Galaxy   

Updated Nov. 23, 2013

2013 WBC Report  

 2014 Status: pending December 2013 Membership Trial Vote

Dan Eshleman, LA

2013 Champion:

Event History
2000    James Pei     96
2001    Steve Cameron     87
2002     Jon Shambeda     75
2003    Rob Winslow     60
2004     Joseph Burch     58
2005    Sean McCulloch     48 
2006    Dan Eshleman     43
2007    John Keating     46
2008    Mark Mitchell     41
2009    Joe Burch     44
2010     John Keating     41
2011    Rob Winslow     39
2012    Steve Cameron     37
2013    Dan Eshleman     44

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Rob Winslow        NY    12    100
  2.  John Keating       IL    10     74
  3.  Mark Mitchell      VA    13     62
  4.  Joseph Burch       MD    09     62
  5.  Steve Cameron      PA    12     61
  6.  Jon Shambeda       PA    02     58
  7.  Dan Eshleman       NC    13     50
  8.  David Buchholz     MI    08     48
  9.  Martin Sample      NH    11     43
 10.  Sean McCulloch     OH    05     42
 11.  Steve Shambeda     PA    12     40
 12.  Jed Shambeda       PA    08     38
 13.  Craig Melton       VA    13     35
 14.  James Pei          TX    00     30
 15.  Joel Tamburo       IL    04     27
 16.  Max DuBoff         NJ    13     24
 17.  Rebecca Hebner     CA    12     22
 18.  Kaarin Engelmann   VA    01     18
 19.  Andy Lewis         DE    02     16
 20.  Danielle Zack      MD    08     15
 21.  Andres Dunn        MD    10     13
 22.  Rob Kircher        RI    09     12
 23.  Nick Henning       CT    07     12
 24.  Brendan Crowe      VA    00     12
 25.  Christian Winicki  CT    13      9
 26.  Phil White         MD    05      9
 27.  Mark Geary         OH    10      8
 28.  Drew DuBoff        NJ    13      6
 29.  Joanna Melton      VA    12      6
 30.  Misha Lavrov       NC    10      6
 31.  Jon Miller         DC    00      6
 32.  Rob Buccheri       MD    09      4
 33.  Bill Place         PA    02      4
 34.  William Burch      MD    04      3
 35.  Rick Young         NC    03      3
 36.  Anthony Musella    VA    01      3
 37.  John Ellsworth     IL    00      3
 38.  John Speck         MD    11      2
 39.  Tim Evinger        PA    09      2

2013 Laurelists                                                 Repeating Laurelists:

Max DuBoff, NJ
2nd

Mark Mitchell, VA
3rd

Christian Winicki, CT
4th

Drew DuBoff, NJ
5th

Craig Melton, VA
6th

Past Winners

James Pei, TX
2000

Steve Cameron, PA
2001, 2012

Jon Shambeda, PA
2002

Rob Winslow, NY
2003, 2011

Joe Burch, MD
2004, 2009

Sean McCulloch, OH
2005

Dan Eshleman, LA
2006, 2013

John Keating, IL
2007, 2010

Mark Mitchell, VA
2008
 

Rolinda Collinson and Laura Brown

Luke Koleszar and Drew DuBoff

Steve Shambeda gives Christian Winicki his "let's be friends" pitch.

Natasha Metzger and Bill Place

Winning Two is Still Twice as Nice ...

Tiebreakers still rule! ...

The latest Galaxy tournament again did not disappoint with a tense Final that, as usual, came down to the last card before before it was decided. One of the surprises was that three of the five finalists were under the age of 18. One of them just learned the game at the demo that week! So it is encouraging to know that this game has a new crop of up and coming players. It also means us old fogeys better be prepared or we're going to be watching from the sidelines during future Finals.

The Final came down to the last card play for Max Duboff. He had a choice of eliminating one of two worlds and he chose the Cylor. The good news is that after all was said and done, he had the high score at the table. The bad news is, so did Dan Eshleman. So, once again the title required a tie breaker and Dan's hand proved to be the better one by a wide margin (99 to 33). Dan thus became our fifth two-time champ.

The Erithizonians were the world that was eliminated more than the others. It was culled 17 times and that's the first time it held that less than meritorious distinction since 2009. On the flip side, the Felowi survived 11 times in 22 games to take top honors in that more promising category. Usually the most successful world survives a little more than 50% of the time, so this year proved more balanced than usual. The Erithizonian and Imperial tied for the most choices for secret base and the Cylor came in at a disappointing low of 5 for the fewest. Also if you were a player who ended the game with the last world elimination, your chances of winning were but 7 in 22, so maybe its not always such a good idea to be the "game ender."

As good as the Final was, the third heat had a 5-player game that was unlike any this GM has ever seen. For most of Round 1 the Felowi world drew no ship card. So during that time, there were multiple bases played on it, mostly by shooting the base already there to move it down a level. There was one card played, but it didn't last long. As a result, ownership of the world changed hands four times in the 1st round. After that round there were seven total bases on the world. But wait, it gets better. In the end, there were 53 points, including secret bases, on the table and 40 of them were on the Felowi alone! This isn't data that has been kept since the tournament began, but I'm declaring this a new record for points on a world that I doubt will ever be broken!

Virginia Melton, Alex Metzger, Ben Collinsin and Tim Mossman

GM Mark Mitchell and his fellow finalists.
 GM      Mark Mitchell  [9th Year]   NA 
    MarkM5963@aol.com    NA  

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