The 2024 7 Wonders Duel tournament once again used the same format that had worked well the previous two years: two Heats were scheduled during which each player would play two games. Any player that won at least two games across the Heats qualified for the knockout rounds. 7 Wonders Duel was a Century event for the second time in 2024 and once again saw an increase in player attendance, 86 up from 76 in 2023.
One-hundred and seventeen games were played over the two Heats. Kevin Warrender was the only player to win four games, advancing as the top seed. Another nine players earned three wins and thirty-five players qualified for the Single-Elimination Rounds.
Thirty of those qualified players turned up for the Single-Elimination Round, meaning five rounds would be played and two players would receive a first round bye: Kevin and second-seed Jefferson Meyer. Unfortunately for them the curse of the bye struck again this year as they both lost their first games. Over the last three tournaments, 12 of 14 players receiving a bye have lost their first game of the playoffs.
In 2023 there was much discussion about a first player advantage. As a result, we added bidding for turn order in the Single-Elimination Round this year. Players had the option to bid coins that would be added to their opponent’s total to start the game. For example, if Player A bid 3 coins to go first, Player A would start the game with the usual 7, but Player B would start with 10. As far as I can tell, this change was well received.
After two Elimination Rounds, the top eight players faced off in the Quarterfinal. Chris Katz and Ray Wolff both earned Science victories (over Lyman Moquin and Nick Henning respectively). Justin Fritz defeated Frank Hollander 62-52 while 2023 PBEM champion Patrick Maguire advanced past Matt Stankey 62-50.
In the first Semifinal, Patrick bid one coin to go first and took a 3-1 advantage in extra-turn wonders. During Age 1, Justin purchased only five cards but collected three of the four Science symbols and both brick producing resource cards. Patrick picked up seven cards, but crucially did not find the yellow trading card for bricks. Patrick used Piraeus to take the last two cards in the Age to give himself turn order priority for Age 2, but in a move, he later described as “too clever by half” allowed Justin to take the first turn in the round.
Justin’s lack of yellow cards meant he was light on coins and had to use multiple actions to take two coins. However, Justin used his only extra-turn wonder to bury the two-brick resource card and pick up a matching Science symbol to take the Economy progress token, generating cash from Patrick’s missing resource. Patrick pushed the Military track, getting three shields from victory at the end of the Age. Justin had the chance to take his 4th Science symbol but instead took another matching symbol to acquire the Strategy token.
At the start of Age 3, Justin used Circus Maximus to destroy Patrick’s paper and crucially push the Military track one space as the next card flipped was the Pretorium (3 shields for 8 coins). Patrick again put Justin in danger of Military dominance, but those shields were soon negated due to Justin’s Strategy token. The rest of the age was a race for points with Justin narrowly edging out the victory 49-47.
In the second semifinal, Ray bid two coins for first and both players left the wonder draft with two extra-turns. The first round began with Ray picking up two yellow cards, while Chris pursued a Science strategy he had used to win two of his first three games that evening. Both players ended Age 1 with two Science symbols. Chris picked up a full set of resources, while Ray acquired all four yellow cards in the round. Neither player constructed a blue or red card.
Chris began Age 2 buying his third gray card, putting Ray at a disadvantage regarding manufactured goods, though Ray had the Piraeus wonder yet unbuilt. Ray took the other top card, flipping over a third Science symbol for Chris. Both players used extra turns to find or defend against Science cards, but two of the four green cards had been removed from the game during setup. Towards the end of the Age, Chris acquired the first progress token, choosing Theology with only one wonder built on either side. With the last card of Age 2, Ray built two shields to move the conflict pawn one space into Chris’s territory.
No Science cards appeared in the first two slots of Age 3 so Chris instead bought the Moneylender’s Guild. He followed that up by building The Colossus and both three-shield red cards to push Ray two shields from Military defeat. Ray was able to build The Statue of Zeus and another two-shield card to put a dominance loss out of reach, albeit potentially conceding 10 points to Chris. Once again Science cards were in short supply, the first appearing with only five cards remaining. Ray was presented with a choice to take a 7 point blue card, or 2 point green card which would give Chris his fourth symbol with a fifth symbol face up and The Great Library available. Ray decided he needed the points if the game went to Civilian scoring and Chris subsequently picked up the green card. With two cards remaining, Chris built The Great Library finding the Law token, using his extra turn from Theology to build the remaining green card, and advance to the final via Science dominance.
Patrick and Ray agreed to play for the third place plaque. Patrick once again bid to go first, giving Ray three additional coins. Patrick ended the first round with five brown resource cards to Ray’s zero. Ray was able to build the Caravansary in Age 2 and ultimately paid 12 coins to build the Lighthouse, but Patrick’s stranglehold on resources proved too much, winning 59-49.
In the final game, Chris went first with a 0 bid and both players drafted two extra-turn wonders. The available progress tokens were Strategy, Economy, Masonry, Philosophy, and Mathematics. Both players began Age 1 by building Science cards before the more traditional race for resources. Chris picked up both Brick producing cards as well as the Brick commercial building. Justin countered by building The Great Lighthouse and using The Temple of Artemis to swap to a more advantageous turn order. Justin ended the Age with 3 Science symbols to Chris’s 1, while Chris picked up both gray resource producers.
Chris began Age 2 by picking up his matching Science symbol, acquiring the Economy token and removing Science dominance as a win condition for Justin. This flipped the double brick producer for Justin, though Chris destroyed it shortly thereafter with The Statue of Zeus. Chris picked up two more Science cards, prompting Justin to use his last extra turn to buy the remaining green card, forming a pair of his own and taking the Strategy token, though giving Chris ten coins in the process due to Economy. Chris ended the Age four shields from Military victory with The Colossus available.
Justin took the first turn of Age 3, building his last wonder (The Pyramids). However, that flipped up a three-shield red card, which Chris quickly bought and followed up with The Colossus to win the tournament via Military dominance.
Over all rounds of the tournament, Robert Simpson had the highest winning civilian score with 81 while Justin Tagg had the lowest winning score at 43. Trish Wolff had the highest non-winning score at 65.
Over the 147 games played, civilian victory decided the most games with 79 (53.7%, up from 47.3% in 2023) games ending on points. Science dominance followed, being the decider in 39 games (26.5% down from 29.5%) while military dominance ended 29 games (19.7% down from 22.5%). The player who took the first turn of the game won 53.74% of games.
Looking only at the Single-Elimination Rounds, 15 of 30 games (50%) ended in civilian victory, followed by Military with 8 wins (26.7%) and Science with 7 wins (23.3%). In this round, the player who took the first turn won only 11 games (36.7%).
As mentioned above, bidding for turn order was introduced to the Single-Elimination Rounds for the first time this year. Out of 30 games, 25 saw a bid greater than zero. Four times, a player bid to go 2nd (including two zero-bids for 2nd). The average bid for first was 1.96 and the highest bid was 5. To go 2nd, the average bid was .75, with a high of 2. A non-zero bid for first seat won only 9 games (39.13%), and the average bid for winning players was 2.1. Ray Wolff had the highest bid in a win with 4. Three of the four bids for 2nd seat ended in victory.
Of note, finalist Justin Fritz did not win a bid for seat choice in any of his five playoff games. Tournament winner Chris Katz had three successful zero bids (including two for 2nd seat), but no non-zero winning bids. Both players went 2nd in four of their five Single-Elimination games.
Congratulations to all the laurelists and thank you to everyone who attended the event.
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