innovation  

Updated Nov. 12, 2014

2014 WBC Report  

 2015 Status: pending December 2014 Membership Trial Vote

Robb Effinger, on

2014 Champion

Event History
2012    Steve Koleszar    73
2013    Geoff Pounder    36
2014    Robb Effinger    47

 Laurels

 Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
   1.  Robb Effinger      on    14     32
   2.  Geoff Pounder      on    14     32
   3.  Steve Koleszar     VA    12     20
   4.  Luke Koleszar      VA    13     14
   5.  Andy Latto         MA    13     12
   6.  Daniel Ottey       PA    14      8
   7.  Matt McCracken     PA    13      8
   8.  Dave Denton        NY    14      6
   9.  Inger Henning      CT    12      6
  10.  Mick Page          on    14      4
  11.  Dan Haigh          PA    13      4
  12.  Doug Smith         PA    12      4
  13.  Lisa Gutermuth     WA    14      2
  14.  Chris Shabsin      MA    13      2
  15.  Brandon Bernard    MD    12      2

2014 Laurelists
Repeating Laurelists:   

Geoff Pounder, on
2nd

Daniel Ottey, PA
3rd

Dave Denton, NY
4th

Nick Page, on
5th

Lisa Gutermuth, WA
6th

Past Winners

Steve Koleszar, VA
2012

Geoff Pounder, on
2013

Robb Effinger, on
2014

Nick Page and Jessica Finkeldey try to out innovate each other.

Lisa Gutermuth and Heather Stutzman play for the right to advance.

For want of an Eliminator ...

The Innovation field rose slightly in its third year, in part due to less competition for player time on Monday. After adjustment for mulligans and no-shows, the business of paring down the field yielded a single elimination bracket with 19 players which proved less than optimal. Attempts by former semifinalist and third-ranked laurelist Luke Koleszar to whittle it down as an eliminator failed. This lead to a round of 5 and then a round of 3, before settling on the Final between defending champ Geoff Pounder, and 2012 runner-up, Robb Effinger. While Innovation may seem like a random game to some, the consistency of the finalists indicates otherwise.

The Final started off a bit oddly ... Geoff started with Pottery, while Robb's opening play was Oars. Robb actually ran Oars multiple times to steal cards from Geoff's hand into his score pile - a kind of paddling rarely seen. Combined with clothing, Robb was able to get the 1 Achievement. But Geoff wasn't idle during this time, using Agriculture to shut down Robb's clothing, and building his own score pile. Both players attempted to try to get tempo to have the first 2 in play, to score the 2 achievement - Robb threatening to share Oars to get to the 2s, actually trying to get places with his paddles, but Geoff's Wheel proved slightly faster. Geoff managed to snag the second achievement, while Robb started setting up for Fermenting. However, Geoff found Compass, and along with getting the third achievement, also directed Robb down a new direction by stealing Fermenting. Robb would have none of it, however, and headed back in the original direction with the help of Road Building to snag Compass, and started stealing back all the leaf cards Geoff had stolen from him.

Geoff was eventually forced to give back Fermenting, as well as Pottery, leaving him with two stacks - Optics and Clothing (which had been previously snagged with Roadbuilding). But he had planned for this, and played Translation, and immediately breaking Translation's code with his small board to achieve the World. However, Robb was also able to use Geoff's reduced board position to use Construction to achieve Empire. Geoff was left with little board position and was a bit shy on score to achieve the 4s, but with most of the 3 pile empty he thought he saw a solution in the way of Optics. However, it was not to be - he failed to find coins with his Optics draws, and just as importantly failed to find Gunpowder to blow up Fermenting. So Geoff made the decision to Translate his scorepile into a board position. Robb started Fermenting in full force, finding the ability to Reform, but not yet acting upon it, and occasionally selling Pots for enough points to achieve. Geoff looked for outs, but Optics continued to fail him, and after Robb took the 6-achievement he was able to Reform, building the Monument, and winning.

 GM     Robb Effinger  [1st Year]   NA 
   Robb.Effinger@Gmail.com   NA

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