As the second round of challenges begin, the pace is slowly picking up with two divisions in play at once…
DAY 1
In the headline match of the segment, Illuminismo Iniziato has taken an early lead over Six with a current score of 4-2. With the two well-known games each having scored 10 points in their respective matches in Round 1, it seems likely that more votes will be coming. Perhaps fans are having trouble deciding between these two crowd pleasers.
In one of the segment’s hottest matches, The Edifice is so far outscoring Sand-dancer at 5-2.
Both A Change in the Weather and Augmented Fourth are leading 5-0 against their respective opponents Over Here! and The Legend of Horse Girl. Similarly, Heretic’s Hope has 4 points on the board with its own opponent, Submarine Sabotage, yet to score.
Taco Fiction leads Inevitable at 4-1. Buggy currently has the most lopsided advantage of 6-1 over Tales from Castle Balderstone.
Lime Ergot vs. Nightfall is an unexpectedly hot match, with the former currently ahead by one at 4-3. [EDIT: Oops – I mixed up the order! It’s the latter, i.e. Nightfall, which is ahead by one. Sorry for any confusion!]
DAY 2
Six has scored twice more, but opponent Illuminismo Iniziato has also picked up a point, allowing the latter to maintain a lead now shrunken to just one point at 5-3.
Augmented Fourth extended its lead over The Legend of Horse Girl by another two points, and A Change in the Weather did the same with respect to Over Here!. The scoreboards in both matches now read 7-0.
Lime Ergot has caught up with and overtaken Nightfall; it now has a precarious one point advantage at 5-4.
Inevitable has shaved two points from the lead of opponent Taco Fiction, but the “game about crime” is still slightly ahead at 4-3.
The Edifice and Sand-dancer have each scored a point, letting the “monolithic” comp game keep its three-point lead with the board now showing 6-3.
The first vote for Submarine Sabotage this round has been cast, ending rival Heretic’s Hope’s unopposed opening streak, but Heretic’s Hope also earned a vote, leaving the short tale of underwater sabotage four points behind at 5-1.
DAY 3
Tales from Castle Balderstone has been chipping away at the lead of Buggy, gaining one vote on Day 2 and two more today to narrow its deficit to two points. The score there now stands at 6-4 in what has become the hottest match of the segment.
DAY 4
Tales from Castle Badlerstone scored again, but Buggy did the same, leaving the latter still ahead two points at 7-5. The relative brevity of the two games seems to be attracting voter participation in this hot match.
Six, which had been running behind since the early hours of this heat, has now caught up with Illuminismo Iniziato, and these two heavyweights are currently even at 5 all.
DAY 5
Nightfall has gained another vote, bringing it to parity with Lime Ergot at 5-5. This makes the second match now at tie status.
DAY 6
Six has gotten a step ahead of Illuminismo Iniziato, with praise of it on the voting and discussion thread perhaps having tipped the balance in its favor – at least for the moment. The score in that match is now 6-5.
Also possibly receiving the benefit of discussion is Nightfall, which gained a pair of new votes that have given it new life in its contest with Lime Ergot. The score there now stands at 7-5 in the longer work’s favor.
Tales of Castle Balderstone has scored again, reducing the gap between itself and Buggy to a single point at 7-6 and returning this match to the status of hottest of the segment. Though the former was behind by five points on Day 2, there has been a tremendous change in momentum in this battle between the two short-play Ectocomp entries. Only a third of registered fans have cast a vote for this match so far, so weekend activity might have an impact on this close contest.
DAY 7
The Legend of Horse Girl has scored its first point, preventing a shutout but not yet offering much hope of overcoming the remaining six point lead of opponent Augmented Fourth, which is far in front at 7-1.
Lime Ergot has added a point to the board, closing once again on Nightfall, which now leads by only one point at 7-6. This match is now tied for hottest of the segment, alongside Tales from Castle Balderstone vs. Buggy.
With a new point to its credit, Inevitable (2003) has tied up with Taco Fiction at 4-4, reaching parity for the first time. The very different tones and styles of these two works makes for a wildcard match in which either could secure a lead over the next week.
DAY 8
Taco Fiction put another point on the board and regained the lead against Inevitable (2003) with the thinnest of margins at 5-4.
DAY 9
Sand-dancer has scored again, leaving it two points behind The Edifice at 6-4.
With a new vote added to its total, Buggy has extended its lead over Tales of Castle Balderstone to two points at 8-6.
A new point by Augmented Fourth has reversed the gain by The Legend of Horse Girl and restored its seven point lead. The score there is now 8-1.
