Substitute GM Jackson Reqarded With Championship!

Our regularly scheduled GM, Bob Stribula, was out on the injured list this year, so several of us combined efforts to keep the trains running.

I was ably assisted by Jay Spencer running registration, Mark Kennel handling the demo, and Bart Pisarik and Ken Gutermuth pitching in. Many thanks to them, and special thanks to Debbie Gutermuth, Chris Meyer, and Jay Spencer who tag-teamed doing the admin work to run the final game.

Heats

We had 60 unique players play 27 games over three Heats, with 107 seats filled.

Heat 1 Winners: Todd Augenstein, Chris Gnech, Jeff Jackson, Erica Kirchner, Mark McCandless, Margie Meadowcroft, Tedd Mullally, Sam Packwood, Bart Pisarik.

Heat 2 Winners: Eric Brosius, Debbie Gutermuth, Jeff Jackson, Roger Jarrett, Katie Kolt, Thomas Lind, Mark McCandless, Rich Meyer, Eyal Mozes, Tedd Mullally.

Heat 3 Winners: David Finberg, Ken Gutermuth, Harald Henning, Richard Irving, Mark Kennel, Sam Packwood, Jack Proksch, Ron Secunda.

Top Five Finishers.No one managed to sweep with wins in all three Heats, but four players had two wins. In points rank order they were Jeff Jackson, Sam Packwood, Mark McCandless, and Theodore Mullally. Ranking fifth was Margie Meadowcroft as the only player with one win and two second-place finishes.

Blowout Wins. Among the 24 completed qualifiers there were only two blowouts, where the winner’s score was more than double that of second place. Rich Meyer won a second-round Empire Builder with $252, well ahead of second place at $117 and third at $100. But by far the biggest blowout was a first-round Eurorails where Jeff Jackson was not a very nice GM, winning with $272 while second place finished with $30… Some games just go like that!

Closest Games. On the other hand, a remarkable 16 of the 24 completed qualifiers had close finishes, where at least one other player ended with more than $200. That included *all* eight games in Heat 3. Six ended with three players over $200, and one British Rails had all four players scored over $200.

Fastest Game. Five games finished in 2:30 or less, but the clear winner was a first-round British Rails which Bart Pisarik won in 2:05. And I’m sure Bart would add that they would have been done in under two hours if the GM hadn’t been so long-winded with the announcements…

Memorial Medallion. Bob’s traditional medal, explained in his words: “The Train Gamers Memorial Medal rewards expertise across the entire series of Crayon Rails. Specifically, it is determined by the best total finish in three qualifiers NOT including Eurorails and Empire Builder (with Mexico). This medal is awarded in memory of our lost friends.” John Meadowcroft won the medal with a consistent performance of three very close seconds. His lowest score was $235, playing Martian Rails, China Rails, and Iron Dragon. Due to Bob’s absence, John will receive the medal next year.

Games played during the qualifiers were:

• Empire Builder (NA) – 7
• Eurorails – 6
• Iron Dragon – 3
• China Rails – 2
• British Rails – 2
• India Rails – 2
• Martian Rails – 2
• Empire Builder (w/o Mex) – 1
• Australian Rails – 1
• Lunar Rails – 1
• Note: Nippon Rails and Russian Rails were not played this year.

Semifinal

Only 18 of the top 25 players were available for the semi-final round, so two eager alternates were added and we played five boards of four player Empire Builder (North America) games. Tables were chosen based on rank order from the qualifiers, with only three re-arrangements needed to resolve family and teammate conflicts. It was a tough crowd, with nine past champions.

Four of the five Semifinal tables were finished before or just after the three-hour mark, and the fifth table finished in under 3:30.

Table 1 featured past champions Jeff Jackson and Chris Gnech, plus Jay Spencer and Kathy Hentz. Jeff took an early lead which he never relinquished. Chris made a couple good runs and almost caught up, but Jeff made a nice final push for the win. Jeff 1st with $252, Chris 2nd at $185, Kathy 3rd at $168, with Jay 4th at $136.

Table 2 included past champion Rich Meyer, plus veteran players Sam Packwood, Debbie Gutermuth, and Katie Kolt. Debbie was described as “a disaster machine” (we pass this note along without comment…). She finished 4th with $182, while also victimizing Rich by making him lose a critical coffee load. Rich was 3rd at $205. Sam was stopped by a Pacific Storm which kept him out of range on a derailment so he had the fewest complaints about all the events. It came down to a race between Katie and Sam. Sam cleverly saved a few turns by building through Canada from Vancouver to Winnipeg to make the winning double delivery, getting to $253 while Katie finished just behind in 2nd with $242.

Table 3 consisted of past champions Eric Brosius and Mark Kennel, plus Mark McCandless and John Meadowcroft. Mark K squeaked in at $251 for the win. John demonstrated his consistency, having finished second in every Heat, by also finishing second here with $195. Mark M was 3rd with $162, and Eric finished with $150.

Table 4 had last year’s winner Tedd Mullally, past champion Bart Pisarik, Roger Jarrett and Ron Secunda. This was the closest of the Semifinal tables, even though the final scores don’t show it. Tedd and Bart were locked in a tight race for the win, so tight that they were tied at $260 at the end of a round. We play the old Mayfair tiebreaker where everyone continues with a new victory condition of $300, so the table played on. Bart was able to break $300 before Tedd could add to his cash total, so the final result was Bart 1st with $314, Tedd 2nd at $260, Roger 3rd with $228, and Ron at $166. As a consolation prize, Tedd was the best second place finisher so he took sixth in the overall tournament.

Table 5 included past champions Ken Gutermuth and Harald Henning, along with Margie Meadowcroft and Eyal Mozes. I’ll note that Margie seems to be making a habit of beating past champions in the Semifinal… and she pulled it off again this year. Ken had the winning load on board but Harald drew the Pacific Storms event which prevented Ken from making the big delivery in time. Final positions were Margie 1st with $261, Ken 2nd with $226, Harald 3rd with $183, and Eyal with $152.

Final

The Final (Eurorails) included the first (Jeff), second (Sam) and fifth (Margie) ranked players from the qualifying Heats, plus two past champions (Bart and Mark K) to round out the table. With that group, you just knew it had to be close, and it didn’t disappoint, with the winner playing a very unusual game. The final game wrapped up in a brisk 2:45.

Margie jumped out to the early lead, but her cards betrayed her in the mid-game and she finished 5th with $169.

From the mid-game on, it appeared to be a race between Sam, Mark and Bart. All three had solid routes and cards, and they steadily accumulated cash to result in a ridiculously close finish. Mark ended up in second place with $247, Sam finished third with $240, and Bart came in 4th with $233!

Jeff had the slowest – and strangest - start, but somehow managed a comeback for the win. His initial build was from Madrid, to run cattle to Sevilla, with nothing else on his cards. He ran a slow train back and forth across the board for the first hour, ultimately building to Oslo. His first major city connected from Madrid was Berlin, and he never ran on his own track to Holland, Paris, London or Wien! His end game was getting a spec Cork to Ruhr, then he tossed to get one run to Spain, which he delivered and tossed again to hit a spec Tourist, which gave him the win at $260. Readers can decide for themselves whether that was luck or skill!

Congratulation to Jeff Jackson. 2024 WBC Empire Builder Champion!