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Bruce Reiff (left) on the way
to his first of four championships against Doug Galullo while
his sidekick, Jeff Mullet, takes on Chris Greenfield in the background. |
Ann Norton (left) schools Amelia
Engelmann at Attika. She would fall in the quarter-finals
but go on to win three events at WBC 2006. |
Tom DeMarco opens WBC with Attika.
The Pre-Con status and switch in format from heats to Swiss-Elim
and from 4-player to 2-player cut player totals by nearly half. |
The First Euro Action of the Week
...
After two relatively successful years of being on Tuesday
and Wednesday nights at WBC proper, Attika moved to a
Monday morning Pre-con as part of the Sampler Showcase.
While the Showcase (featuring many Euros that have not yet cracked
the WBC lineup) officially began at noon on Monday, Attika
had an 11:00 a.m. start. Its inclusion in the Showcase as a package
deal was a hedged bet to increase the attraction to Euros fans,
but it was arguable whether the tournament supported the demos
or the other way around. The first two years, Attika
had 50+ players. But no one could predict how many would
show up for a eEuro Pre-con. As the over/under was set
at16, we were pleased to get 29 players.
Previously, the event had been run as a four-player game.
Many players had expressed a desire for two-player games, so
I decided to give it a try. I feel there is a little more
luck in the two-player version. But in the four-player
game, newer players tend to not block players about to win and
can sometimes accidently "throw" the game to the player
on their left. However, the downside to the two-player
version is obvious. We'd need twice as many games.
Luckily, many players heeded the call and the Sampler organizers
lent us one of theirs. (Thanks)
There were four rounds played, with three wins being needed to
advance to a single elimination bracket. Players with equal
records were matched up whenever possible. In the four
player version, I had always allowed 90 minutes. But the
two-player game plays much faster, so only one hour was permitted.
While I came dangerously close to having to adjudicate some games,
thankfully I never had to. When the preliminaries ended,
there were eight players with the needed three wins.
A very fortuitous number which eliminated the need for byes.
In the Quarter-Finas, Roderick Lee defeated young gun, Rebecca
Hebner - the first person to "homer" at WBC with four
plaques in one year. I beat the always dangerous Lyman
Moquin. 2005 Laurelist, Jim Castonguay finished off Anne
Norton who nonetheless went on to win three events at this WBC
while Bruce Reiff edged out newcomer Valerie Hall. The
Manly Men teammates emerged from the Final Four to advance to
the Final.
Even Bruce will admit that I usually beat him at this game at
CABS meetings, but this was for blood, err wood ... and you know
Bruce when he gets the scent of wood. When I looked at
my opening hand and saw all the same resource, I thought that
might be a bad sign. On Bruce's first turn, he built three
buildings, all for free! It went downhill from there.
I had to spend most of my cards soon after to block Bruce from
the auto win and could never catch up. As the game was
coming to a close, Bruce kept commenting how I was going to win.
Finally, I told him, I'd bet him the winner has to get the loser's
Cokes for two months at the club. He declined. Then
I said I'd give him two to one odds. One month
to my two. He said no again, but he'd do it for four months
to two months.
Someone behind us stated one of us could throw the
game to get a lot of free Cokes. Another bystander
stated "You don't know these two guys, do you?"
Thirty seconds later, I had two months worth of free Cokes and
Bruce walked away with his first wood of the week. Not
even WBC proper yet, and Don Greenwood's week was already ruined.
Thanks to all who participated and especially to those who brought
games. I hope to see many more of you next year.
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