Welcome to the Pre-Gen Con Special Issue

If you like numbers and lists, you’re going to love this issue.  Before we head into Gen Con we’re going to expose all the player rankings and trends.  We’ll follow up this issue with a post Gen Con issue presenting all the results (hopefully some pictures this year) and let you know what impact those tournaments have had on the various rankings.

Let’s start with some overall statistics.  2005 thus far has been a good year for the Buffy CCG.  We’ve made strides over 2004 and are headed in the right direction.  In 2004 there were 708 games of Buffy CCG played in various tournaments.  So far in 2005 we’ve had 840 games played.  We still have Gen Con and four more months to add to that total.  Here’s a month by month breakdown of tournament games played.

January 2004            18

February 2004           20

March 2004               18

April 2004                  12

May 2004                   44

June 2004                  115

July 2004                    40

August 2004              188

September 2004       46

October 2004            52

November 2004        63

December 2004        92

January 2005            105

February 2005           130

March 2005               101

April 2005                  107

May 2005                   165

June 2005                  96

July 2005                    87

August 2005              49 (thru 8/15)

A positive trend, but one that’s somewhat plateaued the last several months when you factor out peaks created by special events.  That leads me to believe we’ve reached a crossroads.  On one path I see our group continuing with the current playgroups and averaging about 100 games per month, with a good number of those coming from Iowa.  Some months may be more active than others, but those that love the game will continue to play into the foreseeable future.  On the other path, we slowly pick up a new gaming group or two and by this time next year see continued improvement in the numbers and gather even more momentum toward companies considering the rights to make a Buffy or Angel game.  If we want to be on the second path, our challenge will be to take the momentum I believe we’ll gain at Gen Con and translate that into some new players.  Time will tell which path the Buffy CCG will take.

New Mid-Month Rankings and Points

There have been five tournaments already held in August and a little bit of movement in the rankings.  In addition, the point calculation used as a tiebreaker has been modified to give a double weighting for convention tournaments.  Why make the change?  Well, it makes it more consistent with how tournament points are treated in the rankings and will likely stop the questions I get every month trying to explain the points and why higher ranked players can have significantly less points.  You can still have fewer points and be rated higher, but the difference won’t be as great.  What impact did this have to the rankings?  It made absolutely no difference among the top 50 players.  Below that, players may see that they’ve gone up or down a spot or two because of this.  The fact that it made no difference in the top 50 made the decision to end the confusion easy.  Going forward, this new calculation will be used every month.

In conjunction with this special newsletter we prepared the list of names and ratings of everyone who has played in a Buffy CCG tournament since January 2004.  We’re up to 153 different players.  That’s an increase of 22 players since January and an increase in our player base of 15%.   The full list will be made available on the web-site.  Unfortunately, my current edit skills didn’t allow me to copy and paste it directly into the newsletter.  As an example of how the new points translate, here are the current top 10 players.

1^st        Dave Gerspach                     1367 rating    3097 points

2^nd       Caroline Boehmer                1288               2624

3^rd        John Bruno                             1232               1928

4^th        Meldan Isakovic                    1209               1826

5^th        Patrick Parker                       1169               1445

6^th        Justin Francis                        1162               1510

7^th        Matt Butterfield                      1154               1387

8^th        Keith Kusnier                         1147               1256

9^th        Holly Boehmer                       1128               1178

10^th     Matt Scarborough                 1118               1108

A printed list will be available for everyone to view at Gen Con.  It’s also worth mentioning at this time that the top two players have both reached the 150 game equivalent limit.  The gap between them and everyone else should close rapidly at Gen Con.

Protectors and Big Bads

Some people have had a lot of fun with this list since it was first presented earlier this year.  Personally, I was surprised at how much of a Big Bad I was.  Well, it’s been almost five months and I’m happy to say that once again I have a soul and can be found on the list of Protectors.  I didn’t have an Orb of Thesulah (they don’t come out until later this year) and I didn’t travel to Africa (but I did have to travel to Waterloo, San Diego and Chicago), but the mission was accomplished.  Unfortunately, a few that fought on the side of good, have come to the dark side.  In fact the current top Protector (Dave Gerspach), was once a Big Bad and  the current top Big Bad (Caroline Boehmer), was once a Protector.  So where does everyone else fall.  Here’s the list of the top ten Protectors.

