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GM Pierre LeBoeuf (left) oversees
the 1856 action as Peter Elkridge from the UK, back for his
second WBC, beams over his winning position. John Weber (standing)
didn't fare as well away from his usual Puerto Rico digs,
finishing last in this game. |
Bruce Beard (right) on his way to
his fifth straight 8XX title adds David Fair and Tom McCorry
(center) to his list of victims while winning this 1861
game. This title left Bruce with the longest surviving WBC win
streak. |
Event Inflation ... 1830 ... 1856
.... 1870
32 railroad gamers found their way back to Host B to play
games from the18xx series, a small decline from last year. They
came to try to unseat defending champion Bruce Beard, seeking
his fifth straight victory. Ten players were brand
new to the tournament, joining 22 returnees from past years. Three
of the new players played in the semi-finals, though even more
newcomers were eligible. With comfortable wins in
five of his six games, Bruce prevailed for his fifth straight
18xx tournament victory.
As in past years, there were four preliminary rounds, with
1826 and 1846 (chosen by respondents in an on-line
poll) added to the four more widely available games (1830,
1856, 1861, and 1870). The added games
were in competition for the final three rounds, allowing for
greater variety of play. Preliminary rounds were designated as
1830, 1856, 1870, and "other", respectively,
to guarantee at least one game of each in the tournament. 1830
was the most popular preliminary round game, by 7-6 over 1861. There
were only three 1856 games and two 1870 games played
and one game each of 1826 and 1846. In
the 1830 preliminary round games, the players were offered
the alternate 6 train in games with newer players to make bankruptcies
less common, but no games included it, and there were only three
1830 preliminary round games with bankruptcies.
In the first preliminary heat Wednesday morning, there were
4-player 1856 and 5- and 4-player 1861 games to
go with two 4-player 1830 games. Both first
round 1830 games ended in bankruptcy. Newcomer
Daniel Barnes joined two returning players (and both assistant
GMs) in the win column. In Daniel's game, perennial
finalist Mark Neale tried to engineer Chris Hancock's looming
bankruptcy in his favor by selling Daniel a train (securing an
extra payout for himself before the end). However,
the train benefited Daniel even more, enabling him to edge Mark
by $159 for the win. The other 1830 game had
another newcomer, Ryan Sturm, and another bankruptcy. Assistant
GM Rick Dutton found himself with one train between two RRs,
but was able to pass the train over and wait for the stock round. Lane
Newbury had the same problem, but went bankrupt instead, resulting
in an easy win for Rick over Ryan and GM Pierre LeBoeuf, even
though Rick was still short a train (and Ryan and Pierre weren't). The
1856 game featured past champions Barrington Beavis, David
Fritsch, and Bruce Beard squaring off with David Metheny. Barrington
started the LPS RR, but Bruce quickly stole it and cruised to
an easy win. In the 5-player 1861 game, Jeremy
Vipperman bested newcomers Alan Stancius (2nd) and David Fair
(5th). Andy Roosen won the other 1861 game
over another frequent finalist, Jim McDanold. The
results from Round 1 are shown below.
Table 1 Preliminary Round 1 Results
1830 Games
Rick Dutton 1684, Ryan Sturm 1202, Pierre LeBoeuf 1151, Lane Newbury 590
Daniel Barnes 1375, Mark Neale 1216, Paul Koenig 568, Chris Hancock 490
1856 Game
Bruce Beard 8200, David Fritsch 6375, Barrington Beavis 5969, Dave Metheny 5195
1861 Games
Jeremy Vipperman 5039, Alan Stancius 4595, Peter Eldridge 3955, John Haas 3681, David Fair 2391
Andy Roosen 7873, Jim McDanold 7270, Herbert Gratz 6999, Tom McCorry 4728
At the second preliminary round on Wednesday night, at least
one of every game but 1846 was played, with a pair of
1830 games contested by the 24 attendees. Returnees
won all six games. Lane Newbury and Mark Neale were the
1830 winners. A key lapse in the 1856
game cost Pierre a chance at a win. He was trying
to get a little extra money into a doomed company so that it
would make enough to buy a 5 train, but the sale of an extra
share in the pool (to get more dividends in the RR) backfired
badly when Peter Eldridge was able to steal the company with
$500 in it. The money proved useful in his easy victory. Bruce
got his second victory in the 1861 game, doubling trains
on one of his minor RRs for lots of early money. Though
Tom McCorry was able to run his share company for R940 twice
at the end, he couldn't catch Bruce. Delaware club
members Andy and Rick squared off with two others in the 1870
game, with Andy getting a $371 win. The last game
of the night was an 1826 marathon that ran until 1 am. In
the end, Franklin Haskell hung on for a $340 win over Barrington,
with Daniel only $20 behind in third, and newcomer Mike Massimilla
well behind. The results from Round 2 are shown in
Table 2 below.
