Ticket to Ride 20th Anniversary World Tournament

[Rwain]

It started only 4 hours ago, and already 5 games came to their end !

And the first player to claim a victory in the semifinals was....
riche739 !

riche739 is one of the "tier 4 player" here, someone who is not a big favorite for the finale, but a player who can create the surprise, as he had already done in the qualifying tournaments : he defeated a seed of the Eastern 2 tournament Agood314, in round 4... and continued his course till the semifinals, where he lost against the future winner of the tournament : Exalted Angel.
For his first game in the semifinals, he faced another challenger : Espidifen... and they had a very very close game here ! riche739 chose to play the LA - Miami ticket, 20 points, big southern routes, but a bit risky too, as it can be anticipated by your opponent. He combined it with Dallas - NY.... a bit in the way, but a bit slow too.... Anyway, he managed to complete both his tickets, leaving the longest path aside... And that was enough !
Espidifen could not compete with his destinations : Calgary - Phoenix and ... Denver - El Paso ... quite easy to combine, but worth only 17 points ! riche739 was ahead only with LA - Miami !!! Even if Espidifen did not lose time (10 moves to end the game), he was one point short to claim the win....



A nice start for riche739, who become the first winner of the semifinals ! 1 point for him... only 6 left to ensure the qualification !!!!
The first game was tough, the second might be even harder as he will confront another winner in round 2 !


Two french players soon joined him in the "1 win" team : a "tier3" LeGoupil took the best of Mihails 115 - 100 while "tier 1" Knockando smashed another opponent : 112 - 66 against EBLCar. Every game seems easier than the previous one for Knockando, who signed here his 10th victory in a row !!!!

Knockando took a good start here, as every defeat might cost a lot in the end.

In the two other games finished now, two tier 2 players were concerned : the italian dandee15 and the french Sysyphus.... only one assumed his favorite status : dandee15 left no chance to zabergau 145 - 91, while Sysyphus had a tough game against MorientesZL, seed4 and semifinalist of the Central European Time Tournament 1, a serious opponent ! MorientesZL won 112 - 80, a nice way to start his semifinals, as he will stay in the upper part of the ranking. It's more complicated for Sysyphys, who already used one of his "joker". A victory will be mandatory in round 2 to keep his hopes high !


5 games are over, 25 are still running... and the random pairing created some very interesting games, like the opposition between two of the top american players : onyx puffin and scorps4 ! There's also a german opposition between Eichi05 and Batze... Eichi05 seems favorite here, but Batze had a great run in his qualifying tournament... it might not be so easy for the winner of the EST1 tournament. thekid did not have the best start neither, playing against a very good italian player : BalduvianHorde.
Other top tiers are opposed for their first games : pegaso74 and G7 womble ; Diger74 and Olimpionik ; will_will and MadManMark ; Sunny369 and cannonade ; Qorlas and smartin23... that will leave many good players in the bottom part of the ranking after this first round !!!!

But the biggest poster might be the game between SuperPello and Loindufroid ! Two of the biggest favorites for a ticket to Paris. And one of them will start with a loss ! Who will be penalized right from the start ?

vs https://x5.boardgamearena.net/data/avat ... t-2218.jpg

SUPERPELLO vs LOINDUFROID : https://boardgamearena.com/1/tickettori ... =615692054

For now, they both have kept 2 tickets... and started drawing blind. No one will take the risk to reveal his intentions so soon in the game...

[Rwain]

... but the game came to its end now, and we might go more in the details of this top match !

When we look at the destination tickets kept by both players, we can expect some rough positional battle on the map. SuperPello kept Los Angeles - Chicago and Vancouver - Santa Fe while Loindufroid played Denver - El Paso and Denver - Pittsburgh ! They might covet the same spots here ! SuperPello had the advantage in destination points (29 against 15) but Loindufroid had the start... so, what happened in this game ?

