For more information on Titan see my Titan Home Page.
I think some other things helped a bit too. It was mentioned to me by one player that my web page got him to come. A few of the players were people who have been playing in Play by Email games (with volunteer hand moderation) who hadn't previously come to Avaloncon.
Between the increased number of games played and what I think was a higher overall level of competition, getting into the semifinals was significantly more difficult this year. Two players with two wins in preliminary play, did not qualify for the semifinals. I felt the quality of players in the semifinals was the best it has ever been in the four years I have run the event.
I think the minor changes I made from last year helped. While no one overslept this year, some people showed up close enough to the start time of the semifinals that I tried to reach them at their rooms. I think that collecting room numbers of participants was a good idea.
Playing just 4 player games also seemed to work out. This did not seem to increase the problems with getting people into games, but did prevent people from having to play in 5 player games which are harder to do well in and often take longer to play.
Bringing a computer along to do the tabulating, so that I could go back to a more complicated tie breaking system (adding strength of schedule as a tie breaker after individual results), worked ok. It would have been better if I had had all of the software written before arriving at Avaloncon. It was done by late afternoon Friday, which while a little late, was in time to let people know where they stood before they went to sleep. In previous years I spent a lot of Friday night tabulating results. Next year everything will be in place ahead of time, so I expect to be able to give people up to date standings throughout the event.
I received a couple of suggestions this year. The first was that the previous year's winner should get a bye into the semifinals. I am very opposed to this one and won't be doing this. It was unfortunate that last year's winner Ben Foy (he didn't make the suggestion) did not have the opportunity to play more than one preliminary game and did not qualify for the semifinals. But I do not think it is fair, and I do not think it is the best interest of of keeping preliminary round games interesting to give anyone a bye into the semifinals.
The second was that there was some dissatisfaction with the tie breaking of mutuals in the finals and semifinals (in preliminary rounds mutuals count roughly as both players losing). I think there may be room for improvement here, but I am not happy with any other suggestions I have heard. I don't think it is appropiate to replay games that end in mutuals. This is too time consuming and won't be multiplayer. I also do not think rolling a die after a mutual is a good idea. If anything odd happens during this roll (e.g. ending up slightly cocked) making a fair ruling may be impossible. While my system of advancing the higher seeded player gives an advantage going in to a semifinal or final game, the effects of this have a benefit. Players are encouraged to try to get a high seeding, not just a good enough seeding to get into the semifinals. For the two player event points were used to break ties (an improvement over the replay system used in past years). This has some merit, but I still prefer using seeding to break ties. Another possibility would be giving the tie break to the player who started later (lower tower number) to offset the advantage of starting earlier.
Now I am going to point out things that happened that might be of interest to people during the multiplayer titan event.
We had a few families in the event again this year.
For the Proksch's, Steve finished ahead of his younger brother Nick who in turn finished ahead of their father Tim. This was in spite of Steve having the toughest set of opponents during the event (of everyone). Unfortunately, Steve left their Titan set at Avaloncon and ended up being voted to be the one to drive from Muskego to Milwaukee to pick it up from me.
Jon Shambeda finished ahead of his father Steve (not for the first time either).
Brother and sister Peg Meacham and Robert Masso both made the semifinals, with Peg having the top seed overall. However Peg was first out in her semifinal game, while Robert was second out of his, so he ended up finishing ahead of her.
In the Koleszar family Steve, John and Luke entered (we couldn't talk Marilyn into playing, but maybe next year). John and Steve both made the semifinals. John had the higher seed and ended up in front of his father Steve after each finished second in their semifinal games. Steve (who won the multiplayer Titan event 2 years ago) only was able to play preliminary games on Friday because he was running and playing in Storm Over Arnhem. He only played in three (players were allowed six) preliminary games. This hurt when he mutualed with Aaron Fuegi in their semifinal game and Aaron advanced because he had a higher seed. Aaron's titan had taken 14 of 16 hits of damage before the titans closed in a death embrace.
One of the more dedicated players was Barry Ehrlich who sent me a FAX Friday night asking me to call him if he made the semifinals. If so, he was going to drive back from New York early Saturday morning to play in the 9am semifinals. Unfortunately he was just a bit out the semifinals.
We had two players, Akihisa Tabei and Masahito Ishiwa, from Japan this year. Akihisa was just a short ways from making the semifinals in the multiplayer titan event and took second in the two player event.
Brian Sutton who won the multiplayer event in '93, and the two player event this year, finished second at his semifinal table.
The finals consisted of Dave Finberg, Aaron Fuegi, Mike Pustilnik and Ed Rothenheber. Mike went out first. Ed went out next as part of a deal. Ed lost the roll and kept his part of the deal, but wasn't too happy when Aaron didn't have much success. Dave Finberg was this year's winner. Unfortunately the plaque for Titan was missing and he will have to wait a few weeks to receive it. If anyone knows who did this please explain to the guy how doing this kind of thing hurts everyone at Avaloncon and try to get him to return the plaque.
