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Barb Flaxington and Malinda Kyrkos
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Jennifer Gorman and Vassili Kyrkos |
Fourth Time is the Charm ...
Anyone who has played Puerto Rico with David Platnick
knows he is one of the best players on the planet. His tournament
resume includes three wins at PrezCon and one at Origins, but
-- coming into this year's WBC tournament -- the big victory
had eluded him. Sure, he had a high position in the laurels count
after three consecutive second place finishes, but nothing in
the top six the last five years. 2011 was Dave's year. He won
a tough matchup in his first heat, then swept through the rest
of the tournament undefeated. It was a well-deserved win for
a player whose tournament record in the first ten years of WBC
has been the most consistent: four Finals, five laurelist finishes,
eight years of semi-finals, and advancement to the elimination
rounds nine years out of ten. Looking back over the first decade
of our tournament, we now have ten different champions in as
many years. However, Dave's impressive record of achievements
is unparalleled.
Before the start of play, special prizes were awarded to eight
individuals who have participated in each of the first ten years.
This list of stalwarts includes Mike Backstrom, Barbara Flaxington,
John Jacoby, Cheryl Mallon, David Platnick, Bob Stribula, Kevin
Walsh and GM John Weber. Then, it was on to the competition,
which took place in a packed Ballroom B, with 21 Puerto Rico
games alongside 28 Dominion games in a room with just
44 tables, requiring some "doubling up" for both games.
The proverbial term "tough draw" applied in a couple
of instances. 2006 Champ Chris Moffa was paired with Dave Platnick
in a high scoring 3-player game that went to Dave, 63-60 with
Marcy Morelli just one point further back at 59. This was a reversal
of the 2006 Final, where Chris edged Dave by a half point in
the closest Final to date, with the difference being their respective
bids for the two indigo seats. Another former Champ, and past
Caesar winner Raphael Lehrer, suffered a narrow one-point loss
to Edward Fear in his first WBC. Perhaps the toughest draw of
them all involved 2004 WBC Champion Barb Flaxington (the laurels
leader heading into 2011) being paired with Greg Thatcher, last
year's runner-up, and two-time finalist Assistant GM Malinda
Kyrkos, the 2007 runner-up to Raphael. The winner of this game?
None of the above, as victory was claimed by the fourth, Jason
Long, with Barb just two points behind.
There was more trouble to come for the four former Champs in
the field during the second heat. Attendance was still strong,
with another 19 games being contested. Barb Flaxington could
not improve on her earlier result, finishing third in a game
won by 2008 runner-up Matt Peterson. Vien Bounma took the measure
of 2006 Champ Chris Moffa, and defending Champ Luke Koleszar
fell just short, losing by one to Eyal Mozes in another "tough
draw" table that included 2009 EuroQuest Champion Richard
Shay. Thus, heading into the third and final heat, none of the
four former Champions had won a game. Only one competitor (Ed
Fear) had won games in both heats. A highlight of this heat was
a rare three-way tie, with Patrick Monte emerging victorious
on the tiebreaker over Craig Trader and Llew Bardecki. Another
highlight was scored by Brandon Ketchum, who ended his game with
the almost unheard of total of four large buildings, although
not all were manned.
The third heat took place at high noon on Saturday, with the
quarter-finals due to start three hours later. This meant a quick
turnaround on the results, and assistant GMs Barb and Malinda
were on hand to help your friendly GM get the results compiled
and posted in plenty of time. Four of the 17 games in this heat
paired prior winners, while the remaining 13 games produced 15
more qualifiers when two games finished with absolute ties on
points and the doubloons plus goods tiebreaker so all of the
tied players were credited with wins. One of the double winners
was Barb, the 2004 Champion who thereby qualified for the next
round. Defending champ Luke Koleszar also made it, posting a
solid eight-point win. On the other hand, Raphael Lehrer and
Chris Moffa fell short again, but multiple second places in the
heats left them high on the alternate list, should extra spots
appear in the quarter-finals. Meanwhile, in the winners' bracket,
Ed Fear became just the fifth player in WBC tournament history
to sweep with wins in all three heats, romping to a 15-point
win from the statistically disfavored #2 indigo seat. Jason Ley
and two newcomers to the tournament, Eddie Burmeister and Ben
Scholl, posted their second wins which gave them byes into the
semi-finals.
Those with one win were eligible to participate in the first
elimination round. A total of 40 such players appeared, ending
the day for the alternates. As in the past five tournaments,
players bid for their favored seats in half VP increments. Most
of the quarter-final games were close, but one that was not was
Eric Freeman's 11.5 point-win that ended the run of GM John Weber,
who could do no better than third behind Ryan Houman. Contrast
this with the closest game that was 3.5 points from top to bottom
- with Ken Horan taking first on the tiebreak from Greg Thatcher.
