Warszawski Conquers The Cold War!

We had a one player increase in the tournament compared to 2024, for a total of 36 players and 60 games played. We kept the playing time at three and one-half hours and had four plaques awarded with team points and laurels available for the fifth and sixth place finishers.

Round 1 was exactly even, with nine Soviet and nine American wins. The results went downhill for the USA after that, with the Soviets ahead eleven wins to three in Round 2 Round 3 saw the US only managing one more tie and six wins, for a total of 35 Soviet wins and 24 American in the tournament, with one winning side not reported.

The earliest wins were in game turn 4 and the winner was decided in final scoring in six games, including one win by half a point for possession of The China Card. There were 27 automatic victories before final scoring including the title game for a Soviet win, six wins from Wargames including another one half point final for possession of The China Card, seven nuclear wars from DEFCON 1, eight resignations, and six not reported.

We eliminated ties in individual games by keeping the final scoring value of The China Card at one-half a point, the same as last year. The tiebreaker for standing in the tournament was the AREA rating as of one week before WBC of each opponent defeated. Opponents were assigned randomly for Rounds 1 and 2, with Rounds 3 through 5 seeded to give winners against low-ranking opponents a chance to face higher ranking opponents and have a better chance to take a plaque.

We had a strong field for the event, with ten of the top 26 AREA rated players including the tournament winner Aran Warszawski, second place Fred Finkenbinder, third place Josiah Emery, and fourth place Dan Leader.

Thanks to all of the players for participating in Twilight Struggle 2025, and I hope to see you next year at WBC.