1^st        Dave Gerspach                     WI        1168 rating    1402 points

2^nd       Meldzan Isakovic                   IA         1113               988

3^rd        Justin Francis                        IA         1102               939

4^th        John Bruno                             CA      1100               821

5^th        Jennifer Tse                           CA      1075               691

6^th        Riley Akers                            IA         1073               614

7^th        Matt Scarborough                 IA         1069               643

8^th        Dion Erbes                            MN      1063               478

9^th        Aly Greaves                           IL         1062               588

10^th     Eduardo Gaeta                     CA      1058               525

Another way to look at the list would be by state.  You could look at Dave Gerspach as the Protector of Wisconsin, John Bruno as the Protector of California, Dion Erbes the Protector of Minnesota, Aly Greaves the Protector of Illinois and Meldzan Isakovic the Protector or Iowa.   Meldzan gets extra credit for the latter, as will be explained in the Big Bad list.   Using the above examples, other state Protectors would be Josh Smith for Missouri, Sean Jones for Virginia and Tom Hamilton for Ohio.  That leaves plenty of states open for others.

On to the Big Bad list and a curious finding.  I know Buffy destroyed the Hellmouth in Sunnydale, and there’s mention of a Hellmouth in Cleveland, but no one mentions the Hellmouth in Waterloo.  There must be one.  Has anyone checked the basement in Pandora’s Box?  Check out this list.

1^st        Caroline Boehmer                IA         1134 rating    1216 points

2^nd       Keith Kusnier                         WI        1109               898

3^rd        Patrick Parker                       IA         1107               908

4^th        Matt Butterfield                      IA         1096               866

5^th        Lee Finholt                             IA         1066               590

6^th        Nich Schmitz                          IA         1066               555

7^th        Holly Boehmer                       IA         1057               537

8^th        Chris Nichols                         IA         1051               500

9^th        Chris Reynolds                      MN      1042               373

10^th     Eric Ayers                              MN      1042               369

There you have it.  Add in the fact that Keith Kusnier has been spotted twice at Pandora’s Box and that Minnesota lies just north of Iowa, and it looks like a lot of evil emanating from that location.  So that’s why Meldzan and the other Protectors in Iowa have it so rough.  And what’s with the current and former owners of Pandora’s Box?  You’ve got Caroline and Holly in the top 10, and don’t forget RJ, who’s listed on the Big Bad list at #21.  Again, full lists will be available for download from the web-site.

Character Rankings

Let’s move on to the characters most often used as mains in the Buffy CCG.  How often are they played and how effective are they?  Last time we did this type of list Buffy, Spike and Willow were all being played quite a bit.  While they remain the top 3, Buffy has pulled way ahead in terms of how often people play a Buffy deck.  Guess she is the slayer.  Buffy decks have been used in 331 games or 14% of all decks used.  Given that it takes at least two players to have a game and either or both could be using Buffy, you will see a Buffy deck in one of every four games played.  That’s twice as often as the next most popular decks Willow (180 games), Spike (156 games) or Drusilla (143 games).  After that, it drops to Anyanka at 103 games and then Anya at 99 games.

On the other end of the spectrum, the least used non-HotW/VotW decks used are Maggie Walsh, Mr. Trick and Kendra.  Although Oz, The Mayor and Kakistos aren’t used that often either.  The former have been used in less than ten games and the latter in less than twenty.  Which decks win most often?  Well, not unlike the earlier listing, it’s not the most popular decks. The top decks and their winning percentage are:

Dark Willow               74%

Adam                          72%

Tara                            63%

Riley                            63%

Harmony                     61%

The worst

Vamp Willow             28%

Spike (Hero)              39%

Cordelia                     39%

Bizarro Buffy              40%

Angel                          43%

All the other characters fall somewhere in-between.  So how does the age old question of good versus evil measure up?  Well, first the average winning percentage is a little over 51% due to byes that are awarded as if they were wins.  In total, Villain decks win 53% of the time, while Hero decks win 50% of the time.  Sounds like only a minor advantage for evil, but you need to look closer.   How do some of the top players who have played over 25 games with both Hero or Villain decks performed?

