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Merchant of Venus (MOV) WBC 2017 Report
Updated March 11, 2018 Icon Key
72 Players Eyal Mozes 2017 Status 2018 Status History/Laurels
  2017 Champion   Click box for details. Click box for details.
 

Dream the Impossible (Furniture)

The first round of the 2017 WBC Merchant of Venus tournament opened in the Alpine room with 9 games. The youngest competitor was believed to be 8 year old Lizzy Shea, daughter of Mr. Freighter, Philip Shea. She hasn’t mastered her father’s use of the freighter yet, but she did well in her first outing. The Look What I Found award goes to Bob Woodson, piloting a freighter, who was several turns from his destination to win the game. He decided to check out the undisturbed asteroid two spaces away and found a Telegate which would send him to the Cloud. There, he could sell his goods and barter the freighter to steal the win from last year’s runner-up Vassili Kyrkos, who was 4 pips away from the win himself. The Count Your Money award goes to Tony Newton who was having so much fun playing, he didn’t declare victory when having the necessary $2000. Tony did earn First Alternate. The winners in Heat 1 were: Richard Irving, Eyal Mozes, Roderick Lee, Rich Meyer, Michael Powers, Bob Woodson, Gay Dickson, Kathy Stroh, and Mark McCandless.

In the second heat held in vast spaces of the Ballroom, the Murphy’s Law award for 2017 goes to Greg Berry who discovered the perils of the Cloud at maximum ferociousness. Starting with roll of 15 to start, he went into the Cloud and found a 30 penalty at the first asteroid marker and decided to save cash and stopped. The next turn he moved 1 space to the oxymoronically named Space Station Planet and bought a good. The next turn he tried going to the Wing/Body section of the Cloud and found a 40 penalty on the first space and stopped again. The next turn he rolled a 6, 6, 1 and was forced to stop after one space at the navigation circle with an unfavorable arrow pointing against him. On his fifth turn, trying again to cross to wing, he rolled 1, 1, 6 which this time the navigation circle sent him back the 40 penalty. Five turns a total of six spaces moved. I hereby invite Greg back next year, it is almost impossible for him to have a worse start. On a more positive note, another game featured Eric Monte finishing with $1983 good enough for third place in a $2000 game in which Charlie Hickok finished with $2013 on a late port commission after his final turn. The winners of heat 2 were: Wooly Farrow, Luke Koleszar, Greg Romano, Richard Irving, Debbie Gutermuth, John Henry, Phillip Entwistle, Joe Powell, and Robin Trew.

The third heat featured 10 games, including the return of the Master, 5-time champ Eric Wrobel. Alas for Eric, he finished third. The winners were Jim Fardette, Bill Crenshaw, Jacob Wagner, Edward Porilaitis, Harald Henning, Molly Auerbach, Wooly Farrow, Chris Entwistle, and Gary Dickson.

That set the stage for the semifinals. 19 of the winning players showed up, so 1 alternate Charlie Hickok, was added to make five 4-player games. Game 1 was a close race with Rich Meyer winning by a nose over Richard Irving, Luke Koleszar and Jacob Wagner I a game where all of the players were a turn from winning. Game 2 was even closer with 3 players over the $3000 needed for victory with Eyal Mozes winning over Jim Fardette and Bob Woodson. Game 3, Robin Trew won by $400 over Charles Hickok. In Game 4, defending champ, Ewan McNay, punched is ticket for a return trip to the finals by a close win over Mark McCandless. Bill Crenshaw had a solid win over Molly Auerbach in game 5.

The finals were a runaway for Eyal Mozes. He was trying to find a buyer for his Melf Pelts purchased from the Shenna, Culture 5 in the unfashionable Western spiral arm of the Galaxy. He first checked the Asteroid Belt finding the Dell 4a. After bypassing the IOU, he went to Ice Planet where the Nillis 1a live. They still didn’t want the Pelts even though it is presumably cold on Ice Planet, so next he tried Jungle World whose natives are the Whynoms 8 who would not only buy the Pelts but even better, form a compact 4 system loop 8 > 1a > 4a > 5 > 8. Eyal used this to generate a large early lead from which he was never caught, winning his second Merchant of Venus title.

Final Result 2017 Merchant of Venus Tournament
    Finalists:
  • Eyal Mozes
  • Ewan McNay
  • Robin Trew
  • Rich Meyer
  • Bill Crenshaw

  • Semifinalists ranked by Semifinal score:
  • Bob Woodson
  • Jim Fardette
  • Richard Irving
  • Luke Koleszar
  • Mark McCandless
  • Jacob Wagner
  • Charles Hickok
  • Molly Auerbach
  • Woolly Farrow
  • Kathy Stroh
  • Debbie Gutermuth
  • Chris Entwistle
  • Roderick Lee
  • Joe Powell
  • Philip Entwistle

 
2017 Laurelists Repeating Laurelists: 1
Ewan McNay Robin Trew Richard Meyer Bill Crenshaw Robert Woodson
2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th
 

Bill Crenshaw strategizing his next
move in the semifinals

GM Richard Irving making his move
in the semifinals

Eyal Mozes winning his table in the semifinals

Merchant of Venus Finalists with GM Richard Irving

 
GM  Richard Irving [16th Year]  1505 Caceras Circle, Salinas, CA 93906
 rri12@sbcglobal.net  931-905-1073