My sportmanship award nomination this year went to Dan Osborne. A friend of Dan's found my lost badge (which still had an unused $10 credit) and Dan made sure the badge got back to me.
The shortest game this year was a preliminary game won by Brian Sutton on the third turn. Akisisa Tabei and Dan Huffman mutualed. Brian had gotten two Warlocks on his first two turns and finished off Richard Barnette on his thrid turn. The whole thing was over in less than 20 minutes.
Mike Pustilnik gets the Lone Ranger award for almost pulling out a game while having essentially one stack for over half of a game. Mike got his Titan up to a 19-4, but was eventually finished off by Robert Masso.
The strangest ruling I got to make in the event was when I was asked what to do about a gorgon sitting in a bog! It seems that in a game with four active players, no one noticed as one of the players moved a gorgon into a bog and proceded to range strike out of it. The two players not in the battle claimed they were off doing other stuff when this event was allowed to take place. After some comments about floating and sinking logs, I just told the player to move the gorgon out of the bog if it was still unengaged when it got back to his turn again, since it appearantly had been in the bog for a while already before either player noticed.
This year's event was a landmark for myself as well. This was the fourth year I have run the event. The previous GM was Bill Scott, who ran Titan the first three years. So this year I passed him in the number of times we ran the event. I am not sure if he entrusted me with the Titan event because he thought I would do a good job, or to keep me from asking him all those oddball questions about Titan. (Bill still is still a GM at Avaloncon and has been running Panzer Leader the last several years.)
I managed to end up with badge number 666 this year. I asked Don if I could get it again next year, but he said you can't reserve badge numbers.
I plan on returning as GM next year with essentially the same format for the event. I hope to see you all again next year!
Fin Sem Pre Opp Opp Opp Opp Opp Game
Name Ran Ran Ran 1st 2nd 3rd Kil 1st 2nd 3rd Kil Gam Gam Numbers
Finberg, Dave 1 1 2 4 0 0 10 2 17 21 12 55 4 2 16 42 57
Fuegi, Aaron 2 4 5 3 1 0 8 8 12 18 24 58 4 1 17 28 48
Rothenheber, Ed 3 3 16 2 0 1 5 14 8 7 38 42 3 11 20 27
Pustilnik, Mike 4 2 11 2 2 0 9 9 12 16 22 51 4 20 25 37 52
Sutton, Brian 5 5 9 3 0 0 6 4 13 14 25 46 3 13 14 32
Koleszar, John 6 6 10 2 2 1 3 18 12 12 57 58 5 19 25 43 51 59
Koleszar, Steve 7 7 12 2 1 0 5 11 14 19 36 54 4 44 45 52 56
Briggs, David 8 8 14 2 0 3 6 14 22 9 45 71 6 5 15 27 33 40 48
Ley, Jason 9 9 6 3 1 0 6 18 11 19 61 63 5 6 11 27 40 51
Nied, Ken 10 10 8 3 0 1 8 10 14 16 33 60 5 1 12 31 34 39
Kautzsch, Lukas 11 11 13 2 1 0 4 8 13 10 34 37 3 19 21 49
Masso, Robert 12 12 15 2 0 3 3 19 22 13 58 72 6 24 32 37 43 50 56
Meacham, Peg 13 13 1 4 1 0 11 7 22 22 31 74 5 24 38 44 54 58
Ackman, Cliff 14 14 3 3 1 2 8 10 16 15 33 72 6 7 11 29 46 49 55
Litscher, Kurt 15 15 4 3 1 0 8 12 13 19 36 60 4 8 35 43 53
Jacoby, John 16 16 7 3 0 1 9 8 14 14 31 50 4 3 31 36 53
Lientz, Gerald 17 17 17 2 0 1 3 14 9 10 36 51 4 1 10 51 59
