The Division 4 matches are done, and Round 1 of the tournament is now complete! Let’s review what happened with the all-star lineup in this segment…
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Ambitious Twine rogue-like and #44 seed 4x4 Archipelago started fast, outscoring Dialog-based light puzzler The Impossible Stairs 3-to-1 in the first hours of the match. The authorized sequel to The Impossible Bottle soon tied up and continued to advance throughout the first quarter, leaving it ahead at 7-3 by the end of Day 2. 4x4 didn’t give up, and a flurry of votes the second half kept strong pressure on its challenger, but time ran out before the shared recipient of the 2021 XYZZY award for Best Use of Innovation could catch up, and the match ended at a relatively close 9-7 in the third-most popular match of the segment. 4x4 Archipelago was the only contestant written by Agnieszka Trzaska, who has earned our applause and new fans before retiring from the field.
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In the tournament’s second clash between works written in Inform 6, The Mulldoon Legacy and Endless, Nameless faced off. The two long-format pieces were similiarly rated in the seed rankings, and their match was a slow-paced battle of attrition in which the metaphorical puzzler twice pulled ahead by two then saw its lead ground down by the steady pace of its detective drama opponent. Locked at 6-6 for a large portion of the match, a late vote for what may be the tournament’s most difficult puzzler put it over the top and secured the win. Author Adam Cadre’s other entrant, competing at the same time in the far court, saw better results.
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Custom-built Harmonia faced off against neoclassic puzzler Savoir-Faire in a bout that pit the work of two sometime collaborators against each other. The innovative interface of the well-researched, vaguely Lovecraftian mystery story won new admirers in the crowd, but the visionary puzzle mechanic of Savoir-Faire carried the day with a final score of 11-4. Author Liza Daly is the creator of the Windrift system that powered her entry, and choice authors may wish to take note of some of the uniquely-styled interactions it enables.
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Formerly-commercial low fantasy RPG-like Treasures of a Slaver’s Kingdom battled fractured fairytale Bronze in a popular, nailbiting match in the middle courts. Although the Conan-lampooning comedy took a large lead of 9-4 on the first 24 hours of the contest, the darkened, high-texture version of the classic children’s tale drew vote after vote in the ensuing days. After tying at 9-9 with just one day to go, the two contestants of the second-most popular contest in this segment kept horns locked until the buzzer, and a coin toss was required to determine the victor. Luck favored Bronze, which will go on to face Savoir-Faire in Round 2 in the tournament’s first matchup of two games by the same author. Author S. John Ross has no other entrants in the tournament, but we salute his contribution to the field and express our thanks that he chose to release this game to the public after its commercial run. This chance-based decision could have easily gone the other way.
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The tournament’s second “monster” contestant, #2 seed parser horror Anchorhead, fended off a challenge by extensive Twine teen drama Known Unknowns with a final score of 11-4. Interestingly, votes for the defender were switched to the challenger not once but twice over the course of the match. The voters in question were quiet about the motivations behind their decision, so it’s hard to gauge the significance of these twin realignments, but it’s possible that the venerable parser classic may face more difficulty than expected in future matches. Known Unknowns, which was nominated for 9 XYZZY awards in 2017, was the second and final competing work by author Brendan Patrick Hennessy, and we salute his performance on the field. Fans of Hennessy’s work will be pleased to know that IFDB lists several others by the same author, including CYOA parody You Will Select a Decision.
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Genteel situation comedy Alias ‘The Magpie’ caught oddsmakers by surprise, smoothly snatching a victory out from under massively-collaborative horror exploration Cragne Manor. After taking an early lead of 6-3 by the end of Day 2, the winner of the 2018 XYZZY for Best PC finished the match ahead by six at 10-4. The highjinks-filled laughfest may carry this momentum into a second “horror vs. humor” match when it enters the ring with Anchorhead in the second segment of Round 2 starting July 13. We offer a salute to author Everyone for the scale of Cragne Manor, and hope to see them in the stands in later rounds.
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Complex noir drama Make It Good got a late start against sci-fi fantasy Worlds Apart in a slow-moving match in court 7, taking over a day to earn its first point. By then, the winner of the 1999 XYZZY for Best Story was already ahead by three, but the hardbitten detective story kept plugging and steadily narrowed the gap over the following days. After reaching just one behind the leader shortly into the second half and holding that position for several days, its impenetrable defense slipped in the final hours of the last quarter. When time ran out, the defender led 5-3. Author Jon Ingold’s other competing work, The Mulldoon Legacy, won its own match in court 2, advancing his banner to Round 2.
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Finally, in the far court, boundary-breaking classic Photopia was challenged by boundary-testing GUI simulator Digital: A Love Story in a hot match that drew the third-largest crowd in the tournament to date. The virtually unknown outsider and homage to the BBS era put up a stiff fight, gaining two votes for every three going to the defender, but it never managed to get any closer than two points behind at 7-5 on Day 2. The popular puzzleless defender kept up with the challenger’s pace in the second half and won the match at a final score of 12-8. The lowest-seeded Ren’py-entry was author Christine Love’s only game competing in the tournament, but IFDB lists many other works by the author, including Analogue: A Hate Story. We salute the author and the work’s honorable performance.