Table 2 Preliminary Round 2 Results
1830 Games
Lane Newbury 7333, Akihisa Tabei 6915, Paul Koenig 6493, Craig Reece 5118
Mark Neale 9235, Henry Dove 7767, Kenichi Hasegawa 5936, Chris Hancock 5164
1861 Game
Bruce Beard 10316, Tom McCorry 9688, David Metheny 9593, David Fair 8780
1870 Game
Andy Roosen 8733, Rick Dutton 8362, Alan Stancius 6935, Jeremy Vipperman 5151
1856 Game
Peter Eldridge 9827, Pierre LeBoeuf 8034, Jim McDanold 7495, John Weber 7391
1826 Game
Franklin Haskell 6628, Barrington Beavis 6288, Daniel Barnes 6268, Mike Massimilla 4503
The third preliminary round Thursday afternoon had four tables
with four different games played. Five players squared
off in the 1861 game, where Paul Koenig got his first
win, by $457 over Pierre. Jeremy had a relatively
easy win over Barrington in the 1856 game. Lane
got another 1830 win, by more than $1000 over Jim, with
newcomers Kevin Sudy and Kenichi Hasegawa finishing 3rd and
4th. Rick was finally able to bring down the champ
in the 1846 game, when Bruce ran the undercapitalized
Grand Trunk RR while Rick had ten shares of the three best RRs
in his portfolio (versus only three shares for Bruce). Table
3 below contains the results from preliminary heat 3.
Table 3 Preliminary Round 3 Results
1830 Game
Lane Newbury 8748, Jim McDanold 7699, Kevin Sudy 6809, Kenichi Hasegawa 6389
1846 Game
Rick Dutton 8299, Bruce Beard 7636, Brian Mountford 7572, Peter Eldridge 7146
1856 Game
Jeremy Vipperman 9448, Barrington Beavis 8359, David Metheny 7941, Andy Roosen 7502
1861 Game
Paul Koenig 8500, Pierre LeBoeuf 8089, David Fair 8043, Tom McCorry 7372, Alan Stancius 5336
The fourth preliminary round on Thursday evening was the last
chance to win a slot in the semi-final. With only 10 different
winners in the first three rounds, there were still six guaranteed
slots remaining in the16-player semis. This final chance
featured five 4-player games, two of 1830, two of 1861,
and one of 1870. Bruce was the only player
in the 1870 game not to get an initial RR started, but
he still made the first two destination runs and won by $1700
over Jeremy. Andy won the first 1830 game on
Akihisa Tabei's bankruptcy, while Daniel got his second win in
the other game, over another newcomer, Michael Pustilnik. Rick
Dutton scored his third win (matching Andy and Bruce) with a
close R88 win over Barrington in one 1861 game. Jim
McDanold broke through for his first win in the other 1861
game, by more almost R2000 over Dave Metheny. Table
4 below contains the results from preliminary heat 4.
Table 4 Preliminary Round 4 Results
1830 Games
Daniel Barnes 8171, Michael Pustilnik 7293, Kenichi Hasegawa 7286, Jesse Dean 4602
Andrew Roosen 2093, Chris Hancock 1600, Mark Neale 577, Akihisa Tabei 274
1861 Games
Jim McDanold 7441, David Metheny 5454, Franklin Haskell 5046, Dave Fritsch 3630
Rick Dutton 6928, Barrington Beavis 6840, Lane Newbury 5855, Tom McCorry 4881
1870 Game
Bruce Beard 11773, Jeremy Vipperman 10125, Pierre LeBoeuf 9683, Alan Stancius 5030
The 20 preliminary round games produced three triple winners
(Andy Roosen, Bruce Beard, and Rick Dutton), three double winners
(Jeremy Vipperman, Lane Newbury, and Daniel Barnes) and five
single winners. Only one failed to appear for the
semi-final round, leaving ten winners for 16 slots, and six open
places for the semi-finals. The second place players were
seeded by number of seconds, followed by how early in the rounds
they finished second, and finally by the percentage of winning
score in their best game. Because only five of the
11 runners-up opted to continue, Herbert Gratz, the 25th ranked
player overall, got the last semi slot, with a third place in
his only game.
