Acquiring Civilization ...
Thanks to a new format and better scheduling, the tournament
increased in size from last year. For the 2001 E&T tournament,
players were only guaranteed to advance to the semifinals if
the player won the first heat game he/she played in, whether
that game was in heat 1, 2 or 3. Players who won their second
game would only advance if there were fewer than 16 "first
game" winners. In fact, 16 players won their first game
and four won their second. Two very skilled players, Kevin Brownell
and Jeff Cornett won both their first and second games acting
as eliminators to fill out four-player games in heats 2 and 3,
respectively.
In the finals, Aaron Fuegi (1st player in turn order) defeated
Frank Hamrick (2nd player), Patrick Beaudoin (4th player) and
Luke Moffitt (3rd player) in the fastest and lowest scoring games
of the tournament: 5-5-5-13 to 3-3-3-7 to 3-3-3-4 to 2-3-6-7.
The game finished in less than an hour. Just as he did in his
victories in Heat 2 and in the semi-finals, Aaron built no monuments
in winning the finals. In fact, in an unusual occurrence, none
of the players in the finals built a monument, thereby explaining
the unusually low scores.
Certainly the most amazing story this year belongs to Frank
Hamrick. Frank had a heart attack on Monday, the day before the
WBC started. After undergoing surgery to place a stint in one
of his arteries, Frank left the hospital on Thursday and was
driven to the WBC from his home in North Carolina by his gaming
friends. In his one and only chance to qualify for the semi-finals,
Frank won his game in Heat 3, his first win in two years of playing
E&T at WBC. Frank eventually made it to the finals, taking
home the 2nd place plaque.
Unlike the 2000 tournament when the player playing 2nd won
over half of the games, in 2001 the players going 1st and 4th
did the best, with the first player winning four out of five
games in the semi-finals and finals. Listed below are the results
for all 27 four-player tournament games this year.
Cumulative Finishes for
3 Heats, Semi-Finals, & Finals
Finish->
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
Dynasty 1
9
8
7
3
Dynasty 2
6
4
7
10
Dynasty 3
5
9
3
10
Dynasty 4
7
6
10
4
Although E&T offered a Novice Division this year, no players
decided to play as novices.
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