Division 3, aka the “fierce” division, and Division 4 will both finish their second rounds this segment. Let’s see who the rest of the contestants moving on to Round 3 will be…
DAY 1
Headline match All Things Devours vs. Never Gives Up Her Dead is off to a slow start in terms of total votes, but so far the latter has scored five times unopposed.
In one of the three hottest match of the segment, To Hell in a Hamper has collected the vast bulk of the votes cast so far and has a huge lead over Brain Guzzlers from Beyond! at 8-2. Likewise, Bogeyman has obtained the same lead over Please Answer Carefully.
In the third of the three matches tied for hottest, The Dreamhold is substantially ahead of The Weapon at 7-3.
Babel had an unbroken run of six goals against For a Change, but the latter has now scored twice, leaving things at 6-2.
First Things First is now tied with Hunter, in Darkness in a slow-moving match at 3-3. Meanwhile, Metamorphoses holds a single point leads at 4-3 versus Things That Happened in Houghtonbridge.
In another relatively slow match, Scroll Thief is ahead of Thin Walls by four at 5-1.
DAY 2
Bogeyman continues to run away with this match over Please Answer Carefully, adding another point to its large lead and now, at 9-2, leader in the hottest match of the segment.
Scroll Thief has also scored again, extending its lead over Thin Walls to 6-1.
DAY 3
The Dreamhold has received another vote, adding to its lead over The Weapon. The score there is now 8-3.
For a Change scored, reducing the gap between itself and Babel to three points at 6-3.
Thin Walls has also picked up a point, leaving it now four points behind Scroll Thief at 6-2.
Never Gives Up Her Dead continues its unbroken opening streak with another point to its credit while All Things Devours searches for its first vote. The board in that match now shows 6-0.
Meanwhile, Please Answer Carefully has gained two votes since yesterday, but at five points behind it still has a long way to go from the current score of 9-4. With eleven days left in the segment and these contestants having been called out as short-to-play contestants, this shift in momentum may be significant.
DAY 4
Hunter, in Darkness has broken the tie with First Things First and taken a slight lead over the twisty time travel tale at 4-3. The short-form story of a hunter and his prey now has the lead for the second time in this dynamic contest.
All Things Devours has scored its first point, leaving it five behind match leader Never Gives Up Her Dead at 6-1.
Thin Walls has edged closer to Scroll Thief with another point in its tally, but it is still three behind at 6-3.
DAY 5
First Things First has once again closed the gap with Hunter, in Darkness, and the score between these well-matched contestants is now even at 4 all.
DAY 6
For a Change draws ever closer to its opponent – with the score now 6-4 in favor of story-forward sci-fi puzzler Babel but over a week left for voting, the highly-styled parser fantasy is showing the kind of “slow burn” advance that has delivered surprises in the past.
DAY 7
Metamorphoses has extended its lead over Things That Happened in Houghtonbridge by a point and is now up two at 5-3.
DAY 8
First Things First has notched another point, gaining the lead in its ongoing tug-of-war with Hunter, in Darkness. The score now stands at 5-4.
DAY 9
All Things Devours has put a second point on the board, but Never Gives Up Her Dead also put up its seventh. The match leader remains ahead five points at 7-2.
First Things First has also picked up another point, giving it a bit of breathing room in its lead over Hunter, in Darkness, but within half a day the latter scored, narrowing the former’s lead back to one point. The score there is now 6-5.
DAY 10
In the match of Scroll Thief vs. Thin Walls, the former received another vote, bringing the score to 7-3 in its favor.
DAY 11
The Dreamhold scored a point, extending its lead over The Weapon to six points and now tied for largest lead of the segment with To Hell in a Hamper in its match against Brain Guzzlers from Beyond!.
Metamorphoses also gained another vote over Things That Happened in Houghtonbridge, obtaining a comfortable lead of 3 points at 6-3.
DAY 12
Brain Guzzlers from Beyond! earned a third vote, reducing the gulf between itself and match leader To Hell in a Hamper. The latter still leads by five at 8-3.
DAY 13
Bogeyman snatched another point, adding to its large lead over Please Answer Carefully, and adding its name to the small list of games that have scored at least ten points during a single match in this tournament. The score there is now 10-4.
The Weapon also earned a vote, but it’s going to need more firepower than it seems likely to have to overcome The Dreamhold, which maintains a strong lead at 9-4.
Things That Happened in Houghtonbrige scored a fourth time, cutting down the lead of Metamorphoses to just two points at 6-4. With a day to go, it could conceivably close the gap in late voting.
Scroll Thief also stole another point away from rival Thin Walls, bringing its lead to five points at 8-3.
=====================
FINAL RESULTS
Match #41: In The Weapon vs. The Dreamhold, the sprawling tutorial fantasy easily beat the focused sci-fi “deception” with a final score of 9-4. The Dreamhold was first to score, and though The Weapon briefly tied in the early hours of Day 1, The Dreamhold took a substantial lead in a subsequent burst of votes and never looked back. The majority of fans submitting predictions expected Amanda Walker’s What Heart Heard Of, Ghost Guessed to be in The Dreamhold’s slot in this match and to earn a win, but a single fan called both contestants and the winner correctly. The Weapon was the only competing game by author Sean Barrett, who is better known for his work Heroes, published the same year as The Weapon. IFDB lists several other short games by the same author, and those using Inform 6 may wish to hunt down his customized compiler that supports complex procedural text generation using a compact syntax. We salute both author and game as they retire from the field.
