WBC After Action Report and Top Centurions
Sneak Peek of WBC Winners

WBC Event Winners
WBC Event Reports

WBC Yearbooks
WBC Event History and Laurels
WBC Event History and Laurels
WBC Medals
WBC Boardmasters

 

Titan The Arena (TTA) WBC 2024 Event Report
Updated November 1, 2024
66 Players Zachary Frank Event History
2024 Champion & Laurels
 

Frank Is King Of The Arena!

It was another fun year of GM’ing Titan the Arena. This is my third year as GM for Titan the Arena and it has been a pleasure keeping the traditions of this competition alive. Thank you to everyone who participated in the tournament to make it another great year.

We had 66 unique participants and 104 player starts during 3 Heats. This is a decrease of 20% for unique participants and almost the same in player starts versus 2023. The 7% decrease in WBC attendance may account for part of the drop. Part of the decrease may also be explained by changes in the Eurogame schedule.

I will consider next year whether a change in schedule may be warranted. It is also being considered whether to have a Juniors event for Titan the Arena as that is where many of our regular players were first introduced to the game. The demonstration continues to be well attended which brings in several new players each year.

A few notes from the preliminary Heats. Of course we do our best to ensure there is no nonsense, hijinks, shenanigans or tomfoolery during this event. These were kept to a minimum, but the gaming commission received anecdotal reports of greater than normal incidence of ties during this year’s tournaments. After the concerns of magic or paranormal activity were investigated and allayed it was determined that the results were due to well matched and skilled competitors.

The GM will begin monitoring the number ties and see if this is a growing trend. During this year’s competition amongst 22 tables there were 4 ties for first place, 7 ties for second, 5 ties for third (one a three way tie), 1 tie for fourth and two games had ties for first and third place. This means 18% of games had ties for first place and 68% of tables had at least one tie.

Prior to the Semifinal, the awards for this season of Titan the Arena were presented: Steve Shambeda is the Battling Behemoth for this year with 6 kills, Sarah Morgen is the Shining Serpent with 10 points lost in the final round of a game, Michael Shea is the Overachieving Ogre with 34 points combined across all Heats, Angela Bender is the Weary Warbear with a 10 point win, and Ben Collinson Jr is the Ardent Angel with an 11 point last place finish. Both Shining Serpent and Weary Warbear awards were determined by the second tiebreaker which is fitting with the tiebreaker trend during the preliminary Heats.

For the Semifinal there were 20 participants at 5 tables. During play it was noted at Dragon table 3 zero power cards were played the first round followed by 4 ten power cards played the second round. The tiebreaker trend continued once again with 2 ties for first place and a tie for second place. Competition was very close at all tables with 3 points being the largest margin of victory amongst all five tables. These close margins meant that the Mighty Minotaur was also determined by tiebreaker and actually came down to the final tiebreaker of a dice roll after all other tiebreakers were exhausted. Alyssa Morgen was finally victorious over Matt Calkins to be the Mighty Minotaur this season.

The five finalists for this year are Steve Shambeda, Jordan Shea, Rebecca Roppolo, Zachary Frank and Sarah Morgen. Jordan bids 10 and plays first with a 10 Unicorn card and a matching visible bet on Unicorn. First round play is fairly standard after this with all secret bets made and only a single first round bet by all players. Not unexpectedly, Dragon is killed by Steve with no visible bets placed upon it.

Jordan also begins the second round with a Ranger bet followed by everyone placing bets on the same 5 creatures (Ranger, Titan, Troll, Unicorn and Warlock). After everyone has bet once, the lowest card on a creature is a 7 power card. Steve plays the first spectator card with an 8 on Titan. Jordan and Rebecca then negotiate the doom of Cyclops which is accomplished by Rebecca on her next play. Still, no player has lost a visible bet.

Zachary begins the third round with a visible bet and 7 power card play on Unicorn. Interestingly, all five players again place visible bets on the same five creatures with no one repeating on the same creature. This encourages alliances and Rebecca and Zachary banter about killing Hydra. Powers have a greater impact this round as both referees are played to pull a 2 Unicorn card and a 10 Troll card. Troll also uses its power to pull power cards for use later. The 10 spectator card also comes out, but Titan is doomed after Rebecca plays a 0 power card upon it followed by Zachary playing an 8 Troll card for the kill.

Sarah begins the fourth round with a 6 card on Unicorn and a visible bet on the same. Surprisingly, Hydra is still alive with no visible bets upon it. There are also quite a few cards remaining in the draw deck. It is a quick round with a single play of cards by all players and Zachary skipping his bet while killing Hydra (his second kill in a row) with a 3 spectator card upon it and no visible bet played.

Sarah begins the Final round with a 2 power card play on Troll. The next six cards are all played on Troll (5 Troll cards and 2 spectator cards) with the deck running out in the process. Play continues with only the cards already in player hands. Ranger is briefly threatened by Rebecca playing a 0 power card upon it. But Zachary reinforces it with a 7 power card. Wizard is threatened next by Steve playing a 3 power card. Jordan gets the final kill playing a 5 spectator on Unicorn and finishing off Warlock.

Jets versus Sharks finger snapping breaks out between team Jordan and team Rebecca of the spectators while we get ready for final scoring. Not unexpected with the skill of the players, all secret bets survive and it is a tight game. Jordan ends up 1 point ahead of Rebecca, but Zachary pulls out the win by one point over Jordan.

A rules clarification request that came up several times this year is the difference between the Referee card effect and Unicorn power effect. The Referee card allows the player to “claim any visible strength card” with the exception “You may not claim a spectator” (page 5, section 10, third paragraph). Since the Unicorn power description “you may exchange the positions of any two visible strength cards of the same creature” does not include the exception for spectator cards (page 8, section 15.7), the GM has determined that the Unicorn power may include spectator cards for the switch. This clarification will be included in the tournament rules for next year.

Congratulations to Zachary and thank you to everyone who came out to make this another fun year of Titan the Arena! I also want to thank Andy Latto for the wonderful spreadsheet he creates for the WBC GM’s which makes the recordkeeping for the tournaments so much easier!

 
2024 Laurelists Repeating Laurelists: 1
Shea, Jordan Roppolo, Rebecca Morgen, Sarah Shambeda, Steve Morgen, Alyssa
2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th
Heat action at the Arena of the Titans. Jordan Shea working his way to the Final.
Smiles before the carnage begins in the Arena. Finalists with GM Kevin Breza.
 
GM  Kevin Breza [3rd Year]