Author Topic: World Championship 2016 Essen, Germany  (Read 17635 times)

Offline Decar

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Re: World Championship 2016 Essen, Germany
« Reply #30 on: October 18, 2016, 07:25:12 AM »
Welcome to the forum Carcassonner - congratulations on your victory.

It was quite an incredible sight seeing the world's best players challenging each other.  I'll write a little more about the event in my Essen Spiel16 report, but Jere, Mr Numbers and Andrew (from the UK) did their respective countries and Carcassonne Central an incredible service.  I was very lucky to have witnessed the day's events.  Well done everyone!

Offline MrNumbers

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Re: World Championship 2016 Essen, Germany
« Reply #31 on: October 18, 2016, 02:16:26 PM »
Here is my report about World championship. On Sunday I arrived at Spielezentrum booth very early, even before 10am (thanks to special ticket). Last year I was standing there too in hope to participate in championship, but then they had even number of participants and didn’t have a need to take “soft player”. Soon participants started to arrive, also one girl came in and asked if she is allowed to claim a possible spot in the championship. We had a conversation and this girl named Ioana appeared to be my “double” in Romania: she is famous in her country for promoting Carcassonne and also many times vice-champion, but never actually won national championship. In her country people call her “Carca”. Ioana moved to Vienna recently and had a flight from there to Dusseldorf, then took a taxi to Essen just to have a chance to participate in World championship. Near 10:30 Thomas from Spielezentrum told us that if national champion from Netherlands won’t show up, they have an odd number of players and gave us a bag with two pieces of paper. So, it was 50/50 chance. I offered to Ioana to pick first. She has got a paper with sad face, which meant I ended up with smiling face. Hurray! But Thomas warned me that still if in 5 minutes guy from Netherlands will show up, I will not play. It never happened, and I have officially become the substitute player.
First game I had against brother-country Lithuania. I’ve got some lucky draws near the end and kept the control of the main farm. Second game was against guy from Portugal. Early in the game he started to build a big city, I tried to share it and with second try I succeeded: 26 points each. Plus I won the farms – second win. Third game was versus Hong-Kong. Didn’t remember much about that game – just won it :) Game number 4: famous Matej Tabak from Slovakia, 5 times semifinalist. Very tense game which could go either way, and with my last tile I completed my 8-point city and claimed 3-point farm. I won by 1 point! 4 wins in 4 games! Next I had a game with future champion from Russia. This game looked more like friendly than competitive, but still both of us counted tiles and used every possibility to score points. With 3 tiles in the bag we both knew that 2 of them he needed to complete his big city. So he drew one and did it. My last tile didn’t allow me to claim good 9-point road so I was forced to take 6-points farm instead and this time I lost by 1 point! So my last chance for semifinals was to win my last game against Belgium. The game was pretty nervous and near the end of the game I made my fatal mistake: I had a tile in my hand, with which I could block my opponent’s connect to my farm (which ended up to be 27-points big), but I was greedy and claim&complete vacant 10-points city with hope to block that connect attempt with my next move. But guy from Belgium with his next move drew the tile he needed for connect and we shared the farm. I wasn’t able to catch up and the game ended with my 5-points loss. As a result I have 6th place in the overall ratings, having best Buchholz from all players with 4 wins. My mate from Latvia also ended up with 4 wins and came 9th.
It was incredible and unforgettable experience! Just to be there and to have a chance to play with best players in the world made me happy. It’s a pity I couldn’t go further, but I learned my lesson – never lose the concentration till the very end and try to estimate the impact of each tile placement/not placement. Big thanks to my friends, including Dan and Tom, for support! Next year I will try to participate as a national winner, of course, but in case of bad luck will be there on Sunday at 10:00 ;)
"I never lose. Either I win or I learn." (Nelson Mandela)

Offline kettlefish

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Re: World Championship 2016 Essen, Germany
« Reply #32 on: October 18, 2016, 02:58:13 PM »
Hi MrNumbers,
it is a great report about your played CC World Championship games. And you have played against 3 from the best 4 players.

Offline Halfling

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Re: World Championship 2016 Essen, Germany
« Reply #33 on: October 18, 2016, 11:31:29 PM »
Great write up MrNumbers.  I can feel the tension building as I read your report.

