Matt Calkins on his way to the Final.	Rob Seulowitz ponders the new models.

The 2015 Automobile event took the model Mr. Wallace created and stood it on its head. Everything you thought you knew about the game was thrown out the (passenger) door. Our defending champion wasn’t able to get to Lancaster until late week, and was unable to defend his title. That left a lot of the faithful licking their chops for sales glory.

Howard still gets the most love from those in the know, but there was a much greater diversity of the remaining roles. Even Kettering got an upward push in the times taken this year. The one issue, raised post tournament, was the question of whether players should bid for selection order on Turn 1. This was raised because the selection of Howard on Turn 1 appears to have a significant benefit. This will be a topic of discussion during the offseason.

Players seemed to focus more on getting the number of cars built correct rather than using technology to try and provide loss cubes to their opponents. The Chrysler 70 was a popular last build this year, with the Pontiac Six being the farthest reach of the tournament, players never making it on to the left side of the board. Playing 4-player games has a major impact on that situation.

With one less heat this year, the number of tables in the preliminaries meant that some would advance on cash. In Round 1, Greg Ziemba, Matt Calkins, Alistair Thach, Tony Newton, Anthony Lainesse, Robert Cranshaw, Al Hurda, and Tom Bissa all emerged victorious.

Round 2 took on the mid-70’s aspect, as smaller in the number of tables was in vogue, as well as production line slow-downs as players vied for the coveted playoff seats. David Stoy won his table handily. David Metzger, Bruce Hodgins, and Jack Jung all came back from first round losses to claim victories. Most impressive was Jack’s triumph as he beat Pat Hussey on the rare tiebreaker procedure. Fortunately for Pat, the scores were significant enough that he would qualify for the semifinals anyway. Our last game was won by Matt Calkins, who year after year dominates the heats with multiple wins.

The semifinals attracted a new era of production. There were employee-employer concerns (really), as well as a significant number of outsourced spots, represented by the strong Canadian contingent. After addressing all the requested separations for the semifinals, players got to it.

Matt Calkins again demonstrated his dominance, recording his third straight win easily by $700. His protégé, Dave Metzger, handled his table by a comfortable $420. Robert Cranshaw won by a nice $200 margin. In the world of Martin Wallace, the phrase “I’m taking a loan” is often equated to “I’d like to lose this game.” Loans can be an effective tool in Automobile, but if the risk and losses of taking the loan aren’t managed well, you face the fate of Greg Schmittgens who lost his semifinal game on a tie breaker, after having an apparent dominating position at the board. Tiebreaker wins had been an endangered species in this event but 2015 featured two such sightings.

With the table set for the Final, the players set through the first two turns rather quickly. Howard was the choice of the day, Durant and Chrysler were each chosen three times, and the other roles twice for the game. And then Turn 3 started, and the pressure and decisions magnified. Odds and probabilities calculated with each move. Players’ fates hung on the turn of the demand tiles. In what one person described as the second greatest game of Automobile ever played (critics still rank the 2009 Dallas game as the best ever), the game hinged on the demand draw for luxury cars on the last turn. When the draw was a four, this allowed all remaining luxury cars to be sold, and yielded a spread of only $180 between the top three places. And just like that Rob Seulowitz had earned his fourth WBC title and the first since the days of Successors.

GM Andrew Maly and his auto entrepreneurial finalists.