Ticket to Ride 20th Anniversary World Tournament

[Sysyphus]

French

Thanks for the summaries, way to bring the spotlight on this fun and crazy tournament!

[Sysyphus]

Also, am I right to think that Europe 4 needs 2 more rounds of play whereas the other tournament are down to their final game later this week?

[Qorlas]

Thanks for the summaries also from my side. I like to read here , on the italian side, on the french side what is happening.

It can be the 3rd edition of the World Cup (started TTR online in 2008), but it is the first one in which we are enjoying it live, I felt detached from both the 2009 and 2014 edition. It doesn't exist the perfect tournament.... but this one is really enjoyable

Keep it up the good work!! Thanks for all

[Rwain]

Also, am I right to think that Europe 4 needs 2 more rounds of play whereas the other tournament are down to their final game later this week?

That's correct ! As there are only 4 tickets for semifinals in the CET4 tournament, their "final" games starts 5 days later than yours.

[LeGoupil]

Great job Rwain ! Very enjoyable summaries !

[chooosen]

Grand Finale: The top 8 players will be invited to Paris for an in-person final, scheduled for May 2025.

What is the format of Grand Finale?
1. time constrains
2. can you use notes during the game?
3. or computer ?
4. will be some online transmission from the finals on twich?

[Rwain]

Thanks for your support !

Now that we've made a quick presentation of all qualifying tournaments, let's just take a few minutes for the latest news !

First : two huge surprises in this round 5... two top players who were expected to reach the semifinals without problems had to say goodbye to their chances to become the 2024 World Champion.

In China Standard Time Tournament, top seed Flop Hecky was opposed to lowbutterfly, a solid player from China, with an ELO up to 473... far less than the Hecky's 746, but significant enough to prove that lowbutterfly wasn't a beginner, and that any mistake could lead to elimination. Flop Hecky started with two eastern tickets : Chicago - New Orleans and Toronto - Miami. Only 17 points when completed, and some small routes mandatory to reach Chicago; not the best combination to start. Both opponents chose to complete their hands before placing their first trains. They waited to have 44 cards in hand and then started claiming routes. A common strategy, that offers visibility on what can be done, and how to optimize one's hand, but also a risk, as it lacks flexibilty... there's far less chance to change plans, drawing in the river to seize an opportunity to fulfill a colour.
Anyway, that's how it started... and then came the war of 6 ! Toronto - Duluth for Flop Hecki. Helena - Duluth for lowbutterfly. El Paso - Houston for Flop Hecki. Los Angeles - El Paso for lowbutterfly. The set up was done. Then came the quest for the tickets, with the longest path in mind.
To link its south with its north, Flop Hecki chose to claim Kansas City - Omaha, 1 train, 1 point. An uncommon choice, that was immediately answered by a Omaha - Chicago ! That route seemed quite essential for Flop Hecki, it seems strange that he did not priorize it. But when two players fight for the same cities, there are times when every choices seem crucial. A harsh battle started in the center of the map, in which Flop Hecki did his best to keep the control, and in a certain manner, he did it, as he managed to complete his destinations with the longest path.... but maybe did he lose too much time (4 routes of 2 trains ; 1 route of 1), and his opponent also managed to complete his destinations, which were far more lucrative : Los Angeles - New York (21 pts) and Duluth - El Paso (10 pts). Top seed of CST tournament is out...


A nice game by lowbutterfly, who deserves his victory. But winning against seed n°1 is not enough ! He still has to win one more game if he wants to be a semifinalist. In round 6, he will face another 400+ ELO player : nicoxiaozai. A tight game in anticipation. And a game where pressure will be strong, as the stake is high !