This was one of four games decided by one point or less. A half-point
separated Anthony Daw from second place Loc Nguyen in another
tight game that saw a 4.5-point spread covering the four players.
Jason Long, who had made a splash with his prior win over a former
Champ and two runner-ups, nosed out Sceadeau D'Tela by a half-point.
The margin was just a point between John Dextraze, who advanced,
and Marcy Morelli, who did not. Former champs Barb Flaxington
(by two points) and Luke Koleszar (by four) reached the semis,
along with Dave Platnick, Eric Brosius and Kevin Walsh, who won
the other quarter-final games.
The rules specified that the 16 semi-final spots would go to
the four byes plus the quarter-final winners, plus the closest
seconds as needed. The closest second was Greg Thatcher, but
Sceadeau D'Tela and Loc Nguyen were tied for the last spot -
which would require a coin flip if everyone showed. However,
word that Greg had chosen to contest a Sunday AM Final instead
meant both Sceadeau and Loc were in.
The first game to finish had Dave Platnick the winner, advancing
to his fourth Final table (first since 2006) with a solid 7.5
point win with Ken Horan in second. Ken decided to wait around
but, based on past history, his shot at a plaque as one of the
two closest seconds seemed remote. Things took a turn for the
better though when the next two games finished with identical
10.5 point margins - advancing Jason Ley and Sceadeau D'Tela.
Barb Flaxington's campaign was over after another good run, finishing
third to Jason and behind Eric Brosius in second. The runner-up
in Sceadeau's game was John Dextraze, an Ontario native and the
top non-U.S. finisher in this year's field.
The last game to finish was perhaps the most intriguing matchup,
pitting the defending Champ vs Ed Fear, who had dominated thus
far with three heat wins, along with Eric Freeman, a 2006 finalist
who had the biggest winning margin in the quarters and Kevin
Walsh, a veteran now in his fourth WBC semi-final. As had happened
in each of the heats, Ed won by an impressive margin - 10 points.
Nonetheless, this result gave runner-up Eric Freeman (despite
the double-digit point deficit) the coveted sand plaque and sixth
place laurels. This meant Ken Horan - who was a bit happier after
seeing the results of the other games come in - claimed fifth.
Thus, Dave Platnick was at his fourth Final against three first-time
finalists, making him the clear favorite based on prior years'
performances. However, Ed had an impressive four-game unbeaten
streak going (at his first WBC, no less) and Sceadeau had laurels
to his credit. Jason, whom the record-book shows was in a "coached"
game with the GM at the inaugural WBC tourney in 2002, was a
bit of an unknown quantity whose results had gradually been improving
in recent years. The bidding for seat position had Dave in #1
(indigo) for half a VP, Ed in #2 for no handicap, Jason in #3
(for 2 VP) and Sceadeau in #4 (for 1 VP). An unusual sequence
of plays took the game "out of the book" on the very
first round as David started by taking Builder (to purchase a
Construction Hut) and Ed, after buying a Small Market, punted
by taking Prospector. This helped Dave get off to a solid start
as he picked up one of the two corn in the opening draw after
Jason followed with Settler-Quarry instead of the usual Mayor,
which Ed had anticipated.
As the game developed, Jason started well by taking an early
Captain worth money and points, while Sceadeau and David scooped
up roles with money on them. Sceadeau and Ed executed the game's
first trades on Turn 4 (indigo and corn) but the big money didn't
start rolling in until Turns 5 and 6 when Jason made two successive
sugar trades and Sceadeau traded coffee. By this time Jason had
already bought the first Harbor, and he seemed poised to do well.
Ed and David expanded into tobacco, plus David had a Hacienda
up and running with an eye to ramping up production quickly as
the game progressed.
Things began to change when Jason was unable to raise the cash
for a Coffee Roaster when Sceadeau took Builder on two successive
turns. David (with two manned quarries) was in excellent position
to capitalize and improve his position by expanding into sugar
and indigo (to go with corn and tobacco). Both Jason and Sceadeau
let a $2 Prospector reach David, who managed to keep his building
costs low with those quarries. Despite being short on colonists
for most of the game, Dave seemed to have them placed perfectly
when the opportunity arose to build, or alternatively to produce,
expertly shifting them to anticipate the upcoming role selections.
Thus, while others may have made small mistakes, as David later
observed, "nothing went wrong" and his strategy (starting
with the Construction Hut, then adding the Hacienda) prevailed
where it had come up short in earlier finals. This set him up
for a strong finish as the pace of the game accelerated in the
final few rounds.
