Despite the opening of Spring Thing 2025, Round 1 of Division 3 has had a rollicking start. The “heavy hitters” of this division are showing their mettle in what promises to be an exciting heat.
DAY 1
Advance polling showed a tie in audience interest for two matches: #18 and #23.
In match #18, What Heart Heard Of, Ghost Guessed had an explosive burst of scoring in the opening hours, putting five points on the board before opponent The Dreamhold managed its first. The introductory work by Andrew Plotkin has since gained another point, leaving it three points behind Amanda Walker’s tale of ghostly revenge at 5-2.
In match #23, Galatea and To Hell in a Hamper were running even for the first few points, but a sudden streak of scoring by Emily Short’s conversational landmark has given it a two-point edge over J. J. Guest’s comedic allegory.
Hunter, in Darkness, the third work by Andrew Plotkin to appear on the rolls, has made an unprecedented start against Pick Up the Phone Booth and Aisle, rocketing a full nine points ahead while its opponent remains at zero. The unexpectedly hot match has already set a tournament record for longest unopposed starting streak.
First Things First took an early lead over Christminster in early scoring, but the latter has since caught up, and the score between these two long-play works built with different systems is now even at 3-3. Audience discussion indicates that some fans may have more trouble than average deciding between these two.
DAY 2
All Things Devours had a very strong start against The Golden Heist; after securing a five point lead by mid-day on Day 1, it scored again on Day 2, placing it substantially ahead at 7-1.
Once and Future holds a narrow edge over The Weapon at 4-3. After scoring first, it has stayed half-a-step ahead of its rival, which otherwise matched it point for point in yesterday’s opening rush.
Never Gives Up Her Dead is leading Dr. Dumont’s Wild P.A.R.T.I. by 4-1, having established its 3-point advantage by the end of Day 1. The closely-watched contest pits the most ambitious work of the world’s foremost authority on published interactive fiction against that of a well-known former Infocom Implementor, but fan participation so far has been limited – most likely because both works are large-scale, long-form puzzlers.
Brain Guzzlers from Beyond! has maintained a small but stable two-point lead over The End Means Escape since passing the experimental work early on Day 1. The score currently stands at 3-1.
In new scoring: The Dreamhold has edged closer to match leader What Heart Heard Of, Ghost Guessed and is now two points behind at 5-3. Galatea has pulled farther ahead of To Hell in a Hamper, currently at 6-3. Hunter, in Darkness continues to shatter records with an extended opening scoring streak; it is now more than ten points ahead at 11-0. First Things First has broken the tie with Christminster and for now holds a slim one-point lead.
DAY 3
Pick Up the Phone Booth and Aisle has earned its first vote, ending the outsized opening streak of opponent Hunter, in Darkness. The score in that match is now 11-1.
Short-form sci-fi thriller The Weapon has gained a vote, tying with long-form fantasy quest Once and Future at 4-4.
Never Gives Up Her Dead scored another time against Dr. Dumont’s Wild P.A.R.T.I., giving it a sizable four-point lead at 5-1.
Galatea continues to outpace To Hell in a Hamper, currently leading 7-3 in this segment’s second-hottest match.
Brain Guzzlers from Beyond! added to its margin over The End Means Escape and now has some breathing room at 4-1 in what remains the slowest-paced contest of the segment.
DAY 4
Christminster has made up the point lost to First Things First, and the two games are again tied with the scoreboard reading 4-4.
The Dreamhold continues to gain slowly on What Heart Heard Of, Ghost Guessed; it is currently just one point behind at 5-4.
DAY 5
Brain Guzzlers from Beyond! scored a fifth time, putting it up by four over The End Means Escape.
DAY 6
With another point for The Dreamhold, it has made up a five-point deficit and is now running even with What Heart Heard Of, Ghost Guessed at 5 all.
Hunter, in Darkness and Brain Guzzlers from Beyond! have both added one to their leads over respective opponents Pick Up the Phone Booth and Aisle and The End Means Escape.
To Hell in a Hamper has also scored, decreasing Galatea’s lead to three points at 7-4. It still has substantial ground to cover in order to catch up.
Three different matches are now at tie status: The Weapon vs Once and Future, The Dreamhold vs What Heart Heard Of, Ghost Guessed, and First Things First vs Christminster. Weekend voting may break one or all of them.
