The Dustbin

[stockwellpete]

We are pushing on with the adjudications as quickly as we can today. There are quite a few more than usual and a few have required me to send a further enquiry today. I hope to have them all done by first thing in the morning so that I can post up the final league tables and write the end of season report tomorrow. I also hope to send out the prize vouchers tomorrow. Anders (hidde) will be doing the player ratings and updating the medals tables, but these might not be done for a week or so. In the meantime, I will start work on updating the player, army and tournament records.

[stockwellpete]

As you will know, Slitherine has sponsored every season of the FOG2DL so far, and for Season 10 they provided us with 16 prize vouchers, value of $25 to be spent only in the Slitherine store. Slitherine stipulate that a player may only win one voucher per season.

Luckily, I do have a spare voucher for this season as I am going to award 17 prizes instead of 16. The way the prizes are allocated is that I merge all the divisions of each section into one big league and allocate the prizes to those in the top places. The winners of each pool in the Themed Event also win a prize voucher. I start off by allocating those Themed Event vouchers first, then the other sections in the following order - Classical Antiquity, Late Antiquity, Early Middle Ages, Biblical and finally High Middle Ages. Each section usually has 3 prizes allocated to it, except for Biblical which has just 2, because it only has 36 players in total compared to 60 players in the other sections. This time I have had to make a slight adjustment to this basic pattern and award 4 prizes to Early Middle Ages and only 2 prizes to High Middle Ages. The reason for this is that I had 2 players tied on 32 points in third place in Early Middle Ages and I had 7 (!) players tied in third pace in High Middle Ages on just 28 points. And I have awarded 3 prizes to Biblical as I have 3 players tied in first place on 36 points.

The winners are as follows . . .

Themed Event Pool A - LuciusSulla

Themed Event Pool B - dim30

Classical Antiquity - Captainwaltersavage 32, tyronec 32 and SpeedyCM 31

Late Antiquity - Conteshard 36, CyberHetman 36 and Malabar26 32

Early Middle Ages - MorkintheFree 35, Nosy_Rat 33, Garokan 32 and MadMaxBot 32

Biblical - random27 36, sarmation 36 and toska 36

High Middle Ages - Morat 32 and Kroche 31

Congratulations to all the winners. I really like the spread of the prizes across the various divisions this time. I will send out the vouchers this afternoon.

[stockwellpete]

I have now sent out all the vouchers. Please look after them until you use them.

[stockwellpete]

Just 3 matches left to do now. The adjudication process will be completed by the end of tomorrow (20/4).

[stockwellpete]

Classical Antiquity adjudications

Division B - Swuul v Trogilus adjudicated as a draw, points awarded 0-2 (voting 3-0)

Division D - carpenkm v snooky51 adjudicated as a win for snooky51, points awarded 0-4 (voting 3-0)

Division E - angel42052 v CoryC adjudicated as a draw, points awarded 0-2 (voting 3-0)

[stockwellpete]

Late Antiquity adjudications

Division A - batesmotel v sunnyboy adjudicated as a draw, points awarded 0-0 (voting 3-0)

Division A - batesmotel v Triarii adjudicated as a draw, points awarded 2-2 (voting 3-0)

Division A - nyczar v sunnyboy adjudicated as a draw, points awarded 0-0 (voting 3-0)

Division F - McHarg v MarcoCato75 adjudicated as a win for MarcoCato75, points awarded 0-4 (voting 2-0)

[stockwellpete]

Early Middle Ages adjudications

Division A - LuciusSulla v schmolywar adjudicated as a draw, points awarded 2-2 (voting 3-0)

Division A - schmolywar v Triarii adjudicated as a win for schmolywar, points awarded 4-0 (voting 3-0)

Division C - Karvon v Swuul adjudicated as a draw, points awarded 0-0 (voting 3-0)

Division C - Swuul v ulysisgrunt adjudicated as a win for ulysisgrunt, points awarded 0-4 (voting 3-0)

[stockwellpete]

High Middle Ages adjudications

Division B - Challenge1 v schmolywar adjudicated as a draw, points awarded 0-0 (voting 3-0)

Division C - GDod v Questar17 adjudicated as a win for Questar17, points awarded 0-4 (voting 3-0)

Division E - Stormcrow v toska adjudicated as a draw, points awarded 0-0 (voting 3-0)

[stockwellpete]

Final Tables

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[stockwellpete]

Final Tables

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[stockwellpete]

Final Tables

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[stockwellpete]

Final Tables

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[stockwellpete]

Both with excellent records of 9 wins from 10 matches, random27 (Median) and toska (Lydian) have shared the automatic promotion place in Biblical Division D. Both players will be promoted. Well played random27 and toska.

