2016 Tournament Standings
#1 Neil Mecham 32
#2 Chris McCurry 30
#3 Keith Dent 28
#4 Joe Mecham 26
#5 Matt Dirkes 26
#6 Chad Walker 24
#7 Ben Ibershoff 22
#8 Adam Blum 22
#9 Neil The Grey 22
#10 Austin Rathbone 20
#11 Nick Vilagi 18
#12 Trevor Oliver 18
#13 Michael Mecham 17
#14 Greg Smith 16
#15 Sorrel Hatch 16
#16 Robert Barnes 14
#17 Phillip Heid 14
#18 Heather Dent 12
#19 Isaac Bingham 11
#20 Tobiah Bingham 10
#21 Isaac Glenn 10
#22 Justin Ennis 10
#23 Jason Pisani 8
#24 Brandon Zinsious 6
2016 Tournament Summary
The 2016 Lion in Winter Tournament is in the books. It was the 5th year of the tournament, and we crowned our 4th unique Champion. We gathered together in a house and played 36 board games in 2 days, and what follows is summary of the tournament.
The tournament opened with Neil Mecham seated at the tough table. He sat down against the reigning champion Chad Walker, former champion Phil Heid and tournament legend Ben Ibershoff, in a game of Village, which would prove to be one of the more competitive games in the entire tournament. Neil pulled away from the others and snagged the win to get 6 tournament points, and make his statement that this year he was here for the title. Neil has had lots of success in the tournament in the past, but there has always been one game each year early in the tournament where he took a 4th place and that put him out of contention. If he could pull a 1st or 2ndin round 2 he would escape the curse of a Friday night 4th and be set to make a run at the title with the 4 games Saturday. Other top contenders in the field got big wins too so things were still wide open.
Two time former champion Keith Dent got stuck in a game of Ra where winning was no sure thing. He managed to pull it off though which he felt pretty good about because it seemed going in that if there was any round he thought he might not be able to win it was round 1. Keith would join Neil (his brother in law) at the top of the standings.
Another top contender Chris McCurry was seated in an El Grande game with 3 other players who had played the game before but didn’t have the experience Chris had of playing at a top level. Chris proved why he is clearly the top El Grande player in the field by scoring a whopping 152 points while the Trevor Oliver in 2nd had just 126. Chris would position himself with Keith, Neil and 3 others at the top of the standings with 6 points after the opening round.
Another annual contender Sorrel Hatch defended her title in Settlers of Catan to snag 6 tournament points and join the boys at the top of the leader board.
Other first round winners were rookie player Nick Vilagi (Nasty Nick Vicious), winning in Stone Age, and Matt Dirkes who played last year and didn’t pick up a single win, but started strong this year with a win in Concordia.
In round 2 Neil got into a game of Caverna, which he took over in the later part of the game and beat the 2nd place winner by 19 points. Going into day two of the tournament he would be at the top of the tournament standings with 12 tournament points. But who else would capture the elusive double win?
McCurry, and Keith would find themselves sitting at the same table for the first of many battles in the tournament. Only one of them could escape the game with a second win. This time the game was Stone Age and Keith taught the others a lesson on how to properly play with a 33 point winning margin over 2nd place. Chris would fall to third, at the hands of his Lexington teammate Austin Rathbone who finished 2nd. This would turn out to be a fatal blow to Chris later in the tournament as he only picked up 2 tournament points.
There was another 2nd round match between 2 players who already had a win. Sorrel Hatch, would be playing Power Grid against rookie Nasty Nick Vicious. The table turned out to be a stacked field as it featured 3 former LIW Power Grid champions. In 2014 Power Grid was popular enough to be played twice and Isaac Bingham, and Sorrel each won a game. In2015 Adam Blum beat Sorrel in the sole tournament game to claim his title. All three former champions would be seated in this 2nd round matchup along with rookie Nasty Nick Vicious. Despite being a rookie to the LIW tournament Nick was no rookie in Power Grid and proved it when he dispatched all three former champions to Join Neil and Keith with double wins going into round 3. Nick was proving that he wasn’t only trying to win rookie of the year but he was coming for the crown.
