Ra, Ra, Ra, Sis Boom Ba
I'm happy to report that RA broke the century mark
in attendance again this year with 109 would-be pharoahs participating.
The biggest surprise was the first heat on Tuesday night with
57 players participating in 12 games. The rest of the heats leveled
off with 7-7-8 games respectively for a total of 31 different
winners (three won twice).
With only 25 advancing to the semi-finals it would be necessary
to use the tiebreakers - NOT. Only 21 showed up for the semi-finals
so all my work on the tiebreakers wasn't necessary. Speaking
of tiebreakers, the biggest complaint at this years tournament
was the format. The complaint was they wanted to play as many
heats as possible but if they won their first heat they wouldn't
play in any more heats because they felt like that would hurt
their chances of advancing. I'm working on a better format for
next year that playing in multiple heats won't hurt your chances
of advancing and will reveal it later. In the meantime feel free
to e-mail me with your ideas. [SIMPLE: Just consider a win
won in the first heat played as beating a win won in the second
heat played, and so on - that way there is no penalty whatsoever
for continuing to play in additional heats - you can only improve
your chances - not lessen them - by continuing to play - but
it is is still possible to qualify to advance by playing in only
one heat].
After all the discussion on the format, after all the heats,
a semi-final and a final the result was the same with defending
champion Tom Dunning successfully defending his titlw.
This was the year of close games. Four had to be settled by
tiebreaker (highest sun) and seven more were decided by a single
point. 50% (20 out of 40 games including the semi's and final)
were decided by five points or less. One of the semi-final games
came down to the tiebreaker. Our champion almost didn't make
it to the finals as he was tied with Keith Levy at 36 points,
but revealed the highest sun to move on to the finals. Keith
earned 6th place in the tournament but the difference between
winning the tournament and placing 6th may have been the highest
sun. In that same game Paul Skrabut had 34 points to miss the
finals by two points.
This year's Pharoah of the Year for Sportsmanship goes to
Andres Dunn. He played in all four heats with the highest regards
to good sportsmanship.
Fun, but Possibly Useless Statistical Facts for Future
Reference:
Stats |
5-Player
Game |
4-Player
Game |
Total Game Score Average |
152.1 |
141.6 |
Player Score Average |
30.4 |
35.4 |
Average Score Gain Per Round |
6.8 |
8.5 |
Winner's Score Average |
43.7 |
46.3 |
Average Score Gain per Round for Winners |
11.2 |
12.1 |
|