2013 WBC Team Tournament Winner's Circle
Oct. 14, 2013

Odds | History | Rules

Nathan's Nuggets - Cinderella Team Wins by a Nose

 

Jacob Hebner 8

Angela Collinson 9

Nathan Hill 2

Kevin Lewis 3

94 teams entered the 23rd "Run for the Slivers" at the 2013 WBC and all the pre-race chatter was about which of the dueling handicappers would correctly predict the outcome. The answer was neither, if the posted odds were to be believed. The biggest overachievers may have been Nathan's Nuggets who won it all while coming from well back in the pack to overcome 139-1 odds. They ruined more than a few brackets in the process—having appeared on no prediction entries. 

You also had to gaze all the way to mid-racing form to find the runner-up Ski Patrol on the Happy Handicapper's list as the Finnish team overcame 112-1 odds to place second with three titles in Manoeuvre, Empire of the Sun, and Twilight Struggle to edge KGB A (a 73-1 choice) by a single point. It was not like these guys were unknowns—all had won their events previously and, as such, they achieved their team victory without the aid of a single bonus point. The Baltic champs received more respect from our challenging Handicapper who picked them tenth. KGB A, for their part, were no babes in the woods—having tasted the Top 25 with a 19th place finish last year in the guise of the KGB Comrades. While gaining points with strength in numbers by scoring with every team member, they were led by Mark Guttag's 10-point win for Facts in Five. The win in the recently flourishing 75-player event tied for top individual win in the Team Tournament with Steve Squibb's predicted win in Atlantic Storm over a field of 110. The latter proved the big blow for the Cardboard Heroes 5th place finish. Both 10-point scores benefitted from bonus points for first titles. 

So, how close was it? Our top three teams were separated by one point and two were deadlocked at the top with 22 points and had to be decided on a total field tie-breaker with the Nuggets emerging on top since their four events drew 30 more total entrants: 191-161. But it was even closer than that, since we actually had the Finnish team winning for several weeks before finding a scoring error that boosted the Nuggets into a tie. Bonus points were also critical with the Nuggets receiving two for Nathan Hill and Kevin Lewis who had never won their events while the other five scorers were all previous champs of their events.

With prohibitive favorites Nest of Spies, Magic Men and Wood Bee Contenders coming up short in 2013, our bracket busters had tough sledding in the annual Team Picking contest. Once again, Mark Love's 2009 record of six correct picks remained unbeaten but it is no longer unmatched as David Meyaard correctly identified six of the Top Ten teams by picking Consulting Firm. Ski Patrol. Cynical Stoics, Band of Fools, the Bruce's and Me & 3 Stiffs.  No one else was close as his nearest competition came from eight entrants with but four correct guesses each. The bulk of the field fared considerably worse. 

So how did our dueling handicappers fare? Not much better than our average bracket-busters apparently. Only three of the Happy Handicappers' Top Ten picks actually finished that high. The new oddsmaker on the scene, Jeff Cornett, managed to get four of his picks in the Top Ten so Round 1 goes to the new scribe on the beat. Both went for the 6th and 7th place Bruce's and Band of Fools (although Stuart had them higher on his card at 2nd & 4th compared to Jeff's 3rd & 5th). Stuart scored with his 9th pick—the third place Consulting Firm which Jeff had ranked at #23. But Jeff 's riposte included Patrol (10th) and Me & Three Stiffs (7th) who Stuart had ranked 45th and 18th respectively.

Scoring was up across the board with both Top 10 and Top 25 finishes requiring two more points to make the cut. It was a big year for depth in scoring with six teams avoiding the Weak Link syndrome - garnering points from all four members (Nathan's Nuggets, KGB A, Band of Fools, Me & 3 Stiffs, Four to Beam Up, and Make My Day). 27 teams were shutout - holding steady again at 29% of the field. The highest ranked squad failing to score and thereby earn the 2013 title for Most Overrated was that forlorn bunch of Cabbies "Forgot Our Team Name" who also apparently forgot how to play despite their 48-1 odds and #5 ranking. Many a bracket backer rued this choice. 

