After its unannounced early start, Round 1 of Division 2 is well on its way!
In the most anticipated match of the segment, A Change in the Weather has taken a strong lead over A Dark Room, pulling in four votes before its opponent scored at all. The outlier text-based “idle game” has now gained a vote, and the board currently stands at 4-1.
Just as active is the first match of the segment, in which Lime Ergot leads CC’s Road to Stardom with the same 4-1 score.
At the moment Taco Fiction vs. Eidolon is tied at 1 all in what is surprisingly the slowest match so far.
DAY 1
A Change in the Weather continues to maintain a large lead over A Dark Room in what is by a slight margin the most popular match. The score there is now 6-2.
Meanwhile, Lime Ergot vs. CC’s Road to Stardom looks to be the most unbalanced match, with a current score of 6-1 in favor of the short but successful parser experiment. At five points ahead, it also has the largest lead over its opponent, a multimedia Adventuron work about anthropomorphized animals in space.
Taco Fiction vs. Eidolon continues to be one of the slower matches in the segment, but the pace has picked up. The breakout “game about crime” by Ryan Veeder is tied at 2-2 with the Twine tale of insomnia and a magical visitor, which scored the first point in the match.
Inevitable (2003) vs. Word of the Day pits two personal dramas about military PCs with conflicting goals in interstellar civilizations against each other, and though Inevitable maintained a single-point lead for much of the first day, its opponent has now caught up at 2-2.
Perdition’s Flames is hot on the heels of Nightfall in their match, but the nuclear thriller is ahead of the afterlife treasure hunt at 3-2.
Sand-dancer and The Mystery of Winchester High are both stories of misfit youths, but despite the first point going to the school-age treasure hunt, the more serious entry featuring a mystical desert journey is now in the lead at 3-2.
Venerable Inform 6 puzzler The Edifice is ahead of its Inform 7 Pokemon-inspired opponent, with the board now at 4-2 after starting with a 2-0 lead.
Adventuron entry Over Here! scored first in its match against ADRIFT entry The Lost Labyrinth of Lazaitch, but the latter has since had an unbroken streak and now leads at 3-1.
DAY 2
A Dark Room vs. A Change in the Weather remains the hottest match, and the multi-layered click-oriented web game is gaining ground on the pioneering contemplative parser work. It’s now two behind at 4-6.
Lime Ergot has scored another two points, extending its lead over CC’s Road to Stardom to seven points in a tremendous scoring streak.
Nightfall picked up a vote, dimming the hopes for Perdition’s Flames somewhat. With the score at 4-2 and a dozen days remaining in the segment, nothing is certain yet. Likewise, Sand-dancer is now two up on The Mystery of Winchester High at 4-2 after gaining another vote.
The Edifice pulled slightly farther ahead of Pogoman GO!, picking up a point after its author stopped by to add some comments about the game’s formative influences; the score in that match is now 5-2. Inevitable (2003) also scored, restoring its narrow one-point lead over Word of the Day for the time being.
Taco Fiction and Eidolon have been running quite close, with additional votes to both sides edging up the tally slowly. Although they have spent most of the time tied, at the moment Taco Fiction leads by one at 4-3. This match was rated second most interesting of the segment in advance polling (and among the top quarter of all Round 1 matches overall) which suggests that more votes are on the way; it seems as though fans may be having a tough time making up their minds between these two works.
DAY 3
Eidolon has earned a fourth vote, bringing the score between it and Taco Fiction once again to a tie.
Perdition’s Flames scored another point, partly closing the gap with Nightfall and leaving it trailing by one.
Inevitable (2003) continues to hold a minimal lead over opponent Word of the Day in unchanged scoring.
DAY 4
CC’s Road to Stardom has received a second vote, leaving it still six behind Lime Ergot at 8-2 but bringing their match to a tie for hottest of the segment.
Also, Inevitable (2003) has lengthened its lead over Word of the Day with the score moving to 4-2.
DAY 5
Taco Fiction has inched ahead of opponent Eidolon yet again, with the board now showing 5-4. With more than a week to go, the match could still go to either one.
Over Here! picked up a point, drawing nearer to The Lost Labyrinth of Lazaitch, which still leads by one at 3-2 in the slowest match of the segment. The Adventuron-based, 1980s-style graphical text adventure with pixel art styling might yet catch up to the low fantasy quest written in ADRIFT.
DAY 6
Votes continue to trickle in for what seems to be a more contemplative segment than we saw for Division 1, though so far the majority of fans responding to a mid-game poll say that they are finding it to be about the same difficulty or easier to decide how to cast their votes.
In match #11, A Dark Room continues to gain on A Change in the Weather and is now just one step behind at 6-5. As we go into the weekend, we may see more activity soon in this most anticipated contest of the segment.
Lime Ergot pulled in another vote, regaining a 7-point lead over CC’s Road to Stardom. Fan participation in this contest has been running substantially higher than expected based on advance polling, and both this and match #11 are tied on the metric of most votes per contest.
