Ticket to Ride 20th Anniversary World Tournament

[Rwain]

The qualifying phase of this 20th Anniversary World Tournament is officialy over !

The last qualifying game gave his verdict, and it's a british player who became the 60th semifinalist : Micalis


With only 100 games recorded on BGA (for 55 wins), he was not the favorite of his last game, even with a respectable ELO, 488. Indeed, he was facing the seed n°3 of the Central European Tournament 4, shlïtn , a german player who seemed a bit more experienced than him (354 games, 218 wins, ELO 598).... but the difference was not that big... and with players so close, a little nothing can give a decisive advantage.
Micalis started with Denver - Pittsburgh and Los Angeles - New York. 32 points, and tickets that offer different options to connect.
shlïtn also chose a "coast to coast" ticket : San Francisco - Atlanta, with Sault Ste-Marie - Nashville... 25 points, and routes that would certainly interess both players here !

Unfortunately for shlïtn, Micalis chose the northern road to connect Los Angeles to New York, and claimed early Winnipeg - Sault Ste Marie. That was the first move of a fierce battle in the north east. shlïtn seemed to have tried to block at any cost Montreal and New York.. even spending two locomotives to claim New York - Washington. And that worked, as Micalis could not complete his ticket... but what a cost ! Micalis answered with a Pittsburgh - Saint Louis that slowed down shlïtn in his attempt to complete San Francisco- Atlanta, as he had to go through Raleigh! This cost him a lot of time... and he missed one turn to have it done !


shlïtn (in yellow) set a full set of barricades around New York ! A bet that was close to work... as he could claim San Francisco - Salt Lake City in his next move.

Micalis'qualification makes it 5 for UK, which becomes the 4th most represented nation in the semifinals, just behind Italy and his 6 qualified players.


Meanwhile, even if the qualifying phase is over, games continue to be played in all qualifying tournaments, to know who will win the different prizes. Let's have a very brief look at the results :

Central European Tournament 1
Acebano 120 - seasonalsleeper 92
MorientesZL 125 - cannonade 72
dandee15 123 - Balduvian Horde 96
SuperPello 127 - diger74 125

MorientesZL won the ukrainian duel and will be opposed to a spanish player, Acebano, in semifinals.
dandee15 was the one to win the italian duel, and he will have another one in semifinals as he will be opposed to SuperPello, who had a close win against the n°3 seed, diger74 ! There will be an italian player in final !


Central European Tournament 2
Schwen84 129 - GeoPiglet 71
chooosen 101 - Elric_S 97
Nicolas21 135 - Mac-Leod 123
Loindufroid 124 - sonics2054 66
Schwen84 (seed 1) and Loindufroid (seed 7) let no chance to their opponent here. In the french duel, Nicolas21 took the best of Mac-Leod, who made a good fight here against seed n°3. chooosen deceived the predictions with a close win that eliminates seed 5, Elric_S. Therefore, the two polish players are still in the run ! chooosen will face Schwen84 in his next game, it might be hard to have a final 100% polish.


Central European Tournament 3
Niall4 114 - Espidifen 75
Batze 119 - LeGoupil 103
Knockando 91 - Rudzin71 36
G7 womble 109 - mattECM2 109
Niall follows his course and continues to surprise opponents with higher ELO than him. He will be opposed to Batze, who wasn't expected in semifinal either, as he was facing seed n3, LeGoupil. An outsider will go to the final !
In the second part of the table, it was the opposite, as seed 2. Knockando and 4. G7 womble won their game... but with the tiniest gap for G7 womble, who won thanks to the longest path as a tie-breaker !


Central European Tournament 4
Mihails 119 - jeroenh 98
Sunny369 123 - kspttw 106
Pechnik 114 - Paolo2207 111
Micalis 82 - shlïtn 59
Mihails will face seed2. Sunny369 in the first semifinal, while two outsiders, Pechnik and Micalis, will be opposed in the second semifinal.



