Galaxy   

Updated Nov. 23, 2012

2012 WBC Report  

 2013 Status: pending December 2013 Membership Trial Vote

Steve Cameron, PA

2012 Champion:

Event History
2000    James Pei     96
2001    Steve Cameron     87
2002     Jon Shambeda     75
2003    Rob Winslow     60
2004     Joseph Burch     58
2005    Sean McCulloch     48 
2006    Dan Eshleman     43
2007    John Keating     46
2008    Mark Mitchell     41
2009    Joe Burch     44
2010     John Keating     41
2011    Rob Winslow     39
2012    Steve Cameron     37

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Rob Winslow        NY    12    100
  2.  John Keating       IL    10     74
  3.  Joseph Burch       MD    09     62
  4.  Steve Cameron      PA    12     61
  5.  Jon Shambeda       PA    02     58
  6.  Mark Mitchell      VA    12     50
  7.  David Buchholz     MI    08     48
  8.  Martin Sample      NH    11     43
  9.  Sean McCulloch     OH    05     42
 10.  Steve Shambeda     PA    12     40
 11.  Jed Shambeda       PA    08     38
 12.  Craig Melton       VA    11     32
 13.  James Pei          TX    00     30
 14.  Joel Tamburo       IL    04     27
 15.  Rebecca Hebner     CA    12     22
 16.  Dan Eshleman       NC    06     20
 17.  Kaarin Engelmann   VA    01     18
 18.  Andy Lewis         DE    02     16
 19.  Danielle Zack      MD    08     15
 20.  Andres Dunn        MD    10     13
 21.  Rob Kircher        RI    09     12
 22.  Nick Henning       CT    07     12
 23.  Brendan Crowe      VA    00     12
 24.  Phil White         MD    05      9
 25.  Mark Geary         OH    10      8
 26.  Joanna Melton      VA    12      6
 27.  Max DuBoff         NJ    11      6
 28.  Misha Lavrov       NC    10      6
 29.  Jon Miller         DC    00      6
 30.  Rob Buccheri       MD    09      4
 31.  Bill Place         PA    02      4
 32.  William Burch      MD    04      3
 33.  Rick Young         NC    03      3
 34.  Anthony Musella    VA    01      3
 35.  John Ellsworth     IL    00      3
 36.  John Speck         MD    11      2
 37.  Tim Evinger        PA    09      2

2012 Laurelists                                             Repeating Laurelists:

Rob Winslow, NY
2nd

Steve Shambeda, PA
3rd

Joanna Melton, VA
4th

Rebecca Hebner, DC
5th

Mark Mitchell, VA
6th

Past Winners

James Pei, TX
2000

Steve Cameron, PA
2001, 2012

Jon Shambeda, PA
2002

Rob Winslow, NY
2003, 2011

Joe Burch, MD
2004, 2009

Sean McCulloch, OH
2005

Dan Eshleman, NC
2006

John Keating, IL
2007, 2010

Mark Mitchell, VA
2008
 

Laura DeWalt, Pete Stein, Franklin Rinko and Dennis Nicholson in a galaxy far, far away.

Anna Marion, Joanna and Thomas Melton contemplate each other's secret base.

 Craig Melton, Steve Cameron, Laura Brown and Marty Sample decide the fate of worlds.

 Joe Burch, a two-time champion himself, is unable to stop Steve Cameron from joining that exclusive club.

Winning Two is Twice as Nice ...

Tiebreakers rule! ...

Every year after the Galaxy Final concludes with its usual drama, I tell myself, "Wow, there can't be a more exciting finish than this one". It usually only takes the passage of another year to prove me wrong and this year did not disappoint. Two of the five players in this year's Final scored 11 points and the other three scored ten! All five players needed to count their points in hand to decide their rank. Rob Winslow missed winning an unprecedented third Galaxy title, and second straight by a mere 20 tiebreaker points. Rob also managed to do this while eliminating three worlds, including the last one. That's hard to do and still miss wood. So now, we'll have to deal with an even grouchier Winslow next year. But Rob's loss was another past champion's gain as Steve Cameron took his second title by the slimmest of margins over an experienced field. Poor 12th ranked Steve Shambeda had 107 tiebreaker points but that was only good enough for third place since he was only one of the three ten-point finishers. Contributing to the high scores was a series of failed attacks to bases and ships in the first three or four rounds. 16th ranked Rebecca Hebner failed three attacks on one turn and each counterattack failed as well.

As for the numbers, there was almost an even distribution of world eliminations again. Six of the eight worlds were eliminated between 13 and 16 times with the Divergence topping the list. For the second year in a row the Kha'Farjimmn took top honors for the world surviving the most games at 13. The Kha were also the favorite choice as a Secret Base, being so tabbed 15 times during the tournament. That makes it four out of the last six years that a world has taken that "daily double". One dubious honor goes to Marty Sample who won his heat with only eight points, and that was in a 4-player game in which his secret base survived! Usually, those games prove to be higher scoring affairs. Two of the other three players also had eight points so it came down to tiebreakers for the win.

Another interesting number is that only eight of the 20 game winners eliminated the last world to complete their win. Proving yet again that ending the game is not the only way to win. And last but not least, there were an amazing five winners who accomplished their victory without eliminating a single world, including everyone's favorite WBC GM! So, you can feel like you're totally out of control during this game and still come out on top in the end.

Kyle Greenwood plots against Rebecca Hebner.

GM Mark Mitchell oversees his finalists.

 GM      Mark Mitchell  [8th Year]   NA 
    MarkM5963@aol.com    NA  

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