robo rally 

Updated 11/26/2008

2008 WBC Report   

 2009 Status: pending 2009 GM commitment

Brad Johnson, IL

2008 Champion

Offsite Links

  

Event History
1999     Daniel Lawall      40
2000     Bradley Johnson      41
2001     Jeff Ribeiro      44
2002     Jeff Cornett      42
2003      Brad Johnson      71
2004     Brad Johnson      61
2005      Bill Dyer      65
2006     Brad Johnson      56
2007     Scott Buckwalter      66
2008     Brad Johnson      68
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Brad Johnson       IL    08    192
  2.  Scott Buckwalter   MD    07     40
  3.  Jeff Cornett       FL    02     40
  4.  Jeff Ribeiro       NH    01     40
  5.  Dan Lawall         VA    00     39
  6.  Tamara McGraw      VA    04     30
  7.  Bill Navolis       MD    06     29
  8.  Rich Shipley       MD    07     28
  9.  Jason Levine       NY    01     26
 10.  James Kendrick     UK    08     24
 11.  Brian Schott       MD    07     24
 12.  Cliff Ackman       PA    06     24
 13.  George Seary       NY    01     24
 14.  Steve Cuccaro      MD    06     21
 15.  Ralph Gleaton      SC    08     20
 16.  Ken Samuel         VA    06     20
 17.  David des Jardins  CA    03     18
 18.  Brad Davis         VA    08     16
 19.  Alex Henning       CT    07     16
 20.  Jonathan Tivel     VA    04     16
 21.  Dan McGowan        ME    01     16
 22.  James Kendrick     UK    07     12
 23.  Tom McCorry        VA    04     12
 24.  Clyde Kruskal      MD    03     12
 25.  Rodd Polsky        PA    02     12
 26.  Vic Hutcherson     MD    00     12
 27.  David Davis        OH    99     12
 28.  David Kyle         PA    99      9
 29.  Reiko Brooks       TN    08      8
 30.  Carl Sykes         SC    07      8
 31.  Jeff Power         MI    01      7
 32.  Josh Githens       SC    06      6
 33.  Kevin LeRow        MA    99      6
 34.  Nick Henning       CT    03      6
 35.  Craig Trader       VA    08      4
 36.  Pat Mitchell       DE    03      3

2008 Laurelists                                           Repeating Laurelists:

James Kendrick, UK
2nd

Brad Davis, VA
3rd

Ralph Gleaton, SC
4th

Reikko Brooks, TN
5th

Craig Trader, VA
6th


Past Winners

Daniel Lawall, VA
1999

Brad Johnson, IL
'00, '03, '04, '06, '08

Jeff Ribeiro, NH
2001

Jeff Cornett, FL
2002

Bill Dyer, IL
2005

Scott Buckwalter, MD
2007
       

Another big turnout for Robo Rally ... so what else is new?

Ralph Gleaton (right) and Tamara Houde at the non-Greenville table.

Pondering the past and future ...

Another year, another Sunday spent watching the Final from the sidelines. I've only made it once in nine years, so I guess it's really a tradition now.  My wife's made it twice, and she didn't even attend the first WBC. I mean, I program for a living , I have a Masters in electrical engineering, with a specialty in robotics, what more can I do? Possibly the requirement that you know left from right is what's holding me back. Perhaps I should adopt the Kaarin Engelmann method of writing a large L and R on the palms of her hands. Of course, I'd probably have to get the wife to make sure I put them on the correct hands.

Despite my woes, and the fact that Brad Johnson acquired his fifth championship plaque, it was a good year for RoboRally. We let the Greenville Mafia have their own table in the first heat, except for Ralph Gleaton and my wife ( yes, I'm a Mafia spouse ) who play this for their team game ( and were more than happy not to have to try to wade through that bloodthirsty bunch). As it turned out, Ralph was the only member of the Mafia to make the Final this year.

The Final had a host of their own scrap-making as 18 of 24 robots were destroyed over the 25 turns of the game. There were also a few more options in this game than in the past (eight to be exact) at least partly because of the modified rule system used this year. The board setup had one of the boards from the new edition. On these boards, the double wrenches have been replaced by a crossed wrench and hammer. Instead of having to choose between repairing two points and collecting an option as with the double wrench, a player who stops on the wrench/hammer repairs one point AND gets an option.. Unfortunately for the rest of the table Brad, who, as far as I know has never pulled an option before at the tournament, ended up pulling three, the first of which was the mechanical arm. which can be a huge advantage to a skilled player ( and I've not seen a better player as evidenced by the number of times he has won the tournament ).

This year's setup included four crossings of the cannery and despite some minor difficulties there resulting from interference by other players, Brad was able to finish well ahead of the remaining players on Turn 20. Five turns later our time was up and the nearest player of the three remaining players ( Craig Trader and Reiko Brooks lost their last robots on Turns 23 and 24 respectively ) was James Kendrick who needed two turns (7 cards) with an optimal hand to make it to the last flag, Ralph was actually physically closer to the flag, but with three locked registers he needed to shut down before he could get the cards he'd need to finish. Brad Davis scored a moral victory by managing to reach the second to last flag on the last turn. Thus ended another fun year in Lancaster and I look forward to trying again next year, and possibly, maybe needing one of my three assistants for the Final.

 GM      Marc F. Houde  [10th Year]  113 Lee St., Front Royal, VA 22630 
    march@asg.com   NA

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