SuperPello's blind draw was kind of a rainbow : 3 blue, 3 red, 3 white, 4 orange, 2 yellow, 3 green ; 4 locomotives... with two "strong colors" : 5 black and 9 pink. That makes a lot of pink... but pink could be useful to him on the west.
Loindufroid had a more heterogeneous distribution : 7 yellow, 6 blue, 5 white, 6 red, 4 locos and black... he had strong colors, but he might missed some green to develop in the east (only 2)... that's why he picked some in the river when he had a chance too... while SuperPello collected yellow (to claim Seattle - Helena ? ) We'll never know as Loindufroid did not leave him the chance. When he saw SuperPello drawing yellow, he did not hesitate and claimed this route.... SuperPello fought back immediately with Helena - Duluth (that cost him 2 locomotives, but he could not lose this position).



The fight had started.... what could be their next move ?

With almost no green in hand, Loindufroid seemed to have no choice but to go north... and he claimed Winnipeg - Sault Ste Marie with his red (no chance he had made a detour via Miami!) ... Once more, SuperPello answered immediately : Calgary - Winnipeg ! We could have thought that Loindufroid would secure his connection to Sault Ste Marie by playing Helena - Winnipeg, but he'd rather go for black and green in the river... and the route went to SuperPello. Pittsburgh seemed quite far now for Loindufroid... who decided to go for 6 with Portland - Salt Lake City.



SuperPello, who saw black being taken, priorized the south with LA - El Paso... and once more, Loindufroid seemed a bit late, going for Salt Lake City Denver, and leaving access to Santa Fe to his opponent ! SuperPello now just had to rally north... and Loindufroid's attempts to disturb him did not much , as he left access to Vancouver and Chicago (he might have only tried to prevent SuperPello to build loops that would have offered him the longest path).

Longest path was secured for Loindufroid... but that was clearly not enough with the 11 points lost with Pittsburgh - Denver.
A tough game was expected, a tough game it was, with great battles on the tracks...



SuperPello, winner of the CET1 tournament, took the best of Loindufroid, finalist of the CET2 tournament. That's a very good start for the italian player, with a win against a player with a higher ELO than him. Thanks to his 10th win in a row, he will start round 2 in the upper part of the ranking.



Other games have gone to their end too today :

- scorps4 won the american duel against onyx puffin : 131 - 116 ;
- Olimpionik proved that he's clearly a strong player of the US map too, winning against a solid "tier3 player', diger74 : 116 - 103.
- Nicolas21 seemed to like when destination tickets stay uncomplete ! nicoxiaozai missed his two tickets (-26 pts !) while Nicolas21 left one aside (- 21 pts) for a win with a small score : 72 - 50 ;
- In a "tier 3 " duel, cannonade took the best of the CET4 finalist, Sunny369 : 99 - 71 !
- bunger, ELO 307, one candidate for a surprising top 8, was close to his first win in this first round ! He faced a tier3 player, Cournot, ELO 649, and narrowly lost 82 - 78... Cournot must have felt some relief in the end...
- Acebano, our n°1 candidate for a "surprise ticket", was facing Olihelm, the one who exited the defending champion DrakeStorm ! Two players who collected feats in their qualifying phase... two players that could have a card to play in this semifinals... two players who had much to lose in this first round... the game was expected to be tight... it was tighter than that ! 118 -118, Acebano gets the win thanks to the longest path !
- last winner of the day, Lalozzz, with a close victory 112 - 106 against mr_snuffelupagus.

To show how it will present in the next days, let's present the ranking after the first day :

[Elric_S]

Funny to see all these spectators (supporters ? ) passing by your game, when it starts to be among the last ones not yet finished...
Btw, I think it will happen often with me, cause I'm not a very fast player, and furthermore for this first round, with the time zone gap playing vs. a Brasilian...

[SuperPello]

Micalis vs Mac-Leod will respect the tournament and other players? 4 days for doing 5 moves… come on.

[chooosen]

Micalis vs Mac-Leod will respect the tournament and other players? 4 days for doing 5 moves… come on.

Let them play, they have deadline today

[Rwain]

And they did it ! The deadline has been respected and the final game of this first round now has ended. A fierce game between Micalis and Mac-Leod in which not a single destination ticket was completed ! In this "game of block", Micalis took the best of his opponent, with a 64 - 12 win. Mac-Leod might have been too quick to show his intentions, opening with NY - Nashville and Seattle - Portland !