Surprisingly Neil, Keith, and Nick weren’t the only double winners after two rounds. In the 5 year tournament history, there has never been 4 different players with 2 wins after two rounds, but this year broke the mold in lots of ways. Matt Dirkes captured a second win as well, throwing up 179 points to win in Terra Mystica. Matt had a tough game against reigning champion Chad Walker who had won in Terra Mystica last year. Matt would pull away though proving his prowess in Terra Mystica, by beating 2nd place (Chad) by 28 points. It was clear at this point that Matt was proving much more formidable than his 22nd place finish last year would indicate. He was in the mix with the big shots and had no intention of backing down.
The stage was set for Saturday. With 4 rounds to go the tournament was going to be epic. Who among the leaders would lose pace? Would someone from behind the leading pack sneak up to overtake them?
However before the drama of the rest of the tournament unfolded, there was drama in the bidding. I tried to take everyone’s bid before they left Friday night so I could go ahead and calculate which games would need to be set up Saturday morning and who would be playing what. I managed to get 23 of the 24 players bids, but Greg had fallen asleep on the couch and I didn’t want to wake him. I stayed up late into Friday night after everyone else was asleep going through the bids I did have, and in the end I was stunned. I couldn’t believe it. It couldn’t be true. Agricola would not get played in the tournament this year!
Let me back up and say that Agricola is hands down my favorite game, and it’s also the favorite game of many other players in the tournament. There are a few really strong players in the LIW field and in years past new players bid on that game thinking they are good at it, only to be stuck at a table full of ringers who crush them. We call it the Agricola trap. Keith Dent and Chris McCurry are both very formidable players who have made the semi’s at the World Boardgame championships, and both have beaten former WBC champs in the past. Sorrel Hatch can hold her own with those two and is usually close to them playing on the app, but is a much better player in real life, and she has proven it. There are a few other players in the field that in my estimation can hold their own in a single game of Agricola, but lack the consistency of these three players. Last year Agricola was so popular that it got played twice in the tournament. Keith and Sorrel matched up in round 3 duking it out, with Keith pulling out a 57 to 56 victory over Sorrel. Chris didn’t get in the round 3 game, but got to play in round 4 where he scored 50 and cruised to a victory. Keith had been aggravating Chris for the past year about how he dodged a bullet in the tournament by not having to play him. This was supposed to be the year that the three of them finally played in a epic battle that might be the single most competitive game in tournament history. I felt sorry for whoever ended up being the 4th player in a game with these 3. However it wasn’t going to be.
With 24 players only 6 of 11 games get played in each round. When I added the bid points up, Agricola was tied with Bruges for the 6th game. The tiebreaker is number of different players to bid on a game. Bruges had 10 different players bid on it while Agricola had only 7. It seemed that tournament players had wised up to the high skill level of the top Agricola players and avoided bidding on it altogether. Players knew that even though they may be able to beat one of the players in a given game, there was no way they were beating all 3, and thus they spent their bid points on other games. There was one player left to bid though. Greg Smith knows almost all the games in the tournament, but he’s never played Agricola in the LIW before, and possibly never even bid on it. He knows and likes the game ok, but it’s not one that he has a lot of experience with and he knows other players have nearly mastered it. There would be no chance Greg would bid on it, and if he did he would probably bid on Bruges too, and thus Agricola wouldn’t get in. I finally lay down but couldn’t sleep thinking about how the matchup I’d been waiting to see for over a year wouldn’t happen. I questioned the whole tournament structure. Anyway I finally got to sleep and woke up thinking about how the players who wanted to play Agricola would be as disappointed as I was, and I felt bad. I began making breakfast, and eventually Greg woke up and strolled into the kitchen. I said I still need to get your bids for round two so I can figure out who plays what. He took a few seconds to look at the game list while I grabbed my computer to enter the nail in the coffin. Right out in the open with a few others around Greg casually said, “I’ll just throw one on everything except Bruges”. I nearly dropped my computer. Could it be? I entered his bids just to make sure and sure enough. That put Agricola 1 point ahead of Bruges as the 6th and final game to get played. I couldn’t believe it. Why Greg bid that way I will never know, but I’m sure glad he did, and this will probably go down as the single most important bid in the tournament’s short history.