China Standard Tournament
nicoxiaozai 121 - EBLCar 109
OldThousand 101 - daedin28 91
Olimpionik 115 - sheepwin10 97
will_will 118 - lalozzz 115
Asian players take control of this tournament here, with the victories of nicoxiaozai (Malaysia), OldThousand (Taiwan) and will_will (Hong Kong). nicoxiaozai will face OldThousand in semifinal, who managed to defeat seed 4. daedin28 ! No seed in this first semifinal !
In the second one, it's totally different as seed 2. Olimpionik and 3. will_will are where they were expected.



Eastern Standard 1 Tournament
nickismyname 120 - Trainalot 111
smartin23 114 - AlterFas 108
Eichi05 123 - Jgutierrez77 121
Cournot 94 - chucrute2000 65
There were 4 seeds involved in these quarterfinals... three of them made their way to semifinals. Only Trainalot, seed n°1, was surprised by nickismyname (the lowest ELO of all players still in the run) ! Another feat on his records ! And he will need another one in his next game as he will face seed5. smartin23
In the other semifinals, seeds 2.Eichi05 won a close victory, but he will be there to face seed3. Cournot, had a larger gap in his victory against chucrute2000 (who faced here his first defeat ever in a TTR BGA game ! )


Eastern Standard 2 Tournament
onyx puffin 128 - the kid 117
mr_snuffelupagus 130 - Qorlas 100
riche739 121 - bunger 108
Exalted Angel 94 - MadManMark 106 - 102
5 seeds were still in the run here, and two quarterfinals opposed them. In the first one, a little surprise with the elimination of the top seed, thekid, defeated by seed 8.onyx puffin, making Schwen84 the last topseed alive in this tournament !
In the battle between seed3. Exalted Angel and seed6. MadManMark, it was really a close fight, only 4 points for the victory of Exalted Angel. That will make one italian in semifinals, and not two, as seed4. Qorlas lost against a surprising mr_snuffelupagus, leading to an entirely american semifinal as he will face onyx puffin. Exalted Angel will face riche739, who diposed of bunger in his last game.



Pacific Standard Tournament
nyan-cat 109 - olihelm 105
scorps4 127 - Zabergau 108
Gattivo4 109 - Sysyphus 95
ommie32 132 - pegaso74 - 101
In this tournament, american players left almost no place to others ! nyan-cat will face scorps4 (seed 5) in the first semifinal, while seed 3. ommie32 will face the only non-american player still here, Gattivo4. Gattivo4, seed 7., took the best of Sysyphus, seed 2. and is the third italian players to qualify for a semifinal.

[Goldeneye]

I am curious at how many players are playing in spots way outside their time zone... (For example those in Europe playing in the US Pacific time zone)

[Sysyphus]

I think it mainly depends on players availability. A few italian are just more available during american nights than the European evenings.
Quite a few players are also resident in a foreign country so their flag may not represent their nationality or their time zones.

[Qorlas]

I can answer for me: I work from 8-15 CET (school).... so playing a Euro timezone (10-22) was cutting away half of the clock.... instead the EST timezone was 16 - 4am for me... practically cutting less than 4 hours from the clock.

[chooosen]

it might be hard to have a final 100% polish

[in CET #2]

Here we go

[Rwain]

it might be hard to have a final 100% polish

[in CET #2]

Here we go

Yes ! Congratulations both of you... and what games !!!!
I'm writing the comments just now. It will be published soon.

[Rwain]

Hi everyone ! Semifinals of the qualifying tournaments are over ! We now know the 16 finalists of each tournament. Who will be the 8 players to get prizes ? (and the pride of a prestigious victory in a long and difficult tournament) !

Central European Tournament 1
Acebano 116 - MorientesZL 111
dandee15 100 - SuperPello 123

Where wil he stop ???? He had not the odds with him... Acebano, only about thirty games played on BGA, barely twenty wins, less than 500 ELO... was opposed to seed n°4, MorientesZL, ELO 670, 2486 games, 1830 wins... It seemed like an unequal fight ! And yet, despite the gap of experience, Acebano made it to the final, with a close win 116 - 111. It's the second time he took the best of a seed in the CET tournament ! He already surprised seed8. menettm, in round 6.
He was the first spanish player to qualify for the Swiss tournament, he is the first spanish player to make it to the final ! ...
...
where he will face SuperPello, who took the best of his compatriot dandee15 in a sort of west/east duel, in which dandee15 completed his eastern destination tickets that were slower than SuperPello's western one. Even if SuperPello was not a seed of the CET1, it's not a big surprise to see him reaching the final. This very experienced italian player was one of the finalists of the 10th Anniversary Tournament, set in Paris in 2014 ! 10 years after, he's one of the favourites of the 20th Anniversary, as proven by his way to the final !