Sceadeau, who had passed the first two building cycles, took
the money from the initial coffee trade to purchase a factory
and soon had four goods in production, generating steady cash
flow to compensate for a lack of cost-reducing quarries. Meanwhile,
David, as Governor on Turn 9, gained even more of an edge by
executing his first tobacco trade when the Trader had two bonus
doubloons on offer. He continued to pinch his pennies, and the
game was eventually his when he was able to raise the funds to
purchase two large buildings in back-to-back game turns (the
Guild Hall on Turn 11 and the Residence on Turn 12). Two turns
and two builder phases later, he ended the game after having
maxxed out his Guild Hall and Residence bonuses at 10 and 7 points,
respectively. With David ahead by a wide margin, it was a very
close battle for second between Sceadeau and Ed, and a late game
miscue by Sceadeau (taking Prospector when Craftsman would have
netted him a better position on the tiebreaker) handed second
place to Ed on the special "most colonists" tiebreak
after the two were tied on the regular doubloons-plus-goods tiebreak.
It marked the first time this tiebreaker has been used in elimination
round play at WBC.
As for Jason, he had developed an excellent position for a shipping
game (with the Harbor/Small Warehouse/Customs House combo) but
the game simply did not last long enough. Final scores (factoring
in bids for seat position) were David 49.5, Ed 43, Sceadeau 43,
Jason 36.
The play-by-play of the Final can be accessed on-line as a Session
Report at BoardGameGeek: http://boardgamegeek.com/article/7425045
As in the past, there was some number-crunching done to see which
starting positions did the best and which buildings were the
most popular among game-winners. The trend favoring the two corn
seats continued in 2011; however, the #1 indigo seat had a fairly
good year as well. The fourth corn seat, which had generated
the most wins in 2010, dropped to third in that category and
barely outscored the #1 indigo. However, the negative trend for
the less favored #2 indigo seat continued, with a scoring average
and win percentage far below that of the other seats. Overall
stats from 68 4-player games (adding up to a total of 70 wins
because of the double winners in two Heat 3 encounters) are as
follows:
Seat 1 indigo 43.82 ppg 21 wins (30.0%)
Seat 2 indigo 42.04 ppg 11 wins (15.7%)
Seat 3 corn 45.19 ppg 23 wins (32.9%)
Seat 4 corn 44.07 ppg 15 wins (21.4%)
The same three buildings that have historically topped the list
of most popular violet buildings in winning displays remained
so, with a shift at the top. This year, the Harbor (40) outdid
the Small Market (35) with the Factory (34) a close third. Least
popular among game-winners were the University (4), Office (6),
Large Warehouse (7), and after these three, tied at 10 - the
Hospice and - surprisingly - the Wharf. Most popular large building
was, once again, the Guild Hall (28) followed by City Hall (23).
The Fortress (12) was the least popular large building among
game-winners.
In elimination round games with bidding, it was a good year for
the #1 seat, which won seven of 15 games while the worst was
the #2 indigo, which won only once, when Barb Flaxington bucked
the trend in the quarter-final round. Those quarter-finals saw
the only game where the player with the higher raw score (Greg
Thatcher) failed to register a win after subtracting the bids.
Here are the aggregate bidding stats based on 70 4-player games
using the bidding system at WBC from 2006 through 2011, inclusive:
Seat 1 indigo 17 wins (24.3%) Average bid 0.39 Average winning
bid 0.26 Highest winning bid 1.0 (2 wins)
Seat 2 indigo 13 wins (18.6%) Average bid 0.01 Average winning
bid 0.00 Highest winning bid 0 (13 wins)
Seat 3 corn 16 wins (22.9%) Average bid 1.50 Average winning
bid 1.47 Highest winning bid 2.5 (3 wins)
Seat 4 corn 24 wins (34.3%) Average bid 0.88 Average winning
bid 0.79 Highest winning bid 1.5 (4 wins)
David's win in the #1 seat means all four seating positions
have won at least one Final since the current bidding system
was introduced in 2006; prior winners by seat position were #2
seat (Chris Moffa, 2006); #3 seat (Raphael Lehrer, 2007; Nick
Page, 2008); #4 seat (Steve Pleva, 2009; Luke Koleszar, 2010),
so the corn seats still have an edge although indigo is gaining
ground.
This wraps up the first decade of WBC tournaments. The GM wishes
to especially thank those who have helped manage the large numbers
over the years, particularly current assistant GMs Barb, Dave
and Malinda, as well as prior assistants Anne Norton and Stan
Hilinski. I am thinking it's time for a break, so don't be surprised
if there are some changes next year.
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Rich Atwater and Eddie Burmester |
GM John Weber's finalists strike a
pre-game trash talking pose. |
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