2010 WBC Team Tournament Winner's Circle
Oct. 12, 2010

Odds | History | Rules

I Beat Bill Crenshaw - South Carolina 

 

Eric Wrobel 9

Kate Taillon 0

Arthur Field 9

Bill Crenshaw 0

No Bonuses

96 teams entered the 20th "run for the slivers" at the 2010 WBC and when the horses were led back to their stalls, three were within one point of victory. Any bonus points awarded to those who had not won their event previously would change the outcome, but not only were none awarded, only one of the12 comptitors was even eligible for bonus points. The other 11 slots were filled by ex-champs of their chosen events. Thus it was that the fifth ranked "I Beat Bill Crenshaw" team gained WBC Team Tournament immortality by a single point over perennial favorite Nest of Spies and The Defectors. All three teams were heavy favorites, ranked in the Happy Handicapper's Top Six.

Finishing 4th a scant two points off the lead were the19th ranked We Ain't Dead Yet who will forever lament what could have been had the non-scoring half of their team not walked away from potential points in their team games by dropping out unbeaten. We coulda been champs instead of chumps. But noooooooo ... Bruno Sinigaglio was too busy to continue into the semis of his team game and yours truly had to take his wife to dinner rather than beat Reiff in overtime. That's my tale of woe and doubtless there were many similar near misses as the teams grouped within striking distance of the lead were more plentiful than ever. Scoring was generally up for entry to the Top 25 although the winning total was the lowest since 2007.

The year's biggest over-achievers were the 73rd-ranked Rebels & Redcoats who overcame 210 -1 odds to finish 19th behind eight points from John Keating's first Galaxy title and three points from newcomer Matt Ellis's impressive debut in the Breakout Normandy shark pool. Also thumbing their noses at the Happy Handicapper were the youngsters of the aptly named Next Gen whose average age was well shy of voting booth territory who ignored 206-1 odds to improve from a 70th ranking to finish 21st behind Joseph Belyeu's victory in Ace of Aces. It was a down year for the Happy Handicapper with only 14 of his top 25 picks (56%) making the Top 25 cut—bringing his four-year average back to 56%.

But let's cut the Happy Handicapper some slack. Apparently our "Pick the Top Ten" Team Tournament contest isn't so easy after all. Despite a large increase in entries, the scores of our prognisticators fell drastically. On average, contestants correctly picked only 2.62 teams in ten guesses as making the Top Ten. Mark Love's winning score of six correct guesses in our initial contest in 2009 proved to be setting the bar too high as this year's high score was a paltry four teams—selected by no less than six contestants who finished in a tie for first. Mark again was among the best handicappers though and he was joined by Bob Hamel, Andy Lewis, Ben Knight, Dave Meyaard and Terry Coleman who all correctly selected four of the Top Ten teams. To select a winner we had to resort to tiebreakers. Hamel was the first eliminated since he failed to select the winning team. Love was the next to go for missing the #2 team. All six entries had the #3 team—Nest of Spies—duh! but both Lewis and Meyaard failed to select #4 We Ain't Dead Yet so out they went—and rightly so! That left it between Knight and Coleman and both passed the fourth tie breaker by correctly naming the top four teams. So, on we went to the fifth tie breaker—the highest team selected outside the Top Ten. Coleman's next best choice was #12—Reese's Pieces, but Knight's was #11—The Corleone Family—so Ben Knight became the winner of our second Bracket Busting contest by the slimmest of margins on the fifth tie breaker. Congratulations to Ben Knight for winning a free 2011 BPA membership.

Despite a smaller field, shutouts increased to 32—comprising a third of all entries—up nearly 6% over 2009. The highest ranked squad to post nothing but goose eggs and thereby earn the 2010 title for Most Overrated was the defending champs Three Men & a Canadian, whose 8th ranked team was shutout in their comeback bid. Fame is indeed fleeting. However, the fourth-ranked Band of Fools squad was the highest ranked team to fall out of the Top 25.

The Werewolf Bait team won the Misery Loves Company title with 490 entrants for an average of 122.5 entrants per event. On the opposite end of the scale, claiming the Big Fish in the Small Pond title was Champagne Room Gamers whose 110 total entrants averaged just 27.5 players per event. Perhaps proving that scoring is easiest in the smaller events, the Champagne Room Gamers and Reese's Pieces who were 1-2 in the smallest events sweepstakes also showed the greatest depth by being the only two teams to score with every team member.

All in all, our 384 players selected 125 different events. The most frequently named choices for the Team Tournament was Dominion with 13 and Carcassonne with ten. Other top choices were Ticket to Ride at nine, Atlantic Storm at eight and Circus Maximus, Race for the Galaxy and We The People at seven. Coming in at six team entries apiece were Victory in the Pacific, Napoleonic Wars, Merchant of Venus, Puerto Rico, Gangsters, Formula De and Battles of the American Revolution. In all, 32 Team participants (8%) won their selected events—down from 38 (9%) in 2009.