I had to contain my excitement though as players started coming in for breakfast, and looking at standings after two rounds. Players ate breakfast, and then we took a group photo, before I excitedly announced the games and matchups for round 3. This was going to be awesome.
The Agricola match we (or at least I) had been waiting for would happen. Chris McCurry, Keith Dent, Sorrel Hatch, and a fearless Neil The Grey would face off. Neil knew he was the underdog but he didn’t care. He loved the game and wanted to play no matter how tough the competition. Unfortunately due to the tournament I didn’t get to watch this match up as closely as I wanted, but it made me happy just knowing it was happening. I think Chris may be writing up a tournament report, and perhaps he will give a breakdown of the ins and outs of the game. In the end though, it would turn out that Chris hadn’t dodged Keith and Sorrel last year, but they had dodged him. Chris scored 50 for the 2nd straight year in the tournament, and that would be enough to win it. Keith would finish 2nd with 44, and Neil who grew really late would finish with 33, and Sorrel who ran into food troubles had 31. Perhaps the matchup wasn’t as close or epic as everyone thought it may be, but the players all enjoyed it, and Sorrel and Keith immediately wanted a rematch, which is a sign of a true competitor. Keith taking a 2nd would mean that at least 1 of the undefeated would fall from the ranks, and now Chris would be right on the leaders heels with 2 wins and a 3rd.
Neil Mecham got in the double game set of 7 Wonders. Neil is currently the highest rated 7 Wonders player I have in my ratings, but with 7 wonders being a game with such high variance, there would be no guarantee he could stay at the top of the leader board. For the third straight year the 7 wonders match ended in a 3 way tie. Because it’s such a quick game players play two games and get 6/4/2/0 round points for each game and the player with the most round points gets 6 tournament points, the 2nd most gets 4, and so on. So this year marked the 3rd time when one player finished 1st, and then 3rd, while another finished with 2nd’s and another finished 3rd and then 1st, while the last place player had two 4ths. The tiebreaker for this is determined by whoever had the highest average % of winning score between both games played. In the past two years that has been one of the players with a 1st and a 3rd. If you get a win you obviously have 100% of the winning score for that game, so in order to pull out of the 3 way tie with two 2nd’s you would have to have 2 very close seconds, and hope that on the games the other players picked up a 3rd they were a ways back from the leader. This year Neil Mecham had the 2 seconds but he only lost by 1 point and 2 points and that was enough to break the streak and win the round. This was significant because not only did he obtain 6 tournament points to remain at the top of the leaderboard, he defeated another of the double win players from the first two rounds. Nasty Nick vicious would pick up his first non victory in the tournament ending on the bad end of a 3-way tie finishing 3rd and only snagging 2 tournament points.
With Nick and Keith not winning their rounds, only one player could still finish with Neil at the top of the standings with 3 wins. Matt Dirkes played Amun- Re for the first time last year in the tournament, but seemed to know and understand the game much more this year, and he seemed like he was on a mission this year. He was playing Amun-Re against Trevor Oliver who I consider to be the best or second best Amun-Re player in the LIW field. When I saw the matchups for the table, I thought Trevor would run away with the game. When the results were turned in I was surprised to see that Matt finished 1 point ahead of Trevor to capture his third win in the tournament. He would sit with Neil Mecham at the top of the standings with 3 victories, and 18 tournament points.
Despite 2 of the day one undefeated players not picking up a win in round 3, overall standings were still close. Other players in the field were moving. Just below the leaders with 16 points was Keith Dent, and no one can breath easy when Keith is chasing you in the standings. Just below that was a trio of players still in contention with 14 points, Rookie Nasty Nick Vicious, tournament surprise Joe Mecham, and Chris McCurry. Adam Blum another of the killer Columbus crew had 12, and the top 10 was rounded out by reigning champion Chad Walker, and annual top 10 finisher Neil the Grey each with 10 points, followed in 10thby 13 year old Michael Mecham, who had just won the Castles of Mad King Ludwig title, and had 9 tournament points.
