Miller Repeats!

The Heats started off with eight previous winners and one of the design team coming to play. Three of the tables were low scoring, but the fourth was hard hitting with six 50+ point player scores in the 3 rounds and three players scoring enough to win and the other 2 being 3 points short. And between all four tables only twice players hand their line completely destroyed and one player held scoreless.

In the second Heat four previous champions and one of the design team played. All the battles were more intense, 2 of the tables finished in 2 rounds and the third missed finishing in two rounds by 6 points. Only one player lost his entire line, and one was held scoreless. Eleven had 50+ scoring hands. With one short of half the players score over 100 points in the games.

For the third Heat 6 previous winners played. And the carnage slowed a bid, with only the four winners scoring the 100+ points total, and six player rounds with 50+ scores.

The fourth Heat was poorly attended, with four previous winners in the nine players. Only final scores over 100, both table finished in two rounds, Four of the player hands scores were over 50 points during those rounds.

One interesting note, in every game in the tournament at least one player round score was 55 or more points, which continued in the Semifinal and Final. Seven were in the 90+ range.

With conflicts and early departure times, only half of the qualifiers showed up for the Semifinal. The battle were intense, six of the combatants finished with totals over 100 points. And six of the 18 player round scores were over 50 points, three lines were completely destroyed. By scoring 75 points in the first round, William had a big target on himself, and had all guns firing his way the prevent him running away with the win. During that round he had a streak of four successful defenses during boarding attempts, but that was followed by four loses, which contributed to his loosing his line completely. He recovered nicely in the third round and placed second, qualifying him as an alternate in the Final.

For the Final, again conflicts and depart times had only five qualifiers able to complete.

The first round was very cautious, with only four ships captured and five sunk, and the scores of 27, 27, 26, 19, and 7. Then the sparks started to fly with six ships sunk and four prize captures and the round ending with scores of 79, 69, 69, 28 and 19. In the third round there were seven ships sunk and seven more captured. With final scores of 151, 112, 100, 80 and 57 closing out the tournament.