Match #42: First Things First and Hunter, in Darkness turned out to be surprisingly well-matched opponents, but the multi-faceted time travel drama edged out the intense survival drama in the segment’s second-hottest match. Although First Things took the first point, Hunter briefly passed it before losing the lead and then tying again at 3-3 over the course of the first day or so. There the score remained for two days, until Hunter gained another vote and the lead. The next day, First Things evened things up at 4-4 and another tense standoff ensued. At the end of the first week, First Things scored again, and this time managed to briefly extend its lead to two points on Day 9, though Hunter also scored by the end of that day. No further votes were cast, and the match ended at 6-5. Predictions were very mixed for this match, with only one fan correctly calling the contestants (but not the win) and only one fan foreseeing a win by First Things First. Hunter, in Darkness is the second competing game written by Andrew Plotkin to fall, out of four which were nominated and selected by lottery. In addition to The Dreamhold in this division, A Change in the Weather is still in the running in Division 2.
Match #43: All Things Devours did its best to devour the hopes of Never Gives Up Her Dead, but the latter had no trouble brushing it aside and won the match at 7-2 after a six-point unopposed opening streak. The majority of fans predicted both the contestants and the winner in this match, making this an unsurprising outcome for the “betting” market. All Things Devours was the only competing game by author Toby Ord (under the pen name half sick of shadows). Regrettably for fans of bug-free tight logic puzzles, this is the only work listed by the author on IFDB, though he is credited as co-author in a Russian translation. We salute this compelling work and its author as they depart the field.
Match #44: In another runaway win, To Hell in a Hamper defeated 2015 IFComp winner Brain Guzzlers from Beyond! in a battle of comedies. The final tally of 8-3 was almost the same as that which was in place at the end of Day 1 in this fast and furious scuffle – only a single point was added for Brain Guzzlers in the rest of the match. Although half of predictors correctly guessed the two contestants in this round, they were split evenly on the expected outcome. Campy spoof Brain Guzzlers from Beyond! was the only competing work by author Steph Cherrywell, whose relatively small catalog includes a high proportion of competition and award wins, including 2015 ParserComp winner Chlorophyll and 2019 IFComp winner Zozzled. The crowd cheers for this work and its celebrated author as they leave the field.
Match #45: Babel edged out For a Change in a close match scoring, 6 to 5. The tale of polar research gone wrong took the first point as part of its six-vote opening streak, but over the next several days the highly-wordsmithed prose fantasy had its own unopposed streak of four votes. There the score stayed until the very end of the match, when a last minute vote brought For a Change within spitting distance of a tie. Half of predicting fans guessed that these two works would meet here, but only one of those marked the correct winner – a different fan called the winner but had expected a different opponent. For a Change was the only competing work by author Dan Schmidt, who also contributed to Pick Up the Phone Booth and Aisle. IFDB lists a few other works by the same author, including The Profesee, Another Day, Another Sea Monster, and Revenge of the Chalupa. We salute this well-known early example of the “surreal” genre and its author as they retire from the field.
Match #46: Scroll Thief was victorious over Thin Walls in a quiet match in which the former, after a strong opening day giving it a four-point lead, was able to match and exceed the latter’s additional scoring throughout the remainder of the bout. The final score of 8-3 was not settled until late in the second week. Only one fan foresaw Scroll Thief as being a contestant in this match, but that fan also called both the correct opponent and the win. Thin Walls was the only work by author Wynter appearing in the tournament, and IFDB lists no other works credited unambiguously to this pen name. We salute this memorable work and its semi-anonymous author as they exit the field.
Match #47: Bogeyman easily overcame Please Answer Carefully in the highest-interest match of the segment. After the first day or so the match leader had outscored its opponent at a four-to-one ratio, and it kept the pace with new scoring to maintain its six-point over the remainder of the match, which ended at 10-4. Only half of prognosticating fans correctly predicted either of the contestants in this bout, and just one fan called both of them – and the winner. Please Answer Carefully was the sole competing work by author litrouke, who has published a substantial number of works listed on IFDB including 10pm, January and A Man Outside. The crowd applauds this very short work and its author as they retire from the field.
Match #48: In the last match of Round 2, Metamorphoses outscored Things That Happened in Houghtonbridge with a final tally of 6-4 in its favor. Although Metamorphoses notced the first point, Houghtonbridge was hot on its heels and ended the first day just a point behind at 4-3. The score stayed frozen there for several days, but Metamorphoses extended its lead by one near the end of the first week and again in the middle of the second. A late vote in Houghtonbridge made up some of the gap, but noth enough to make the difference. Half of predicting fans were able to foresee both of the contestants that would meet here, and the majority of fans entered Metamorphoses as the anticipated victor. No other works by author Dee Cooke were competing in the tournament, but fans will be pleased to know that IFDB lists almost two dozen other works by this prolific author, including Turn Right, Waiting for the Day Train, and Marie Waits. We salute the author and the works admirable performance as they retire honorably from the field.
Here, now three-quarters of the way through the tournament in terms of scheduled matches, PCT Fan @mathbrush still holds the lead in the Official Prediction Game with 30 out of 48 correct calls to date.
This heat has knocked out nominees by @dfranke, @Hidnook, @SomeOne2 and other fans who submitted their nominations anonymously. In addition, four anonymous nominators (including myself) are now out of champions. Of the 16 fans with champions remaining: one has 4, one has 3, three have 2, and eleven have 1. The field is narrowing!
The action now moves to Round 3 for All Divisions. Stay tuned…