Goetze, Christian 18 18 18 2 0 0 4 0 10 7 6 28 2 26 47
Tabei, Akihisa 19 19 19 1 3 1 10 19 14 18 42 76 6 6 13 14 19 22 40
Ehrlich, Barry 20 20 20 1 2 1 3 10 14 17 29 60 4 4 16 23 35
Proksch, Steve 21 21 21 1 1 2 4 25 14 14 75 69 6 8 30 36 44 49 53
Smith, Clifford 22 22 22 1 1 0 4 7 9 11 20 38 3 4 18 24
Croxton, Derek 23 23 23 1 1 0 3 6 3 8 11 27 2 50 56
Shambeda, Jon 24 24 24 1 1 0 2 22 21 19 76 78 6 20 22 35 39 42 48
Krueger, Charles 25 25 25 1 1 0 2 3 9 9 12 29 2 5 23
Mueller, Tom 26 26 26 1 1 0 1 4 4 7 15 24 2 7 41
Edwards, Ross 27 27 27 1 0 1 4 22 17 12 54 70 5 39 41 44 46 51
Lingle, Larry 28 28 28 1 0 1 2 6 7 2 20 22 2 8 21
Houde, Marc 29 29 29 1 0 0 3 0 1 1 0 3 1 9
Shambeda, Steve 30 30 30 0 4 0 3 13 8 11 34 49 4 21 38 47 58
Barnette, Richard 31 31 31 0 3 3 1 18 14 16 59 80 6 13 15 26 34 39 45
Melton, Craig 32 32 32 0 2 4 1 24 22 21 70 87 6 2 16 23 37 45 53
Moore, Tom 33 33 33 0 2 3 0 21 20 15 71 74 6 4 14 17 52 54 57
Defoe, Hudson 34 34 34 0 2 2 4 23 19 17 58 71 5 3 28 43 49 54
Rinko, John 35 35 35 0 2 2 0 23 21 26 65 86 6 10 17 24 35 45 54
Gorr, Eric 36 36 36 0 2 1 1 19 17 31 60 86 6 2 15 33 37 46 55
Nail, Chuck 37 37 37 0 2 1 1 17 19 22 53 72 6 7 12 23 33 38 47
Platnick, David 38 38 38 0 2 0 3 6 3 4 16 22 2 18 42
Ishiwa, Masahito 39 39 39 0 2 0 0 17 13 21 58 66 5 5 28 34 36 46
Osborne, Dan 40 40 40 0 2 0 0 13 9 15 40 54 4 3 22 32 50
Proksch, Nick 41 41 41 0 2 0 0 4 5 6 17 22 2 3 30
Hoff, Marty 42 42 42 0 1 3 0 19 22 13 61 69 5 2 17 28 42 58
Ryland II, Sheldon 43 43 43 0 1 1 1 12 9 8 41 39 3 6 12 20
Koleszar, Luke 44 44 44 0 1 1 1 9 3 6 26 25 2 31 55
Walsh, Kevin 45 45 45 0 1 0 1 8 5 6 17 23 2 57 59
Arndt, Frank 46 46 46 0 1 0 1 7 7 5 20 25 2 5 25
Vander-Pluyme, Todd 47 47 47 0 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 13 1 26
Desper, Rick 48 48 48 0 1 0 0 9 2 6 23 24 2 27 41
Then, Alan 49 49 49 0 1 0 0 6 2 3 16 16 1 48
Smith, Scott 50 50 50 0 1 0 0 4 3 3 11 12 1 57
Foy, Ben 51 51 51 0 1 0 0 3 1 4 8 14 1 29
Richardson, Peg 52 52 52 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 3 3 1 9
Faust, Doug 53 53 53 0 0 2 1 6 6 7 13 29 2 7 10
Beyma, Richard 54 54 54 0 0 2 0 20 31 15 71 84 6 14 16 22 38 47 50
Harviala, Mika 55 55 55 0 0 2 0 7 8 5 27 28 2 6 12
Saha, Shantanu 56 56 56 0 0 1 1 10 8 6 25 35 3 36 41 59
Rothenhoefer, Tim 57 57 57 0 0 1 1 3 5 4 9 16 1 34
Ecton, Brian 58 58 58 0 0 1 0 17 15 18 44 58 5 4 10 11 26 29
Wolff, Bruno 59 59 59 0 0 1 0 11 7 5 35 25 2 19 31
Mozes, Eyal 60 60 60 0 0 1 0 9 8 6 23 27 2 32 58
Barrett, John 61 61 61 0 0 1 0 8 10 4 28 29 3 18 25 29
Wilke, Peter 62 62 62 0 0 1 0 4 5 3 14 14 1 52
Thompson, Justin 63 63 63 0 0 1 0 2 4 5 8 18 1 33
McCallum, Steve 64 64 64 0 0 1 0 1 3 2 4 10 1 30
Richardson, Paul 65 65 65 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 3 3 1 9
Huffman, Dan 66 66 66 0 0 0 1 19 14 16 58 58 4 1 8 13 15
Krzywicki, Stefan 67 67 67 0 0 0 0 6 4 4 22 17 1 40
Billones, Jeremy 68 68 68 0 0 0 0 5 2 3 11 12 1 56
Proksch, Tim 69 69 69 0 0 0 0 4 7 7 14 23 2 30 55
Wojtaszczyk, Kevin 70 70 70 0 0 0 0 3 5 1 9 9 1 21
Koontz, John 71 71 71 0 0 0 0 1 3 1 7 8 1 18
Mahady, Michael 72 72 72 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 3 3 1 9
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