Ticket to Ride 20th Anniversary World Tournament

[Rwain]

Well a bit off topic but since paolo2207 was in quite a few tournaments, it does not change much for Paolo.

Well a bit off topic but since paolo2207 was in quite a few tournaments, it does not change much for Paolo.

That's true, he was not deprived of his only chance to get a ticket for the semifinal (as he has no chance to qualify). But still, I feel quite uneasy with this kind of behaviour. I know there is much at stake, and that it's in the tournament rules... but that does not prevent players to respect sportsmanship, does it ?

@Knockando: you're asking for 14 parallel games by player ? That's clearly not what DoW had in mind for the semifinal.

After China, I think it's time to have a closer look on our first Central European Tournament :

What happened there in these last 16 days ?

Seed 1, toutoune-Morgon, seems at ease here. 4 games, 4 wins, he still runs for a semifinal ticket, only 2 wins to earn it ! For now, his opponents have not seemed too dangerous. After a 1st victory 130 - 102 against a 100 ELO (ChromeKessa, who can be proud as he realised the closest score against the top seed); the next games seemed like real demonstrations : 117 - 53 (round 2) ; 109 - 42 (round 3) and 137 - 73 (round 4) !
His next opponent also seems within his reach : Malkshur, from Portugal, has a record of 29 wins in 74 games on BGA... when toutoune Morgon's record is 1953 wins in 2271 games ! Clearly, the fight seems unbalanced. But toutoune Morgon should not be overconfident, we have seen previously that event top seeds could fall against unknown players, who combined a bit of luck with a serious game. Malkshur might not have an impressive record, but he has won 4 games in a row to be in round 5. We can be sure he will try his best.


Toutoune morgon's travel in this tournament seems like a quiet trip for now... how long will it last ?


For other seeds, road was quite similar. N°2. dandee15; 3. Diger74 ; 4. MorientesZL ; 5. cannonade 631 and 8. menettm all managed to reach the 5th round quite easily... really ? No, not really... if diger74, MorientesZL, cannonade and menettm all got a victory by more than 30 points, dandee15 had a real fear against drannoc95. Seed n°2 found on his way a solid player, with a solid record on BGA : 781 Games ; 606 wins... and he got really close to a 607th. The game was really tight, dandee15 had an advance on roads but drannoc made a strong finish : 10 points from Portland - San Francisco and 3 destinations tickets, for 30 points ! That made him 9 points ahead of his opponent... but 9 is not enough when you don't control the longest path !

112 - 111 ! Only 1 little point ! Just one traincar less, and it would have been the end of seed2.

Seeds 6. Mad Pete and 7. davidb9 are no longer in the run. We have previously explained how Mad Pete went out, defeated by Zwergenpunk on round 2. We had hoped that this challenger will take the benefit of this victory against a top seed to claim his path to semifinal... but the story did not end that way. After another victory in round 3, Zwergenpunk lost his fourth game against a solid player from Portugal, Fightart, 467 ELO.

Concerning davidb9, he faced a low-time in his game against an opponent, blueariel, who seemed within his reach. He drew too many cards, did not succeed in achieving the longest path, and had to renounce to one of his ticket. Too many hesitations that lead to mistakes unexpected from a top player. And that was enough to fall... 114 - 80, a prestigious victory for blueariel in round 2... but not the start of a successful tournament unfortunately. Blueariel fell the round after, losing against another 2xx ELO RoodHapje-Hans ... who also fell immediately after, losing against another 2xx ELO Skenderbeu i pafan, who also... No, not yet ! Skenderbeu i pafan has still a chance to end what seems like a curse for this line. But it won't be easy ! He will face an experienced player, Vagabond78, with a record of 1300 wins in 1731 games.


Who will benefit from davidb9's elimination ? It might be a Belgian player, Vagabond78, who have the odds with him in this 5th round.


That's all for tonight. Another tournament another day....

[Rwain]

Let's continue our overview of the different qualifying tournaments. Yesterday, we had a look on Central European Time 1, let's move to CET 2 !

We have already introduced Schwen84 to you. The n°1 seed of CET2, highest ELO in the whole tournament (778 at the time I'm writing), was waiting to deal with Xharyn, ELO : 262 in round 3. We expected a quick victory from Schwen84, but that's not really what happened. The ticking of the clock was quite pregnant in this game ! Schwen84 consumed 27 hours, while his opponent consumed 29h59min ! Fortunately, the game could go to its legitimate ending, and the "best" player in this opposition could claim a clean victory. And that was Schwen84, who won 122-79.
In round 4, Schwen84 faced a more experienced opponent, asoa, 348 ELO. This time, clock was not a threat for our top seed, but the game was tighter than the previous one. 123 - 109... asoa fought well, and could have surprised our n°1 favorite.