The players were seeded into the semi-finals based on the
results of preliminary round play and the multiple entry-single
elimination tie-breaking criteria established by the WBC. Where
players remained tied, they were placed according to their best
percentage of the winning score or margin of victory. Andy
nosed out Bruce for the #1 seed by a slight margin of victory
advantage. Best margin of victory percentage seeded
spots 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, and 9. Second place finishes
were seeded the same way as the winners, ordering the players
as shown in Table 5 below (no-shows are indicated by dashes in
the last column). Number of second place finishes
(and when) and best percentage of the winning score ranked the
next nine players. Those that did no better than third
came next, with the third from that grouping qualifying by virtue
of attendance.
Table 5 Top 27 Player Rankings and Semi-final Seeding
Ranking | Preliminary Round Score | semi-final Seeding | 1. Andrew Roosen | Won1st, 2nd & 4th game, best by 130.8% | 1 | 2. Bruce Beard | Won1st, 2nd & 4th game, best by 128.6% | 2 | 3. Rick Dutton | Won1st, 3rd & 4th game | 3 | 4. Daniel Barnes | Won1st & 3rd game, best by 113.1% | 4 | 5. Jeremy Vipperman | Won 1st & 3rd game, best by 113% | 5 | 6. Lane Newbury | Won 2nd & 3rd game | 6 | 7. Franklin Haskell | Won 1st game | 7 | 8. Peter Eldridge | Won 2nd game by 122.3%; DA | - | 9. Mark Neale | Won 2nd game by 118.9% | 8 | 10. Paul Koenig | Won 3rd game | 9 | 11. Jim McDanold | Won 4th game by 107.3% | 10 | 12. Barrington Beavis | Placed 2nd in 2nd, 3rd & 4th game |
11 | 13. Pierre LeBoeuf | Placed 2nd in 2nd & 3rd game | 12 | 14. Akihisa Tabei | Placed 2nd in 1st game by 94.3% | 13 | 15. Alan Stancius | Placed 2nd in 1st game by 91.2% | 14 | 16. Michael Pustilnik | Placed 2nd in only game by 89.3%; DA |
- | 17. Henry Dove | Placed 2nd in only game by 84.1%; DA | - | 18. David Fritsch | Placed 2nd in only game by 77.7%; DA |
- | 19. Ryan Sturm | Placed 2nd in only game by 71.3%; DA | - | 20. Tom McCorry | Placed 2nd in 2nd game by 93.9% |
15 | 21. Chris Hancock | Placed 2nd in 3rd game; DA |
- | 22. David Metheny | Placed 2nd in 4th game; DA | - | 23. Kenichi Hasegawa | Placed 3rd twice; DA |
- | 24. Brian Mountford | Placed 3rd in only game; 91.2%; DA |
- | 25. Herbert Gratz | Placed 3rd in only game; 88.9% |
16 | 26. Kevin Sudy | Placed 3rd in only game; 77.8% | - | 27. David Fair | Placed 3rd in 3rd game |
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DA: Declined Advance
Players were allowed to pick which game to play in the semi-final
by secret ballot, and after some second choices were considered,
single games of 1856 and 1861 were chosen plus
two 1830 games. With the 2nd - 4th -
11th and 16th players choosing 1856, and the
5th -7th - 14th and 15th players choosing
1861, that left the remaining 1830 games seeded
as, 1st - 8th - 9th and 13th in Game 1, and
3rd - 6th - 10th and 12th in Game 3. The
first 1830 semi featured top seed Andy against returnees
Mark, Paul, and Akihisa, a near total rematch of the 4th round
game between Andy, Mark, and Akihisa. Several RRs
changed hands in this game, including the B&O, NYC, and B&M. The
train situation after seven of the eight RRs were started was
Mark with a 3-4 in the Penn and a 3 in the C&O, Andy with
4-5 in both the B&M and Erie, Akihisa with 3-3 in the B&O,
and Paul with a 4 in the NYNH and a 5 in the NYC. Akihisa
opened the CP at $67 in the next stock round to get a permanent
train, but then Andy sold Mark a 5 train to keep the train buying
going, breaking the 6's. Akihisa was able to get one
diesel, but with two RRs he sold stock to go bankrupt. The
bankruptcy enabled Mark to edge Andy out for a berth in the Final. The
other 1830 game was another near rematch of the first
preliminary bout among Lane, Rick, and Pierre. Jim
McDanold was the other player, and he played a precarious stock
game while Lane returned the favor to Pierre from their earlier
match, forcing him to share a diesel between two RRs. Unlike
that other game though, Pierre opted not to bankrupt and managed