In Central European Time Tournament 1, the same fate awaited another n°1 seed ! Toutoune-morgon had such a great start in this tournament, winning with ease his first games... it seemed quite impossible that he would leave at such an early stage. And yet... as many other top players, he was surprised by a less experienced player, Malkshur, ELO 278.
Toutoune-morgon was not unlucky with his destination tickets, starting with Portland - Phoenix with Los Angeles - Chicago. Malkshur, first player, started in an unclassic way : drawing one more destination ticket and claiming early Denver - El Paso... and then Denver - Helena. This early move seems to have put some pressure on Toutoune-Morgon, who chose to spent 3 locomotives to assure the control of Helena - Duluth... an understandable move, but what a price ! Malkshur answered immediately with Duluth - Chicago... nothing seemed to go as planned here for the CET top seed. And the worse was to come : to link Chicago, Toutoune-Morgon chose to claim Chicago - Omaha... but with this move, he let an opportunity for Malkshur to block him with Duluth - Omaha !
Could it get any worse ? Yes, and it dit !
When Toutoune-Morgon tried to connect Los Angeles to its route to Chicago, he was a move behing his opponent... and stayed behind... He claimed Denver - Las Vegas ? Malkhsur claimed Las Vegas - Los Angeles. He claimed Phoenix- El Paso ? Malkshur claimed Los Angeles - El Paso !
Toutoune-Morgon seemed to have fought a battle being one move behind the all time... it seems a bit strange that he persisted in continuing the same path as Malkshur's... without priorizing some key routes. This cost him a lot... and now he's out of this 20th Anniversary tournament.


Here is the position at a key moment of this game : Toutoune had to struggle to complete his destination... he had to draw more cards than trains, and even tried to draw other destinations ... a real fight to keep a hope to win... but a small defeat in the end.


Malkshur is the surprised guest of the CET1 round 6. He will face another experienced player : seasonalsleeper, ELO 532. He will need another feat to gain his ticket for the semifinals !


With the elimination of Toutoune-Morgon and Flop Hecki, that comes to 4 top seeds that are out before round 6 (ZZiLL in CET 3 and CoroNino in CET4). 4/8, that's an unexpected ratio, but that proves the difficulty to maintain a high level of play in a single elimination tournament. The smallest mistake can have terrible consequences when the opponent has the bit of luck needed to beat a top player, combined with a serious game that can lead to victory.

For now, only one of the 8 top seeds is assured to be a semifinalist, thekid... will the other three follow him there ? We'll soon know as the round 6 is to start in a couple of days. That's a very important game that awaits all players still in, as it's the last one to win for those who wants to be a semifinalist. All qualifying tournaments will continue afterwards, to determine a winner (who will earn Ticket to Ride prizes), but many contestants mainly look for a ticket for the semifinals.

Tickets that some "lucky" players already won ! Indeed, our qualifying tournaments were open to all players, but only those who limited their participation to ONE tournament could pretend to be semifinalist. All those who joined several tournaments aren't eligible for semifinals. But some of this "duplicate" players managed to reach round 6... which means that, whatever the result of their 6th game, some players are already qualified.
That's why thekid is already in the semifinal tournament, beside Cournot and a few others.
Who are they those players who are already qualified ?

The third to get his ticket was Loindufroid !

Loindufroid cames from Poland, and is one of the best ELO still in the CET2 tournament : 605. He seems quite fond of Ticket to Ride as his BGA profile displays a unusual statistic : 100% of the games he plays on the platform are Ticket to Ride's games ! With 2600 games played (and a win ratio of 76%), we can conclude that his qualification has nothing to do with chance. He won his ticket a bit earlier as he will face ... donchdonc (a familiar name for those who read other comments here), but the odds are with him in this game, and there's a high probability that he will pass this round.

Two other "top players" are also on this list : will_will (seed 3. in the China Tournament, ELO 728) and Elric_S (seed 5 in the CET2, ELO 676). Their qualifications were expected, and they will probably win the game they had to to get qualified.
will_will and Elric_S will have less pressure upon them in this round 6.

In the qualified players, we also find Batze, from Germany, ELO 511, 578 games on BGA, 464 wins ! His presence in the list can't be seen as a surprise. He had the experience and quality to get so far.


It's not exactly the same for the two remaining "early semifinalists" : Niall and Old Thousand. Both of them can be described as surprised guests here. Niall, from England, has only 10 games on BGA prior to the tournaments... no one could have bet on him to get this far. And yet, his win ratio is comparable to those of the top players : 80 % success. He might lack experience when it will come to confront top players each week, but he might also surprise them in the semifinals.


Old Thousand, from Taïwan, displayed more experience on the platform : 140 games played... but his average results could not make him a real favorite for qualifications. He benefited from a good table to succeed step after step against opponents of his level : vitinho0Z (ELO 112) ; bendzi132 (ELO307) ; lisaver (ELO 362) ; Cheery Dog (ELO 288) and finally Fred Andora (ELO 180). 5 wins in a row, nice job ! And now he is in round 6, against ja900330 who registered in two tournaments. That makes him a semifinalist, a great performance. Will he still be a surprise in the next phase ?