4/4 for Schwen84 for now. But step after step, the opposition gets stronger. For the next round, he will face a 474 ELO, AsAli95, from Fiji. Should he win, he would probably play his last qualifying game against Myrmigi, ELO 553, from Greece. Step by step, ELOs of his opponents are getting higher and higher, and it won't be so easy to reach round 7 !

It's a constant : one quarter of the seeds are out before round 5. It was like this in the CST tournament, in the CET1 tournament, it's the same here with 6 seeds in, and 2 seeds out.
Seeds 2.tiploup ; 7. LoinduFroid and 8. moucro already won their 4th game, and are now waiting the 21 to start their next round (if everything works fine this time, fingers cross).
Seeds 3. Nicolas21 and 5. Elric_S are still playing. For now, it's hard to say what can happen to Nicolas21. He's facing a player from Antartica ?, Someone_you_know, and they seem to have difficulties to find a convenient time to advance the game. Half the time has been spent, and none of them placed a single train on the board. We'll have to wait to know the issue of this game.
Different players, same situation : Elric_S is engaged in a french duel against Nicotal, who can be a dangerous opponent for our seed. Both of them are patient, no one wants to reveal his plans. 40 cards in each hand, not a single train on the board. It feels like a western movie, when the main actors face each others in a duel.

vs
Elric_S vs Nicotal : two french players who know each other a little. It's their third opposition on TTR, but nothing really relevant here as their previous games were 4 players. Which of the two will remain in the race for the semifinals ?


Concerning the two seeds that did not reach round 3, it's two different stories.
For seed n°6. Oliver2000, the story is quite short... he never shows up. End of story.

For seed n°4, it's another kind of story ! A really interesting one : otk started his game with 3 destination tickets, all in the eastern side of the map : Montreal - New Orleans ; Sault Ste Marie - Oklahoma City and Duluth - Houston. A combination that could bring up to 30 points, with a clear line passing through each station... but also a line with a lot of small routes. Small routes, small points.
otk and his opponent, Bravo6cap, 203 ELO, offered us a classical start : drawing, drawing and drawing cards, blind draws naturally. And otk's drawing seemed to go perfectly. Look at this position : 7 locomotives, and the black cards he needed to claim Montreal - Sault Ste Marie.


How could it end so badly for otk ?

As I said before, the shortest path to link all his cities was full of short routes, and that is not a good option for top players. Too much time, too few points. Thats' why otk chose the long way, claiming Houston - El Paso - Oklahoma City - Denver... with the idea of a link to Duluth via Helena, and then Toronto. A longer road, but a lot of points... the idea was good, but otk forgot to be careful. He let his opponent nibble the north. Helena - Omaha, then Omaha - Duluth ... no reaction... and then Bravo6cap, who seemed to have perfectly read otk's plan, claimed Duluth - Sault Ste Marie, leaving only two roads to otk to fulfill his tickets : Sault Ste Marie - Toronto, or Toronto-Montreal. otk had the cards needed to claim this route. Did he ? No, he played Duluth - Toronto, which was not a danger. Without a surprise, Bravo6cap chose to block Montreal, claiming small routes, earning small points... but what a block ! otk lost 22 points with two tickets uncomplete... and lost the game.

Bravo6cap showed nice skills in this game, and we could have thought it would have taken him far in this tournament. But sadly for him, he lost in round 4 against Severnik in a tight game : 118 - 109.

[DrakeStorm]

Hi Rwain (and everybody),
I have a questions about semifinals, it was thought for 40 players, but now we have 60 players, so, it will be possible to increase the number of rounds to 8 or 9?
A Swiss of 7 rounds with 60 players has not sense, is not really a Swiss, the ideal would be 9 rounds, but at least 8.
And thx for the organitzation of the tournament!

With 60 players after 6 swiss rounds, there should be 0-1 players with 0 losses, and 5-6 players with 1 loss. So potentially 7 players that have 0 or 1 loss and only 1 player is selected on the weird tie breaker rule. More rounds means a lot more players tied and have to go to tie breaker which I think is really bad.

If the 1st tie breaker was opponent's match percentage (which is what was used when I use to play swiss Magic The Gathering Tournaments) it would be better, but that is not the case here.

Every top player here knowns that final scores in a match mean nothing. But now that I re-read the tie breaker rule - it says "combined score of each opponent", maybe score is a translation error and means record, in which case that is basically match percentage.

I also think they forgot a rule - the last TTR World Champion gets automatic bid to Paris....

[Rwain]

Hi, I'll try to explain how tie breakers works, but you must have noticed that I'm French, so I make lots of mistakes when I write here. I hope I'll succeed in clarifying it.

In case of a tie in a tournament of 2 players game, BGA sums all victories of the players you've played during the Swiss tournaments. If your sum is the highest, then you win the tie breaker.