DAY 7
Here at the halfway mark, several matches remain close – in three of them the leader has only a scant single-vote lead. Given the burst of late voting activity seen for Division 1, only a few matches can be called with any certainty.
A break in its favor has put A Change in the Weather two votes ahead of opponent A Dark Room at 7-5, blunting the progress of the surprise-laden multi-mode clicker. Even so, A Dark Room has closed half of the four-point deficit showing at the end of Day 1, and it might still prevail.
CC’s Road to Stardom also scored, nibbling at the edges of opponent Lime Ergot’s massive lead. The short but successful parser experiment remains six points ahead of the multimedia kids’ puzzler at 9-3, in a match that remains tied for hottest of the segment.
Sand-dancer scooped up another point, giving it some breathing room in front of opponent The Mystery of Winchester High; the score there is now 5-2. The well-implemented youth adventure story still has a week to try to make up the three points it needs for a tie. With both entries offering comp-length experiences, more votes may still be coming in this match.
DAY 8
With a big influx of votes from one player, the heat has kicked up a notch moving into the second half.
Eidolon has gained a step on Taco Fiction, and the two works are now dead even for the fourth time at 5-5. Likewise, Perdition’s Flames has caught up with Nightfall and is now running neck-and-neck at 4-4.
Underdogs Pogoman GO! and The Mystery of Winchester High have both closed the gap a bit with their respective opponents The Edifice and Sand-dancer, but each is still two behind.
Meanwhile, Lime Ergot, A Change in the Weather and Inevitable (2003) have all increased their leads.
DAY 9
A Change in the Weather has picked up another vote, continuing to pull away from A Dark Room with the score now at 9-5 in its favor. After that change, this match has regained its status as the hottest of the segment.
DAY 10
Another batch of votes has shifted the standings in every contest.
Lime Ergot has widened the gap between itself and CC’s Road to Stardom even more, placing it 8 points ahead and within reach of a new People’s Champion Tournament record for the metric of largest point lead.
Nightfall has broken its tie with Perdition’s Flames and is one point ahead at 5-4. Likewise, Taco Fiction has moved ahead of Eidolon and is now at 6-5. Given the back-and-forth seen so far in these two contests, both seem susceptible to late reversal, but only time will tell…
A Dark Room gained a step on match leader A Change in the Weather amid fan discussion of the latter. With three points still needed to tie, it will take a substantial scoring streak for it to catch up before time runs out.
Over Here! has managed to pull even with The Lost Labyrinth of Lazaitch, adding drama to the segment’s slowest match. Without additional voting, this contest will be decided by coin toss.
Inevitable (2003), The Edifice and Sand-dancer have all gained votes over their respective opponents Word of the Day, Pogoman GO! and The Mystery of Winchester High. With at least a three-point lead for each of them, chances look good for the current leaders.
DAY 11
A vote for The Edifice has firmed up its lead as the clock continues to tick down. With a four point lead at 7-3, opponent Pogoman GO! will need a miraculous comeback to win.
DAY 12
Lime Ergot has scored again, expanding its lead to a whopping nine points over CC’s Road to Stardom and once again tying this match for hottest of the segment. With this it sets a new record for most points scored by a game in this tournament. If it can hold its current lead until Saturday, Ergot will also set a record for largest winning margin.
Taco Fiction has gained another point over Eidolon, giving it a modicum of security in the form of a two-point lead heading into the home stretch.
The Edifice has also scored again, raising its overall lead to five points at 8-3.
DAY 13
The Edifice continues its late scoring streak, earning another point unopposed and now showing a 3-to-1 ratio of points scored against Pogoman GO!.
Sand-dancer also sifted another vote from the stands, leaving it 4 ahead of The Mystery of Winchester High at 7-3.
Only one day remains for this segment. Those cheering for games competing in matches #10, #12 and #13 wait anxiously to learn whether (and how) late voting will affect these close contests.
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FINAL RESULTS
Match #09: Caleb Wilson’s Lime Ergot ran away with this match, easily defeating CC’s Road to Stardom by OK Feather in a contest that drew a surprisingly large number of votes. The influential proof-of-concept simply outdistanced the highly-developed graphical puzzler, steadily scoring at a ratio of 4-to-1 and ending the match at 12-3 in a performance comparable to that of Illuminismo Iniziato in Division 1. The win was in line with the expectations of the majority of fans as well as Calculon. CC’s Road to Stardom was the only competing entry by OK Feather; those who would like to see more from the author(s) will be pleased to learn of their pigeon-themed holiday game Feathery Christmas, also listed on IFDB.
Match #10: Perdition’s Flames by Michael Roberts gave a good run to Eric Eve’s Nightfall, but the latter won their match with a final score of 6-4. Nightfall was the first to score, but Flames kept up the pressure and reached a tie score by the start of the mid-match weekend. Another vote for Nightfall arrived at the beginning of week 2, giving it the slim advantage that it expanded by another point in the hours before voting closed. Fans unanimously predicted a win by Nightfall, but Calculon chose its opponent. Perdition’s Flames was the only competing entry by Michael Roberts, author of the TADS development system and of many other works that can be found on IFDB, such as the highly rated Return to Ditch Day. We salute his dedication to keeping the form of high-quality parser IF alive after the collapse of commercial market.