to get a second train despite falling way behind as a result. The
extension of the game benefited Jim the most, as he ran by Lane
for the $700 win. Bruce played Barrington, Herbert, and
newcomer Daniel in the 1856 semi, and used the LPS to
generate lots of money early, then cast it aside in the CGR formation
to open the GT and WGB late. His WGB had the best
stock value and made the most money, enabling him to cruise to
a large victory over Herbert. The last game was a
first-time semi in 1861, featuring Jeremy, Alan, Franklin,
and Tom. Jeremy ended up with more stock than anyone
else and won by R700 to earn his first spot in the Final. Table
6 below contains the results from the semi-final games played,
with the four winners advancing
Table 6 - Semi-final Round Results
1830 semi-final Games
Mark Neale 1783, Andy Roosen 1645, Akihisa Tabei 405, Paul Koenig 403
Jim McDanold 8171, Rick Dutton 7596, Lane Newbury 7481, Pierre LeBoeuf 5909
1861 semi-final Game
Jeremy Vipperman 6996, Franklin Haskell 6220, Tom McCorry 5654, Alan Stancius 4188
1856 semi-final Game
Bruce Beard 9514, Herbert Gratz 7788, Barrington Beavis 7634, Daniel Barnes 6882
The four semi-final winners advanced to the 1830 Final
Saturday night. It matched (in turn order) Mark Neale,
Jim McDanold, defending four-time champion Bruce Beard, and Jeremy
Vipperman. Bruce had gone 3-1 in the preliminary rounds,
with Mark, Jim, and Jeremy posting records of 1-2, 1-3, and 2-2
in the prelims. Jeremy was appearing in his first
Final, but Mark (3), Jim (5), and Bruce (7) were all on familiar
turf.
In the private auction, Mark took the Champlain & St.
Lawrence for $50 and the Delaware & Hudson for $75, Jim got
the Mohawk & Hudson for $150, Bruce got the Camden &
Amboy for $200, and Jeremy got the Schuylkill and the Baltimore
& Ohio privates at cost ($20 and $220), then he set the B
& O share price at $90. With the option to buy the 1st company,
Mark opened the NYNH at $67, Jim opened the B&M at $71, and
Bruce started the Penn at $76. The first three companies
each got a 2 train, then Mark's NYNH finished off the 2's and
bought the first 3, as well as his private companies in to the
public RR. This enabled Mark to open the NYC on the
second stock round at $71, after selling a couple of NYNH shares. Jim's
B&M missed out on the 3 trains, getting the first 4, then
Bruce cashed in his C&A private to open the C&O at $90. The
last 2 RRs were started with "down payments", Jeremy
buying only the president's share of the Erie for $200 and Mark
getting only the president's share of the CP for $152. Both
RRs were opened in the next stock round, and the 5 trains were
split among the B&O, NYC, and PRR. Those last
two 5 trains were bought by withholding dividends, as was the
first 6 by Bruce's C&O. Jim ultimately lost the
B&M to Jeremy and was left without a RR until the NYC showed
up on his doorstep without a train, forcing him to buy a diesel
for it. Mark had 3 RRs until unloading the NYC on
Jim. But while this corporation carousel was spinning,
Bruce's Penn and C&O with a 5 and a 6, respectively, chugged
along, paying out continuously until the bank broke, giving him
a 5th straight championship by $2500 over Jeremy.
I would like to thank everyone for playing, and I hope we
can get back to increasing our numbers again next year. We
will vote again soon on which two games to include with 1830,
1856, 1870, and 1861 in 2010. We will also
vote on interest in moving to a precon format the weekend before
regular WBC. We are likely to go to only three preliminary
rounds next year, but I plan to keep the 16-player semi-final
and 4 player Final for at least another year. If you
would like to participate in the discussion on ways to improve
the 18xx tournament in 2010, drop me an email.
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Franklin Haskell (left) defeats Mike
Massimila, Daniel Barnes and Barrington Beavis in a game of 1826.
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Finalists Jim McDanold, Bruce Beard,
Jeremy Vipperman and Mark Neale take a break from their 1830
game for the photographer. |
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