2010 Top 25 Teams, in order of finish
Click on the graphic to see a larger version. Unofficial team logos courtesy of Dave Dockter and Kaarin Engelmann. Some logos provided by the teams.
1 2 3 4 5
Amish Terrarium The Defectors We Ain't Dead Yet Gaming Speed Bumps

Rank: 5
Odds: 46:1
Points.Entrants: 18.216
Eric Wrobel/MOV/9
Kate Taillon/BAT/0
Arthur Field/SPB/9
Bill Crenshaw/MFD/0

Rank: 6
Odds: 46:1
Points.Entrants: 17.215
Pete Stein/KRM/8
D Gutermuth/EPB/0
L Gutermuth/FMR/9
K Gutermuth/AOR/0

Rank: 1
Odds: 21:1
Points.Entrants: 17.154
James Pei/FTP/7
Stefan Mecay/TWS/8
Chris Byrd/HRC/2
Ron Fedin/WNW/0

Rank: 19
Odds: 60:1
Points.Entrants: 16.165
Bruno Sinigaglio/B81/0
Frank Sinigaglio/CMS/9
Tom Oleson/ANZ/7
Don Greenwood/FBS/0

Rank: 47
Odds: 94:1
Points.Entrants: 16.128
Craig Yope/ BCY/0
Robert Frisby/776/7
Chris Trimmer/WOR
/7
Doug Porterfield/AOA/2

6 7 8 9 10
Team Delaware XVII Phi Slamma JAMA Sweep The Leg Polish Lancers Avenel Hill Game Co

Rank: 45
Odds: 91:1
Points.Entrants: 15.138
Tim Hitchings/EIS/9
Vince Meconi/AF/1
Devon Miller/TTA/5
K Hitchings/TTR/0

Rank: 37
Odds: 80:1
Points.Entrants: 14.358
Alex Bove/GOA/8
Steven LeWinter/FDE/3
Cary Morris/STA/3
Sceadeau D'Tela/DOM/0

Rank: 48
Odds: 95:1
Points.Entrants: 14.251
Jeff Burdett/HIS/1
J Martin/NW5/0
N Thompson/BKN/7
Jeff Heidman/ACS/6
Rank: 13
Odds: 53:1
Points.Entrants: 14.159
John Poniske/WTP/0
Rick Young/CCA/0
P Gaberson/WNW/7
Dave Metzger/AHD/7
Rank: 36
Odds: 79:1
Points.Entrants: 13.223
Andy Gardner/VIP/8
Henry Richardson/B17/0
P Richardson/WAS/0
Ben Gardner/GSR/5
11 12 13 14 15
GM #1: The Corleone Family Reese's Pieces Werewolf Bait Revenge of the Bunches Cold Java Ink Drink
Rank: 7
Odds: 50:1
Points.Entrants: 13.196
Bill Beckman/SSB/3
Bryan Collars/CBC/0
John Emery/UPF/7
Josh Githens/CMS/3

Rank: 17
Odds: 57:1
Points.Entrants: 13.136
Peter Reese/WLL/7
Bill Edwards/ATS/1
George Young/WTP/3
Andrew Maly/CM8
/2

Rank: 32
Odds: 76:1
Points.Entrants: 12.490
Alex Henning/SLS/0
A Collinson/PRC/0
Allyson Field/MOA/7
R Hebner/LST
/5

Rank: 51
Odds: 100:1
Points.Entrants: 12.458
Robert Renaud/RFG/9
Tedd Mullally/AGR/3
Pei-Hsin Lin/SET/0
JR Geronimo/PRO
/0

Rank: 25
Odds: 67:1
Points.Entrants: 12.289
Nick Henning/GSR/3
Jon Gemmell/CAR/0
Karl Henning/QGB/0
Dave Meyaard/ELC/9

16 17 18 19 20
Alwr2Eng@Minwlkn2abar St Paul's Rejects EPGS #Champagne Room Gamers Rebels & Redcoats Central Florida Gamers
Rank: 11
Odds: 52:1
Points.Entrants: 12.172
K Hunsinger/ATS/0
Paul Risner/B17/9
Jim Jordan/BRI/3
Bruce Monnin/WOG/0

Rank: 3
Odds: 38:1
Points.Entrants: 12.129
John Pack/VIP/3
Mike Backstrom/UNP/0
Rich Moyer/SSB/8
S Packwood/776
/1

Rank: 2
Odds: 29:1
Points.Entrants: 12.110
Bruce Reiff/FBS/7
Sean McCulloch/TT2/2
KWojtaszczyk/WOR/2
Jeff Mullet/AOR/1

Rank: 73
Odds: 210:1 Points.Entrants: 11.218
Joel Tamburo/KPR/0
John Keating/GXY/8
Tim Cockitt/ALH/0
Matt Ellis/BKN
/3

Rank: 10
Odds: 51:1
Points.Entrants: 11.203
Jason Levine/FDE/9
Doug Gallulo/ACV/0
Jeff Cornett/E&T/2
Ann Bruck/MED
/0

21 22 23 24 25
Next Gen The Handsome Tacos Ghosts GM #2: The Barzini Family Shockers (for John P)
Rank: 70
Odds: 206:1
Points.Entrants: 9.420
Joseph Belyeu/AOA/9
Dan Lewis/FMR/0
MWojtaszczyk/CAR/0
AWojtaszczyk/SLS/0
Rank: 49
Odds: 103:1
Points.Entrants: 9.239
Winton Lemoine/RA!/0
Roderick Lee/SSB/0
Kyle Greenwood/GOA/0
Daniel Eppolito/LHV/9

Rank: 20
Odds: 60:1
Points.Entrants: 9.196
Larry Lingle/QGB/8
John Wetherell/RFG/0
Charles Hickok/POG/0
Dennis Culhane/EOS/
1

Rank: 23
Odds: 62:1
Points.Entrants: 9.165
Bruce Young/ATS/7
Ken Richards/B17/0
Ralph Gleaton/UPF/2
Scott Pfeiffer/NW5/0

Rank: 46
Odds: 93:1
Points.Entrants: 9.113
Marty Musella/PZB/1
Bert Schoose/TRC/8
Bill Scott/AFK/0
John Schoose/AUC/0

 
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