Tu Earns First Cascadia Championship!

Attendance for Cascadia increased 43% over last year with 159 unique players this year! There were a total of 357 player starts (297 in Heats and 60 in Quarterfinal/Semifinal/Final Rounds) in 90 games (75 in Heats and 15 in Quarterfinal/Semifinal/Final Rounds).

Special thanks to Assistant GM’s: Henry Allen and Adele Gibbens.

Cascadia is a thrilling game with very close scores. Over the 90 games played in this year’s tournament, the first place score was only 4.5 points higher than the second place on average. The average scores were 60 in Wildlife, 32.5 in Habitats, and 2.5 in Nature Tokens for an average total score of 95.

The average scores per game for each of the Wildlife were: Bear (47), Elk (51), Salmon (51), Hawk (54) and Fox (41).

Heat 1: 113 players were divided into 26 4-player games and 3 3-player games. The highest Wildlife score was 72 by Lumin Sperling. The highest Habitat score was 42 by Sean Inoue. The most Nature Tokens was 8 by Susan McGrady. Thomas Tu had the highest overall score of 108. Katie Gray won her game over Kristen LaDue in the 4th tiebreaker of highest seat order number.

Heat 2: 104 players were divided into 26 4-player games. The highest Wildlife score was 77 by Ernest Pysher. The highest Habitat score was 48 by Mark Jensen, who also had the highest overall score of 113. The most Nature Tokens was 9 by Rolinda Schamel.

Heat 3: 80 players were divided into 20 4-player games. The highest Wildlife score was 72 by Eric Stein, Mike Assante and Lumin Sperling. The highest Habitat score was 45 by Joanna Melton. The most Nature Tokens was 8 by Matt Korda. The highest overall score was 110 by Preston Saccenti and Lumin Sperling.

Quarter-Finals: There were 57 participants in the Heats who won at least one game. Mark Jensen, Lumin Sperling and Bronwyn Woods won all three of their Heat games. There were 12 participants who won two games during the Heats. There were 46 of the 57 winners who appeared to play in the Quarterfinal. The top 6 players were given a bye to the Semifinal. The remaining 40 players were divided into ten 4-player games. One of the Quarterfinal games was won by Henry Allen on a tiebreaker over Andrew Menard, Erik Schlosser and Ray Wolff with a score of 99-99-99-97. The highest Wildlife score of the ten games was 88 by Mike Assante, who also had the overall highest score of 114. The highest Habitat score was 41 by Henry Allen. The most Nature Tokens was 8 by Daron Schreier and Brian Garbera. Bronwyn Woods had her consecutive win streak over the last two years snapped in her Quarterfinal game.

Semifinal: The 6 players with byes joined the 10 Quarterfnal winners in 4 tables of 4-player games, seeded by their ranking in the Heats. Thomas Tu had the highest score in Wildlife of 66, the highest Habitat score of 40, and the highest overall score of 107. The most Nature Tokens was 6 by Daron Schreier and Ian Moffitt. Thomas’ sister, Taylor Tu, also won her Quarterfinal game, as well as Luke Heinz and Ian Moffitt.

Final: The Cascadia Final was a competitive, but very friendly and enjoyable game. At the end of the first third of the game, Thomas had 1 or 2 of each of the five Wildlife on his board. So did Ian, but he had a 3 Salmon run built. Taylor had 3 Elks for the start of a nice herd. Luke had 4 Elks in his herd and had started a run of Salmon. At a little past the halfway point, Thomas had a group of 3 Bears and had placed 3 Foxes. Ian had 3 Elks in his herd and a run of 4 Salmon. Taylor had 4 Elks in her herd. Luke had built up his Elk herd to 5.

At the end of the game, Thomas scored a good number of points in all the Wildlife except for Elk. He had a run of 5 Salmon, 2 groups of Bears and scored the most points in Foxes with multiple pairs of other Wildlife surrounding them. Ian skipped the Bears altogether, but scored well in the other Wildlife, with a run of 5 Salmon, a herd of 5 Elk and the most points in Hawks. Taylor was well diversified in Wildlife scoring. Luke had the most Elk points with a herd of 7. The Wildlife scores were Luke 66, Thomas 63, Taylor 62 and Ian 61. Unfortunately for Luke, he had not concentrated as much on the Habitat points, scoring only 2 bonus points. Thomas scored 7 bonus points, Ian 6 and Taylor 4. The Habitat scores were Thomas 38, Ian 35, Taylor 34 and Luke 28. Adding in the Nature Token points resulted in the total scores of Thomas 107, Ian 101, Luke 99 and Taylor 99, securing the Championship for Thomas.