Round 4 would see the last of the undefeated players go down. Neil Mecham got paired in a game of Thurn & Taxis against old tournament legend Ben Ibershoff. Ben was a former champion in Thurn & Taxis and knew the game well. He had been doing well in the tournament so far despite sitting in the middle of the pack due to a last place in Terra Mystica, a game he didn’t bid on but got stuck in. Ben would show why he is a tournament legend, and show streaks of the skill that once brought him a 3rd place overall finish in the LIW tournament. Ben handed Neil his first loss of the day in a close game where Ben finished with 22, Neil was just behind that with 20, and another fine T&T player Isaac Bingham would be just behind them with 19. Isaac later said he learned a lot watching Ben and Neil go at it. Neil getting 2nd left him with 22 tournament points, but would it be enough to stay at the top of the leaderboard?
Other round 4 games consisted of Neil’s younger brother Joe flexing his dominion skills, dispatching former champion Greg Smith, and winning both of the two Dominion games in the round. Joe had been quietly sneaking up on the leaders, and now he couldn’t be ignored. Joe started the tournament with a 3rd in Stone Age and then rolled off 3 straight wins to give him 20 tournament points and put him breathing down his older brothers neck at the top of the standings.
Austin Rathbone moved back up into the top 10 after capturing a victory in Notre Dame. This was significant as he handed Matt his first loss of the tournament, and knocked him from the unbeaten list. Matt finished third too which put him in a 4-way tie of players at 20 points, just below the leader Neil Mecham. It was Matt’s first time playing Notre Dame and he put up a good battle but couldn’t overcome Austin’s experience. If it’s anything like the other games Matt learned for the first time last year he will come back and win this one next year.
7 Wonders was popular enough to be played again in round 4 and reigning champion Chad Walker snagged his first victory this year winning and positioning himself with 16 points just below the leaders in 8th place ready to make a move should they slip up. Chad proved this year that his victory last year was no fluke. He ended with 4 2nd places, a win and a 3rd, and although getting 4-5 wins in this tournament is never a sure thing, he is a solid player and could one day recapture the title of LIW champion. Chad is one of 5-6 players in the tournament that can really “dial it in” as I call it. They go into the tank and can focus on a game at an intense level. I almost expect to see steam coming out of these players.
Another Round 4 game was Francis Drake. Francis Drake was a new addition to the tournament this year, and had the popularity to be played. I knew the game was popular with the Columbus crew and some of the other tournament players were beginning to learn it, but it was my understanding that rookie Nick Vicous was the hands down favorite at this game. When we play in Berea, if Neil the Grey plays he usually wins. Then I hear that Neil Mecham is even better than his dad Neil the Grey, and has never lost to him. Then talking to Neil (the young) Mecham one day a few months back he tells me that there is one player in Columbus that he just can’t beat in Francis Drake. He says that his name is Nick and maybe someday he will come play in the tournament. I guess Neil knew to avoid the game as a result, but Neil the Grey had no fear and sat down in Francis Drake against the highly touted rookie. Nick was very confident spending a lot to bid on the game. Adam Blum who surely has played with Nick in the past also had no fear because he bid on the game too. Jason Pisani was the unfortunate 4th player in the game. He seemed to get the bad end of the bid this year and this was one of many games he got stuck in that he would be playing for the first time. Learning games in the tournament is trial by fire, but that often leads to the toughest steel. Just ask 2015 Champion Chad Walker who learned and played 6 new games in 2014, and then won the tournament the next year. Adam would best his Columbus teammate taking the victory, and Neil The Grey pulled off a 2nd place, and the Rumors of Nick’s dominance faded as he finished third. Knowing the competitive spirit of Nick he will be back to crush in Francis Drake next year but this time perhaps he learned a common lesson among LIW rookies. This is no typical game night game. This is the Lion in Winter tournament and if you don’t bring you’re a-game you go home thinking of what could have been.