Match #11: Andrew Plotkin’s A Change in the Weather surpassed Michael Townsend’s A Dark Room in a match that served fans a choice between an apple and an orange. A strong opening streak by the former in this, one of the segment’s two tied-for-hottest matches, let it notch four points before the latter could score, but near the end of the first week the text-driven web game was hot on the heels of the historically-significant parser work and seemed poised to take the lead. Instead, Weather found its second wind in weekend scoring, re-opening a lead that Dark Room couldn’t overcome, and when time ran out the scoreboard showed 9-6. Three-quarters of fans called the match for the newer web-based entry, as did Calculon, so the result of this match defied most predictions. A Dark Room was author Michael Townsend’s only work on the tournament’s lists, but fans who wish to see more by him may wish to check out his commercial release Penrose, also found on IFDB.
Match #12: Larry Horsefield’s The Lost Labyrinth of Lazaitch and Lionel Ange’s Over Here! played a slow-paced match that delivered building excitement to fans and final victory to the latter. Over Here! scored first, but by the end of Day 1 Lazaitch was up by two. In ensuing days the pixelated Adventuron work chipped away at its opponent’s lead, and by the early part of the second week it had tied up the score at 3-3. There the score remained until time ran out, and Lady Luck gave the win to Over Here! by coin flip. Fan predictions were heavily in favor of this result, and Calculon agreed with the crowd. No other work by Larry Horsefield is competing, but The Lost Labyrinth is the seventh in a long-running series featuring the same protagonist, and fans can find other episodes on IFDB.
Match #13: Ryan Veeder’s Taco Fiction and A. D. Jansen’s Eidolon had a very dynamic match that saw the two dissimilar but strong works trade first place repeatedly. Their fourth tie broke in favor of Veeder’s popular crime simulator near the start of the second week, and another point around mid-week provided a margin of victory that held until the end with a final score of 7-5. Humans and machinery universally predicted a win by Taco Fiction, making the close nature of this match doubly dramatic. Eidolon was the only published work by author A. D. Jansen, but we salute its vigorous performance in this contest as work and maker retire from the field.
Match #14: Kathleen Fischer’s Inevitable (2003) prevailed against Richard Otter’s Word of the Day in a contest ending at 6-2. The random pairing of two works concerning the conflicting motives driving military service members in interstellar empires was one of Lady Luck’s more apropos gestures. Although the games were tied early in the match, later fan voting strongly preferred the contemplative Myst-like puzzler over the action-oriented tale of mutiny and betrayal. All human predictions correctly called the winner, though Calculon backed its opponent. The perhaps misleadingly-named Word of the Day was author Richard Otter’s only competing work in the tournament, but over 20 other works by him are available on IFDB including Unauthorized Termination and Pathway to Destruction.
Match #15: Notable work The Edifice by Lucian Smith beat Pokemon-inspired Pogoman GO! by Jack Welch and Ben Collins-Sussman with a substantial margin, ending at 9-3 in a match pairing two works featuring different takes on the theme of evolution. The earlier work developed a significant lead by Day 2 and held it throughout the remainder of the match. Fan predictions strongly favored this outcome, outperforming the tournament’s prognostication algorithm which did not. While Pogoman GO! was the only work by the repeat co-authors competing in this tournament, those who would like to see more by Jack Welch and Ben Collins-Sussman are encourage to check out their earlier works Rover’s Day Out and Hoosegow, among others found on IFDB. We salute the spirit of innovation that pervades the works by this talented pair as they leave the field.
Match #16: Finally, Sand-dancer by Aaron Reed and Alexei Othenin-Girard was victorious over The Mystery of Winchester High by Garry Francis, with a final score of 7-3. Although the latter was faster out of the gate, the former’s lead grew steadily after it passed its opponent on Day 1. Both parser games featured unruly youth and are geared toward introductory audiences, but the more serious subject matter of the well-developed textbook example garnered more support than the school-setting treasure hunt developed for the Text Adventure Literacy Project. Fans were evenly split in their expectations of a win, and Calculon lacked the data to make a call either way. Another entry by author Garry Francis, Submarine Sabotage, has already advanced to Round 2, and two more are slated to compete in Division 4, so fans will see more works by him soon.
With all said and done for this heat, PCT Fan @mathbrush has taken the lead in the Official Prediction Game, with 12 out of 16 correct calls so far. This heat has knocked out nominees by @AmandaB, @Denk, @Hidnook, mathbrush and several fans who submitted their nominations anonymously, but every player still has other champions in the running (see note below). The action now moves to Round 1 of Division 3. Stay tuned…
EDIT: On closer review, it seems that one of the works eliminated this round was the single nominee of the anonymous and unlucky fan who had all but one pick passed over in the lottery. I extend heartfelt consolations to this player, and special thanks for the chosen nomination, which I hadn’t played before its selection. 24 fans still have champions in the running: 1 with 1, 11 with 2, 8 with 3, and 4 with 4.