McCue King Of Ivanhoe!

This year’s Ivanhoe tournament showed once again that this game has a perfect balance of fun and strategy, with a healthy twist of luck. Many friends and family came to play, and hopefully some new friendships – or friendly rivalries – were created.

Overall participation increased from last year, with about 15 people at the demo and 93 unique players over 3 Heats. The participation was consistent at 50 to 55 players (10 or 11 tables) per heat. A new point system was used to value the tokens won by each player, so that 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places could be assigned for each game.

Only one player, David Sinodis, won two Heats, and there were 30 other single-game winners. Using the HMW-Points tiebreaker system, supplemented by GM-specific tiebreakers (most points in a single game and most points in all games played), a ranked list was posted in preparation for the Semifinal. Due to conflicts and no-shows, several players from lower on the ranking list were given unexpected chances to advance. It just goes to show that it pays to be at the right place at the right time!

As previously mentioned, Ivanhoe is a family-friendly game, and the Semifinal games included several families with multiple qualifiers, including Langes and Roepers.

The five winners of the Semifinal were: Jeff Lange, Barb Roeper, Fred Roeper, Jeff McCue, and Chris Storzillo. Sixth place laurels were earned by Shannon Keating, who was the closest 2nd place finisher in the Semifinal.

The Final was a nail-biter that went back and forth for quite a long time, lasting 24 rounds! The first round, a purple token won by Fred, set the tone for the competition, with lots of points played and strategic use of action cards. Tokens were won (and lost!) by all players fairly evenly, with several players at 3 tokens for multiple rounds. In fact, all of the players finished with at least 3 tokens. Finally, the elusive 4th token was won by Jeff McCue, making him the 2023 Ivanhoe champion. Using the established point system from the heats, Fred was in 2nd place, Chris came in 3rd, Jeff L. was 4th, and Barb was 5th.

I would like to thank the assistant GMs (Fred and Dylan Roeper) for their support and help, particularly Dylan for the detailed recordkeeping during the final game. I also want to thank the tournament players for participating and showing their support for the game and the GM. Ivanhoe is a fun game with a fun theme, and it was great to see everyone enjoying the spirit of the game, decorations, participation buttons for all players, and crowns for the winners.