Homeworlds Live Winter League 2021

Tournament results

Results grid: This grid shows the outcome of all 84 individual games. The text of each cell is a link to the record of the game. You can click any cell to study the moves of that game.

Scores

Captain division

Babamots (8)
Trydnt (7.5)
ts52 (7)
dlwillson (6.5)
ajo (5)
wil (4.5)
Felix (3.5)

Cadet division

DodoBirb (11)
Stevie Sasquatchie (10)
capi3101 (7)
Dther (6)
twes (4)
VIVIT (3)
iJamesGC (1)

Comments

Most importantly, every player won at least one game and tasted the sweetness of victory!

One of the most exciting parts of the tournament was the Babamots vs ts52 game. This was the last game played in the Captain Division, and because the players' scores were tied, the winner of this game would win first place in the division.

Similarly exciting were the games between DodoBirb and Stevie Sasquatchie. Before their games, Stevie was undefeated and DodoBirb had only lost once. DodoBirb could win first place in the division, but only by defeating Stevie twice.

Many of the players had never played with short game timers before. The timers made some people nervous, possibly giving an advantage to calmer opponents.

In the Captain Division, three of the 42 games were draws. Since Super Duper Games (SDG) is the primary source of records of Homeworlds games and SDG does not allow draws, it's difficult to tell whether this frequency for draws is unusual. Several players said they were surprised that the number of draws was so high.

Mirroring a recent trend on Super Duper Games, Stevie Sasquatchie frequently used Gemini openings that took some Cadet players off guard.

Irregularities

dlwillson vs Babamots: had to be finished on SDG because of a problem with HWL.
Felix vs dlwillson: was played on SDG to accommodate Felix's schedule.
Felix vs ts52: was played on SDG to accommodate Felix's schedule.
wil vs Felix: is recorded on HWL as a win for Felix. However, Felix's eighth turn was a blunder that should have let wil win instantly. wil offered to let Felix undo the move, and this was effectively achieved when wil passed, Felix sacrificed the ship that was built on the eighth turn, and wil passed again. After the recovery, Felix went on to win the game, but because they "should" have lost, Felix reported the game as a defeat. wil accepted the offered victory.
dlwillson vs Felix: was completed with physical pieces because of a problem with HWL.
Babamots vs ts52: was played on an Anywhere Board Games server because of problem with HWL.
VIVIT vs iJamesGC: is incorrectly listed as a victory for VIVIT on HWL because a disconnect prevented iJamesGC from taking the winning turn.
iJamesGC vs VIVIT: was accidentally played with VIVIT moving first, but both players agreed to accept the result.

Tournament instructions

I plan to close registration and start scheduling matches in the last week of January, 2021.
Plan on playing two games per week starting in February.

Tournament Links

Tournament Registration
Tournament Rules
Calendar (who should play whom which week)
Coordinate with your opponent which of you will fill out each of these forms (please avoid submitting duplicates):
- Game Scheduling Form (please fill this out at least 24 hours before you actually plan to play so that everyone who's interested and able can watch)
- Game Finish Form (let everyone know the game result)
Tournament results and scheduled games
- If you have a Google account and want to be notified when a game is scheduled or completed, you can click "Tools," "Notification Rules," and choose how often you'd like to get emails about updates.