, expansion of titles beyond just 1830, and a two-year convention hiatus change once again comes to the 18xx tournament as a new champion has ended Bruce Beard’s tournament current winning streak at 8. Of note: Bruce had a previous winning streak of 7 tournaments meaning he has won 50% of the 18xx tournaments.

This year we had a very small drop in attendance, likely due to the shifting of more tournaments to the first weekend of WBC. Overall, we had 139 player starts over 35 games. 1846 continued its growth in popularity with 54% of the games played. The remaining games were 1830 and 1861/64 at 14%, 1862 and 1880 at 6%, and there was one play each of 18NY and 1822MRS.

Going into the Semifinal in order of the new WBC standard tie-breaker rules, we had 2 three-game winners (Anthony Lainesse and Bruce Beard) and 6 two-game winners (Joe Leone, Chris Rericha, Mason Rouser, Eric Brosius, Kevin Karg, and Barrington Beavis). Overall, we had 20 heat winners of which 16 were present for the Semifinal.

That being said, Rule 0 of the Semifinal was in full effect this year: You must be present to participate. Lynn Chalfoun made it into the Semifinal with her 3 second-place finishes when we had one semifinalist decide not to participate at the last minute. For the second year in a row, 1830 was not one of the games played in the Semifinal or Final. Three games of 1846 and 1 game of 1861 were played.

Coming out of the Semifinal, the consolation game for 5th and 6th place consisted of Peter Eldridge, Francois de Bellefeuille, Chris Rericha, and Tom McCorry playing 1846. The consolation game went easily to Chris as the director of the GT for 5th place overall with a score of $9,295 over Francois at $8,451 with the NYC earning him 6th place and the coveted Sand Plaque.

Congratulations to Devin for taking the 2023 crown. And Anthony deserves a shout out has he continues to be the holder of the “I missed it by that much!” award. Anthony holds the most cumulative laurels in this tournament after Bruce despite never taking the top prize. It will be interesting to see how 2024 plays out as the competition level continues to grow.