If the tie remains, then the tie breaker is based on the total ELO of your opponents.

[DrakeStorm]

In case of a tie in a tournament of 2 players game, BGA sums all victories of the players you've played during the Swiss tournaments. If your sum is the highest, then you win the tie breaker.

If the tie remains, then the tie breaker is based on the total ELO of your opponents.

Thanks, makes more sense now.

Is there any prizes for the players in the Semi Finals? The biggest problem with summing all victories, is if some players stop playing once they can't make Top 8 and others keep playing, then if you played those who stopped your tie breaker is weak. If there was an incentive to finish all swiss rounds, that would help. Maybe 1 year (or even 3-6 months) of BGA premium membership for all players that finish all swiss rounds.

[Rwain]

Hi DrakeStorm, we thought about something to keep players interested in going to the end whatever their first results : a draw among all players who stay in the Swiss tournament. This choice is not definitive, so thank you for giving us idea about it.

And now, let's focus on Central European Time n°3 !

In the three previous qualifying tournaments we analyzed, three quarters of the seeds managed to reach round 3... the ratio is quite the same for CET3, with 5/8 still with us. Who are the unfortunate eliminated ?

Seed 8. Sergio_Marquina... out since round 2, defeated by berna_uy, ELO 133... who did not take advantage of this prestigious victory as he left the tournament immediately after.

Seed 6. Alex Z... out ! He made a good start with 3 victories in a row, but missed the 4th for only 4 points : 134 - 130. His winner is a french player : beaver7008, ELO 349, whose record on BGA is quite modest : only 46 games played... but a good victory ratio with 31 wins.


Beaver7008 took a big step forward on his way to the semifinal, eliminating the top seed of his table... but it's not won yet. In round 5, he will probably face a very experienced swedish player : Alderbranch : 960 games played, ELO 484. Another feat will be needed to reach round 6 !

And who is the third seed out ? The most unexpected one. A player with 4 018 wins on BGA (in 4564 games, 88%). A player well known by the community of TTR players, who was famous on the DoW platform before BGA tournaments even existed, a regular at international tournaments, a player whose ELO has exceeded 800, the seed n°1 of this tournament : ZZiLL !!!!



His first three games went pretty well, all with more than 30 points gap. For his 4th game, he was facing Shandelle, a german player that seemed within his reach. ELO 292, 52% wins on BGA... but nothing can be certain in a TtR game. Sometimes, there are games where "everything runs on rails". Shandelle combined destination tickets that matched well, and surprised ZZiLL by playing soon and in an offensive way. ZZiLL made some mistakes : he has waited too long and missed the 6 black ; did not rush on the route St Louis - Nashville... letting free ride to her opponent, who had enough liberty to draw additionnal destination tickets. Los Angeles - Chicago ; Los Angeles - Miami, and three other destinations got the better of the top seed !


Shandelle achieved a real feat here ! And she has a chance to benefit from this victory, as she will played against Melekith91, ELO 311 in round 5, an opponent that seemed far more dangerous than ZZiLL.

Without ZZiLL, the upper side of the CET3 table seems to offer a unique chance to qualify for a challenger ! Or maybe no one will...

Beside Shandelle (292) and Melekith (391) stands Niall (320) and ivan72 (424). One of them should join the semifinal... but, there's a major issue here : Melekith91 and ivan72 have not respected the "only one registration rule" and have joined several qualifying tournaments... they cannot be semifinalists ! That leaves one ticket for either Shandelle or Niall ! Or no ticket at all if Melekith91 and ivan72 both win in the 5th round.
Anyway, if Shandelle or Niall win their next game, that means that there will be a surprise guest in the semifinal ! A player with a ELO around 300 in the 60 best TTR players, that was not expected.


In the other parts of CET3's table, seeds maintain their favorite status.
Seed 2, Knockando, another french player, who used to be teammate with in French internation team, will have to be careful for his 4th game. He is opposed to Xindon, a german player with an honourable record : 71% in 317 games. Any mistake could be fatal here !
Seed 3. LeGoupil, another french player, will face a compatriot, Weaver2, who is quite "young" on BGA with only 101 games played, but a win ratio of 79% ! It could be a trap match too for LeGoupil who will have to stay serious to stay in the run.
Seed4. G7 womble, a fr... no, not always, a really experienced german player, seems to have a better draw in this 5th round, facing 789, from Hong Kong, a player with only 50 games played on BGA, and 390 ELO.
Seed 5., papy-_-, might not be overconfident in his next game, as he is facing Rudzin71, a russian player whose profile is quite similar to Xindon's and Weaver2's. Hundreds of games played, a nice winning ratio, the difference in ELO with papy-_- might hide a tighter game than expected for our seed.
Finally, seed 7, paolo2207 has absolutely no chance to get a ticket for the semifinal, whatever happens. He is one of the 289 players who joined multiple tournaments and cannot pretend to qualify. That could offer a good opportunity for players in this part of the table to get an easier way to the final, as they could qualify with only 5 victories.

