Division 1 Round 1 has successfully concluded, and the results are in (see above). Let’s review the action:
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Heavyweight Superluminal Vagrant Twin brushed aside a challenge from Excalibur, justifying its position as the #3 seed for the tournament. A strong showing of crowd support in the bleachers for the experimental wiki-format challenger’s bid against the highest-seeded work in this segment didn’t translate into the points needed to win, but author J. J. Guest’s work will be seen again when Alias, ‘The Magpie’ competes in Division 4.
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And Then You Come to a House Not Unlike the Previous One substantially outperformed opponent Zozzled despite both being IF Comp winners with similar seed rankings (#40 and #38 respectively). As Zozzled retires from the field, another contestant by author Steph Cherrywell, Chlorophyll, begins its first match in Division 2.
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Lost Pig defeated Suveh Nux in a crowd-drawing matchup that received over 70% more votes than any other. The two Inform 6 entries each put over 10 points on the board in a blistering first half, but by the halftime mark #62 seed challenger Suveh Nux had lost an early lead against its #11 seed rival, and it was never quite able to recover in the second half. Suveh Nux was author David Fisher’s only contestant in the tournament, but it can retire from the field honorably after having scored more points than the winner of any other match in this segment.
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The Impossible Bottle beat A Long Way to the Nearest Star in one of the quieter matches of the segment. Both games started strong, but after a streak of early scores by the #13 seed Dialog entry, the winner of the Rising Star award in IF Comp 2022 (as well as both the Player’s Choice and Author’s Choice awards for Outstanding Debut in the inaugural 2022 IFDB Awards) wasn’t able to move the needle for the remainder of the match. All eyes turned to match 08, where SV Linwood’s other entry was competing simultaneously.
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55th seed Of Their Shadows Deep pulled off the first significant upset in the tournament, knocking 29th seed Birdland (winner of no less than six XYZZY awards in 2015) out of the tournament in another relatively quiet match after team manager Amanda Walker opted to keep it in play. The short but powerful work has won new fans among the crowd, notably climbing in its IFDB rankings per the June 10 update. Author Brendan Patrick Hennessy’s work will be seen again in Division 4, when Known Unknowns takes the field.
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#5 seed The Wizard Sniffer, the other heavyweight in this segment, barely fended off a strong challenge by City of Secrets. The #36 seed Inform 6 work punched above its weight in its contest against the 2017 IF Comp champion and winner of five XYZZY awards, and held its own through a vigorous first half that ended at a tie score of 6-6. However, in the second half the crowd-pleasing porcine comedy scored twice more, deciding the match. Emily Short has the most entries of any single author in this tournament, so rest assured that there will be more to see from this leading light in the field – including top seed Counterfeit Monkey, which is currently competing in Division 2.
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15th seed Junior Arithmancer eked out a win against 43rd seed challenger Cryptozookeper in a contest that pit pure logic against a multimedia-enhanced horror comedy. Author Robb Sherwin’s only entry and the lone Hugo entry in the tournament, Cryptozookeeper started strong but lost ground slowly and was eventually surpassed by the number-manipulation puzzlefest. We salute its performance as leaves the field.
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Finally, Dr. Ludwig and the Devil vs. Midnight. Swordfight. turned out to be a dynamic and close battle between two similarly-ranked contestants (#30 and #34 seeds, respectively). After tying at 7-7 in the third quarter, neither was able to put another point on the board, and the match was resolved by coin toss with victory declared for Midnight. Swordfight.. The winner will go on to face
Of Their Shadows Deepin what total scores suggest might become another close match. [See below.] Unfortunately, this randomized decision means that both works by highly versatile and accomplished author SV Linwood have been eliminated from the tournament, but we salute the fact that Linwood is unique in having 100% of published work selected to compete in this best-of-the-best lineup.
[EDIT: Midnight. Swordfight. will be facing The Wizard Sniffer in Round 2, not Of Their Shadows Deep. We apologize for any confusion caused by the error; the technical difficulty has been traced to a temporary caffeine deficiency.]