titan: the arena  

Updated Nov. 23, 2013

2013 WBC Report   

 2014 Status: pending 2014 GM commitment

Doug Smith, PA

2013 Champion

Event History
1997    Peter Staab        72
1998    Brian Sutton      178
1999    Kaarin Engelmann     115
2000    Alan Witte       97
2001    Rebecca Hebner       56
2002    Joe Sposito       45
2003    Brenden Coomes       47
2004     Devin Flawd       63
2005    Robert Kircher       79
2006     Olin Hentz       74
2007    Harry Flawd       89
2008     Matt Calkins     116
2009     Greg Crowe       91
2010    Angela Collinson       81
2011    Jordan Shea       81
2012    Matt Calkins     105
2013    Doug Smith       92

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1. Matt Calkins        VA    12     60
  2. Rebecca Hebner      CO    09     57
  3. Alan Witte          NJ    00     50
  4. Devon Miller        VA    13     42
  5. Jordan Shea         CT    12     42
  6. Harry Flawd         PA    07     42
  7. Joseph Sposito      NJ    02     40
  8. Brendan Coomes      OH    13     38
  9. Devin Flawd         PA    09     38
 10. Bruce Monnin        OH    06     38
 11. Dan Eshleman        NC    08     36
 12. Kaarin Engelmann    VA    00     35
 13. Robert Kircher      RI    06     33
 14. Doug Smith          PA    13     30
 15. Ewan McNay          CT    11     30
 16. Greg Crowe          MD    09     30
 17. Gerald Lientz       VA    07     30
 18. Olin Hentz          CT    06     30
 19. Buddy Sinigaglio    CO    00     30
 20. Angela Collinson    FL    10     20
 21. Greg Zegalia        PA    13     18
 22. Charles Squibb      PA    13     18
 23. Thomas Melton       VA    11     18
 24. Evan Hitchings      DE    09     18
 25. Keith Levy          MD    01     18
 26. Jerry Ohlinger      NY    99     18
 27. Rodd Polsky         PA    02     16
 28. John Coussis        IL    12     15
 29. Eric Gorr           VA    00     15
 30. James Hopkin        CA    02     14
 31. Rebecca Melton      VA    09     12
 32. Jordan Flawd        CT    06     12
 33. Greg Thatcher       FL    06     12
 34. Rob Schoenen        PA    04     12
 35. Josh Campbell       NY    03     12
 36. Arthur Field        SC    02     12
 37. Ken Sheffield       VA    01     12
 38. Craig Melton        VA    99     12
 39. Josh Githens        SC    00     10
 40. Steve Shambeda      PA    12      9
 41. John Speck          MD    11      9
 42. Steve Cameron       PA    08      9
 43. Jim Garvey          NY    07      9
 44. Carmen Petruzelli   PA    05      9
 45. Chris Greenfield    NY    03      9
 46. Scott Buckwalter    MD    01      9
 47. Tim Packwood        DE    10      8
 48. Abby Cocke          MD    04      8
 49. Bram Walzl          VA    11      6
 50. Sam Bowercraft      PA    10      6
 51. Brooks Beyma        MD    08      6
 52. Dennis Mishler      CT    07      6
 53. Nick Henning        CT    06      6
 54. Morio Taketori      jp    05      6
 55. Mark Love           MD    04      6
 56. Rob Brode           MD    03      6
 57. Randy Jackson       OH    99      6
 58. Jefferson Meyer     MA    10      4
 59. Tracy Graf          MD    04      4
 60. Lance Ribeiro       NH    02      4
 61. Michael Coomes      OH    13      3
 62. Anna Rinko          VA    12      3
 63. Joanne Melton       VA    11      3
 64. Greg Thatcher       CA    08      3
 65. Jean-Francois Gagne qc    07      3
 66. Mark Mitchell       VA    03      3
 67. Gordon Elgart       CA    01      3
 68. Jason Ley           WA    99      3
 69. John Poniske Jr     PA    05      2
 70. Joe Nemet           PA    04      2

2013 Laurelists                                                  Repeating Laurelists:

Charles Squibb, PA
2nd

Devon Miller, VA
3rd

Greg Zegalia, PA
4th

Brendan Coomes, OH
5th

Michael Coomes, OH
6th

Past Winners

Peter Staab, PA
1997

Brian Sutton, MD
1998

Kaarin Englemann, VA
1999

Alan Witte, NJ
2000

Rebecca Hebner, CO
2001

Joe Sposito, NJ
2002

Brendan Coomes, OH
2003

Devin Flawd, PA
2004

Robert Kircher, RI
2005

Olin Hentz, CT
2006

Harry Flawd, PA
2007

Matt Calkins, VA
2008, 2012

Greg Crowe, MD
2009

Angela Collinson, MD
2010

Jordan Shea, CT
2011

GM Greg Crowe with his five finalists.