Dave Gerspach                     77% with Hero deck             83% with Villain deck

Caroline Boehmer                58% with Hero deck             64% with Villain deck

John Bruno                             88% with Hero deck             92% with Villain deck

Meldzan Isakovic                   60% with Hero deck             73% with Villain deck

Again, this seems to support a small advantage for Villain decks.  Although there are a few players like Justin Francis and Holly Boehmer who have a slightly better win ratio playing Hero decks.  So while not 100% conclusive, there is strong evidence that you have a slight advantage going evil.  Of course, knowing how to build and play a good deck can overcome a lot.

Favorite Decks and Deck Proficiency

I announced a new concept a few months ago that recognized players for their devotion to certain decks.  Basically, players who achieved a certain rating for a given deck type were awarded levels of proficiency with that deck.  The following scale is being used with a five level added.

Level 2            1020 rating

Level 3            1050 rating

Level 4            1100 rating

Level 5            1200 rating

No one has achieved a level four rating at this point, but several players are getting close.  While there is not ranking assigned with a level, I have applied a certain “pecking order” within a level based upon a players W/L percentage while playing that deck.  It won’t overcome the proficiency gained by achieving a higher level, but decided to let there be some logic to the name listings within a level.  For those that find this fun, here’s how everyone currently rates with their favorite deck.

Adam

Level 3 - Dave Gerspach, Meldzan Isakovic

Level 2 - Nich Schmitz, Andy Iverson, Keith Kusnier

Angelus

Level 3 - Caroline Boehmer

Anya

Level 3 - John Bruno

Level 2 - Andy Iverson, Kit Radtke

Anyanka

Level 3 - Lee Finholt

Bizarro Buffy

Level 2 - Holly Boehmer

Buffy Summers

Level 3 - Dave Gerspach, Meldzan Isakovic, Caroline Boehmer

Level 2 - Matt Butterfield, Tiffany Lopez, Riley Akers, Kristin Meier, Shon Encinas

Collin, the Annointed One

Level 2 - Patrick Parker

Cordelia

Level 2 - Justin Francis, Aly Greaves

Dark Willow

Level 2 - Dion Erbes, Dan Joelson, Mike Rodgers

Drusilla

Level 2 - Ryan Green, John Bruno, David Truax

Faith (Hero)

Level 2 - Mike Matthews, David Truax

Faith (Villain)

Level 2 - Eric Ayers

Ghost Willow

Level 2 - Jennifer Tse

Harmony

Level 2 - Ken Myers

Ken

Level 3 - Matt Butterfield

Level 2 - Mike Matthews

Quentin Travers

Level 2 - Dave Gerspach, Matt Scarborough

Riley Finn

Level 2 - Darryl Long

Rupert Giles

Level 2 - Justin Francis

Spike (Hero)

Level 2 - Layne Magnuson

Spike (Villain)

Level 3 - Keith Kusnier

Level 2 - John Bruno, Dave Gerspach, Chris Nichols, Jared Coffin

Tara

Level 2 - David Robins, Don Tresca, Caroline Boehmer

The Master

Level 2 - Andy Schneiders

Willow Rosenberg

Level 2 - Dion Erbes, Dan Joelson, Jennifer Tse, Eric Hammond, Cassie Cohn, Jason McCain

Xander Harris

Level 2 - Eduardo Gaeta

The list has grown and several people have achieved Level 3 status on their favorite characters.  Ok, so it’s a fun list, but in the scheme of things what does it matter.  Some people just get bored playing the same deck over and over.  That’s true.  Even I like to mix things up from time to time, but here’s a statistic on the advantage of becoming proficient around certain decks.  The Win/Loss percentage of players playing their favorite deck is 62%.  And the Win/Loss percentage for players playing with decks for which they have achieved a Level 3 status is 68%.  Hardly a small advantage.  Basically, playing with the same deck multiple times allows you to learn the strengths and weaknesses of that deck, and over time, tweak it into a pretty darn good deck.  I fully expect to see a few level four statuses achieved at Gen Con.

Well, I hope you find these statistics a little bit interesting.  Lots of change will come with Gen Con.  I apologize again for not being able to include full listings in the newsletter, but they will be available.   Hope to see many of you in just a couple of days.

The next Newsletter (Volume 2, Issue 7) will  be released  in late August, 2005.

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