That gives Micalis a good idea of Mac-Leod's tickets (Seattle - NY ; Portland - Nashville), and he chose to forget about his destinations to focus on blocking. An audacious move, as he had kept 3 tickets ! But the block was efficient. This, combined with the longest path and big points in 6 was enough for him to stay undefeated in this tournament !



Micalis, winner of the Central European Time 4 tournament, did not miss his first round of the semifinals. He assumed his tier 1 status to reach the upper half of the rankings...

... as did (almost) all other tournament's champions in this first round :

After the early wins of Knockando and SuperPello ; will_will, Exalted Angel, ommie32 and choosen left no chance to their opponents here :
+ 16 for ExaltedAngel against seasonalsleeper ;
+ 28 for will_will against MadManMark ;
+ 37 for ommie32 against nickismyname ;
+ 51 for choosen against sheepwin10 !!!!!
These 7 champions stay undefeated after 9 / 10 games in the 20th Anniversary Tournament. What a great performance for all of them, who stay the biggest favorites for a place in Paris.

It might get harder in the second round for them, as they all will face someone who also won his first game. But some still seem quite "secure" here :
Odds very favourable :
Exalted Angel drew Pechnik for this second round. Maybe one of the best draw for ExaltedAngel with a player who seems less dangerous than many other first round winners. ELO482, qualified via the "less dense" tournament, the CET4, he seems within Exalted Angel's reach.
choosen also seems in a good position for his second game, being opposed to nyan-cat, one of the numerous american players who get their ticket for the semifinals. ELO 487, he seems to play most of his game in a 4 players mode. ... but, it might still be difficult to defeat... we might not forget that he reached the semifinal of the Pacific tournament, where he lost 75 - 75 against scorps4 !

Odds favourable :
ommie32 will face a surprise's specialist, Acebano. Not expected at this level, the finalist of the CET1 tournament had only lost one game since the begining... ommie32 will have to be very careful here.

Almost Fifty/fifty ?
will-will will be opposed to LeGoupil, an experienced french player, who might cause him some trouble. A real test for will_will in this semifinal.

Ouch! It might be hard !
Knockando had quite an easy first game against EBLcar, a player with few experience in 2 players game, and who discovered very late that he was in an official tournament... it won't be so easy in his second round, playing against the n°1 ELO : Schwen84 ! That will be a tough game !

The invincibility comes to its end..
For one of our undefeated players, the serie will stop after round 2. That's for sure, nothing could prevent this. Why ? Because two will face each other in round 2 ! SuperPello vs Micalis !
After Loindufroid in round 1, here comes another big player for SuperPello, who won't get an easy road in this semifinal. Two winners face to face, what a great game to expect !

THE game of round 2 :
SUPERPELLO VS MICALIS
Only one of them will remain undefeated !

This means, that the maximum number of undefeated players will be 6 after round 2... why only 6 ? Because one of our 8 champions started his semifinal with a defeat.... And that was not expected !
Eichi05, winner of the Eastern Standard Time 1 tournament, was opposed to Batze, semifinalist of the Central European Time 3 Tournament.
ELO 660 vs ELO 505
2470 games (and 1969 victories) vs 582 games (and 467 victories)
Experience seems in favor of Eichi05... but the game was expected to be close between these two german players.
Eichi05 only had "big" tickets in hand, and chose to kept 2 : LA - NY and San Francisco - Atlanta. 38 points if completed.
Batze had many "small" tickets, west/center ones, and he chose to keep the three : Vancouver - Santa Fé ; Helena - LA and Duluth - El Paso....
A fierce fight was expected around LA !

Some games start very slowly... with players waiting to build entirely their hand before claiming routes... That was not the choice of Batze and Eichi05 here. As soon as he got 6 orange, Batze put his train between Helena and Duluth (a very worthy track, that gives a good position in the center)... to which Eichi05 answered with El Paso - Houston. Here, even if he still had many cards to draw, Batze did not hesitate to spend a locomotive to claim LA - El Paso. A fierce fight was expected, a fierce fight started ! The loss of LA - El Paso was hard to compensate for Eichi05, who had to make a big detour in the west... With 38 points at stake, it was hard to forget the idea of connecting LA to NY. Eichi05 made it, but it took him a long time... and he had no possibility to block Batze's development. With 3 tickets (31 pts) and the longest path, it's a clean victory for Batze, who becomes the first to win against Eichi05 in our tournament.