CET 1 FINAL !
ACEBANO vs SUPERPELLO

No seed in the final here, which can seem quite surprising... but beware of SuperPello, whose presence in the final is nothing but a surprise ! He will face an "unknown" spanish outsider, who already won against two very solid players... Good things come in three ?


Central European Tournament 2
Schwen84 42 - chooosen 87
Nicolas21 60 - Loindufroid 63
Let's be honest here ... I did not expect what happened in those games .... Schwen84 scoring only 42 points ? A player who gets in final with only 63 points ? The two "top seeds" getting out ath the gates of the final ? How could this happen ?
The semifinal between Nicolas21 and Loindufroid started quite as usual... long phase of drawing, and then positions taken on the 6 routes. Nicolas21 started his development in the North (Helena - Duluth - Toronto ; Winnipeg - Sault Ste Marie) while Loindufroid took position in the west (Los Angeles - Houston ; Seattle - Helena)... it seemed even quite "peaceful"... before it went dirtier ! Loindufroid launched his attacks on Nicolas21's path : Miami - Atlanta ; Miami - Charleston ; Atlanta - Raleigh ; New Orleans - Atlanta ! Loindufroid had no interest there (his destination tickets were Los Angeles - Chicago and Kansas City) but he saw a great opportunity to prevent his opponent to link his southern and northern sections...
What was the answer of Nicolas21 ? A frontal attack too ! New Orleans - Houston ; Houston - Dallas, he slipped a few trains in the middle of Loindufroid's path... what a fight ! In the end, not a single ticket got completed ! Not one !!!! Nicolas21 was ahead in scoring and could claim the longest path. The victory could have been his... had he kept only 2 tickets ! But he had three in his hands... and not small ones... 37 points less... That hurts ! Loindufroid took big risks in this game, with a very offensive style... and that was worthy as he is the one to qualify for the final !


What a game between two very experienced players, who delivered a great fight here !

And it was not more peaceful in the second semifinal of this tournament ! chooosen did not make a single attempt to complete his tickets ! He had to join Denevr to Pittsburgh and Houston to Kansas City. So, the question is : how many trains did he play in the east ??? The answer is ... 1 ! His last move... Atlanta - Nashville, to play his last train. chooosen had a great vision of Schwen's 84 plans (Los Angeles - New York, with Calgary - Phoenix), and he managed to block access to Los Angeles. Schwen84, who had started his development in the east, came too late to have an opportunity here. He tried to fight back, spending moves and locomotives in attempts to block chooosen (for instance 3 locomotives for Helena - Salt Lake City... that he missed to claim Helena - Duluth) ... not knowing these were useless ! chooosen perfecty hid his intentions, making Schwen84 believed he had tickets in the north... That's quite an unusual way of playing ! And it worked ! Even if Schwen84 managed to complete one ticket, the 21 lost in LA- NY, the "little" routes in the end to try "useless" blocks, losing the longest path in the way... that was way too much for a win.



Looking at this end of game picture, who could guess chooosen's tickets ?????


CET 2 FINAL !
CHOOOSEN vs LOINDUFROID

It was not the final that I expected ! And yet, the two polish players surprised seeds n°1 and 3 with their very agressive style (and quite cunning too !) The semifinals showed players who are not afraid to risk a lot... I really long for this final, to see what could happen between tis two players !!!!




