Top Alhambra Laurelist Captures Championship!

There were 16 games played in Heat 1 and 11 games in Heat 2.

Some interesting facts from these two heats:

This was the first year out of the 20 years of being GM for this event that there was not at least one player to win in both heats.

All the games were 4-player games except for 5 3-player games in the Heats. Vassili Kyrkos had the highest score of 141 in the 4-player games followed by Rolinda Schamel (133), with Bowen Niu, Steve Scott, Grant LaDue, Micheal Vaz, Lynda Shea, John Jacoby, Jeff Mullet, and Dave Krogh winning their tables with a score of 120 or more. Hsin-Ping Liu, Michael Shea, Anastasia Tircuit, Angela Bender, Chris Burnett, Donna Herd, Chris Greenfield, Rodney Bacigalupo, Laurie Wojtaszczyk, and Tina Del Carpio all won their tables with 110 or more. Lisa Gutermuth had the highest score of 166 in the 3-player games followed by Nathan Wagner (150) and Andrea Johnson (146). The other people who won their games were: Erik Schloser, Adele Gibbens, Daid Metzger, and Luke Koleszar.

The Quarterfinal brought the number of players down to 16. There were a number of winners that did not show up for the Quarterfinal, so byes were given based on their seed. The seeding was based on top players being multiple winners and then based on higher winners’ victory % over 2nd place.

Results of the Semifinal were:

Michael Vaz extended his winning streak with the highest Semifinal winning score of 119. Luke Koleszar and Steve Scott each won their tables with a score of 111. Vassili Kyrkos won his table with a score of 103 by breaking a tie with Rodney Bacigalupo by having a longer wall.

Now the players are set for the Final:

After the first scoring round, Luke Koleszar was in the lead with 13 followed by Steve Scott with 10, Michael Vaz with 9 and Vassili Kyrkos with 5. Luke’s points were made up of 10 wall length points and the other 3 due to buildings. While this gave him a beginning lead, it also limited his ability to add more buildings to his Alhambra, so he accumulated 20 money cards in his hand. Steve had a similar issue and accumulated 11 money cards in his hand. After the 2nd scoring round, Vassili took the lead with 42 points followed by Michael with 39, Luke with 38 and Steve with 34. In the last scoring round, Luke was able to swap some buildings which opened up his Alhambra. With all the cards in his hand, he was able to buy more buildings than anyone else so that skyrocketed him into the lead in three of the six type of buildings. Luke won with a score of 122 followed by Vassili with 100, Michael with 94, and Steve with 77.

Thanks to all who played this year and hope to see you next year.