A well-mastered game for Batze, who will follow up with another tough game in round 2 as he will face Cournot, one of the most experienced player in the semifinals (ELO 706, almost 2 000 games played on BGA, and many more on other platforms...).

Batze surprised EST1's champion in his first round. A prestigious victory, that placed him in the upper half of the ranking ! Will he manage to stay there after round 2 ?


Many other things happened in this first round... too many to detail each of them.... sometimes, victory seemed easy for the winner, but sometimes... it comes down to a detail...
Qorlas vs smartin23 : 119 - 116 !
ElricS vs chrucrute2000 : 115 - 114 !
BalduvianHorde vs thekid : 116 - 115 !
And in this last game, the detail is a bit of luck for BalduvianHorde... thekid might have thought he had done what was needed to win this game. And BalduvianHorde seemed to agree on this, as he chose to draw 3 destination tickets for his last move. That is not something you do when you think you are ahead... It's more like a "last chance move", that sometimes works, and most of the time don't. Here, it worked ! BalduvianHorde drew Sault Ste Marie - Oklahoma City for 9 points... just what he needed to get his first win !

thekid might have regrets... as luck was not on his side in this end of game... and luck still seems to avoid him in the round 2's draw ! Amongst all players who've lost their first game, he will face a very solid opponent again : smartin93. A hard pair here for both players, who are amongst the ones who can really hope for a ticket to Paris... but one of them will start with two defeats !

For the other favourites who missed their start, they'll play with a bit more pressure their second game ! That will be the case for Eichi05, who will be opposed to GeoPiglet, ELO 545... that can be a dangerous game for our EST1 winner again ! For Sysyphus too, who must be serious against a less experienced opponent, Mac-Leod (we could see it in his first game, in which it was quite easy for his opponent to read his game).
And for onyx puffin too ! The finalist of the EST2 tournament is the big favourite of his game against EBLCar, but pressure might lead him to make mistakes he does not do usually. Who knows ?

We'll see this in 5 days, at the end of round 2.

To conclude this round 1 summary, let's present the 8 players who would have qualified for the final if the Swiss tournament stopped now.



What do you think of this selection ???

That's all for today. Good luck to all of you for round 2 !

[daedin28]

Hi Rwain!
I have two questions about the tibreaks, I put here because I think that can be of general interest:


“In the event of a tie during a match, the player with the highest number of tickets completed is the winner. If there's still a tie, the player with the longest track is the the winner.”

And if the tie persists?

“For ties in final rankings after all semi-final matches, the combined scores of each player’s opponents will be used as a tie-breaker. If a tie persists, the combined ELO scores of the opponents will decide the outcome.”

For you’re classification seems the combined ELO scores is dynamic, I mean, is not the ELO at the start of the tournament but the ELO at the end. In which point do you will take this elo? I think this system is quite dangerous because is susceptible of ELO manipulation at the end of the tournament.

[Elric_S]

Hi daedin (dear old fighter ),

1/ if the tie persists, the point (1) is shared = 0.5 pt for each player... you can see this case in this tournament : https://boardgamearena.com/tournament?id=310126 (players ranked 25th and 26th in the ranking).

2/ imho, the ELO is fixed at the right moment when the game finishes.... you can look at my 1st round opponent's ranking (chucrute2000, 40th). His opponents's average is 701, while I'm now at 705. But maybe I'm wrong... we can wait for confirmation, it's always better.

[smartin23]

Thank you Rwain for your efforts in this thread. Interesting to read.
I will try to forgive that you make my lucky number 70 higher .

About opponents Elo, it surely seems like it is frozen in the end of the game (before the adjustment of the result).
And thanks for the picture of that. I never knew how to find out the tiebreaker in tournaments.

[daedin28]

Thx for the answer Elric and smartin!!!

It makes senses!