Central European Tournament 3
Niall 137 - Batze 97
Knockando 120 - G7 womble 102
Unstoppable ! The surprising british player Niall is still in the road to the title in this CET3 tournament ! Each round, he's opposed to more experienced players... yet, each round, he ends as the winner ! And here, he let no chance to Batze, with a very respectable score : 137 points (the highest of all semifinals! ). For the final, he will be the outisder... one more time ! ... as he will face Knockando, seed 2 of the tournament, who disposed of G7 Womble in his semifinal. He took the best of his opponents during the game, but could have been surprised in his last moves, as he let her time to gamble... G7 womble, seeing she was behind, started drawing new destination tickets, and that could have changed the final result... but, fortunately for Knockando, she found nothing in her draw.

CET 3 FINAL !
NIALL vs KNOCKANDO

Once more, we could say that Niall has not much chance to win... but I have said it too many times, and he is still here ! So let's be careful, and just see what will happen in this duel, that seems quite unbalanced, but everything can happen in one single game.

Central European Tournament 4
Mihails 100 - Sunny369 129
Pechnik 115 - Micalis 120

The only seed left in this tournament, Sunny369, did not miss his semifinal, ending with a clear victory 129 - 100. In the second semifinal, Micalis took the best on Pechnik, for only 5 points !

CET 4 FINAL !
SUNNY369 vs MICALIS

Sunny369 seems the favourite here, but who knows ? Micalis already surprised a seed in the game that made him the last semifinalist of the 20th Anniversary Tournament.


China Standard Tournament
nicoxiaozai 107 - OldThousand 81
Olimpionik 83 - will_will 113

In the "outsiders" semifinal, nicoxiaozai defeated OldThousand with more than 20 points. A clear victory that offers him a chance to face seed 3. will_will in final. Indeed, will_will played a very good game against Olimpionik, managing to go fast and effective ! Only 8 moves to end the game, while completing his tickets and claiming the longest path. Olimpionik could not resist.

CST FINAL !
NICOXIAOZAI vs WILL_WILL

Once more, the fight seems quite unbalanced, with the odds in favor of will_will against a less experienced player, nicoxiaozai. But, as I said before, odds have been wrong so many times that I won't believe in them anymore ! Let's bet on a fifty/fifty here !




Eastern Standard 1 Tournament
nickismyname 81- smartin23 94
Eichi05 120 - Cournot 111
nickismyname had realised a feat in his last game, defeating the top seed of the Eastern 1 tournament... but he could not do it twice ! Seed5. smartin23 kept control of the game, and will defend his chances in final.
The other semifinal opposed seed 2 and seed 3 ! That was the expected game at this level... and it was quite a close game ! Cournot lost some time in the centre, and had to make a detour to link Little Rock... Eichi05 was ahead, and the 2 trains lost in Little Rock gave him the longest path... Cournot thought his game lost, and chose to draw some destinations to keep a chance of victory... but this last chance move did not work.

EST1 FINAL !
SMARTIN23 vs EICHI05

A final between two seeds... The first one here ! We had to wait for american tournaments to see seeds assuming their ranks ?!? Yes, but ... in the same time, the Eastern 1 Tournament has been dominated by Europeans players !!! Eichi05, from Germany, will face smartin23, from Denmark. A nice opposition against two experienced TTR players.


Eastern Standard 2 Tournament
onyx puffin 120 - mr_snuffelupagus 112
riche739 84 - Exalted Angel 119
It's the end of a dream trip for the two outsiders of this tournament. Mr_snuffelupagus and riche739 were not expected at this level... they can be proud of their course in this tournament, but they faced here two very experienced players. Yet, mr_snuffelupagus was really close to create another surprise, losing only by 8 points ! It was really more difficult for riche739 (an experienced player in real life, but not used to high-level online battles), who had a hard lost against Exalted Angel.

EST2 FINAL !
ONYX PUFFIN vs EXALTED ANGEL

USA had the highest number of players in semifinals, and yet, onyx puffin is the first american to qualify for a final ! He will face an experienced italian player, Exalted Angel. A battle against seed 8 and seed 3... Exalted Angel is slightly favorite... but this does not mean much here.