The last of the round 4 games featured Keith Dent and Chris McCurry facing off for the 3rd time in the tournament in San Juan. In LIW San Juan is played as a 2 player game with all 4 players playing each other once with the best record winning the round and getting the 6 tournament points. Keith and Chris both finished in the top 8 in San Juan at the world board game championships last year so I knew they were formidable and probably the favorites. Sorrel Hatch has picked up the game in the last year and played it a ton so she would be tough too. The 4th player was Brandon Zinsious who played San Juan last year in the tournament. He was a little rusty to start with this year, but quickly picked it back up and proved he could play with the best of them. In the opening games Chris topped Sorrrel by 7, while Keith crushed Brandon by 17. In Round 2 Brandon started getting better as he topped Chris by 3, and Keith barely pulled out a squeaker over Sorrel by 2. Keith was 2-0 and if he could beat Chris he could secure the round and get 6 tournament points to put him at 22 which would tie him with Neil at the top of the standings. It wasn’t to be, and Chris won by 3, toppling the 2 time champion for the 2nd time in the tournament, a rare and unprecedented feat. This left them both at 2-1 and if Sorrel won they would be tied and Chris would win the tie-breaker because he won the head to head matchup. If Brandon won there would be a 3-way tie in record and it would come down to average % of winning score between the 3 games. Sorrel pulled it off and that left Chris as the San Juan Champion which is the 2nd time he has won the San Juan title in LIW history.
When all the Dust settled from round 4, Neil Mecham sat at the top with 22, points, and just below him was a 4-way tie for 2nd with all 4 players having 20 tournament points. Matt Dirkes, Joe Mecham, Chris McCurry, and Keith Dent. With two rounds to go things were heating up. Could Neil hold off the players behind him or would one of them overtake him? Would Keith catch Neil and obtain his 3rd LIW title, or would a player even farther back win out to take the title from leaders?
Round 5 features the game Castles of Burgundy. This has always been a popular game among many in the tournament, but over the past year since the 2015 tournament, it’s gained in popularity even more. Players who didn’t know or like the game in the past came to love it. Among players in the tournament Keith Dent won the Castles of Burgundy title at WBC in 2014, and is currently ranked the #1 online player in the world in this game. The short story is he is amazing at this game. Despite this he has never played it in the LIW tournament. There are other strong players in the LIW that have occasionally beaten him, and there are other games in round 5 that he is also dominant in. Tzolkain for example is a game that he has won the WBC email tournament in, and made it to the final table at WBC. It has a little less variance than Castles, and perhaps that is why Keith has found other games to play in round 5. Many players have often been afraid to play COB in the tournament for fear that they may have to play a world champion. This year Tzolkain didn’t get enough votes to make it into the tournament so the fears came true as Keith would get put into Castles of Burgundy. At that table were 3 other formidable players. Keith’s wife Heather is the reigning LIW champion in Castles of Burgundy, after beating her brother Neil by 2 points last year to get the win. She would be playing to defend her title. Neil the current leader in the tournament would also be in the game. He was beaten by Heather last year, but this year he seemed zoned in. It seemed like this was his year to win the title. After Squeeking by to get the victory in 7 Wonders, Neil had a solid path to the LIW title. Unfortunately that path led through 2 time former champion Keith Dent. Neil has beaten Keith before in Castles, but he knows of Keith’s dominance in the game, and he knew it wouldn’t be easy. To be the Champ though it would seem you have to beat the champ, and Neil had already beaten two LIW champions on his way to the top of the standings and it appeared nothing could get in his way. This would be toughest test yet, not only because of Keith, but Heather too was formidable, and even the 4th player at the table Austin Rathbone was capable of winning it all. Austin had learned to love COB over the past year and has become a very strong player in the game. He knew he would be the underdog among these players but he has lots of wins under his belt, and has even beaten some of these opponents, and he figured this would be the true test of where he really stood in Castles. Austin had just crawled back into the top 10 in the standings after taking a brutal 4th in El Grande in the opening round. If he could do well in this game he would be in prime shape to try and capture his first top 5 finish.
