egizia  

Updated Nov. 12, 2014

2014 WBC Report  

 2015 Status: pending 2015 GM commitment

Cary Morris, NC

2014 Champion

Event History
2011    Randy Buehler    49
2012    Sam Schell    59
2013    Andrew Emerick    58
2014    Cary Morris    58

Euro Quest
BPA Event History
2012    Andrew Emerick    35

 Laurels

 Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
   1.  Andrew Emerick     CT    13     56
   2.  Randy Buehler      WA    12     50
   3.  Sceadeau D'Tela    NC    13     42
   4.  Cary Morris        NC    14     34
   5.  Sam Schell         NC    12     30
   6.  Kyle Smith         PA    14     24
   7.  Elaine Pearson     NC    14     18
   8.  Robert Murray      NJ    13     18
   9.  Robert Kircher     RI    12     14
  10.  Keith Dent         NY    14     12
  11.  Steve LeWinter     NC    14     12
  12.  Richard Shay       MA    13     12
  13.  Alex Bove          PA    12     12
  14.  Eric Wrobel        MD    13      9
  15.  Redie Smith        NC    11      9
  16.  Dominic Blais      qc    14      3
  17.  Derek Glenn        KY    13      3
  18.  Rebecca Hebner     DC    12      3
  19.  Lars Astrom        NC    11      3

2014 Laurelists
Repeating Laurelists: 0

Kyle Smith, PA
2nd

Keith Dent, KY
3rd

Elaine Pearson, NC
4th

Steven LeWinter, NC
5th

Dominic Blais, qc
6th

Past Winners

Randy Buehler, WA
2011

Sam Schell, NC
2012

Andrew Emerick, CT
2013

Cary Morris, NC
2014

 Egizia has been remarkably stable for a game that did not make the cut in its debut year.

Fresh Blood ...

This year the heats produced a more normal result in terms of advancement to the semi. Last year, a first heat win was required to advance, due to the lack of any double winners, whereas this year, there were four double winners; Randy Beuhler, Cary Morris, Kyle Smith, and Andrew Emerick. This placed the cutoff point for advancement at any win rather than a first heat win only.

The four double winners were separated for the semifinals, and only two survived to reach the Final - Cary Morris and Kyle Smith. Two-time Caesar Randy Beuhler was bested by WBC newcomer Keith Dent, while Andrew Emerick, the defending champion, was taken down by Elaine Pearson, just as she had done in the semifinals two years ago.

To kick off the Final, Keith drew the coveted first seat, followed by Cary second, Kyle third, and Elaine fourth. Next year will probably feature some sort of bid for seating in the elimination rounds.

The first round featured a relatively weak set of cards - only the +2 sphinx card, a 2 stone quarry, and 3 green food stood out. None of the 3 stone quarries flipped. As a result, the trip down the river was slower than usual, with Cary, Kyle, and Elaine all stopping at the Sphinx. Kyle and Elaine both elected to opt into starving lightly, for 2 and 3 points respectively.

After the first round, Elaine led with 9 points having built in all 3 zones, followed by Cary and then Keith at 3 points, and finally Kyle at 1 point.

Predictably, the second round card row was rich, though notably one of the 3 stone quarries went out of the game. Cary, Kyle and Elaine all boosted their stone production this round, while Keith elected to slowboat, picking up both a green and yellow food card, a spot at the Sphinx, and several crew strength. After the building, Elaine and then Keith led at 14 points, followed by Cary at 11 while Kyle continued to hang back at 6.

In the third round, Cary managed to snag the excellent move upriver card, while Keith made the difficult decision to skip the Sphinx with his +2 cards there to improve his stone production from 3 to 9. Elaine had problems of her own to fix, needing to skip the Sphinx as well to pick up a yellow food card, not having previously obtained any additional food at all. This round finished with a three-way tie for first, with Keith, followed by Elaine, followed by Cary all at 20 points. Kyle remained behind, but not by much, at 16.

The fourth round featured everyone but Kyle visiting the Sphinx, who opted instead for a 3 stone quarry and 3 green food. All the players decided it was time to start picking up points, and so all the building sites were filled in an effort to generate some points. Going into the final round, Keith led, but just barely, with 39, followed by Kyle at 36, Cary at 35, and Elaine at 32.

Elaine opened the last round to pass on the Sphinx to pick up a point card, while everyone else piled into the Sphinx. Cary used his place two ships card to pick up the often critical and sometimes trap card allowing you to build first everywhere. Again, all the building sites got filled, and everyone built as much as they could.

Going into the final scoring Kyle led the pack at 68, Cary had 62, Keith had 59, and Elaine had 53. Unfortunately, Kyle couldn't put up many points in final scoring. He only picked up 2 from the graves, 10 from the 2 bricks in each building site, and 6 for most green fields. 7 bricks in the Pyramids was missed, bringing him to 86.

Cary then flipped over a solid stack of scoring cards, picking up 6 from 4 bricks in the columns, 7 for 3 people at the end of the grain track, 4 for finishing the grain track, 7 for finishing both tracks, 8 for having the most brown fields, plus 2 for graves and 3 for unused stones, bringing him to a total of 99 points.

Keith had a decent set of cards, scoring 4 for joker strength, 6 for one column, and 10 for both columns, and 7 for having four bricks in the obelisk, but he missed on most yellow fields, bringing him to 86, tying Kyle.

Finally, Elaine flipped an excellent set of cards, getting 9 for blue crew, 6 for permanents, 7 for 3 people at the bottom of the stone track, and 7 for the 7th level of the obselisk being complete. She also picked up 2 points from unused stones and 2 bonus points at the graves, bringing her to 86 as well.

Thus, Cary Morris won, and the three-way tie for the remaining spots was broken by the order they arrived, thus making Kyle Smith second, Keith Dent third, and Elaine Pearson fourth.

Attendance remained stable, even though the final had a full complement of new faces as compared to last year. We look forward to seeing even more of you sailing down the Nile next year.

Elaine Pearson and an unidentified hitchhiker outnumber Redie Smith.

GM Andrew Emerick and his finalists.

 GM     Andrew Emerick  [2nd Year]  NA
  NA   NA 

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