DAY 7
First Things First has broken the tie and pulled one ahead of Christminster. The score is now 5-4.
DAY 8
To Hell in a Hamper has gained a pair of votes, substantially closing the gap between itself and Galatea. It is now one point behind at 7-6; the new total score makes this match tied for hottest of the segment alongside Hunter, in Darkness vs. Pick Up the Phone Booth and Aisle.
DAY 9
All Things Devours has received another vote, raising its lead to seven points against opponent The Golden Heist. At 8-1, the matchup of a puzzle-centric parser game with minimal story vs. a story-centric choice game with minimal puzzles has yielded one of the most lopsided contests (in terms of scoring ratio) in the tournament to date, second only to Hunter, in Darkness vs. Pick Up the Phone Booth and Aisle.
DAY 10
After a sustained effort, To Hell in a Hamper has managed to pull even with Galatea at 7 all. The match between these two award-winning one-room works now hangs in the balance as time begins to grow short.
Another point for Hunter, in Darkness has kept up the heat in its match against Pick Up the Phone Booth and Aisle, retaining a tie for first place as the hottest of the segment. The score on the board is now 13-1.
Once again, three different matches are now at tie status.
DAY 11
Hunter, in Darkness has earned yet another vote over Pick Up the Phone Booth and Aisle, bringing the current score in that match to 14-1 and returning it to “hottest match” status.
DAY 12
Never Gives Up Her Dead scored twice more, extending its lead over Dr. Dumont’s Wild P.A.R.T.I. to a full six points at 7-1.
DAY 13
No new scoring in the past day. All eyes are on matches #17, #18 and #23 to see whether last day voting produces a win for any of their six contestants, or whether all six are consigned to the whims of Lady Luck.
Match #19 is also very close and could change in the final hours.
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FINAL RESULTS
Match #17: The Weapon and Once and Future battled to a draw of 4-4, ending in a decision by coin flip for the former. Once and Future, an epic Arthurian-like adventure famous for having been in development for five years during the mid 90s, took the first point and by the end of Day 1 was ahead at 4-3. However, the technologically advanced sci-fi mini-thriller caught up over the course of the following day, and the score remained static until time ran out. Fan predictions were evenly split between these two works, and Calculon was unable to choose a winner, so there were advance indications that this would be a close one between well-balanced opponents. Author G. Kevin Wilson may be best known as the founder of IF Comp, one of the most widely-known pillars of the modern IF community, but he produced a handful of other works including The Lesson of the Tortoise and notably collaborated with ex-Infocom Implementors Marc Blank and the late Michael Berlyn on Zork: The Undiscovered Underground. We salute the author and the ambitious work as they exit the field.
Match #18: Tutorialized, beginner-friendly The Dreamhold only narrowly edged out well-known short drama What Heart Heard Of, Ghost Guessed, with a score of 6-5 in one of two headline matches. Fans of the ghost story mobilized early, and What Heart Heard Of rocketed ahead with a five-point lead before Dreamhold was out of the gate, though by the end of Day 1 the long-form story of an amnesiac wizard was only two points behind. The slow accumulation of additional votes put Dreamhold over the top on the final day of voting. Although the author of What Heart Heart Of, Ghost Guessed publicly compared the match as a David vs. Goliath scenario and cast her work as the underdog, the strong majority of fans predicted a win by What Heart Heard Of, Ghost Guessed, as did Calculon, so this result is a surprise to oddsmakers. The crowd cheers wildly as popular new author Amanda Walker and her trendsetting work, which is currently #77 on the IFDB Top 100 list, retire honorably from the field. Fans not familiar with her catalog will find many other works by this rising star on IFDB, including Of Their Shadows Deep and The Spectators.
Match #19: Time travel drama First Things First also squeaked by with a narrow win against alchemy-oriented modern mystery Christminster, yielding a final score of 5-4 in a match pitting two long-form turn-of-the-century works against each other. The first vote went to First, but by the end of the day it and its opponent were tied at 3-3. First moved ahead again on Day 2, followed by a renewed tie the next day. The two contestants kept horns locked until mid-match weekend voting brought out the winning vote for First Things First. Predicting fans were split 50-50 about the outcome of this bout, but Calculon correctly called it for First Things First. No other works by author Gareth Rees are competing in the tournament, and Christminster is his only major release. As they leave the field, we salute both the author and this influential early work, which was instrumental in setting a high bar for quality in the early post-commercial era.