Pacific Standard Tournament
nyan-cat 75 - scorps4 75
Gattivo4 109 - ommie32 129
No surprise here in the semifinals, the two "favorites" assumed their status and qualify for the final... Yet, it was not as easy as it was expected for scorps4, seed 5 of the tournament, who had to count on the tiebreaker to join the final ! 75 - 75
In the other semifinal, seed 7. Gattivo4 was opposed to seed 3. ommie32. In his previous game, Gattivo was opposed to seed 2. Sysyphus... He scored 109 points... and won. In this game against seed. 3 ommie 32, he also scored 109 points !!!! But this time, it wasn't enough.
This game started in a more classical way than those in the CET2 tournament ! ommie32 and Gattivo4 were very patients... we had to wait for the 78th to see the first trains on the board ! 6 black : Los Angeles - El Paso, claimed by ommie32 who had to join Los Angeles to Chicago... and New York. Securing access to LA seemed quite essential indeed !
Gattivo4 answered by a 6 yellow Seattle - Helena. Was he playing coast to coast too ? Not really, with Vancouver - Santa Fe and Helena - Los Angeles, Gattivo4 was confined in the west. That could give him more freedom to develop elsewhere, but he also could only count on 21 points from tickets while ommie32 could get 37 ! Even the longest path would not give hil the advantage. That's why he tried to block ommie32's plans... playing Toronto - Pittsburgh and Chicago - Saint Louis... but ommie32 had already secured key routes : she did not hesitate to claim small routes quite early, to have an easy access to the east, and to have various way to complete her tickets. Then, she only had to score a lot on 6... she had no need for the longest path. A clean victory, that leads to a 100% american final.


Gattivo4's attempts to block ommie32 came too late, her position on the map was too strong when he started.

PST FINAL !
SCORPS4 vs OMMIE32

A 100% american final, that makes 3 american players qualified for a finale... the highest number of representatives in all countries. It will certainly be a great battle between those two experienced players, who were both seeds of this tournament.


The finals starts tomorrow ! In 5 days, we will know the names of the 8 winners !
But, in 5 days, we will also start the second phase of the 20th Anniversary Tournament : the Swiss semifinal ! So stay tuned

[Rwain]

Who needs five days to play a TTR game ????? Not many top players I think... less than 24 hours after the start of the 8 finals, 5 have already been played ! We know the names of 5 of the winners of the qualifying tournaments !

And the first to win a title came from Asia... the China Standard Time Tournament started a bit earlier than the other ones (6 hours before the European tournaments, 12 hours before the Eastern ones) and that left enough time at will_will to defeat nicoxiaozai before all other champions won their own titles.

Though, nicoxiaozai had the start. Our Malaysian outsider was first to choose his tickets. He had Los Angeles - New York in hand... a wealthy ticket, sometimes dangerous, but a ticket that seems quite appreciated in general... a ticket that nicoxiaozai left aside, preferring to keep Sault Ste Marie - Oklahoma City and Winnipeg - Houston. 21 points for both... not much, but nicoxiaozai must have though that the combo here was easier. On the other hand, will_will kept a nice pair of western tickets : Duluth - El Paso with Seattle - Los Angeles ! To be honest, if I had to bet just after the tickets'choice, I would have bet for will_will without the slightest hestitation.

will_will and nicoxiaozai both chose the patient way... drawing and drawing and drawing, until their hands reached the 40+ cards... will_will got 7 locomotives, the orange for Duluth - Helena, many whites and green... 4 purples... it was quite ok for the western side... but he missed some black to claim Los Angeles - El Paso.
nicoxiaozai had the black (but maybe not much interest in LA - El Paso as he did not have the green to link it to Houston) , and was strong on yellow, red, purple pink and blue... but only 4 locomotives. It seemed quite difficult to build a track with big points with this hand, and it seemed quite mandatory to play in the centre, for small routes, long time, and small points ?

will_will opened first, paying two locomotives to ensure Seattle - Helena. nicoxiaozai did not have the orange to answer this, and so chose to play north : 6 purple on a grey track : Winnipeg - Sault Ste Marie. will_will focused his first moves on 6 : Helena - Duluth ; Los Angeles - El Paso ; and 5 : Las Vegas - Denver. In 4 turns, he had more than half of his trains on the board, and 55 points ! nicoxiaozai could not follow the rythm... entangled in the centre, he had to play on small routes... and lost time to draw more as he needed green for Helena - Denver. At this time of the game, it seemed already won for will_will.


nicoxiaozai (in red) seems way behind on will_will (in purple) after only 4 moves.

