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
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_236818317Unfortunately, the report is only in Russian
Incredibly enjoyable reading! Thank you for such interesting and detailed report!
Once again many thanks for the photos during the final game to MrNumbers!
Nice report, Jéré! Good for me that you didn't qualify from Netherlands, otherwise I couldn't participate at all
Started by kettlefish
Started by asp204
Started by asparagus