That's all for today, and do not expect much on the next two days here ! Good luck to all of you for your 6th game, do not forget how important it is

[Elric_S]

Thanks (again ) Rwain, for the great job and these very detailed summaries !

And, I'm happy to be one of the semifinalists (because my next opponent Jeroenpenguina registered in several tournaments, not my fault )... an early nice Christmas gift for this year

[Goldeneye]

Tournaments in France were sometimes preventing players from outside a club to join. In the US, if you were not living in the lucky 10 cities hosting a tournament you had no shot to participate (or spend plane tickets and hotel rooms to play a Mega 5player game, a bit steep for a lottery ticket). I am not sure how it would be best, especially outside of Europe.

Multiplayers tournaments would have to be played live, but in a single night there is only a few games you can play. 3 multiplayer games are not reflective of any level if you want to find the top 8 (which is really really steep starting with 3600) to be some of the best players. For the time being, only 2-player games can be used for a competitive tournament on BGA.

I'd have no problem having several round of Swiss on different types of maps in some sort of league with multiple ways to qualify.

With regards to 2014, I made my way to the National Finals in at GenCon in Indianapolis by going to one of the conventions (open to everybody) which was a designated satellite (in my case, it was a convention located in the Northeast USA, the one closest to me, but I had at least a few others in reserve if I had to go further out...) and I actually won that satellite seat via that satellite competition at that convention, which unlocked the National Finals (semi final stage), that said, DoW did cover for my admission to GenCon, but not for the plane ticket or hotel room and I planned to only be there for a couple of nights to minimize my costs.

In fact, I remember that DoW did prefer that all games to be 4 player (with 5 players if necessary) during these satellites and also specified that the Finals stage (4 players) for the satellite be 1910 Mega Game.

I am quite surprised that the tournaments in France weren't open to all - was this the case for other countries? I don't recall what countries did participate the last time around in 2014, but I think that it was mostly Europe and North America (were there any World Finalists that went to Paris 2014 from Asia, Oceania, South America or Africa)?

[Rwain]

Round 6 has just started... less than 24 hours have passed since games were launched, and yet, we already know the names of 12 new semifinalists ! It went fast... and sometimes even very very fast !
For instance, it took only 13 minutes for Knockando to get his ticket ! Seed n°2 of the Central European Tournament 3 lost no time this morning. Ready to start à 10h, his opponent also here, it was played clean and fast. Two destinations that match pretty well : Portland - Phoenix and Winnipeg - Houston, and an opponent with less experience who makes a really slow start : Houston - Dallas - Oklahoma City - Kansas City - Saint Louis - Nashville. 5 moves for ... 9 points ! Knockando could be pretty confident for the issue of the game.... but not too much though, polinaire having 4 destination tickets in hand ! Anyway, he stayed patient, and continues building his hand of cards.
And then he started ! In three moves, he scored 29 pts, while polinaire, who went up to Sault Ste-Marie was only 32 with 23 trains on the board !


Knockando claimed long routes, scoring big points with the 6 Duluth - Helena ; Helena - Seattle ; Portland - Salt Lake City ; El Paso - Houston.... Polinaire was so far beyond, fifty points before counting points from destinations. Even if he managed to complete 5 tickets, he was not competitive enough on the map. The level difference was too big here.



Knockando, ELO701, is the "fastest" player to become a semifinalist in round 6. It's not a surprise to see such an experienced player become one of the semifinalists, a regular in international competitions, with many games played for the French Team. After the eliminations of ZZiLL and Toutoune-Morgon, he might become, with Elric_S, the spearhead of the French delegation.


Knockando was the fastest player to reach semifinal, but he was soon followed by another seed, in another tournament : dandee15, in the Central European Tournament 1, took 18 minutes to get his ticket. As for Knockando, the gap of experience between him and KaLLusia (ELO 311, from Poland) appeared quickly. While dandee15 drew blind his cards, to collect as many locomotives as possible, KaLLusia chose in the river, picking coloured cards that gave lots of information to his/her opponent. And dandee15 knows how to use these informations...



Dandee15 did not hesitate long before blocking all access to Los Angeles/San Francisco. The game was already won from his first block. KaLLusia could not complete any of his/her tickets : Portland - Nashville (-17 pts) ; San Francisco - Atlanta (-17 pts)... Next time, he/she might try to keep hidden his plan against a top player !