An apparent vote switch in favor of Lime Ergot has turned the tables in its match against Nightfall; it now leads 7-6.
Both Illuminismo Iniziato and Inevitable (2003) have evened up the scores in their respective matches against Six and Taco Fiction. The current scores are 6-6 in the first match of the pair and 5-5 in the other.
DAY 10
A Change in the Weather has earned another vote, extending its lead versus Over Here! to eight points unopposed. This match could end up with the second shutout in tournament history.
DAY 11
Heretic’s Hope has picked up a point, extending its lead over Submarine Sabotage to five points at 6-1.
DAY 12
A Change in the Weather received another vote, giving it a whopping unopposed nine-point lead over Over Here!. If that lead holds, it will tie for second place as a record winning margin for this tournament, behind the current record 13-point record held by Hunter, in Darkness since its Round 1 match against Pick Up the Phone Booth and Aisle.
DAY 13
Over Here! scored its first point of the match, heading off the possibility of a shutout quite late in the segment and leaving the score there at 9-1.
Heretic’s Hope has also scored, securing a six-point lead over Submarine Sabotage at 7-1.
Augmented Fourth added a point to its total, putting it eight ahead of The Legend of Horse Girl.
Sand-dancer, having trailed The Edifice since Day 1, has now closed the gap to a single point at 6-5. With just one day left, it just might tie things up or even pull ahead if fans have been holding on to their votes.
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FINAL RESULTS
Match #33: Six and Illuminismo Iniziato, both high scorers in the first segment of the tournament, faced off at the start of Round 2. Illuminismo was faster out of the gate and by the end of Day 1 held the lead at 4-2, but Six managed to even things up by the middle of Day 4 at 5-6 and by the end of the next day was ahead by one. Late on Day 9, Illuminismo caught back up, and there the score stayed at 6-6 until time ran out. Lady Luck was called in to settle the matter, and Six was given the win. Only half of fans predicted the correct contestants for this match, but those who did uniformly agreed that Illuminismo would prevail, so this outcome is an upset victory that significantly shakes things up for the prediction game. Illuminismo Iniziato was the only work by author Michael Coyne competing in the tournament, and one of only two works he ever published, the other being Risorgimento Represso of which Illuminismo was the sequel. The pair of games are classics of amateur era, both featuring aesthetics rooted in the old school parser puzzler style. We salute both author and work as they retire honorably from the field.
Match #34: In the match of Tales of Castle Balderstone vs. Buggy, the latter had a strong start, scoring five points unopposed in the early hours of the segment. By the half-day mark, Balderstone had scored, and though meta-humorous Buggy gained another point on Day 2, tongue-in-cheek horror anthology Balderstone began to pick up the pace. The high-interest bout became the hottest of the segment (though match #37 eventually tied in this respect), and Balderstone had nearly caught up by the end of Day 3. Buggy managed to stay just ahead over the next five days before putting a little more distance between it and its pursuit on Day 9. After that, the score remained unchanged at 8-6 until the end of the match. Similar to the previous match, only half of fans submitting predictions foresaw that Buggy would make it to Round 2, and all prognosticators expected Balderstone to win, so this outcome is another surprise to oddsmakers. Tales from Castle Balderstone was the third of four competing games by author Ryan Veeder to be eliminated in the tournament, the fourth and last remaining being Taco Fiction (see match #39 below).
Match #35: Multimedia choice-based drama Heretic’s Hope also had a strong start in its match against traditional short parser puzzler Submarine Sabotage, scoring four points unopposed on Day 1. The pace of the match slowed down significantly after that, with each contestant scoring only single goals the following day. Neither of the two picked up any more points until late in the second week, in which Heretic’s Hope gained two more points for a final score of 7-1. Three quarters of fortune-telling fans guessed the lineup here correctly, and all fans marked Heretic’s Hope as the probable victor. Submarine Sabotage was the last of four competing games by author Garry Francis, whose Text Adventure Literacy Project, now in its fifth year, is a strategically vital outreach program with the goal of expanding the audience of young players – a goal that is critical for the long-term survival of the art form we all love and share. The crowd applauds the author and his works as they exit the field.
Match #36: Augmented Fourth had no difficulty defeating The Legend of Horse Girl, with the latter managing only a single point against the former over the course of the segment. After tallying five votes by the end of the first day, Augmented Fourth was able to add four more over the remainder of the segment, yielding a final score of 9-1 and one of the most lopsided scoring ratios of the segment. Only a single fan predicted that Horse Girl would even be a contestant in this match, which it was by virtue of its surprise victory-by-coin-flip over Aisle at the end of a photo finish race in Round 1, and only a single other fan correctly called the winner. The Legend of Horse Girl was the only contestant by author Bitter Karella, who more frequently works with the Quest development system than Inform 7, which was used for this work. Fans will be pleased to know that IFDB lists over a dozen works by the same author, including Basilica de Sangre and Poppet among others. We salute both the author and this entertaining and unique work as they retire from the field.
