[PREMIUM Prize] Initech XL: World Extravaganza [5th Rd]

[Peter Gibbons]

We are over 600 games and 3 rounds into the tournament, so no, it is not possible. You should look to tournaments that are recruiting, not active ones.

[Peter Gibbons]

I don't think I'll ever understand how a 4-person game can take 2 weeks to go 4 rounds, but it looks like we have the perfect storm of players who are just in the wrong locations around the world and only log onto the site once per day, so the last game that matters in our third round is taking forever. So, if you are in one of the games waiting for players for the fourth round, those games might disappear. I'll recreate them when we are ready to move forward. Sorry.

[Peter Gibbons]

The final game of the third round mercifully came to an end. Hath won no points, so Loose Canon advanced. All fourth round standard games are now active. The first set of terminator invites--for the Middle East--were sent out. I will send out the Soviet Union terminator and Indochina assassin invites this week.

Note that I am on vacation from 3/21-3/30. There will be minimal scoreboard updates during this period. Also, I will likely hold the 1v1 invites until April 1st. That will give us a good stagger amongst the 8 games for this round.

Top 20 players (line 22 on the scoreboard and up) will advance to the finals. We are starting to see some separation and rcfritz looks like a decent favorite for the championship, but remember there are 162 points left available to every player, so it's far from over.

[Peter Gibbons]

Soviet invites are out the door. I won't be able to get Indochina done before I leave, so that means the second half of Round 4 (assassin + 1v1s) is on hold until April 1st.

wrexham is travelling and his sitter does not have authority to re-up him to premium in order to accept games. Given the long length of this tourney, I'm accommodating him and will let him join his games when he's back next week. If you are in a game with him (Middle East or Soviet), I appreciate your patience.

If anyone has questions or concerns, please let me know.

[matoc]

in please ...

[Peter Gibbons]

in please ...

Baffling.

Anyway, I'm back from vacation. Getting caught up on scoring and games. Will take an assessment of where we are in the next day or two and then issue the next round of invites. Thanks for everyone's patience.

[nolefan5311]

in please ...

[Peter Gibbons]

All games are out this round except the final Greater China 1v1 game. Will hold off just a bit--likely until everyone has completed at least one 1v1 game this round--before creating the games and sending the invites.

Top 20 players make the final round. That means line 22 and above on the scoreboard. No one is mathematically eliminated yet, but there's starting to be some serious separation.

[Peter Gibbons]

All games for Round 4 are out.

96 points is the current magic number.

7 players eliminated. 13 more needed before we can move on.

Looks like Soviet Union will take the longest this time, which makes sense since it was delayed. The rest of the maps should all be finished relatively shortly.

[Peter Gibbons]

10 games remain in Round 4...

A) 1 5-player standard THAILAND game (winding down)

B) 1 5-player terminator MIDDLE EAST game

C) all 8 5-player terminator SOVIET UNION games

[Peter Gibbons]

Down to 7 games. Five Soviet Union games and then the single Thailand and Middle East games.

Need to eliminate five more players to get down to the last 20. Right now, 102 is the magic number.

[Peter Gibbons]

The six active games from the Asian Round are in Rounds 23, 17, 26, 30, 23 and 29. Hopefully we can proceed to the 5th Round without waiting for all to conclude, but just wanted to give everyone an update of where things stand.

[Peter Gibbons]

Down to 5 active games. Now very unlikely that the top 22 will change, but it is still mathematically possible so we have to wait. Appreciate everyone's patience.

rcfritz will start the final round with a 14 point lead. With no more than a 61-point margin between 1st and 20th place, all players will begin the final round mathematically alive for the championship (81 points available to each player). Realistically, however, it looks like a 3-person race between rcrfitz, t4mcr53s2, and shoop76 (with Gromph and Walter Sobchak possibly factoring in if they win their final fourth round games).

[Peter Gibbons]

We're getting closer to moving on. I've done the full draw for the next round all at once, so everyone knows who will play whom in each game. If you're in yellow, your participation is provisional--you still could be mathematically overtaken for fifth round qualification.

Invites for the first four games are out to anyone who is officially qualified for the 5th round (16 of 20 players). Some games will start immediately. Some will wait a few days until the final spots can be filled. Thanks for your continued patience.

[Peter Gibbons]

Three spots remaining for four players. Soviet Union #8 will likely determine everything, with Ratrin needing a win to advance.

However, it does appear 72o has left the site (he deadbeated his final game). I've issued him a second round of invites. If that is true, we could be ready to go sooner--depends on the potential tiebreaker between Ratrin and Enormastitz (which I haven't analyzed yet).