In the second part of the game, will_will had to slow down... he had to connect his destinations, and that could have leave time for nicoxiaozai to come back. But the fast start made by will_will could not be so easily caught up. nicoxiaozai managed to complete both of his tickets, but was not a danger for the longest path...
In this quite peaceful game, where none of the opponents tried to block the other, the fastest player had a clear advantage.



will_will ended the game quite calmly, drawing blue to claim Calgary - Seattle and ensure the longest path... and finishing with two 1. A clear victory, that offers him the first title of continental champion in this 20th Anniversary Tournament !



Congratulations to will_will (and to nicoxiaozai for his great course in this tournament).

will_will had shown in his last games that he will be a player to look at in the second phase. He seems able to develop a fast game, who left no respite in the rythm of the trains. Winning this tournament makes him one of the biggest favorite for a place in the Paris'finale !

But he will not be the only one to watch out !
4 other players manage to get a title in the qualifying tournaments today :

SuperPello left no chance to Acebano : 115 -90 and become the champion of the Central European Time Tournament. Quite a performance as this tournament could be considered as one of the most difficult.


Knockando was merciless against Niall today in the CET 2 tournament... The french champion won with more than twice the points of his opponent : 120 - 59 ! Niall's wonderful run finished hard... but he will have a chance to take his revenge in the Swiss semifinal.


Eichi05 and smartin23 had a tough fight in the CET3 tournament. Only 81 points for the winner... and 68 for the second. Only 1 ticket completed by both of them. A hard fight indeed, won by the german player, Eichi05 !


And finally (for today), ExaltedAngel took the best of onyx puffin in the Eastern Standard Time 2 tournament : 132 -113, making it two for Italy !
The italian squad seems stronger than ever and it would not be a surprise to see one (or more) italian visiting Paris in May !


Three games are still running. When they come to their end, that will be officially the end of the qualifying phase... a few days rest... and then the BIG thing with the semifinals : 9 games, 45 days, Swiss-System... and the 8 best players for a trip to Paris !

[Rwain]

Some of the finalists played it fast... and some took their time ! The last final of the 8 qualifying tournaments came to its end today ! We now have the full list of the 8 winners of the qualifying phase.

First, in the polish duel in the CET2 tournament, the "no-seed' chooosen continued to surprise his opponents, becoming the second unexpected player to get a title after SuperPello.
The two opponents took the time to discuss about their final in the comments of the game :

Loindufroid seemed quite disappointed in the end, feeling that he could not play efficiently his final due do his draws :

Regarding the final game. First of all, I want to congratulate my opponent on his victory, he played great. As for my game, I would say that it was one of the worst variations of the starting routes for this level of the game. In addition to the cards that I took faced down, it created perhaps the most unsuccessful combination for victory. I did everything I could, but unfortunately, I could not win. Once again, I congratulate my opponent on his victory. Good luck in the semifinals.

That's part of the TTR game, sometimes, cards make the game become really hard to win. And when it happens against an experienced player, like chooosen, then it really becomes "mission impossible".

chooosen did what he had to to get the win, and salutes the difficult game Loindufroid had to play :

Regarding tickets: I thought that I have not so good tickets to play fast, I had to win longest track most probably or block actively.
You had too choose 3 harder to complete together tracks with many points, so blocking potential could pay back with it (...) First move was by LoinduFroid, from the hidden deck he got through whole game only 2 locos, I got 2 locos on the start of the game, and used 7 total in the game (1 I got in last additional takes, but no need to use it).
Retoric Question: did you loose ever with 7 locomotives? (...)

I don't know if it's "ever", but in this case, chooosen did not lose ! Congratulations for him, as he was not expected at this level when the tournament begins. He seems like a very dangerous player for the semifinal to come.

chooosen, winner of the CET tournament.