Cardboard Heroes proved the most sociable team in the Top 25—averaging 118 players per event. On the opposite end of that ledger were three teams drawing only 24 players per tournament. All in all, our 376 players selected 134 different games which meant only 22 events were not involved in the Team Tournament. Dominion proved to be the most popular choice with ten players, followed by Agricola and Air Baron with eight each. Atlantic Storm was fourth as the choice of seven players while nine events drew six each. 33 Team participants (8.7%) managed to win their predicted events—an increase of 7 titles and 1.22% over 2012 totals.

2013 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.
NOTE: Points=Points (number of points earned).Entrants (total number of entrants in all of team's events)
1 2 3 4 5

Name: Nathan's Nuggets
ST Rank/Odds: 53/139-1
JC Rank/Odds: 61/186-1
Points: 22.191
Jacob Hebner/PDT/8,
Angela Collinson/CMS/9,
Nathan Hill/MAN/2,
Kevin Lewis/FAS/3

Name: Ski Patrol
ST Rank/Odds: 45/112-1
JC Rank/Odds:
10/46-1
Points: 22.161
Antero Kuusi/EOS/ 7,
Mikko Raimi/MAN/7,
Riku Riekkinen/TWS/8,
Mikaela Kumlander/8XX/0

Name: KGB A
ST Rank/Odds: 33/73-1
JC Rank/Odds: 33/85-1
Points: 21.143
Mark Guttag/FI5/10,
Lyman Moquin/SKG/2,
Malcolm Smith/HOS/7,
Ron Draker/NAP/2

Name: Consulting Firm
ST Rank/Odds: 9/47-1
JC Rank/Odds: 23/61-1
Points: 19.254
Nick Henning/FAS/8,
Karl Henning/GXT/3,
David Meyaard/ELC/8
Jon Gemmell/0/ING

Name: Cardboard Heroes
ST Rank/Odds: 50/131-1
JC Rank/Odds: 59/182-1
Points:
18.473
Kathy Stroh/MOV/3,
Cliff Ackman/STA/5,
Steve Squibb/ACS/10
Bill Navolis/RRY/0

6 7 8 9 10

Name: Your Name's Not Bruce
ST Rank/Odds: 2/26-1
JC Rank/Odds: 3/27-1
Points:
18.189
Bruce Monnin/8XX/3,
Bruce Beard/WAS/8,
Bruce Reiff/FBS/7
,
Eric "Bruce" Brosius/EPB/0

Name: Band of Fools
ST Rank/Odds: 22/56-1
JC Rank/Odds: 31/81-1
Points:
18.097
Richard Beyma/GBG/8,
Gary Dickson/TRC/2,
Ray Freeman/TIM/7,
Bitter Woods/BWD/1

Name: Cynical Stoics
ST Rank/Odds: 22/56-1
JC Rank/Odds: 31/81-1
Points:
15.184
Derek Landel/WOG/3,
Eric Wrobel/MOV/9,
Mike Ussery/WNW/3

Matt Bacho/FDE/0

Name: Chairmen of the Board
ST Rank/Odds: 25/59-1
JC Rank/Odds: 25/61-1
Points:
14.202
Debbie Gutermuth/EPB/3,
Trella Bromley/RBN/9,
Ken Gutermuth/MMS/2
Danny Lewis/SCC/0

Name: Me & 3 Stiffs
ST Rank/Odds: 18/52-1
JC Rank/Odds: 25/61-1
Points:
14.134
Keith Wixson/WNW/1,
Marvin Birnbaum/WWR/2,
Henry Rice/HRC/4,
Kevin Wojtaszczyk/WOR/7

11 12 13 14 15

Name: A.R.E.A
ST Rank/Odds: 35/77-1
JC Rank/Odds: 27/72-1
Points:
14.110
Bob Hamel/TIM/2,
Ed Menzel/GBG/3,
John Sharp/VIP/9
Bruno Wolff/TT2/0