Heather was having a poor tournament so far. She was behind in the standings and things just hadn’t gone her way this year. This was the game she knew best though and it was her chance to redeem her tournament points and also capture a LIW game title. The problem was that this was the most stacked table of players to ever play Castles in the tournament. The last two times she had played Austin he had beaten her and she perhaps wondered if he had surpassed her. Then there was her husband Keith, a world champion, and her brother Neil who was winning the tournament and was never an easy out. Things couldn’t have been more stacked against her as the players positioned themselves to start the game. Despite the overwhelming odds against her, under the bring lights on the big stage, Heather pulled off what could quite possibly be the greatest upset in LIW history. She did it. She won! She proved that no matter who you are and how good you are, it is never an easy task to beat a LIW champion, and she showed the world why she was the reigning LIW Castles champion. I didn’t get to watch the game very closely but I noticed early in the game Keith took a sheep tile that seemed critical to Heathers plans and she was upset that it may cost her the game. She clawed back in it though and pulled it off. She finished with 241 points. Even more stunning was that Keith was not even 2nd place. He had 234 points, one point behind Neil at 235 who got second. Austin was close too with 222. 19 points separated 1st through 4th in what proved to be the most competitive game in the tournament, despite the hype and buildup of Agricola. The Heavy hitters of Castles came out to play and Heather emerged on top. Despite losing to his sister, Neil finishing ahead of Keith meant that he had now beaten all the former LIW champions on his way through the tournament and escaping with 4 tournament points would mean he was still at the top of the standings. It seemed he was unstoppable. He only had to escape one more round to become the champ.
The whole time the other players were at the top of the standings, ahead of Keith or tied with him, I always sort of expected him to emerge on top. It wasn’t until I saw him sitting in a few brief seconds of stunned silence after the 3rd place finish that I knew (and I think he knew too) that his chances of winning the tournament this year may be gone. With two 2nds to Chris, and this 3rd, he would finish round 5 with 22 tournament points in 4th place on the leaderboard, and he would have to rely on the 3 players ahead of him to slip up if he were going to claim the elusive 3rd title.
There were other games in round 5 as well. Neil the Grey won his second title in Thurn and Taxis with 25 points. Chad Walker took another 2nd with 20, and Nick Vicious got 3rd by a point. Nick impressed everyone this year with his gamesmanship, competitiveness, and skills but he began to fade in the later rounds of the tournament. He learned some new games and gained skills in others, and I expect he will be a force for years to come. He made it out of round 5 barely hanging in the top 10.
Tournament Legend Ben Ibershoff scored a victory in Dominion, putting him in 7th going into the last round, while Adam got a 2nd in Puerto Rico leaving him in 5th. Of the 4 players tied for 2nd going into round 5 Joe Mecham took the hardest fall coming in 4th in Lost Cities, which would all but eliminate him from contention to win the entire tournament. Greg smith went 3-0 in Lost Cities to obtain his first victory in the tournament, dispatching Joe along the way. Matt Dirkes and Chris McCurry were also among the players tied for 2nd and they faced each other in Egizia. Chris McCurry and Trevor had some experience in the game while Justin and Matt were just learning it. For the 2nd straight round Matt was playing a game for the first time. He did well in both but sometimes experience in a game is too much to overcome. Chris got the victory by 10 points, and Matt despite playing for the first time scrapped by in 2nd. After winning in 3 rounds and doing well in a couple games he had never played, Matt proved that he is a verysolid gamer and as he gains more experience he could one day become a LIW champion. This victory and Neil’s second place Finish would mean that Chris had caught Neil at the top of the standings, and Matt with his second was just below them in 3rd.
Chris and Neil both had 26 tournament points, but the first tie breaker is most wins, and Chris had 4 wins to Neil’s 3. So if they both won again Chris would emerge as the LIW Champion. It would all come down to who played what against who in the final round. There was a bit of debacle determining who played what because of my mistake but we finally figured it out and the table was set for the final round to claim the crown.
Austin Rathbone won Egizia in round 6 and became the first ever 3-time champion of a game. This would give him enough points to finish 10th overall. Heather continued her resurgence claiming 2nd in Egizia. Castles of Burgundy got played again and Joe Mecham pulled off his 4th victory in the tournament. He beat his Brother Michael by 13 points, and Mike took second. He avoided his older siblings but a win is worth 6 tournament points in LIW no matter who you play and Joe Carefully managed his bids in order to capitalize on games he knew he may be able to win. To Everyone’s (probably including Joe) surprise Joe finished 4th overall.
In Princes of Florence Isaac Bingham won scoring 70 points which is the 2nd time he has won this game in the LIW tournament history. Isaac tried to play Princes in the first round but there wasn’t enough other points bid on it, which started a string of games and bids that waylaid Isaac’s entire tournament. Some of his top games didn’t get played and those that did didn’t get played when he hoped to play them and in the end it left Isaac far from the place in the standings he traditionally finishes.