Meanwhile, in the last american tournament, the Pacific Standard Time, the 100% american players'final saw the victory of its favorite : ommie32. She started with a nice northern ticket : Vancouver - Montreal, combined with a Sault Ste Marie - Nashville... and the start, while scorps4 was playing south : LA - Chicago and Chicago - New Orleans.
Both seemed to be able to create a nice track, with some worthy routes on the way, but also some slower moves to link a center town.
After numerous blind draws, scorps had mainly black, yellow, blue and red (and only 3 locos) while ommie32 was full of 5 : orange, red and green, and also 6 locos !
Now they could start to claim 6 : in the south for scorps4 (LA - Houston), in the center/north for ommie32 (Helena - Toronto; then Winnipeg - Sault Ste Marie). And everything could have been so peaceful... with both of them playing alone in their part of the map... but that changed quickly ! When scorps4 claimed Houston - New Orleans, ommie32 attacked the south with a Miami - New Orleans ! How did scorps4 react ? He took a stand in the north with Calgary- Winnipeg.... Both chose to claim 15 points, along with an attempt to block their opponent's track...
Then, it went fast, ommie32 and scorps4 kept the same rythm... ommie32 played a dead ticket, making no attempt to reach Nashville. scorps4 had not that option, he had to reach Chicago, and that might have taken him a move he missed to complete his loop.
The longest path went to ommie32, and that was decisive for the win !


It was almost a nice distribution south/north here !


A prestigious victory for ommie32, who can start the semifinals tomorrow full of confidence after her 6 wins straight.


Finally, in the last final, Micalis surprised one of the favorites of the CET4 tournament, Sunny369 in a tight game.
Sunny369 started with "small" tickets : Denver - El Paso and Chicago - New Orleans (lefting aside Dallas - NY)... while Micalis played Calgary - Salt Lake City with Denver - Pittsburgh.
The game started with Micalis opening with LA - EL Paso... and that might have lead Sunny369 to consider some tickets around LA... and that's why he immediately tried to take position in the southwest. Micalis fought a little, he might have tried to keep a chance for the longest path... but his tickets were not here, and he could let it go when he decided that the fight was not worth it. Sunny369 lost some time here (for instance with LA - San Francisco), and he had not plenty of it ! He had to play lots of small routes in the center... for small points ! Meanwhile, bombed the north, earning many points ! In the end, he completed both his tickets, and had enough advance to forget about the longest path.



Micalis managed to stay patient in this game, by managing his advance, he secured his victory.



With a ELO under 500 at the start of the final, Micalis became the "lowest ELO player" to win one of the 8 qualifying tournament. A great feat, that now make him one of the player to monitor during the semifinals !

And who are the others then ???



We're not far from the start of the semifinals now... Less than 12 hours before it starts. We have already presented all the semifinalists, and the nation they represent. It's time to try and establish a tier-list of the players involved !

TIER 1 : the Winners

It might be a "too simple" way of establishing tier 1... in fact, it surely is... but ! We cannot forget that those players have never lost in this anniversary tournaments. All have a clean record : they won 100% of their qualifying games ! Luck might have been part of it, but nobody wins so many games in a row only with luck on his side. Those 8 players might therefore be considered amongst the biggest favorites for a place in Paris in May ! Let's remind you who those finalists are :

SuperPello, finalist of the 10th Anniversary Tournament, winner of one of the most dense qualifying tournament, member of a very strong italian team, a very experienced player who confronts top players since the "TTR application" years before moving on BGA, where he displays 872 wins, (and so many on other platforms...) maybe the n°1 favorite of this semifinals ?


ommie32 might be my n°2 favorite here. She got the win in another very dense tournament : the Pacific Standard Time tournament, that had in its rank the defending champion DrakeStorm. She quite impressed me with the way she had to handle difficult tickets, always taking the best of all situations.

Knockando is also a top player with years of experience, starting from the TTR application. He is used to these difficult tournaments which regroups top players. He is also a regular on BGA : over 4 000 wins displayed ! He also had a very impressive course in the CET3 tournament, he never seemed in danger in the 9 games he played ! Many wins with a 50 points lead... and only one with less than 30 (against G7 womble in semifinals... but also a game where he seemed in control).

chooosen was not expected here in the start, not being a seed of the CET2 tournament... yet, he surprised everyone and defeated seeds 1 ; 5 and 7 of this tournament ! His very agressive style, sometimes very risky too, and his ability to anticipate his opponent's plans might surprise more than one of the top players he will face ! I really think he can get one of the 8 tickets for Paris !

will_will is right now the 5th ELO of the semifinals. A very solid player that showed his ability to play fast and effective.

