titan: the arena [Updated October 2007]  

2007 WBC Report   

 2008 Status: pending 2008 GM commitment

Harry Flawd, PA

2007 Champion

Offsite links:

  Laurels

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

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Rebecca Hebner     CO    02     54
  2.  Alan Witte         NJ    00     50
  3.  Joseph Sposito     NJ    02     40
  4.  Harry Flawd        PA    07     38
  5.  Bruce Monnin       OH    06     38
  6.  Kaarin Engelmann   VA    00     35
  7.  Gerald Lientz      VA    07     30
  8.  Olin Hentz         CT    06     30
  9.  Brenden Coomes     OH    03     30
 10.  Buddy Sinigaglio   CO    00     30
 11.  Robert Kircher     RI    06     23
 12.  Devin Flawd        PA    04     20
 13.  Ewan McNay         CT    07     18
 14.  Keith Levy         MD    01     18
 15.  Jerry Ohlinger     NY    99     18
 16.  Rodd Polsky        PA    02     16
 17.  Eric Gorr          VA    00     15
 18.  James Hopkin       CA    02     14
 19.  Jordan Flawd       CT    06     12
 20.  Dan Eshleman       NC    05     12
 21.  Rob Schoenen       PA    04     12
 22.  Josh Campbell      NY    03     12
 23.  Arthur Field       SC    02     12
 24.  Ken Sheffield      VA    01     12
 25.  Craig Melton       VA    99     12
 26.  Josh Githens       SC    00     10
 27.  Jim Garvey         NY    07      9
 28.  Greg Thatcher      FL    06      9
 29.  Chris Greenfield   NY    03      9
 30.  Scott Buckwalter   MD    01      9
 31.  John Coussis       IL    99      9
 32.  Abby Cocke         MD    04      8
 33.  Dennis Mishler     CT    07      6
 34.  Nick Henning       CT    06      6
 35.  Carmen Petruzelli  PA    05      6
 36.  Mark Love          MD    04      6
 37.  Rob Brode          MD    03      6
 38.  Randy Jackson      OH    99      6
 39.  Morio Taketori    JPN    05      4
 40.  Tracy Graf         MD    04      4
 41.  Lance Ribeiro      NH    02      4
 42. Jean-Francois Gagne QC    07      3
 43.  Mark Mitchell      VA    03      3
 44.  Gordon Elgart      CA    01      3
 45.  Jason Ley          WA    99      3
 46.  John Poniske Jr    PA    05      2
 47.  Joe Nemet          PA    04      2

2007 Laurelists

Ewan McNay, CT
2nd

Gerald Lientz, VA
3rd

Jim Garvey, NY
4th

Dennis Mishler, CT
5th

Jean-Francois Gagne, QC
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

Brenden Coomes, OH
2003

Devin Flawd, PA
2004

Robert Kircher, RI
2005

Olin Hentz, CT
2006


 

 GM Greg Crowe gets into one of the 26 preliminary games.

 Jim Garvey wins a pot in the Final ... err. no ... that's another game.

Always a titanic struggle ...

This year we had 89 participants, a significant improvement over last year's totals. I feel this was mostly thanks to Eric Freeman and his game scheduling initiative, and wanted to express my thanks to him and all of the other GMs who contributed to this endeavor.

In the 26 games played in the three heats, we had exactly 26 winners, with no one achieving a double win for the first time in recent memory. Since three of the heat winners opted to move on to other pursuits, I included two runner-up alternates to compose a semi-final round of five 5-player games.

The Final got ugly early; the Cyclops with one of Harry's two four-point bets was taken out in the first round, even though there was a betless Titan available. Since that left only one player with two surviving first-round bets, it pretty much assured that the Titan would survive for another round, and Jim's Troll was soon in the graveyard. This meant Dennis also lost a chip as he had bet on the Troll in the second round. The Titan finally did buy the farm in the third round, costing Dennis his second chip and Gerald his first who figured the Titan was leading a charmed life. He was until Gerald caste his lot with him.

Even though Ewan had the most points showing with 12, the others for some reason avoided killing any of the three creatures with his exposed markers. Of course since Harry's three remaining visible chips were on the same three creatures, a sort of unspoken symbiotic alliance formed, and the Warlock fell quickly, removing Dennis' already slim chance, and also taking Jim effectively out of the game, as the Warlock was the latter's secret bet.

The last round went exceedingly quick. There was no chance of alliance as everyone needed to kill different creatures to have the best chance of winning. Ewan was in a bit of a bind, as he had one more point than Harry on the Dragon, Ranger, and Unicorn. Also the Hydra, which was Ewan's secret bet, had six points of Gerald's that would be a problem for Ewan should that creature survive. Gerald's mission was clear: Keep the Hydra and the Dragon (his secret bet) both alive by killing one of the other two. And Harry needed to keep his secret bet on the Unicorn alive, and somehow kill Ewan's secret bet. In the end, Harry decided that the obvious threat of Gerald's Hydra was sufficient, and managed to end the round killing it, as well as Ewan's and Dennis' secret bets, which allowed him to squeak out a win with 14 points.

By the way, Harry was one of the two alternates for the semi-final, making this the third consecutive year that a "wild card" team to use Harry's parlance has won. It pays to check your alternate status before the semis round.


 Titan: The Arena Junior

In the Juniors event only twelve kids reported for mayhem in the ring this year, but Rebecca Melton - the 2006 Juniors champ - proved it was no fluke by winning again. The other finalists were:

2nd: Thomas Melton

3rd: Andrew Sherwood

4th: Brian Sherwood

5th: Thomas Melton

6th: Andrew Doughan

 GM     Greg Crowe  (5th year)   NA
   gregcrowe@mindspring.com   NA 

2007 Preview Page | View the Icon Key | Return to main BPA page