[stockwellpete]

Just one more adjudication to complete in Classical Antiquity now and then I will post up the final tables for that section. Today I will write the end of season report and update the archive.

[stockwellpete]

With everything at stake in the very last match of the season, snooky51 and his Indo-Skythian army secured his seventh win against close rival carpenkm to win automatic promotion from Classical Antiquity Division D. Well played snooky51.

[stockwellpete]

Final Tables

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[stockwellpete]

End of Season report

There was quite a bit of excitement pre-season as we were all waiting for the release of the new FOG2 Medieval game that would allow us to open up the last of our main sections, High Middle Ages. Recruitment was very rapid to all sections and we ended up with 118 registered players and all places taken. This was a new record, smashing the previous best of 96 players set in Season 9. We also managed to recruit 22 new players, which was also a record.

There was one new innovation with players in all the core sections of the tournament being given the option of choosing 1200 or 1600 point preferences for their armies, following a successful trial in Season 9. This worked very well and I had no problems at all to deal with during the course of the season.

After using the Creately tables and charts since Season 1, we shifted to Diagram.Net after Creately changed their terms and conditions. The Creately stuff was very good, the only draw back being that the cells sometimes shifted imperceptibly when I was entering data, and sometimes they could start to look a little bit ragged by the end of the season. There is no such problem with Diagram.Net, because if the cells shift at all they do so considerably, so you know to hit the Re-do button straight away. Once again Anders (hidde) did a great job in getting everything ready for the new season.

In terms of the playing strength of the tournament, I think we are undergoing a transitional period at the moment. We have lost a few of the top players, including Macedonczyk and pompeytheflatulent, while others have downsized their participation in the tournament. I think this is inevitable to a certain extent as players move on to other games, but hopefully the challenges offered by FOG2 Medieval will help us retain our best players. Of course, this does give plenty of opportunity for new players to come forward and challenge for places in the A divisions.

Classical Antiquity
LuciusSulla, entering the section for the first time and using the Achaemenid Persian army, emerged as the new champion of the Classical Antiquity section with a very powerful and unbeaten performance, finishing 9 points ahead of second-placed Questar17. This was the best finish ever for Questar17, who was the front runner for most of the season. harveylh, who finished second in Season 9, turned in another consistent performance to finish in third place. lunecastle was relegated after being a bit unfortunate to be promoted. He had won just 5 out of 9 matches in Division B in Season 9, but because of the loss of some of the top players he found himself propelled into the A division.

Newcomer tyronec stormed to promotion in Division B and it will be very interesting to see how he fares next season in the top divisions. Stew101 also maintained an unbeaten season to finish second and I am hoping there will be room to promote him to the top flight next time. At the bottom, Trogilus found the pace a bit too hot to handle and was well adrift of the others by the end of the season.

There was a welcome return to form for SpeedyCM in Division C and he won the division by 5 points from the steadily improving toska. ulysisgrunt finished third after having a very good season. Rob123 was the player to go down and, like lunecastle in Division A, he was a bit unfortunate to find himself in a higher division after finishing third in Division D in Season 9.

Division D went all the way to the very last match where snooky51 won an adjudication in a closely fought match with carpenkm. Both players are steadily improving and working their way up the divisions. deeter came a very creditable third. It was a surprise to me that doomben was relegated this time as he had performed very well in Division F in Season 9, but it does show that there is a difference in standard between each of the divisions, so maybe a double promotion was a bit too much for him.

Division E was exciting and eventually Captainwaltersavage (“the Captain”) prevailed by just 2 points over BobGanoush. Both players will be promoted. ggarynorman had a good season to finish third. The bottom placed player was rs2excelsior, who disappeared about two-thirds of the way through the season. A shame really as he had been a regular player hitherto.

Division F was good as well with Delbruck and Malabar26 both maintaining an unbeaten record and finishing exactly equal at the top of the table. Both players will be promoted. MarcoCato75 also did well to finish third in his first season. The wooden spoonist was Brenmusik who seems to be obsessed with the terrible Slave Revolt army. Unfortunately they lost all 9 matches this time, but the consolation for Brenmusik is that he has now taken a clear lead in the wooden spoonist table with 5 awards.

