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Let the culling begin ... |
Still a bit crowded in some heats
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Second Life ...
This year, Lost Cities - The Tournament resembled Lost
Cities - The Card Game of Expeditions as a third location
was added to the schedule for the second Heat. Some players
headed by reflex to Paradise, only to discover that they would
have to find Vista. VISTA?!? That's a
RESTAURANT! Well, actually, Vista C and D are rooms adjacent
to the restaurant, and served our two-player game very well.
We were glad to hear about the overall increase in attendance
for the convention, even though participation dropped by ten
percent for Lost Cities. It is difficult to assess
these numbers - perhaps ten years from now, we might plot
our year to year attendance and determine that, rather than a
ten percent decline, 2009 was a cyclical trough five percent
below our true average. Anyhow, the first heat drew 54
pairs, while the remaining three heats attracted 40, 20 and 40
pairs, respectively. Notable slugfests in the prelims:
Josh Tempkin amassed 313 to best Scott Gibson's 205, and
Tim Keating crafted three expeditions with bonuses to score 301
while Michael Schoose was ONLY able to work two bonuses for a
total of 248. These were the only games to have cumulative
scores above 500. Close brawls: Dave Mattingly 219 over
Kelly Czyryca 215, and Philip Yaure 125 over Kathy Kilroy
124. The closest defensive struggle was posted by Marc
Berenbach with 75 over Peggy Pfeiffer with 73. The struggle
in mutual futility was turned in by Steve Koleszar who beat Emma
Hauser by a score of 10 to (-44). Erica Kirchner posted the top
individual score of 361; no one has yet topped 400. For
those who are counting, we also had our annual tie game that had
to be resolved with a fourth hand. Eric Brosius and
Edward Roberts were the only players to win in all of the four
heats.
Heading into single elimination (SE), each of the 32 qualifiers as
well as the five alternates had at least two wins.
Among them were a husband and wife, a father and son, and four
former champions: Andy Latto, Sean McCulloch, Jarett
Weintraub and Rebecca Hebner. BTW, Rebecca made it as an
alternate as several qualifiers failed to post, including Jarett.
In her initial SE round, she lost, but she was able to advance
by forfeit when her opponent announced that he could not
continue due to other conflicts. Never give a good player,
much less a former champion, opportunities. You'll soon
learn why. After three SE rounds, four players had advanced
to the semis: Sam Atabaki, Eric Brosius, Richard Fetzer, and
. . . Rebecca. In the semis, Sam continued his steamroller
SE run, compiling an average score of 213 over four games
- 213!! Meanwhile, Rebecca had prevailed but her wins
were nail biters as her average score was 94 and her average
difference over her opponents' scores was +20.
Sam averaged +93 over his opponents. In the Championship,
they played a tight game, Sam up by ten after the first hand
and Rebecca up seven after the second. Sam had cut into
her lead by the end of the final hand, but Rebecca,
the alternate qualifier, prevailed by a score of 104 to 100,
for her second championship in Lost Cities. Eric
Brosius defeated Richard Fetzer for third place, but
Richard, another alternate qualifier, was just glad to be here
and was happy with fourth place . . . afterward.
We'll close the book on 09 and do it all again in 10.
Thanks to all who played and enjoyed this tournament. Please
don't forget to pack your copy of Lost Cities in your
suitcase next year; games are always needed.
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The biggest WBC 2-player tournament,
hands down. |
Four heats to make the 32-player elimination
rounds... |
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