Name: Philly Streets
ST Rank/Odds: 39/89-1
JC Rank/Odds: 11/47-1
Points:
12.401
Aran Warszawski/AGE/5,
Haim Hochboim/AGR/4,
Ben Scholl/DOM/3
Jonathan Senn/PRO/0

Name: Blobs of Protoplasm
ST Rank/Odds: 51/136-1
JC Rank/Odds: 75/351-1
Points:
12.309
John Keating/KRM/9,
Joel Tamburo/AAY/3
Tim Keating/IVH/0,
Shannon Keating/FMR/0

Name: Win, Storm & Struggle
ST Rank/Odds: 13/50-1
JC Rank/Odds: 15/53-1
Points: 11.210
John Coussis/ACS/3,
Tom Drueding/JUC/8,
Stuart Tucker/WPS/0,
Tim Bina/TWS/0

Name: Gang Greene
ST Rank/Odds: 43/109-1
JC Rank/Odds: 55/154-1
Points
: 11.097
Rod Coffey/ATA/2,
David Stiffler/MMW/8,
Andy Lewis/SFR/1
,
Rob McCracken/BAR/0

16 17 18 19 20

Name: The Gaming Bunch
ST Rank/Odds: 75/272-1
JC Rank/Odds: 67/257-1
Points: 10.412
Forrest Speck/ABN/0,
Faith Wobbeking/STA/0,
John Speck/FMR/10,
John Wobbeking/LLM/0

Name: Four to Beam Up
ST Rank/Odds: 16/51-1
JC Rank/Odds: 14/52-1
Points:
10.260
Steve Cameron/SCC/3,
Jim Savarick/PGD/4,
Steve Simmons/AOR/2,
Alex Bove/GOA/1

Name: Ghost Division
ST Rank/Odds: 27/64-1
JC Rank/Odds: 24/61-1
Points:
10.235
Kevin Hammond/CAR/0,
Andrew Cummins/SQL/0,
Mike Kaye/BKN/8,
Jim Eliason/VIP
/2

Name: Barbarossa
ST Rank/Odds: 37/85-1
JC Rank/Odds: 26/64-1
Points:
10.180
Fred Minard/B&O/0,
Curt Collins/UNP/8,
Chris Gnech/EPB/2,

Max Jamelli/ABN
/0

Name: Uncivil Servants
ST Rank/Odds: 8/46-1
JC Rank/Odds: 6/33-1
Points:
10.131
Chris Trimmer/WOR/0,
Ewan McNay/BRI/0,
Ty Hansen/A&A/8,
Kevin Youells/ACV/2 

21 22 23 24 25

Name: Mongols
ST Rank/Odds: 58/162-1
JC Rank/Odds: 53/149-1
Points: 9.291
Joe Harrison/M44/0,
Sophie Harrison/SET/0,
David Gubbay/QGB/9,
Tom Johnston/POF/0 

Name: Possum Gamers
ST Rank/Odds: 49/129-1
JC Rank/Odds: 56/154-1
Points: 9.290
John Elliott/ACS/0,
Joseph Collinson III/WAS/0,
Ben Collinson/NVW/9,
Ben Collinson Jr/SMW/0

Name: Nest of Spies
ST Rank/Odds: 1/24-1
JC Rank/Odds: 2/24-1
Points:
9.168
James Pei/FTP/7,
Stefan Mecay/TWS/0,
Chris Byrd/HRC/2,
Nick Pei/HWD
/0

Name: The Shockers
ST Rank/Odds: 23/57-1
JC Rank/Odds: 16/54-1
Points
: 9.142
Marty Musella/BWD/0
Justin Thompson/JUC/2
Josh Cooper/ACQ/0
Bert Schoose/PZB
/7

Name: Aces & Eights
ST Rank/Odds: 62/184-1
JC Rank/Odds: 51/147-1
Points:
9.097
John Clarke/WAT/1,
Ron Glass/WSM/8,
Mike Horn/MFD/0,
Patrick Mirk/A&A/0

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