Match #37: In the head-to-head bout between Lime Ergot and Nightfall, the two games set in abandoned cities fought a pitched battle ending in an unexpected draw. When Lady Luck was called in to resolve the match, she proclaimed the long-form thriller the victor. Nightfall was faster out of the gate, but short-form interaction experiment Ergot pressed hard and by Day 2 was ahead at 5-4. The latter held the lead for almost two days before Nightfall tied and then leapt ahead by two more points on Day 5. Undeterred, Ergot closed by a point on Day 7 and two days later was the beneficiary of an anonymous change of heart. The shorter work seemed sure to come out on top after a fan’s vote switch on Day 9 moved it from one point behind to one point ahead, but a vote in literally the last hour of the match in favor of Nightfall tied up the score at 7-7, and only chance determined the final winner. While only three-quarters of predicting fans thought Lime Ergot would be competing in Round 2, fans universally believed Nightfall would come out on top, so this outcome is less of a surprise than the admirable performance of its rival. Lime Ergot was the only competing work by author Caleb Wilson, who frequently releases games under pseudonyms. Other highly-rated games listed on IFDB by the same author include Starry Seeksorrow, The Northnorth Passage and HOLY ROBOT EMPIRE. We salute this impactful experimental work and its author as they leave the field.
Match #38: A Change in the Weather, a classic early work credited with changing the direction of parser IF, had an extremely long unopposed opening streak and ended up with a 9-1 victory over neo-retro graphical adventure Over Here!. Fans seemed to overwhelmingly prefer the former’s lush imagery to the latter’s bright images, voting consistently for A Change in the Weather over the course of the heat until Day 12. Only one person submitting predictions even anticipated this duo as the contestants for slot 38, and amazingly also foresaw the win; the remaining predictions were split between other possible permutations. Over Here! was the only competing work by Lionel Ange, aka auraeus, whose other works on IFDB include Parlez-lui d’amour, its English version Talk to him about Love, and Basket-ball. We salute the author and this tribute to early “split window” graphical adventures as they depart the field.
Match #39: Taco Fiction and Inevitable (2003) had a hard-fought match that resulted in a squeaker of a win by the former at 6-5. While the comedic tale about robbery, corruption and ice cream was quick out of the gate and ended Day 1 at 4-1 in its favor, the somber story of destiny in an alien city steadily closed the gap over the course of the first week, reaching a score of 4-4 by the end of Day 6. Taco Fiction scored again on Day 7, but Inevitable did the same two days later, leaving 5-5 on the scoreboard and threatening a tie. However, one last vote for Taco Fiction put it over the top on Day 13, yielding a final score of 6-5. All fans submitting predictions agreed that these two contestants would meet here, and three-quarters of them called it for Taco Fiction. Inevitable (2003) was the only competing game by author Kathleen Fischer, who released this game under the pen name Timothy Lawrence Heinrich. IFDB lists several others by the same author which were published in the early years of this century, including Masquerade and The Cove. We salute the author and her work as they retire from the field.
Match #40: The Edifice vs. Sand-dancer was another hard-fought match that did not deliver a clear win to either contestant. After ending Day 1 at 5-2, the classic work with the famous language puzzle was able to stay ahead despite the moody personal drama slowly reducing the gap – until a dramatic final vote on the last day let the latter pull even at 6-6, resulting in the third draw for this heat. The tie-breaking coin flip delivered a victory to Sand-dancer by the whim of Lady Luck. Only half of fans successfully predicted the games that would compete here, but within that group there was unanimous agreement that The Edifice would win, so oddsmakers took another hit with this match’s outcome. The Edifice was the only competing game by author Lucian P. Smith, who is better known for contributing to multi-author games such as Cragne Manor and Coke Is It!. The crowd cheers as both author and this historically-significant game make their way from the field.
Here, in the middle of Round 2, PCT Fan @mathbrush has taken the lead in the Official Prediction Game with 25 out of 40 correct calls to date.
This heat has knocked out nominees by @AmandaB, @CMG, @Denk, @dfranke and other fans who submitted their nominations anonymously. In addition, both CMG and one anonymous nominator are now out of champions. Of the 20 fans with champions remaining, one has 4, three have 3, five have 2, and eleven have 1.
The action now moves to Round 2 for Divisions 3 and 4. Stay tuned…