A large victory for dandee15, who becomes the first italian in the semifinals... but not the last one ! Later in the day, two of his compatriots joined him in the list of semifinalists : SuperPello (from CET1) and Qorlas (Seed 4 from EST2) also qualified. SuperPello was one of the finalist in the 2014 Paris Tournament, will he manage to visit the french capital a second time in a row ?

SuperPello and Qorlas make it three for Italy in semifinals... the highest number of players from the same country with .... France !

After Elric_S and Knockando, another top french player foiled the traps of a single elimination tournament : LeGoupil, seed n°3 of the Central European Tournament 3, also played a serious game in this 6th round, studying his opponent's moves to block them while controling the map. Helena919191, yet 437 ELO, could not do much against LeGoupil 's blocking sense.



LeGoupil seemed to choose not to compete for the longest path, only to be sure to block all destinations for his opponent. 0 ticket completed for Helena919191... and a defeat 111 - 60.
LeGoupil is the third french player to reach the semifinals. , and is not the only seeds to get his ticket today.

Two other seeds, both coming from Central European Tournament 1 are now semifinalists : 5. cannonade and 4. MorientesZL ... Both of them share the country they come from : Ukraine. Both of them share the fact that they are regular international players, well known in the TTR community. And both of them share a really tight victory in this 6th round ! 118 - 106 for MorientesZL against Sfacciato... 113 - 111 for cannonade against deeizm ! Such a close victory... but a victory anyway, and that's all that matters as it offers him a ticket for the semifinals.


As the day went on, it seemed like no suprises were to come...
And yet... A TTR in single elimination tournament could not comes without surprises... and two awaited us at the end of this first day.
First, the exit of menettm, seed 8 of the Central European Tournament 1... who lost against a surprised guest : Acebano, from Spain, and a short history with TTR on BGA : only 30 games played, for 21 victories.
Acebano is the first spanish player to qualify for the semifinals. He will have the status of a challenger here, but he managed to win against a top player like menettm once, he could do it again a few more times during the semifinals !

The second surprise is more like a blow of the club... a kind of earthquake... something impossible, that I still cannot believe.
DrakeStorm, defending champion, top seed of the Pacific Standard Time tournament, just got eliminated by olihelm, a "young TTR player" (on BGA at least), from Canada...
DrakeStorm played a good game... the draw was not kind with him... almost no locomotives, no white cards... but he stayed patient, and found a way to optimize his cards, to complete both his two destination tickets while building a long path (43 trains connected), claiming lots of 6 long routes (4). 129 points, job's done ! It could have been enough, but this time, it wasn't. Olihelm also managed to complete his destinations, also realized a perfect route, 43 trains connected... longest path equalized... He had less points from routes, and that could have given the victory to the 2014 World Champion... but his three starting tickets matched well in this game : Portland - Phoenix (11 pts) ; Portland - Nashville (17 pts) - Los Angeles - Chicago (16 pts)... Maybe DrakeStorm could have tried to block him a bit more... or maybe not. Hard to say what went wrong here for him. 129 - 129, a loss on tie-breaker... 3 destinations against 2.
Olihelm will be the second canadian player in the semifinals, thanks to this prestigious victory. The first of a long series ?

Other "less famous" players qualified today, it's impossible for me to see and comment all games, so let's have a brief moment to present them :
sheepwin10, from South Korea, is the first qualified from the China Standard Time Tournament. A real surprise here, with a player ELO 252 !

nickismyname (ELO 352), from USA ; smartin23 (ELO 582), from Denmark and Jgutierrez77 (ELO 406), from Chili, also earned their tickets in the Eastern Standard Tournament 1. They will not be favourites in the semifinals, but might create some surprises anyway.

And our last qualified player is someone we already talked about in a previous summary... A surprised guest, with an incredible course in this tournament. Riche739 had only 4 TTR games in his BGA history... and yet, he now displays a win ratio of 9 in 10 games. His ELO is increasing day after day, reaching now 358.. In this 6th round, he defeated LukeWarmLuke, a more experienced player (163 games, 119 wins), and is now the second player from UK to qualify for the semifinals.

Another lucky shot ? Maybe not... Riche739 recognizes being a big player of Ticket to Ride in real life. Even if he was present on BGA since 2020, he only started playing TTR online when he heard about this tournament... he made a good choice here, as he ended being one of the 60 semifinalists !

The list is now composed of 22 names... Still 38 places to fill in ! Who will be the nexts ? We'll see this another day.