Late Antiquity
ericdoman1, who was one of the very top players back in the day when we all played FOG1, entered the FOG2DL for the first time and immediately took a grip of Division A and ended up as the champion using an Indian/Hepthalite combination. It was very impressive, but he was chased all the way by ConstantinIX, and desertedfox who had been promoted to the top flight at the end of Season 9. sunnyboy was relegated after what turned out to be a very difficult season for him all round.

Division B was a repeat of the same division in Classical Antiquity. tyronec turned in another very powerful performance to take the top spot ahead of the rapidly improving Aetius39, with DzonVejn finishing third. Both paulmcneil and SLancaster struggled badly with only 1 win each, but paulmcneil did beat SLancaster in their match together to send him down.

Division C was really tight with the top 6 players finishing within 6 points of each other. In the end it was Morat who prevailed after being the only player to secure 7 wins in the division. It was close at the bottom where 3 players could only manage 2 wins all season and Doyley50 was the unlucky one to go down.

There was a fabulous battle in Division D where Conteshard and snooky51 both had 8 wins when they came to play the last match of the season together. It was Conteshard who prevailed to complete a maximum point clean sweep. ulysisgrunt was also very consistent again and finished third. Bluefin found it a struggle and was relegated just behind 2 other players, General Shapur and Supervark, who also only managed 1 win each all season.

TomoeGozen won Division E by 4 points in the end, but it did look at one stage as if Blagrot might come on a late run and snatch the top place. He faltered in the end though and eventually finished fourth behind carpenkm and Darkwater247. rs2excelsior was also bottom in this division after defaulting from the tournament.

We could have another “Macedonczyk” on our hands in Division F where CyberHetman introduced himself with 9 straight wins to win promotion and complete a maximum point clean sweep. Undeterred Malabar26 won his other 8 matches to finish second and he will be promoted as well. Another steady performance from MarcoCato75 saw him finish in third place. McHarg was the wooden spoonist this time.

Early Middle Ages
Nosy_Rat, using the Ghaznavid army, regained the championship he had relinquished to Macedonczyk in Season 9 with a very commanding performance this time to win Division A by 8 points from harveylh. Geffalrus, who was making a return to the FOG2DL after a couple of season’s break, finished a creditable third in what was a very strong division. schmolywar was relegated with just 1 win, but he was only 4 points behind the player in sixth place. There are very fine margins sometimes in these divisions!

Challenge1 just pipped mr cholo for the automatic promotion place in Division B and I am hoping there is room to promote both players next season. There was another strong performance from Aetius39 to finish third. He is another player who is beginning to knock on the doors of the A divisions now. A very dispirited NikiforosFokas was relegated after failing to register a win this season.

MorkinTheFree completed a clean sweep to win Division C, just dropping 1 point all season, and he was chased all the way by tyronec who finished with 8 wins. Both players will be promoted. “Whirlwind” joggy, who finished all his matches in about 2 weeks, finished third, while Conteshard, somewhat surprisingly to me, was the player relegated.

Three players put in very fine performances worthy of promotion in Division D. Garokan took the automatic promotion place 4 points ahead of General Shapur who, in turn, was 2 points ahead of Blagrot in third place. Hopefully I will be able to promote all 3 players as they each only suffered 1 defeat all season. It was very close at the bottom and tmac11 finished just behind Bluefin and carpenkm.

There was a second narrow disappointment for BobGanoush in Division E where he finished just 2 points behind MadMaxBot, who had won 8 of his 9 matches. Both players will be promoted. deeter finished third again and is not too far off being ready to move higher up the divisions as well. General Kostas founding the going a bit too tough and was relegated.

Malabar26 and Delbruck dominated Division F with Malabar26 completing a clean sweep, only dropping 2 points all season. Delbruck had 7 wins and will also be promoted. The wooden spoonist was Sgt0gre this time, another player who completed his matches very rapidly.

Biblical
pantherboy, using the Achaemenid Persian army, was way too good for the rest in Division A and he won the championship by 12 points in what was a rare foray into this section. Aetius39 and MorkinTheFree finished second and third respectively with SLancaster adrift by 7 points at the bottom. It was good to see ruskicanuk return to the FOG2DL and I should think that any rustiness he may have been feeling is well and truly gone now and he will be a bigger threat next season.

It was very close in Division B where BishUK has won promotion to the top flight for the first time. Kraff, DzonVejn and lydianed were not too far behind and all had promotion chances at one point in the season. ahuyton is relegated after finishing just 2 points behind IMC, very unluckily considering he had posted 3 wins.

