Wolff Leverages Bonus to Claim Azul Championship!

Azul drew a total of 220 unique players this year. There were a total of 479 player starts (395 in Heats and 84 in Elimination Rounds) in 119 games (98 in Heats and 21 in Elimination Rounds).

A special thanks to the Assistant GM’s, Henry Allen and Adele Gibbens.

Seat order is randomized each game. In looking at the stats for the 453 games of Azul played at WBC in the last four years, seat order seems to have a little difference but not definitive. The seat distribution of winners has been:

• Seat 1 31%
• Seat 2 21%
• Seat 3 27%
• Seat 4 21%

In the elimination rounds alone (smaller sample size) the seat distribution of winners has been:

• Seat 1 27%
• Seat 2 23%
• Seat 3 26%
• Seat 4 24%

Next year we may implement a bidding for seat order in the Semifinal and Final.

Heat 1

149 players were divided into thirty-five 4-player games and three 3-player games. Seven games went 6 rounds and all the others went 5 rounds. The high individual score was a whopping 125 by Ashley Worley! In the 6-round game, Ashley scored 3 horizontal rows, 2 vertical columns and 2 same color bonuses. Brad Sherwood had the highest score in a 5-round game with 93. Itamar Hochboim had the lowest winning score of 58.

Heat 2

136 players were divided into thirty-fout 4-player games. Five games went 6 rounds and the rest were 5 rounds. The high individual score was 97 by Zacary Morris. In the 6-round game, Zacary scored 2 vertical columns and 2 same color bonuses. Tripp Buchanan had the lowest winning score of 62.

Heat 3

104 players were divided into twenty-six 4-player games. Five games went 6 rounds and the rest were 5 rounds. The high individual score was 117 by Armelle Worrel. In the 6-round game, Armelle scored 2 horizontal columns, 2 vertical columns and 2 same color bonuses. Tricia Wolff had the highest score in a 5-round game with 94. Jordan Shea had the lowest winning scores of 65.

The average winning score of all the Heat games was 78. The average of all the scores in the Heat games was 64.

Quarterfinal

There were 78 players who had at least one win. The top 64 players appearing were selected to play in the Quarterfinal. There were four members of the Hochboim family included in the top 64. In fact, Vered and Haim Hochboim both won all three of their Heat games and were ranked #1 and #2 going into the Quarterfinal.

The 64 players were divided into sixteen 4-player games, with the top 16 ranking Heat players placed at different tables. Three of the Quarterfinal games went 6 rounds, and all of the rest went five. Thomas Tu had the highest score in the 6-round games with 101. Anna DeRosa had the highest score in the 5-round games with 96. Chris Kalmbacher had the lowest winning score of 61.

Semifinal

Final

Andrew led after the first round, having placed three tiles on his wall for 6 points. Anna and Mitchell also placed three tiles, but only scoring 3 points. Sam only placed two tiles and also had two on the factory floor, scoring only 1 point the first round.

Anna sprinted out to the lead in the second round, placing four tiles, scoring 15 points and having one column with 4 tiles in it already. Mitchell also placed four tiles and scored 10 points. Andrew placed four tiles, scoring just 6 points, but having three tiles in each of two colors. Sam was setting things up, placing only three tiles and scoring just 3 points.

Sam placed four tiles in the third round with two of them in the bottom rows and scored 16 points. Andrew also scored 16 points in the third round and was threatening for a bonus, having four blue tiles placed. Mitchell was only able to place three tiles and scored 9 points. Anna only placed three tiles, but two of them in the bottom rows, completed a vertical row and scored 8 points.

At this point, it was Andrew 28, Anna 26, Mitchell 22 and Sam 20. The fourth round was Mitchell’s big round, scoring 18 points while completing a vertical row and having two horizontal rows of 4 tiles. Andrew only placed two tiles, missing out on placing his bottom row tile with one, but still scored a solid 13 points. Sam was setting things up again, placing three tiles, scoring just 7 points but completing a same color bonus. Anna didn’t score well with only 1 point but did complete a same color bonus.

Sam had the best round of the game in the fifth round by scoring 22 points and completing two vertical rows. The others scored Andrew 16, Mitchell 13 and Anna 12.

The total base scores were Andrew 57, Mitchell 53, Sam 49 and Anna 39. But Sam had 26 points in bonuses, while Anna had 19, Mitchell 11 and Andrew 7. Sam Wolff is the 2025 Azul Champion! Final scores were Sam 75, Mitchell 64, Andrew 64 and Anna 58.