As if plaques and wood weren't enough. What's next? Tin cups?

Always a titanic and now legendary struggle ...

All Hail the 16th champ in 17 years ... winners don't last long in the arena.

Despite the record attendance of this year's convention, our event declined somewhat from last year's triple digit field. This may have been due to the elimination of a fourth heat of another event, causing our late-night Thursday heat to be less popular than usual. But we still had fun with a very respectable field. The introduction of a new medal to the lineup also seemed to get people fired up with new intensity.

Of the 24 qualifiers who won at least one heat, 20 soldiered on ready to compete in the semifinals, which consisted of five 4-player games. The competition was tight, with the closest thing to a rout being a runner-up score just two points behind first. There was a three-way tie in one game and two others were deadlocked at 14 points. I actually had to look at the tiebreaker within the games to determine who got sixth place laurels, which was unprecedented .

The Final lineup was diverse - a former champion, a frequent contender who had been denied in the last round three of the past four years, a one-time finalist and a pair of newcomers to laurels land. The first round progressed with minimal bloodshed, as the Troll went off to the locker room with no backers. Though two players, Doug and Greg, were backing two creatures each, the second to get scrubbed was Devon's Ranger, who also took one of Greg's wagers with it. Third to go was Brendan's Dragon, along with another one of Devon's bets.

Up until this point, Doug was making all of the kills, which might help explain why his two first-round bets were still on the table. And despite 2003 champ Brendan taking over control of the Hydra, Devon had a tough choice between killing it and the highest bet she still had on the table -- Doug's Cyclops. So, Devon had the onerous task of removing all of Brendan's points from the game, leaving Doug and Greg each with their two first-round bets still alive. In the last round, the 10 strength cards came out on the Titan, the Unicorn, and the Cyclops, making the demise of Greg's Warlock a near certainty.

In the end, with two first-round bets and a successful secret bet on the third surviving creature, Doug quite handily won. Devon was left pondering what it takes to win this thing as she rose in the rankings to #4 without ever having the event. Congratulations Doug, and to all the finalists for a well-fought game!

In addition to the trophy cups for the finalists, I was happy to give out six medals for various achievements, each named after one of the spectators in the game. The Mighty Minotaur went to the player who placed sixth in the tournament, and Mike Coomes earned this due to being the closest in the three semifinal games that had to go to tie-breakers. This echoed four years ago when Mike's son Brendan won the inaugural Minotaur medal. Rob Brode killed six creatures in his qualifying games to claim the Battling Behemoth medal, meaning the kills were spread out more evenly than in past years. In the last heat Alyssa Morgen lost nine points on the last creature to die in a preliminary game, earning her the Shining Serpent medal. The lowest first-place score in a preliminary game, 10 points over a 9-point second, held up from the first heat, earning Eric Freeman the Weary Warbear medal. The Ardent Angel medal went to Josh Detamore for his highest last-place score of nine points, in a hotly contested game with a three-way tie for second place. And new this year was the Overachieving Ogre, which went to Rob Brode for earning a total of 35 points in his three heat games. Congratulations to all of our medal winners!

 GM Greg Crowe instructs the next class of arena combatants.

 Greg presents Ethan with his prizes.

 Titan: The Arena Junior

The Junior's tournament this year was again a lively example of how diplomacy and negotiations can be a big part of the game. Many of the five highest-placing players that advanced to the Final table had familiar last names, but they were actually younger siblings of past Junior's finalists.

The first two rounds of the Final saw the elimination of two creatures -- the Cyclops and the Warlock-- that had no bets on them. Of course, this couldn't last, and since Donte was unable to get support for his Titan, unfortunately that creature was next to go. The negotiations started getting tense, and since the Hydra's power got neutralized due to Mandy and Aidan being tied for backership, both players were hindered in the efforts to keep it in play, and it sadly was the next victim.

In the last round, each of the players had one creature that they knew must survive if he or she was going to win. It looked like Sarah's and Aidan's apples were both in the same two baskets -- the Dragon and the Unicorn, while Mandy needed her Ranger to stick around, and Donte had to keep his Troll in the game. Ethan had three-point bets on all but the Dragon, so would be okay as long as his secret bet on the Troll stayed valid. After several rounds of card-play and discussion, the Dragon ended up going by the wayside, allowing Ethan to dominate.

Congratulations and well done to all of the finalists! Enjoy your trophies, and I hope to see all of you next year either back in the Juniors event or graduating to the adult version. Final standings: Ethan Shipley Tang, Sarah Morgen, Mandy Mossman, Donte Saccenti, Aidan McNay, Linsey Saccenti.

 GM     Greg Crowe  (11th year)   6959 Exeter Court, Apt 101, Frederick, MD 21703
   gregcrowe@mindspring.com   NA 

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