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Evolution (EVL) WBC 2024 Event Report
Updated November 5, 2024
40 Players Max DuBoff Event History
2024 Champion & Laurels
 

DuBoff Captures Championship On Third Tiebreaker!

Evolution, The Numbers

The players who played in the Evolution Heats expressed how happy they were that the game was voted in and added to the Trial events. There were 40 unique players over three Heats, and 13 unique winners. Three players won 2 Heats, and did not play a third. Those three players were Curt Collins II, Joshua Coyle, and Tim O’Flynn. North Star Games was generous enough to provide alternate art cards for the players, so each player was able to get a set of cards to replace one trait in their deck.

Heat 1

We had 28 players join us for the first heat. This worked out well for 7 tables with 4 players each. One of the games only lasted 6 rounds, when most games last 8 to 9 rounds. This was an evening heat, and WBC attendees were stopping in to see what we were playing as the laughter from these games was infectious and could be heard in the hallway. An interesting note is that 5 of the 7 games were won from the second seat, and the other two were won from the third seat. I’ve never felt that the seating in Evolution would make a difference, so this could just be a coincidence.

Heat 2

Heat 2 saw 19 players show up to build the best habitats. Only 5 players from this heat were playing in their first heat. Only 5 tables were needed, with one table only having 3 players. Wins from seat positions seemed more random in this round with a winner from every seat, and 2 wins for seat 3.

Heat 3

We had 23 players show up for the third Heat. Six tables were used, with one table having 3 players. The winning seat positions for this round saw seat 3 win 3 times, seat 2 twice, and seat 1 once.

Semifinal

The Semifinal saw only 12 players show up. This allowed everyone who showed up to compete in the Semifinal. The Semifinal was played with 4 tables with 3 players at each table. Players were randomly separated with the top 4 players at different tables, the next 4 highest separated among the tables, and the bottom 4 separated into the tables. Last year’s winner, Nick Henning, only played in one heat, which dropped him into the second group. This made for an unfortunate pairing when he drew the table of Curt Collins, a previous winner himself. It was also noted that at one Semifinal table, Max DuBoff was able to build a large climbing, pack hunting carnivore that ran the table, as the other players had trouble drawing defensive traits.

Our Semifinal winners were Aaron Kaltman, Nick Henning, Jennifer Visocnik, and Max DuBoff.

Final

As the final table began, each player added an additional species, while Jennifer added 2 new species. The additional cards were used to add traits to the species. All species were fed with plenty of food in the watering hole.

In the second round, Nick pushed the number of species up to 5 species for the extra cards each round, Max added another species to match Jennifer with three species, and Aaron stayed at 2 species, but added size and population. When the cards were revealed, Max was the first to go carnivore. It was clear that Max was going to reduce the number of species that Nick had displayed, and Nick made it clear that if Max attacked him, he would have a carnivore before the game is over to return the favor. 3 of Nick’s species were safe, as each of the three had the hard shell trait, but the other 2 species were undefended and Max felt he needed to reduce the number of cards Nick would get in the next round, so he attacked. The watering hole was well stocked, and everyone was fed.

In the third round, Aaron joined Jennifer and Max to have 3 species, and Nick pushed his species back up to 5. Nick added a fourth hard shell trait to his habitat to build his “Army of turtles”, while Max increased the size and population of his carnivore to make him a more effective killer. Aaron was pushing the size of his species and adding fat tissue to gain additional food, while Jennifer was counting on her horny species to deter attacks. Max took Nick’s undefended species, and everyone ended the round fed.

In the fourth round, Nick pushed his species to 5 again, while everyone else stayed at 3 species. The food in the watering hole would not feed all of the species on the table, so decisions would need to be made to keep from losing population to starvation. When the traits were revealed, Nick had joined Max in the carnivore game with a 4 pop/4 body size carnivore with intelligence. Max had also increased his carnivore to 4 pop/4 body size and added intelligence. Nick made good on his promise and focused his attacks on Max. Max did not attack Nick and focused his attacks on the other players. Nick made it clear that he was a man of his word and needed to avenge the previous attacks. When the round was over, Max and Nick agreed that attacking each other would be mutually assured destruction, so a carnivore alliance was created. The round ended with an empty watering hole, but the population loss was minimal. Aaron moved food from his fat tissue at the start of the round to avoid starvation but was not able to fully refill his fat tissue for the next round. Max and Jennifer are using scavenger traits to gain food from the carnivore attacks.

In the fifth round, with the watering hole empty, the fertile trait was getting replaced. There was a sense that the watering hole was not going to be well stocked anymore. The carnivores stayed true to their agreement and attacked the other players, spending cards to use their intelligent trait to avoid the horns of Jennifer’s species and hitting Aaron’s large species to fill up when they were out of cards.

The sixth round followed the same script as the fifth round, and scavengers enjoyed the feeding frenzy from the carnivores, as they only grew and had additional attacks.

The seventh and final round began by following the script from the earlier rounds. Max drew a climbing card and was able to add it to his carnivore to bypass the climbing defenses. Near the end of the round, Max broke the agreement and attacked Nick to the point of removing a species with traits. This turned out to be a game winning decision. When the dust cleared Nick and Max were tied with 61 points each. The first tie breaker is trait cards, to which they were both tied at 8. The next tie breaker was population, where Max edged Nick with 12 population to Nick’s 11. Jennifer’s scavengers helped her gather more food that the other players to finish in third with 59 points and Aaron’s inability to fill his fat tissue in the end had him fall to fourth with 53 points.

 
2024 Laurelists Repeating Laurelists: 3
Henning, Nicholas Visocnik, Jennifer Kaltman, Aaron Collins II, Curt Lange, Ian
2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th
 
Max DuBoff continues run to the Championship. Jennifer Visocnik on way to Final.
Nick Henning advancing from Semifinal. Finalists with GM Tim O'Flynn.
GM  Tim O'Flynn [3rd Year]