Wolff 5-Pointers lead to Championship!

Splendor had 178 unique players which is a significant increase from 113 in 2024. The first Heat had 20 tables, the second Heat had 34 tables, and the third Heat had 24 tables. Splendor had 59 unique winners which enabled one bye to the Semifinal. This bye went to Norman Rule who was the second triple winner but had the most points from the wins in all three Heats. 49 people showed up for the Quarterfinals which enabled byes to the other triple winner, and three other people who had two wins and a place in another Heat. This left 11 tables for the Quarterfinal.

The Quarterfinal, Semifinal, and Final had preset faceup cards and nobles for each table. The preset was designed to provide consistency and mitigate the advantage of the first player. Also, it introduces a degree of uncertainty in the game because players do not know what the other players drew off the top of the deck (as seen in the Final). Next year, the faceup cards will change for variety and curiosity purposes.

The results of the Quarterfinal had the tables' first player winning 5 times, the second player 3 times, and the third and fourth player each winning once. The Semifinal had some interesting results with the first and second player winning once, and the third player winning twice. Next year, bidding may be introduced for the Semifinal and definitely for the Final, but the tables will still have preset cards. The nobles for all the Single Elimination games will be randomized instead of preset because it seemed to make little difference. Also, the seating of the players for the Semifinal may be somewhat distributed for the top 4 ranked byes to be seated at different tables.

The final consisted of (in order of turn) Jack Wolff, Evan Boone, Brandon Bernard, and Norman Rule. Due to presetting of cards, the seating was done randomly. As mentioned before, this will change due to bidding. The final took 25 turns to complete.

For the first turn of the Final, all players took a wild yellow disk and drew off the top of the blue deck (the one with 4 and 5 point cards). On the second turn, Jack did this again while other players took other colored disks. For the next 5 turns, Jack concentrated on obtaining white and blue disks which enabled to buy a 5 point card out of hand on turn 7. The other players concentrated on disks. On turn 10, Norman was also able to buy a 5 point card out of hand while Evan and Brandon bought 1 point cards from the middle row that cost 7 disks of three different colors. Jack was able again to obtain a yellow disk and draw off the top of the blue deck.

On turn 14, Evan bought a 4 point card out of hand, but it required 12 disks of 3 different colors. Brandon and Norman each took a yellow disk with Brandon drawing off the top of the blue deck and Norman taking a faceup 2 point card in the middle row. On turn 16, Jack was able to buy another 5 point card out of hand. On turn 20, Jack bought a 2 point card out of hand. During turns 16-25, Evan and Brandon bought 2 point cards from the middle row and 4 point cards out of hand. Norman was only able to buy 3 point cards for the rest of the game. Jack triggered the end of the game on turn 25 by buying a 4 point card out of hand. Evan and Brandon bought 2 point cards, and Norman bought a 3 point card. In the end, Jack ended with 16 points, Evan with 14 points, Norman with 12 points and 6 cards, and Brandon with 12 points and 9 cards. Jack had the edge during the game with the lucky draw of two 5 point cards from the blue deck.