Powers Triumphs in Second Victory In Last Three Years!

Attendance was steady this year, with 37 unique players over two Heats (last year we had three, so our per-heat average skyrocketed!). The highest score in the Heats was 43, achieved by two players (Rich Meyer and Christopher Sousa), and the lowest winning score was Alex Bove’s 33. This year's Heats also featured one of the closest four-player games in tournament history, with only two total points separating all four players. Mary Ellen Powers and Mike Shea shared the win at 37 with Kevin Wojtaszczyk and Ricky Boyes tying for “last” place. Quite a murderer's row, that table.

15 Semifinalists vied for five seats in the Final. The first table saw Rob Flowers narrowly defeat Matt Stankey, 43-41, but Matt's finish was good enough to get him into the final. At table 2, Mike Kaltman won the tiebreaker over Frank Hollander 33-33, with Dominic Blais just behind at 32. Frank's consolation prize was a seat at the Final. Table 3 featured three former champions (Freeman, Bove, Shea), last year's runner-up, and a finalist two years running (Meyer). Eric Freeman won convincingly, leaving Keith Dent with 6th Place laurels.

So, the Final was set: three former champions (Rob, Eric, and Mike) vs two relative newcomers (Matt and Frank), one of whom had literally only learned the game at the beginning of the week. Unfortunately, I was unable to record all the details of the Final, due to a conflict, so I can only give you an impression of what happened, as reported to me by some of the players who were there.

The early bidding was intense, with Eric paying 10 in round one for the coveted Berenike and Rob buying Avaris in round two for 10 as well. Mike pursued a farming strategy (which was a theme of this tournament, as he had decided to, in his own words, “Make Mendes Great Again”), while Frank went after temples and early scoring opportunities. By the halfway point, Matt had unfortunately fallen a bit behind at 6 points, with Eric slightly ahead at 8, Rob and Mike tied at 9, and Frank way ahead of the pack at 14.

Anyone who's played Amun Re at this level knows that halftime leads are notoriously hard to hold, and both Rob and Matt prove this to be true by storming ahead in the second epoch. After seeing the sacrifice barely reach above 1 for the entire first half of the game, Mike didn't have enough money to compete in the second half, and the cards and auction opportunities were better for Rob and Matt than Frank and Eric. In the end, Rob finished at 40, five points ahead of Matt (35). Mike managed to hold on for third place (33), while Frank (26) and Eric (25) brought up the rear. It was an impressive margin of victory for Rob Flowers, winner of two of the last three Amun Re tournaments at WBC!

Congratulations to all of the participants. Hope to see everyone again next year!