Murphy Ends Ladies Title Streak!

Sagrada returned for its third year as a tournament game at the World Boardgaming Championships. The competition was very heated this year! Mostly because of the faulty air conditioning and overbooked conditions in Seasons, but also because we had 2 entrants who were triple winners in the preliminary Heats! Nancy Arsenault and prior finalist Mike Vaz both swept their preliminary Heats, easily securing their spot in the 16 player Semifinal. We had 7 double winners who punched their ticket to the Semifinal as well. The top 16 was rounded out by entrants who all had at least a 1st and a 2nd in the Heats. Overall, Sagrada had 113 unique entrants, with a fairly consistent attendance across all three Heats.

For the first time, yours truly (the GM) decided to play in the event. We had gotten the Heats to run pretty smoothly, so I figured I could make good use of my hour by actually playing a game I really enjoy. As it turned out, I was able to win twice, giving me a seat in the Semifinal. Both of my assistants also qualified for the Semifinal. In years past, I seeded the Semifinal by player rankings in the Heats. This year, because all of the GM’s and assistants were in the Semifinal, I decided to randomly assign tables by having all Semifinalist draw dice out of a bag.

For the Semifinal, I made a post on Boardgamegeek asking for recommended sets of public objectives from the gaming community and received a response from the designer of Sagrada himself! Figuring he would know best, each table used the following public objectives: Diagonals, Row Shade (#) Variety, and Column Color Variety. The mix proved to be quite brain burning, as I heard lots of muttering and grumbling from each table (including the comments I was making myself!). Each table randomly drew tool cards, providing some variety at each table. The Semifinal assignments and results were as follows:

• Table 1 - Tricia Wolff (74), Zacary Morris (58), Daron Schreier (56), Nancy Arsenault
• Table 2 - Romona Reece (69), Sean Roeper (66), Michael Vaz (58), Danique Martin (56)
• Table 3 - Darin Murphy (75), Russ Bielefeldt (73), Angela Bender (72), Tina Del Carpio (66)
• Table 4 - Dustin Otwell (75), Dylan Roeper (74), Howard Marron (68), Paul Klayder (65),/li>

Of note, both triple winners were out, as was the GM and both of the assistant GMs. Dylan Roeper’s close second place finish earned him 5th, and Russ Bielefeldt was just behind in 6th place, giving both Laurels. For the Final, I selected the following public objectives: Shade Variety (sets of one of each value anywhere), Row Color Variety, and Column Shade (#) Variety. Essentially, this flip flopped two of the public objectives from the Semifinal, leading to many insults to be hurled my way (all in good fun, of course). The tools were randomly drawn as follows: Flux Brush (after drafting re-roll the drafted die), Running Pliers (after you first turn, immediately draft a die), Lens Cutter (after drafting, swap the drafted die with a die from the round track).

Nerves must have been high, as Romona nearly lost a die on her first roll. But things settled down after that, and the rounds sped by as the seasoned finalists quickly analyzed their choices and wasted no time drafting the optimal dice. As usual, things got tight as they approached the final few rounds. With only several spots remaining in each window, the players choices had become very limited. The use of tool cards became vitally important, and the players had to pick the optimal time to use those precious tokens. In the 9th round, Dustin reluctantly used his last two tokens for a tool. Both Darin and Tricia could have used theirs, but opted to wait until round 10, giving them a potentially vital out if the roll were not in their favor. This proved to be the winning strategy, as Darin was the first player, and used the Running Pliers to draft two perfect dice right away, enabling him to complete two more Row Color Variety and one more Column Shade Variety. Had he drafted 1st and 8th, it is extremely unlikely the die he needed would have still been available. Tricia utilized the same tool in the 3rd position, but ultimately could not overcome Darin’s massive last round move. Dustin, who used his last tokens in the previous round, could not draft any dice in the last round, leaving him with no chance of emerging victorious. The final scores were as follows:

• Darin Murphy: 70 (19 from private objective, 50 from public objectives, 1 for leftover token)
• Tricia Wolff: 63 (20 from private objective, 42 from public objectives, 1 for leftover token)
• Romona Reece: 51 (21 from private objective, 30 from public objectives, 1 for leftover token, -1 for empty space)
• Dustin Otwell: 45 (13 from private objective, 34 from public objectives, -2 for empty spaces)

A heartfelt thank you to all the players who came to the event and whose enthusiasm helped make Sagrada a successful event. Special thanks to Mike Vaz, who despite clearly knowing how to play the game, came to the Demo and helped new players learn how to play. And as always, an extra special thanks to my Assistant GM’s Howard Marron and Danique Martin who really do all the hard work. This event would not happen without them. See everyone next year at WBC 2024!