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Football strategy (FBS) WBC 2018 Event Report
Updated November 1, 2018
21 Players Kevin Keller 2018 Status 2019 Status Event History
2018 Champion Click box for details. Click box for details.
 

Keller Knocks Off Reiff for Title

If you came here looking for the short version and didn’t look at the graphics prior to clicking into this report, you will find that Bruce Reiff, who has won 12 of the previous 26 Football Strategy tournaments at the WBC, did NOT win the tournament this year. Onwards to the report…

We kicked off the tournament this year on the first Sunday of the convention whereas this tournament had previously started on Monday. The shift allowed us to start the tournament in an earlier timeslot which meant that it presumably would not run as late into the evening for those that advanced. We had 16 gamers show up to the first heat which is a nice number for the GM to set up the bracket.

For those of you not familiar, the Football Strategy tournament has a fairly simple format. We play two heats which are separate single-elimination events. The winners of the two heats then play one another for the overall championship in the tournament and the other person earns second place. The folks that lost to the participants in the heat finals get 3rd and 4th place respectively and so on to determine all of the places. Of course, this format requires that if you win a game in one of the heats, you get the opportunity to play again until you are eliminated. Of course, sometimes folks have conflicts and need to drop out even if they win, but we have follow the convention guidelines for granting byes in the cases were the brackets need to accommodate them.

The match-ups in the first heat saw Marvin Birnbaum defeat George Bott by a 30-13 score. Paul O'Neil overwhelmed Michael Day 26-7. Bill Ramsay cruised past Nicole Reiff 24-6. Bert Schoose won 33-20 over Craig Thomas. Warren Day survived a shootout to win 47-37 over Scott Nerney. Eric Monte snuck past Jeremy Billones by a 14-10 final. Ray Stakenas, Sr. upset two-time former champion Ken Whitesell by a comfortable 28-10 score. The final match of the first round of this heat saw Bruce Reiff squeeze by Don Greenwood 20-18 with a score in the final minute of their tight match.

The second round saw Bruce get past Bill 27-6. Bert seemed to have everything go his way as he rolled past Warren 42-7. Paul controlled his game with a 20-10 victory over Marvin. Finally, in the tightest game of this round, Eric squeaked past Ray with a 24-23 win.

The third-round games seemed to get decided easily as Bruce beat Paul 24-13 and Bert kept things rolling with another lopsided score of 28-7 over Eric. This setup a heat final between Bruce and Bert.

Although Bert has defeated Bruce several times over the years of playing one another, Bruce was quick to point out that it had never happened during the WBC tournament. After a little more back and forth trash talk, they finally sat down to play. Bruce promptly put Bert in his place with an easy 31-12 win that wasn’t as close as the final score. Bruce later quipped that the game was over by half-time even after Bert started the second half with a successful on-sides kick.

Heat 2 took place in its usual Wednesday at 6pm timeslot. Fourteen competitors showed up with 9 players returning after competing in the first heat. While players who win the first heat are permitted to play in the second one and if the same player wins both heats, they are the champion of course without having to play themselves in the final. (smile). Bruce decided to pursue other gaming events rather than play the second heat.

As for the action, Bert showed that although he can’t be Bruce, he is able to beat a Reiff. Unfortunately, for Nicole she was on the receiving end of a 30-7 “revenge” game. Kevin Keller shut down Jeremy’s offense and won 17-3. Three-time champion, Joe Powell, beat George 30-16. Ken defeated Stuart Tucker 28-10. In a very low scoring affair, Ray Sr. defeated Dave Dentel 12-7 in a nail biter. In the final first round match, another three-time champion, Paul lost to David Rynkowski 19-17. Paul missed a field goal attempt from the two-yard line which prevented him from advancing.

The second round saw three tight games. Ken threw a 27-yard TD pass with 15 seconds left in the first half and played tough defense throughout to advance past Bert 17-10. Ray Sr. successfully kicked a field goal on his last play to defeat David 16-14. As the most recent champion still in the heat, Ken got a bye and so the winner of Kevin and Ray would need to also beat Ken in order to advance to the tournament final. Kevin did just that. He got past Ray 17-14 and then he defeated Ken in another close game.

Kevin won the Football Strategy tournament back in 2004. He has always been very competitive and has come close to adding the second notch into his belt but hasn’t got over the hump. If he was to do it this year, he’d have to take down Bruce, who we pointed out in the opening, has won this tournament 12 times.

Things didn’t start out to well for Kevin as Bruce took the opening kickoff and used the first five minutes of the game to march down the field and put the first score of the game on the board with a touchdown to take a 7-0 lead. Kevin was unable to do much with his first possession and had to kick the ball back to Bruce. Things looked a little better for Kevin as he stopped Bruce on a three-and-out. They went back and forth stopping each other on their next drives respectively. Kevin did kick a field goal to cut the lead to 7-3 on his first possession of the second quarter. Neither player was able to score on three more possessions each during the remainder of the second-quarter, but Bruce did miss a field goal chance at the end of the half.

Kevin received the second half kickoff and put together a nice opening drive of his own. Bruce stiffened up his defense and Kevin had to settle for a field goal to cut his deficit to 7-6. The good news for Kevin, is that the halftime break did not change his defensive momentum as he stymied Bruce on all three of his third quarter possessions. Going to the 4th quarter, Kevin still trailed by the single point. He got the ball on his first possession of the 4th quarter but was stopped cold with a three-and-out. The defense once again came up big for Kevin as an 18-F on Bruce’s second play resulted in an interception and gave Kevin the ball right back.

This time, he moved the ball against Bruce. Not all the way to the end zone but close enough that he was able to put his third field goal on the board and take the lead 9-7. Once more, Kevin was able to stop Bruce. He then got the ball back and during crunch time, put together a time-consuming drive of more than 4 minutes of game action. The result of that drive was another field goal and a 12-7 lead going into the final minute of the fourth quarter.

Bruce would need a late touchdown to pull this out. Kevin kicks off and rolls an 11 which allows Bruce a Long Gain on the runback! Roll a 1, and he’d be in the worst case at Kevin’s 20-yard line and possibly return the kick for a TD. Alas, Bruce could only will a 2 out of the die. This still gave him the ball at the 50-yard line. Kevin survived Bruce’s attempts to advance the ball on that last drive. In the end, he only gave up that opening drive TD to Bruce. It took 14 years, but Kevin Keller was once again the WBC champion of Football Strategy! Congratulations on a job well done. Of course, congratulations are in order for Bruce and the other laurelists.

Looking ahead, we will likely keep the same schedule in the coming WBC convention. The GM is considering some slight modifications to the kicking charts to more closely mimic the results that occur in the NFL following their rule changes. No decision on that will be made until we see another season of NFL statistics. If changes will be made, they will be included in the preview for next year’s event. Thank you to all of the tournament participants who all display great sportsmanship and who make this an easy tournament for me to GM. I look forward to seeing all of you next year along with some others who will hopefully try out this fun game. Until next year…


2018 Laurelists Repeating Laurelists: 4
Bruce Reiff Ken Whitesell Bert Schoose Ray Stakenas Paul O'Neil
2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th
GM Bert Schoose in action. Former CD Don Greenwood attempts to end Reiff's
run at the title.
Good Friends Ken Whitesell and Ray Stakenas
enjoy game while both earning laurels.
Scott Nerney in action on the gridiron.
 
GM  Bert Schoose [8th Year]  4882 North Citation Dr, Delray Beach, FL 33445 
 BLSchoose@yahoo.com  NA