It seems that, at your level of play, it becomes almost like a game of chess.

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Re: World Championship 2016 Essen, Germany
« Reply #34 on: October 19, 2016, 12:00:47 AM »
Fantastic report MrNumbers! It was brilliant to see you doing so well - hopefully next year you'll have another chance to take the crown.  I'm amazed the Netherlands winner was a no-show given how close the country is too!

Offline DIN0

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Re: World Championship 2016 Essen, Germany
« Reply #35 on: October 19, 2016, 05:34:37 AM »
Wow MrNumbers, you defeated Matej Tabak by 1 point ?! You see, I am from Slovakia, so I know Matej Tabak from our national championships and I know that he is a very strong and experienced player. Congratulations ! :(y) :black1-meeple: :gray-meeple: :white-meeple:
Great report by the way, I´ve really enjoyed reading it :)

Offline Uhome

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Re: World Championship 2016 Essen, Germany
« Reply #36 on: October 19, 2016, 07:31:44 AM »
Here is my report about World championship. On Sunday I arrived at Spielezentrum booth very early, even before 10am (thanks to special ticket). Last year I was standing there too in hope to participate in championship, but then they had even number of participants and didn’t have a need to take “soft player”. Soon participants started to arrive, also one girl came in and asked if she is allowed to claim a possible spot in the championship. We had a conversation and this girl named Ioana appeared to be my “double” in Romania: she is famous in her country for promoting Carcassonne and also many times vice-champion, but never actually won national championship. In her country people call her “Carca”. Ioana moved to Vienna recently and had a flight from there to Dusseldorf, then took a taxi to Essen just to have a chance to participate in World championship. Near 10:30 Thomas from Spielezentrum told us that if national champion from Netherlands won’t show up, they have an odd number of players and gave us a bag with two pieces of paper. So, it was 50/50 chance. I offered to Ioana to pick first. She has got a paper with sad face, which meant I ended up with smiling face. Hurray! But Thomas warned me that still if in 5 minutes guy from Netherlands will show up, I will not play. It never happened, and I have officially become the substitute player.
First game I had against brother-country Lithuania. I’ve got some lucky draws near the end and kept the control of the main farm. Second game was against guy from Portugal. Early in the game he started to build a big city, I tried to share it and with second try I succeeded: 26 points each. Plus I won the farms – second win. Third game was versus Hong-Kong. Didn’t remember much about that game – just won it :) Game number 4: famous Matej Tabak from Slovakia, 5 times semifinalist. Very tense game which could go either way, and with my last tile I completed my 8-point city and claimed 3-point farm. I won by 1 point! 4 wins in 4 games! Next I had a game with future champion from Russia. This game looked more like friendly than competitive, but still both of us counted tiles and used every possibility to score points. With 3 tiles in the bag we both knew that 2 of them he needed to complete his big city. So he drew one and did it. My last tile didn’t allow me to claim good 9-point road so I was forced to take 6-points farm instead and this time I lost by 1 point! So my last chance for semifinals was to win my last game against Belgium. The game was pretty nervous and near the end of the game I made my fatal mistake: I had a tile in my hand, with which I could block my opponent’s connect to my farm (which ended up to be 27-points big), but I was greedy and claim&complete vacant 10-points city with hope to block that connect attempt with my next move. But guy from Belgium with his next move drew the tile he needed for connect and we shared the farm. I wasn’t able to catch up and the game ended with my 5-points loss. As a result I have 6th place in the overall ratings, having best Buchholz from all players with 4 wins. My mate from Latvia also ended up with 4 wins and came 9th.
It was incredible and unforgettable experience! Just to be there and to have a chance to play with best players in the world made me happy. It’s a pity I couldn’t go further, but I learned my lesson – never lose the concentration till the very end and try to estimate the impact of each tile placement/not placement. Big thanks to my friends, including Dan and Tom, for support! Next year I will try to participate as a national winner, of course, but in case of bad luck will be there on Sunday at 10:00 ;)

A very well write up for the World championship.

A similar game experience to me last year :P I also win the first 4 games and then loss the last two, ending up in sixth position. Played against 3 previous world champion and semi-finallist.

Look forward to see you next year.

