I have been lazy with doing the tournament results the past few months – several people have asked me about that over the ToP. But to make up for it, here is a full summer recap for you all.
ToP #1 was a modest event – 7 people showed up at the Victoria. That was not quite enough to run 2 brackets, but somehow Dave and Steve finished their first round match in under 5 minutes, and so I had a re-buy to make two full brackets, which were won by Cam and Bodger. It was slightly too hot out that day, one of the other people visiting the bar had a dog who was laying out like it was being baked, which was an exaggeration to be sure. So not the strongest start to the Tour, but not terrible.
ToP #2 was more well attended – 8 whole players. This one was at a new place, the Hilt, which was a good location for it. Three additional people showed up but did not get into the tournament – a couple of guys who ended up playing casual against one another, and one latecomer who I played some heads up after crapping out early. Mark A and Joel won the two brackets for this one.
ToP #3 was the low point of the tour. Hinterland was nice enough, but the patio portion was very crowded, and it was legit HOT. Like, hot enough that Dave was complaining about the heat. We ended up playing a single bracket, in the small indoor (and air conditioned) space they had available. But this one did mark the return of Kyle to the playing field, which was great. Dave won the bracket. Leah showed up late, and a chouette broke out, so it was a fairly full afternoon of play.
ToP #4 was a smashing success. The Zipper is a good location, we’ll definitely have it on the Tour again next summer. 13 people came out for this one, and we managed 5 and 1/2 brackets (Jeremy & Dave played the half bracket, that is, a single heads up match, which Jeremy won). The full 5 brackets were won by Dave, Gary, me, Cam, and Tim. Aside from some arguments about whether the fried chicken sandwich could be beat by other places in town, it was a very congenial afternoon and a lot of fun.
ToP #5 was a return to APEX, which I slightly regretted – the extra travel time and the relatively scarce parking had me grousing about not doing it there again. And we won’t – turns out they are closing shop at the end of the month! I regret my churlish attitude. The event started out with shade being at a premium, and ended with a short cloudburst making us think better of starting a chouette. But it was another very well attended event – 13 players again, with 5 full brackets, which were won by Kyle, Steve, Jeremy, Dave, and Nick.
Here’s a position which came up in my match against Paul (in what looks like his first tournament appearance of 2024? Paul, were you not at the Portlandia at least? Oh right, Chicago…) – we played a one game match, which, naturally, means the cube decisions were important (which, naturally, they usually are). First position that I took a picture of was here, where Paul (having taken my cube fairly early in the game) had definitely turned things around, and offered to keep playing as long as it was for 4 points:
So I’m on the bar, he’s about to either make another point or flood the outfield with checkers so that I will have a hard time bringing the straggler home. But – that’s all I have to do, is bring a straggler off the bar and around. It’s a really big double. Is the take correct? I honestly don’t know. XG says it is a pass, GnuBG and BGBlitz say it is a take, even on roll-out for all three bots. XG sees a lot more gammon losses for me than the other two (17.4/15.7/12.9% respectively), they more closely agree on the win percentages (74.2/72/70% respectively). So if I was playing XG, I should definitely drop. But I was playing Paul (which is close to the same thing but friendlier), so I took. Which is a blunder against XG on roll-out.
From there, things just got silly, the way single checkers trying to move around the board can do. Paul ended up volunteering a shot bearing in, trying to prevent me getting out and correctly realizing he’d have no trouble re-entering if hit. But he was hit, then I was, then he was, and when the dust settled, we got to this position, where I had to stop and consider raising the cube to 8:
One way to think about this one is, what rolls leave me too good? Double 6 and 5 get me all the way in the clear, which is a lot to hope for. Double 4 is blocked, as is double 2 (partially). Double 3 and double 1 both are improvements. Then there’s just a lot of numbers that leave me in my outfield, dodging a single shot to be winning. I went for it, raising the cube to 8. Turns out this was the moment – very close double, huge take. I proceeded to roll a 21, Paul somehow missed it, I came around, he missed me again, and I pulled off the win. Short match, but exciting!
For the rest of the year, we’re moving back to Lucky Lab, starting with the Championship Qualifier #3 on September 14th – hope to see you there!
-Mark