ra: the dice game   

2012 WBC Report  

 2013 Status: pending 2013 GM commitment

Stephanie Kilroy, PA

2012 Champion

Event History
2010    Rod Davidson       74
2011    Chester Lanham     107
2012    Stephanie Kilroy     143

 Laurels

 Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
   1.  Stephanie Kilroy   PA    12     30
   2.  Chester Lanham     MD    11     30
   3.  Rod Davidson       AZ    10     20
   4.  Rob Kilroy         PA    12     18
   5.  David Meyaard      NY    11     18
   6.  Curt Collins II    PA    12     17
   7.  Chris Gnech        PA    11     13
   8.  Chris Greenfield   NY    12     12
   9.  Anna Marion        PA    11     12
  10.  Bianca Oksienik    NJ    10     12
  11.  Rodney Bacigalupo  MD    12      6
  12.  James Gilmore      MD    11      6
  13.  Randy Buehler      WA    10      6
  14.  Roger Budz         RI    12      3
  15.  Patrick Gorman     PA    11      3
  16.  Scott Sunderlin    NY    10      2

2012 Laurelists                                                 Repeating Laurelists: 0

Rob Kilroy, PA
2nd

Chris Greenfield, NY
3rd

Curt Collins II, PA
4th

Rodney Bacigalupo, MD
5th

Roger Budz, RI
6th

Past Winners

Rod Davidson, AZ
2010

Chester Lanham, MD
2011

Stephanie Kilroy, PA
2012

So what does GM Steve Scott do after running four heats and three elimination rounds of Ra? Play the Ra Dice Game of course!

Dave Meyaard, Carolyn Strock and Donna Balkan have their hands full with a young challenger.

 Two high volume GMs Eric Englemann and Ivan Lawson.

 Jake Jacoby, Eric Caron and Jennifer Thomas

Euros & Dice ... who sez they don't mix?

Two Titles in one Game ...

RDG again posted more than a 30% increase in attendance to become one of the fastest growing events at WBC. The majority of the field was made up of folks joining the tournament for the first time. Many of these new folks scored very well, preventing veterans from advancing. None of the 2011 finalists won a single game this year, but not all of our veterans were eliminated. 2010 champ Rodney Davidson advanced to the quarterfinals but got no further and 7th ranked Curt Collins II returned to the Final. Former laurelists Scott Sunderlin, James Gilmore, and Patrick Gorman all advanced to the quarterfinals, but their day ended there.

Close games were the norm in the preliminary heats. Nearly half of the games were won by three points or less. And an 8-point spread was the difference between first and last place in more than a few games. Steve Cameron won his game with all four players scoring between 41 and 43 points. In the second heat Roger Budz, Winton Lemoine, and Jonathan Gemmell all advanced with a 3-way tie for first. However, not all players were so fortunate. Keith Layton began his third heat by rolling five suns. For those not familiar with the game, that is the worst possible roll to start a game. Rolinda Collinson would later start with a disaster as the first roll of her Round 2 game.

51 players won at least one game in the preliminary heats, qualifying for the quarterfinal. 20 failed to post, leaving 31 to battle through the elimination rounds. Stephanie and Rob Kilroy, Chris Greenfield, and Curt Collins II emerged for Round 4.

The Final's pace was much more relaxed than in previous years. The sun advanced slowly, yielding an average of four turns to the players in each era. Chris did gain the benefit of an extra turn by being both the first and last player to throw the dice. Although this extra turn was not all too useful as the majority of the board was locked up by this time, limiting his ability to score points. The strategies seemed to mirror those of the last Final. Rob started with Floods until it was maxed out and then switched over to Monuments. Stephanie stuck with Monuments throughout. Both Chris and Curt started with Pharaohs until they were maxed out. Chris switched over to Monuments while Curt tried Civilizations, then Monuments, and finally Disasters.

As happened last year, the Battle of the Pharaohs took its toll on both participants. Chris and Curt trailed badly. This left Stephanie's Monuments to fight it out with her dad's Floods/Monuments strategy for the title. Both strategies worked to a point as they finished in a 46-46 tie. The seating position tiebreaker thus gave Stephanie her first WBC title and bragging rights in the Kilroy household.

Randy Buehler, John Corrado, Gero Niemeyer and Alyssa Gumkowski

GM Scott Buckwalter oversees his finalists.

 GM      Scott Buckwalter  [3rd Year]   NA
   sbuckwalter@comcast.net   NA

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