Offline Carcassonner

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Re: World Championship 2016 Essen, Germany
« Reply #37 on: October 19, 2016, 10:49:13 PM »
Once again, all welcome!
My report about the World Championship, in the form of comments to the photos, you can read the following link: https://vk.com/album16118614_236818317
Unfortunately, the report is only in Russian :green-meeple:
« Last Edit: October 20, 2016, 12:12:42 AM by Carcassonner »

Offline MrNumbers

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Re: World Championship 2016 Essen, Germany
« Reply #38 on: October 20, 2016, 12:06:19 AM »
Once again, all welcome!
My report on the World Cup, in the form of comments to the photos, you can read the following link: https://vk.com/album16118614_236818317
Unfortunately, the report is only in Russian :green-meeple:
Incredibly enjoyable reading! Thank you for such interesting and detailed report!

Offline Carcassonner

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Re: World Championship 2016 Essen, Germany
« Reply #39 on: October 20, 2016, 12:20:00 AM »
Incredibly enjoyable reading! Thank you for such interesting and detailed report!

Insomnia contributed again :green-meeple: Three hours of sleep :o
But I know that if I stopped, I would have made the report a very long time  ;D

Once again many thanks for the photos during the final game to MrNumbers!
« Last Edit: October 20, 2016, 12:27:32 AM by Carcassonner »

Offline Jéré

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Re: World Championship 2016 Essen, Germany
« Reply #40 on: October 20, 2016, 04:01:22 AM »
A bit late but here is my summary:

I arrived quite early (around 10am) in the Tournament area and was one of the first to confirm my presence. Then I met some participants, all were very friendly. Just before Championship started, I learnt that MrNumbers would participate which I thought was great, for him, for Carc Central community as well as for the competition level!

My first game against Spainish player did not turn out in my favor. It was a very tight game and could have go either way. Diego played very well, and if I would have played my last 2 tiles in the reversed order, I would have won. Even though I lost, I really enjoyed my game with Diego.

Second game vs. Germany: Again, I could have won this one... grrrr! I blocked 3 of his guys at the beginning of the game, but somehow he managed. I think what made the difference is that there was no main field, only small ones everywhere. Otherwise controling the main field would have provided me the victory. Also he scored some points with his trapped meeples (8pts for an incomplete cloister, etc.). Lost by 7 pts. That was unfortunate, but like the first game it was fun, though I must admit that for that moment, I started to be worried a little about my final ranking...

Game #3: Poor Romanian guy, I gave him no chance. I won with a 43 pts difference.

Game #4: Nice guy from Serbia. It was a fun game, also quite close towards the end. Won by less than 10 pts.

Game #5: After lunch break, I played against representant from Malaysia. I managed to steal the main field with my very last tile! Only a curved road would fit there and there was only one left so at the end, I had 50% chance to get it. Third win in a row!

Last game vs. Ricardo from Portugal: That was the strangest game for me. I was quite tired at that point...  Lost by 11 pts.

Final ranking: 20th out of 36 participants. 3 wins, 3 losses. Average performance I would say, but the experience was great and I met a lot of nice people there. Really happy and I feel lucky I had such opportunity to compete at the highest level.

Offline MrNumbers

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Re: World Championship 2016 Essen, Germany
« Reply #41 on: October 20, 2016, 04:30:12 AM »
Nice report, Jéré! Good for me that you didn't qualify from Netherlands, otherwise I couldn't participate at all :D
Once again many thanks for the photos during the final game to MrNumbers!
You are welcome! ;) Hope next year I can't do the same, as I plan to play in finals by myself >:D

Offline Jéré

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Re: World Championship 2016 Essen, Germany
« Reply #42 on: October 20, 2016, 08:13:33 AM »
Nice report, Jéré! Good for me that you didn't qualify from Netherlands, otherwise I couldn't participate at all :D

That is not possible because it is clearly stated in the rules that you need to be Dutch citizen. Everybody is welcome to participate but the highest ranked Dutch will represent the country.

Offline Decar

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Re: World Championship 2016 Essen, Germany
« Reply #43 on: October 20, 2016, 09:20:08 AM »
Very nice report Jére!
No doubt the experience will put you in good-stead to defend your title in the French Championships  :(y) :(y) :(y)   :red-meeple: :white-meeple: :blue-meeple:


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