Much fun was once again had in Ingenious’s 16th year at WBC. This year marked the addition of a Quarterfinal round immediately after the third Heat. Many thanks to the dedicated assistant GM, Yoni Weiss.
After an attendance increase in 2023, attendance was down this year, although a bit higher than in 2022. It’s not clear if the conflict with Ra! or other factors were driving this decrease, but the scheduling of Ingenious will be reexamined for future years. Once again there was a shortage of games, but only one person had to be turned away for lack of copies. Thank you to everyone who lent a copy even when they weren’t playing (especially to Amy and Norman Rule, who lent two copies), and to everyone who trekked back to their room to grab a copy! The game is back in print, so if you don’t already have a copy, now is a great time to get one.
Each of our three Heats drew over 60 players, with 16 or 17 games played in each. No games had to be adjudicated and everyone got to their late night games or to bed. As is traditional, some of the younger sharks dominated in the Heats, with Aaron Kaltman, Holiday Saccenti, and Preston Saccenti each winning three. Ewan McNay got close, with two wins and a second. Other double winners included Henry Allen, Richard Bouchard, Andrew Freeman, and Megan Mossman.
Andy Latto and Eric Raymond achieved our only perfect scores of 18 this year. Several players scored five Ingeniouses. The nearest miss was logged by Rebecca Roppolo with just one 17, followed by Aaron Kaltman, Jefferson Meyer, and Tricia Wolff with just one 16.
We had 29 Heat winners show up for the Quarterfinal. It was my first time running a quarterfinal and thank you to everyone for your patience after a sign-in mix-up meant that table assignments had to be redealt (all games finished on time, though). There were seven three-player games and two four-player games in the Quarterfinal. My policy this year, as announced in the Preview, was not to give byes to the Semifinal if at all possible. Many players expressed a preference for byes to the Semifinal for double and triple heat winners, which I’m open to for the future; all input is welcome It was logistically complicated to try to give higher seeds three-player rather than four-player games for the Quarterfinal, so I don’t think that bonus will be offered in the future.
The Quarterfinal yielded nine players for the Semifinal. All of them showed up, so we didn’t need to take any alternates. The Semifinal featured tight play and close games, but the older generation reasserted its Ingenious dominance for one more year. Triumphantly advancing to the final were Ewan McNay, David Metzger, and Jefferson Meyer. Ewan scored the biggest win in the Semifinal, by three points, while knocking out his son Keiran, another formidable player. Mike Kaltman earned fifth place laurels for losing on the third tiebreak to David, and Nathan Wagner snagged sixth with a loss by one point to Jefferson. Ewan and David are the only people to win the Ingenious tournament twice, and they were also the champions of the previous two years. But Jefferson had won his only heat and advanced out of a Qarterfinal with “savage blocks,” by his description, so the stage was set for an epic final.
Jefferson’s pet dragon stole the show at the final. David had the first and second Ingeniouses, on green and purple. Ewan got the next one on purple. Jefferson almost got knocked out of green but then purple exploded and he got access to both. Ewan had a lot of yellow and others were struggling to catch up, though they eventually did. The game ended up coming down to red. Jefferson got one red play early which was quickly blocked off, and then red was never really available to play on again. David drew a total of two red tiles the whole game (!), and Ewan exchanged tiles three times near the end for red and blue and couldn’t draw either.
Jefferson, therefore, became our 2024 Ingenious champion, winning his first Ingenious title and leaving the event without any three-time champions. Thanks to everyone who came out to play Ingenious!
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The younger generation enjoying Ingenious. |
David Metzger on way to Final. |
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All smiles in Semifinal with Laurelists Nathan Wagner and Jeff Meyer. |
Finalists with GM Max DuBoff. |
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