There was another promotion for SpeedyCM who won Division C by 4 points from tmac11, with Rob123 finishing third. Spacemonkey76 was also unlucky to be relegated after posting 3 wins, but he finished 1 point behind batesmotel.

random27 and toska absolutely tore up Division D between them, both registering 9 wins from their 10 matches and finishing in a tie at the top. Both players will be promoted. Kerait finished third and rs2excelsior came bottom yet again after defaulting from the tournament.

sarmation was the clear winner in Division E scoring 13 points more than his nearest rival who was SawyerK. angel42052 finished third with a creditable 5 wins, while gamercb was relegated with just 2 wins.

There was the first of 2 successes this season for dim30 who won Division F by a huge 11 points from Burgot and Delbruck. imatson2527 found his first season very hard and finished in the wooden spoon position 5 points behind Kroche.

High Middle Ages
Our first champion is harveylh, whose early season “whack-a-mole” tactic in Division A earned him just enough points to resist late challenges from klayeckles and Snugglebunnies. sunnyboy was relegated after failing to post a win this season.

In Division B ericdoman1 just pipped oscarius for the automatic promotion place by winning his last match. Sennacherib was 4 points back in third place while Challenge1 found the pace too much and is relegated without registering a win.

tyronec and Jagger2002 had a fabulous tussle in Division C finishing on the same number of points, but tyronec prevailed as he had posted 1 more win than his rival. Questar17 was only 2 points behind in third having suffered only 1 defeat all season. ahuyton found it too hard and was relegated.

There were familiar names at the top of Division D where Captainwaltersavage took the top spot by 4 points from SpeedyCM with “Whirwind” joggy in third place. At the bottom it was a second relegation for Doyley50 this season after finishing 5 points behind ulysisgrunt.

Some very good performances in Division E where Morat finished top with 8 wins ahead of Zawzgrzyrt and Kerait. Stormcrow and Supervark finished equal ninth with just 1 win each and both players will be relegated.

CyberHetman turned in another solid performance in Division F to just edge out Kroche by 1 point. Both players posted 8 wins and both will be promoted. Marvin_The_Arvn finished third after being the leader in the early stages and he only suffered one defeat. I hope there will be room to promote him as well. The first wooden spoonist of this section is the ever cheerful gort7078, who managed to win his last match to avoid a complete wipe-out.

Themed Event
Pool A was won by LuciusSulla who won all his 8 matches! I am not sure if that has been done before. hidde was the beaten finalist and nyczar and Cunningcairn were the beaten semi-finalists.

dim30 won Pool B decisively defeating MarcoCato75 in the final with deeter and ray552 being the beaten semi-finalists.

Summary
I thought this was another fabulous season. It is always a pleasure for me to see new players come into the tournament with a lot of enthusiasm and skill. We have an interesting group now who have done very well in their first season and it will be fascinating to see how players like CyberHetman. dim30, Malabar26 and Delbruck fare as they start to move up the divisions. There are 4 or 5 other players who I could have mentioned in this regard as well.

In terms of our top players we still have a strong group with harveylh, Nosy_Rat and pantherboy being successful again this season and they were joined by LuciusSulla and ericdoman1 who have won championships for the first time. It is quite possible that tyronec will join this elite group next season and we still have previous winners such as ConstantinIX, Geffalrus, hidde, ianiow, klayeckles and ruskicanuk playing regularly at a very high standard.

There were very few problems for me to deal with day-to-day. I think the rules work very well in the main and the first season of the 1200/1600 point option went very smoothly. The one issue concerning me a little bit is slow play. There were rather more adjudications to do this time than I would have liked, to be honest. We do have rules to deal with it and I will amplify those at the start of next season.

My thanks to hidde (Anders) and ianiow (Ian) for all their help once again with tables, charts and adjudications. And a thank you to Francesco at Slitherine for arranging the sponsorship details at Slitherine’s end. I will be taking a break for a few weeks once I have updated all the statistics and records. Anders will be updating the Player Ratings and Medals table in the next week or so.

I hope to see you again for Season 11, starting on June 1st.

[Captainwaltersavage]

Thanks, Pete, for all your efforts in arranging and promoting the digital league. This was my first 4 division entry and I had a lot of fun. It is a continual delight to play with so many talented thinkers and gamers. I am now planning my online gaming career (or possibly retirement) now that I have won prize money. I am looking forward to the next season already.

The Captain.

[TomoeGozen]

Thanks Pete for another brilliantly run Digital League. It never ceases to amaze me how smoothly it seems to run ,on the surface at least , given how many players and games are involved.

[BobGanoush]

Thank you for all the work it takes to run such a great and fun event Pete, Anders, and Ian!