That's all folks, see you tomorrow for the 4th Central European Time tournament.

[Rwain]

CET 4 is the "smallest" of our qualifying tournaments. Opened a few days before the start of the 20th Anniversary tournament, we were afraid it will not reach the 33 players engaged limit... Finally, 173 players registered in 2 days ! Enough to launch it, not enough to offer 8 tickets for the semifinals. That's why only the 4 last players will get their ticket for the Swiss Round.

As a late tournament, it did not attract as much "high players" as the others. That's why some players who previously registered elsewhere chose to join it in the last minutes, thinking they would have an easier access to the semifinals.
It seems to be the choice of CoroNino, who registered here the 31st (one day before the start), who had multiple registrations, and who finally chose to quit every tournaments but this one, where he was the top seed with a 612 ELO (the lowest ELO for a top seed in our qualifying tournaments). Did he make the right choice ?
...
Maybe not...


CoroNino is an experienced player : 890 games played on BGA, 663 wins. He had the profile to be one of the 4 qualified players. His tournament started perfectly well : a bye in the first round, a large victory in the second : 127 - 77... and an opponent who seemed quite "easy" in the third : only 14 games in BGA, for 7 wins... nothing impressive in this record.
The game started quite well for CoroNino, who chose to keep 2 destinations : Chicago - New Orleans and Denver - Pittsburgh, leaving an inadapted Vancouver - Santa Fe. CoroNino was lauched for a "long curve" Chicago / Pittsburgh / Toronto / Duluth / Helena /Denver;.. there was a shorter path, but as we have seen in previous comments, short routes means small points, and top players prilivege 6 wagons route to score a lot. Good news for him : his opponent was playing west, leaving him free to develop his game as he liked. One danger though : jeroenh had kept 3 Destination Tickets, the longest path was mandatory for CoroNino.

It seemed like CoroNino had the control of the game. Only 8 trains while jeroenh still had 18, cards that could offer him multiple options... but a destination ticket still to complete. What have you done here ?

CoroNino made the choice to go fast and end the game, sacrificing his last ticket (- 7 pts). He probably thought that the 15 points from Portland - Salt Lake City combined to the longest path would be enough to win. But that was not the good option here, as he underestimated the points jeroenh would gain thanks to his tickets : Seattle - Los Angeles 9 pts ; Calgary - Phoenix 13 pts and above all Portland - Nashville 17 pts !!
After watching the replay of the game, it seems that CoroNino played a bit hastily his last moves. He seemed to have the time to assure his last ticket (-7 -> +7 -> 14 pts + 2 pts from the route claimed, and 7 pts more thank to his last 4 trains, which sum to 23 pts instead of 15)... but he might have thought that jeroenh had enough in hand to compete for the longest path ? Anyway, that's a nice ending for jeroenh, who won against the top seed of this CET4 tournament, and clear his way through qualification.


The ticket for the semifinal in this part of the table seems quite open, as the remaining highest ELO, Raccoon974, is not eligible for semifinal. jeroenh has a good opportunity here to become a surprised guest in the semifinal Swiss tournament.


The three other seeds did not meet the same fate. All of them are still in the run. Seed 2, Sunny369 is clearly the big favourite of his next game as he faced PlatypusTensei, from Portugal, whose record on BGA is only 12 wins in 27 games, but we've already seen that surprises can happen !
Seed 3., shlïtn, doesn't know his next opponent yet...

And seed 4 ... ah ! Seed 4... once more, it's paolo2207 ! This player is everywhere !!!! (and therefore, has no chance at all to become a semifinalist). Once more, his presence might offer an easier way to reach semifinals for the players who are still in his part of the table.



CoroNino 612 ; Sunny369 578 ; shlïtn 572 ; paolo2207 563

[Knockando]

If there are only 59 qualified (because of upper side of the CET3 i.e.), did you think about a way to have an even number of players for semi-final ?

[Myothi]

If there are only 59 qualified (because of upper side of the CET3 i.e.), did you think about a way to have an even number of players for semi-final ?

- about the possibility of someone who registered in more than one tournament and access the top8. He will be replaced by the last player he defeated if this player is eligible. If not, no one will take his place.

[Knockando]

If there are only 59 qualified (because of upper side of the CET3 i.e.), did you think about a way to have an even number of players for semi-final ?

- about the possibility of someone who registered in more than one tournament and access the top8. He will be replaced by the last player he defeated if this player is eligible. If not, no one will take his place.

J'avais bien lu ça, mais pour un tournoi swiss de peu de tours, un joueur out à chaque tour ce serait dommage.