Orleans is a new game to the tournament, and 4 players played it this year. Greg Smith pulled off the victory to finish the tournament strong with wins in back to back rounds. Orleans seems to have a lot of potential to be a game that gets played in the future. Nick Vicious playing the game for the first time finished 4th but still had enough tournament points to finish 11th over all and win Rookie of the year honors.
Who would be the tournament champion would come down to two games. Neil would be playing in Hansa Teutonica against Brandon (2015 Hansa Champion), Justin, and reigning LIW champ Chad Walker. It’s only fitting that to win the tournament Neil would have to go through the reigning champion one more time in the last round. Before that game could finish though another one would have more impact over the top of the standings than any other. Russian Railroads would be played for the 2nd year in a row. In the game was Chris McCurry currently winning the tournament, Keith Dent, currently in 4th, Matt Dirkes currently in 3rd, and Adam Blum currently in 5th. 4 of the top 5 players would be at the same table and the impact of finishing order would be huge. Matt got back into a game he knew well as he had previously never lost in RRR. Keith is a WBC finalist and a highly rate online player, Chris only recently learned the game, and Adam finished 2nd in last years tournament and is a solid overall RRR player. Early in the game it became apparent that Keith was on a whole other level. He lapped the rest of the field on the scoring track with his industry strategy, pulling it off masterfully. The other 3 sort of all tried for the Trans-Siberian railway and ended up fighting each other. Chris pulled it off best and closed the gap on Keith only finishing 20 points behind him. Matt was 3rd and Adam 4th. This put Keith with 28 tournament points and left Chris the clubhouse leader with 30 points and a tournament title so close he could smell it. Basically if Neil finished in any other position other than winning Chris would win the tournament. Neil and reigning champion Chad fought a hard close battle and in the end Neil edged him out by 1 point for the victory. The other players we further back. Neil finished with 32 tournament points from 4 wins and 2 seconds. Neil would become the 2016 Lion in Winter Champion! He brings the title back to the northlands of Columbus where it will sit another year until the next tournament.
Congratulations to Neil Mecham the 2016 Lion in Winter Champion. Matt Dirkes won most improved player, and Nick Vilagi won the rookie of the year honors. Columbus finished with the top average points per round of their top three finishers to win the team title for the second year in a row. Some players are putting together a short movie from the tournament, and over the next few weeks you can look forward to pictures being posted to the website as well as standings, stats and most likely a tournament report or two from some of the players, as well as an interview with the champion Neil Mecham.
Every year so far the tournament has become more competitive. There are some amazing players in the tournament and certain players in certain games are truly world class. Organizing this tournament and having everyone come play is the thing I look forward to most each year. Getting together for fun and competition at a high level for a weekend makes me smile. I like the games and the competition, but my brother came to play this year and when talking with him after the tournament he reminded me of something I sometimes forget. He liked the games well enough but he said his favorite part was the people. He loved to just sit and take it all in and hear everyone talk, and find out who they were and what they did. I think he could have just spent 2 days talking to everyone and been just as happy. I like the people too. Some of the players I’ve known for years, and some I’m just getting to know as games have ultimately led our paths to cross. We are people from different places geographically and different places in life. We have different jobs, different skills and different interest, but for one weekend we can come together to celebrate and enjoy one common interest. I love being a part of it all, and sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the games or the competition and forget the people. I like how people celebrate each other’s victories and encourage each other in the losses. Sure some (or maybe all) of us are a bit of a nerd, or perhaps some of us are socially awkward, perhaps they really are just games, and it doesn’t really mean that much, but it means a lot to me to have so many friends come from all over to help me celebrate my favorite weekend of the year. No matter who you are and what you do and no matter how good you are at the games we play, it makes me happy that you enjoy them enough to come together and play through a grueling tournament. We have prizes and there is pressure, and it is sometimes mentally taxing but as I’ve said before it’s all in effort to make the epic a part of real life. No matter how you slice it playing though this tournament is Epic. I may move around some as life happens but it is my goal to continue to host this tournament every year, and you all are welcome at my fire any time. Long live the Lion in Winter. Long lives the Epic