Match #20: Hunter, in Darkness set new tournament records in its unexpectedly lopsided match against Pick Up the Phone Booth and Aisle, with the final score a remarkable 14-1 in its favor. The double-spoof of Pick Up the Phone Booth and Die and Aisle, a collaboration between over a dozen authors, simply did not seem to resonate with today’s fans; they overwhelmingly preferred Andrew Plotkin’s innovative reinterpretation of the venerable mainframe game Hunt the Wumpus in an initial three-day rush that earned it 11 points unopposed. Fans making predictions were evenly split again on this match, but Calculon called it correctly. Authors Emily Short and J. Robinson Wheeler, both of whom contributed to Pick Up the Phone Booth and Aisle, each have other works in the tournament that are still competing. The organizer salutes the remaining authors as their game leaves the field.
Match #21: All Things Devours devoured nearly all of the votes in its match against The Golden Heist, winning handily at 8-1; the high ratio would have been a tournament record if not for the results of match #20. The tightly-constructed time travel espionage uni-puzzle led by five over the “ancient noir” heist caper at the end of Day 2, and scored twice more unopposed before time ran out. In pre-tournament predictions, fans strongly favored a win by All Things Devours, which was also Calculon’s pick. Co-authors George Lockett and Rob Thorman have no other works competing in the tournament, and fans applaud their highly original offering as they retire from the field.
Match #22: Dr. Dumont’s Wild P.A.R.T.I. got little traction against Never Gives Up Her Dead, which beat it 7-1. The two long-form parser works share some high-level structural similiarities, but fans showed a clear preference for the modern work’s player-friendly style, which was one of only two triple-nominees during the “draft” for the tournament. Fans submitting predictions universally expected this outcome while the tournament’s forecasting machinery was unable to choose due to insufficient data. Authors Michael and Muffy Berlyn have no other works competing in the tournament, but the husband and wife team also collaborated on other commercial games listed on IFDB such as Tass Times in Tonetown and Oo-Topos. The late Michael Berlyn is, of course, famous for his work at Infocom including classics Suspended and Infidel. We salute the contributions of both authors to the nascent videogame industry of the early microcomputer era.
Match #23: In the second headline match of the segment, a bout between two early works written by authors who went on to become stars, Galatea and To Hell in a Hamper ended up in a draw of 7-7. Neither the ambitious and influential work developed for the first IF Art Show nor the conscientiously refined comedy with a global warming subtext could keep a lead in the early hours of the segment, though a burst of votes for Galatea put it ahead at 5-3 at the end of Day 1, and its lead was further extended to 7-3 by Day 4. Subsequent voting slowly made up the difference for To Hell in a Hamper, and Lady Luck made her choice in its favor. Fans playing the prediction game were equally divided about the expected outcome; Calculon predicted correctly. While Galatea retires to grand applause another significant early work by superstar author Emily Short, Metamorphoses, takes the field in Division 4 against triple tournament nominee Winter Wonderland (1999).
Match #24: Brain Guzzlers from Beyond! prevailed against The End Means Escape, beating its opponent 6-1 in the slowest-paced match of the segment. The spoofy Inform 7 work in “spine-tingling Text-O-Rama” was slow to start, yielding the first point, but then overwhelmed its experimental and surreal opponent at a steady, slithering pace over the course of the first week. Fans making predictions were all in on Brain Guzzlers, and Calculon agreed, making this an unsurprising outcome according to odds-makers. Author Steve Kodat has no other works in the tournament, but fans will be glad to learn that he did publish another work listed on IFDB: Stone Cell. We salute Kodat’s imaginative approach to parser interaction as he and his work depart the field.
With the fresh results from this segment, PCT Fan @mathbrush remains in the lead in the Official Prediction Game but now shares first place with @FLACRabbit; both show 16 out of 24 correct calls so far.
This heat has knocked out nominees by @BadParser, @Hellzon, @Morningstar, @rovarsson and several fans who submitted their nominations anonymously, but nobody is freshly out of champions this round. Of the 24 fans with champions remaining, two have 4, seven have 3, nine have 2, and six have 1. [EDIT: In the initial report for this segment, the effect of two eliminated games – The Golden Heist and The End Means Escape – were not correctly tabulated in the figures for distribution of champions remaining. The errors are now corrected.]
The action now moves to Round 1 of Division 4. Stay tuned…