Burdett Triumphs in Root!

Root Year Two is in the books. And what a year it was!

First, attendance jumped up to 44 players from 31 in 2022. That’s a nice 29.5% attendance increase for which I thank everyone.

Second, this translated into 22 games played as opposed to 16 in 2022. We also saw some more faction diversity and wins balanced out as follows:

Play was excellent across all three Heats as well as the Semifinal and Final. In part this reflected an increase in experienced players this year with three quarters of players indicating prior Root experience as opposed to approximately half in 2022.

Third, players choice of game level. In the Heats the basic Root game was the dominant choice by far (Basic was default if all players did not agree to more advanced expansions). In the Semifinal and Final, it flipped where 4 out of the 5 games used expansion factions and/or Advanced Setup.

The Heat games were generally pretty close. One point victories were common. This continued the rest of the way in the Semifinal and Final. The Semifinal featured four close games, one of which featured eventual Event winner, Bailey Burdett, winning with the Lizard Cult. This was noteworthy as the Lizard Cult usually needs the buffs in Advanced Setup to be in the winner conversation but Bailey did it without that advantage.

The Final like the rest was a very close game. Bailey Burdett won with the Eyrie and literally it came down to a Battle dice roll he had a 50% chance on. Had the dice not gone in his favor GM Joel Tamburo was guaranteed to win with the Woodland Alliance on the player turn right after Bailey. Felicia Alfieri’s Vagabond Tinker came in third and Bradford McCandless Marquis de Cat was fourth.

The list of people I can thank for going above and beyond this year is long and storied. My Assistant GM this year is one – Luke McKinnes was a big help. So were others like Jared Boyce, Felicia Alfieri, Kirk Harris, Jeff Burdett and more. This was truly an event made by its player group who embraced the friendly and more relaxed tone I was aiming for.

Thanks to everyone for a great outing and look out on the WBC Facebook Group for the annual post event player survey!