And it's over.....
The last game of round 9 just ended, we were many in the spectator's room for a thrilling ending in the game between Schwen84 and Sunny369... Schwen84 seemed to have the game under control, despite Sunny369's three tickets... but then came an unexpected move : Helena - Seattle : + 15 for Sunny369, who came back in the scoring... With no more advantage in points, and only 2 tickets, Schwen84 had no choice but to draw in his last move... "The last hope move"... that ended bad. - 11 pts... Game lost, and it's over for Schwen84 !
He was one of the big favorites here, but his 5 - 4 record won't be enough... The sad part here is also for Sunny369, who did a very good job in his last game, and who ends with a 6 - 3 record that could have sent him to Paris. But his tiebreaker is too low, and he only ends at the 14th seat of the standings.
Finally, this game conclusion made another player happy... Elric_S
, who benefit from Schwen84's loss to claim the last finalist seat ! Elric_S made a perfect start in this semifinal, winning his 4 first games against chucrute2000; riche739, will_will and ... Schwen84 ! But he faced more difficulty in the second part of the Swiss tournament, with two consecutive defeats against G7 womble and nyan-cat... 4 - 2, and then 5 - 2 after his victory over pegaso74... and then the most difficult time for him (
at least, what I think it is, maybe he sees it otherwise) : the game lost against daedin28 after a 119 - 119 ! That could have been the turning point of his tournament. The game that leaves you with many regrets... But finally, Elric_S had the right to a happy ending... His 6th victory against Olimpionik placed him "in the sorting"... and he had quite a good tiebrekaer before round 9.
But he was not the only one ! cannonade and Batze's opponent points were 47 too ! Three players tied : same record, same opponent's points... They had to be divided on ELO...
And as you can see in the final standings, Elric_S' opponents'average ELO is slightly higher than Batze's... 631 vs 624... such a small difference, but such a big consequence !
Elric_S will be in Paris. Finally, there will be a french player for the finale in France.
And there will also be a second american player amongst the finalists ! Congratulations to ........
NYAN-CAT ! (
who chose to change his avatar recently 
It's not much of a surprise for those who follow this forum. Maths have been done by many of you in the last days, and it seemed obvious that nyan-cat was in a perfect position to end in the 8.
He was not amongst the highest tiebreaker at the start of round 9, and that led me to that analysis :
A VICTORY = A TICKET TO PARIS As for the 4 previous players, all other players with a 6 - 2 record only need a 7th victory to qualify. That's the case for nyan-cat, Le Goupil and Eichi05... For them, aiming the victory is mandatory, their tiebreaker seems too low at the time to hope for a "second chance in the tiebreaking".
Once more, I proved how good I was in prediction !
nyan-cat had a tough last game against daedin28 (
I already presented it a few days before), and ended in the 6 - 3 group. I thought a victory was mandatory for him, but the results of round 9 proved me wrong. Almost all his previous opponents won their last game :
Opponent n°1 : Gattivo 4 ->
WIN
Opponent n°2 : chooosen ->
WIN
Opponent n°3 : Batze ->
WIN
Opponent n°4 : acebano ->
WIN
Opponent n°5 : dandee15 -> lost
Opponent n°6 : Elric_S ->
WIN
Opponent n°7 : G7 womble -> lost
Opponent n°8 : Cournot ->
WIN
Opponent n°9 : daedin28->
WIN
That made his tiebreaker comes from 36 to 49, granting him the 7th seat !
That's a great feat for him, as he was not amongst the favorites at the start of the tournament : he stays the finalist with the lowest ELO. But he played very seriously each of his games, and won many important games against top players. So once more, congratulations to nyan-cat...
And to all the finalists, that will have the privilege to be invited in Paris in May for the "grande finale". All 8 of you, do not hesitate to practice your 4 player games on the US map !
I can't wait for this moment, that should be broadcasted on the web. For those of you who wish more finalists, I will ask DoW but I think it won't be possible. For the spectators'seat, they already told me that the location was too small to host spectators. I will ask again though.
Anyway, that's the end of a incredible journey for all of us. Thank you all for your comments, I really appreciate it. I tried my best to animate this event, and to be receptive to players'remarks. I might have been a bit intrusive sometimes, pushing players to play in the last hours of a round... I apologize for that... But I mostly want to thank all of you. Despite the stakes, the atmosphere stayed very friendly, and everybody did his best to make this tournament a nice event. Look at the numbers : 270 games in the semifinals, only 1 that ended by the clock. All tournaments'administrators dream of such numbers !
Thank you also for the exchanges between us, that always stayed cordial.
And a big thanks to Sysyphus too ! He helped me a lot in the understanding of how a TTR game can be played... and that was the start of my motivation to make detailed comments of the games you played. His videos are very interesting, do not miss them !
Again, congratulations to all of you, the finalists, the semifinalists, the qualifying tournaments'players... I hope we'll have a chance to give a following to this event.