Eichi05, winner of the Eastern Standard Time Tournament 1, where he was number 2 seed, had a nice course here. He seems very patient, and his nearly 2 000 wins on BGA proves that he had the experience needed to be one of the 8 last players for Paris.

ExaltedAngel, another member of the Italian squad. A player from the "new generation" who shows great skills on BGA , where he approachs 2 000 wins.

And finally, Micalis ! Even if he's one of the 8 winners, he seems the most fragile for a place in finale. The CET 4 seemed clearly the more accessible, with many "average" players, at least ELO speaking. Moreover, with only 119 games recorded on BGA, he might lack of experience against top players... but who knows ? He already managed to be one of the 8 tournament's winners, why can't he continue on his road to victory ?



TIER 2 : the ELO experts

I like easy ways of establish tier-lists... after the tournaments'winners, let's present the best ELO players registered :

At the time I'm writing, n°1 ELO is thekid.
ELO 791, top seed of the EST1, he was eliminated in quarterfinal after his loss against onyx puffin.

ELO 782, Schwen84 has been n°1 ELO for long. He was the top seed that stayed alive the longest in our qualifying tournaments, but was caught by surprise by chooosen in the CET2 semifinals.

ELO 770, Olimpionik presents himself has an expert of the European Map... he seems quite good on the US Map too !!!! He made it to the semifinals of the CST tournament, where he faced a very fast will_will that left him no time to complete his goal.

ELO 761, Sysyphus, a regular in the international top players'events. He was one of the PST tournament, where he reached the quarterfinals and lost against Gattivo4... some not very optimal tickets, a game that did not happen as expected... but he will certainly be one of the strong ones in the semifinals.

ELO 722, Loindufroid seems to get stronger and stronger every week (he started the tournament with a 620 ELO). A specialist of TTR (all his games on BGA are TTR games !) that became finalist of the CET2 tournament... a hard choice in tickets, too few locomotives in hand, and a hard game to end it. But that won't be like this every game, and he will be a serious opponent in the semifinals.

ELO 721, dandee15, another member of the italian squad, another "veteran" of the TTR application. Seed 2 of the CET1 tournament, he had to quit it after a semifinal against SuperPello.

ELO 716, Nicolas21 is from the french team. A very polyvalent player (the 18th in the BGA ranking, all games combined), with a great experience on TTR. He lost against Loindufroid in semifinals, a 3 points loss only, in a fierce battle where none of the opponents managed to complete a destination ticket !

And finally, ELO 715, Trainalot, the only belgian player in the semifinals. Top seed of the EST1 tournament, he was surprised by a less experienced player in quarterfinal, and lost against nickismyname.


TIER 3 : so many other good players that could pretend to the final !

And amongst them, scorps4, finalist of the PST tournament, smartin23, finalist of the EST1 ; onyx puffin, finalist of the EST2 ; Sunny369, finalist of the CET4...
And many high ELO experienced players, like daedin28, Elric_S, Diger74, pegaso74, Cournot, LeGoupil, cannonade, etc... etc...

TIER 4 : the unexpected ones !

They've made the surprise here, and might still make it in the semifinals. Like Acebano, finalist of the CET1 tournament, winner against seeds like mennetm and MorientesZL; or Niall, finalist of the CET3 tournament and nicoxiaozai, finalist of the CST tournament.


It seems quite impossible to predict who will be the 8 best players in the semifinals. We'll have to wait for their 9th round to end to be sure of it. I've tried to make some bets here... who would dare to propose his own list of the 8 finalists ?
The first round will start soon... good luck to all players involved.

[Knockando]

Thanks for all your posts Rwain !

And good luck everybody for semi-finals.

I have my own list of 20 players for the 8 spots in final, but it isn't very good to publish it while participating