Catan 2018 Final Table at the Mind Sports Olympiad

we are live oh my goodness okay well hey I'm back here my name is Eitan and I'm the chief organiser of the mine supports Olympiad I'm here with former Penn to mind world champion Alan Decker Thank You VTOL it's a real pleasure to have you here and we're gonna commentate on the final round of the final table which is the top table for today's Catan event and we were just talking about actually last year's champion Ricardo Gomez also one two years ago and you're saying a little bit about his strategy because we just saw pull off quite a win I was watching some of his negotiation strategy earlier and he doesn't leak any information it's quite quite amazing a lot of players are giving off information for example they might say I have sheep too to offer mm-hm and already they're indicating that they may have and they're trying to get for example a development collar or they try to get an upgrade make it clear what they're desiring and and Ricardo will just go mmm and he's listening to what all the other players are saying and not leaking any information so I think it's quite a key strategy yes you definitely got all the elements that's what takes to be a champion right strategy the psychology and he's extremely competitive and he absolutely is trying to crush his opponents on on this board that is true we're being handed the the current standings going into the last round so here we go let's talk about them you can't see them but we will tell you what they are so we've got two people with perfect scores so you can have eleven victory points to win ten plus one from each round and two people one is David perchick who we saw when the the second table a bit with the commentary just a little while ago and the other is James hepl who you would tell us who whose name zeppoles well James Havel needs no introduction I'm short people who've been following okay the mind sports for years he actually won the pin tonight last year James is really tough competitor and he's got so many games he's strong at he's improved when he first came to the mind sport he came just for chess a ton and he's since picked up Settlers of Catan he's since picked up entropy I think he won the bronze medal if I remember correctly so James is a really tough competitor and his his victory point score puts him in an excellent position for gold or silver absolutely and then speaking of Ricardo Gomez he's got two wins and one won second place up in it finished which which is why he's at 31 and it's worth will explain in a sec the table breaks how the topics work but then we've got Kell de Smith she's with 30 points and we see that she's won two games which means that she has 22 points from wins and it must be another eight point second-place finish or something like that yeah are there you could be third place with eight points probably second place and then we've got several people there with 29 so it's quite tight at the top and we should say any of these full players couldn't win any of these four players can win the top four that's right so we're looking at the players here we are so so basically Ricardo he's got the same position he had last time maybe that's his lucky chair he's done a good job claiming it and Aki pcap that's right as well yeah part of the poker I guess face that he uses so going in clockwise order we have Ricardo gomez in the top right of our picture followed by Kaldur Smith yep then we have David perchick also with 33 points and finally partially obscured is James here for last year's painter mind winner that's right so any of them could win it and whoever wins this table will have the gold medal yeah how the winds will win the gold medal that's right that's they cannot be pie past even if they could with victory points the rule is that you have to take the gold from the final table so here we go we're about to get our first lay down james Heppell is putting a settlement he's got a great position there I I was saying before there's a saying no wheat guaranteed defeat have you heard that I haven't heard they want that's a new one on me well I I believe in that I think that wheat is critical you need wheat for the for the expanding phase of the game to get more settlements and you absolutely need wheat for the upgrades that's right so wheat and also all you it's somehow to get all whether it's through trading the trading ports or through actually having access to one of the the all segments now if you notice in this board all the all has crunched up in the top of the board so it's gonna be a lot of competition for that area of the board definitely what else have we just in terms of resource I'm obviously great position for James hep on terms of weed and or that's gonna be good for cities I notice see the numbers on the wood are very low they're very low if you look at the in the bottom variety you've got a two and you've got a three so those numbers aren't gonna be far in very often then you got a four which is a pretty good number and the ten yeah but not wood might be a bit of a problem for these players it's true and the brick also not good numbers brick you've only got three three hexagons that's correct yeah and unlike what that has for and again very low numbers in terms of frequency 3 11 and 10 not not good so this plays of the game is really critical because you have if you make a poor decision at this point again you can quickly get a locked out so they were could they I expect them to take quite a long time over this phase of the game me too it was nice to see meme last roster on Ricardo thoughts so long and made some really tough decisions at the bean I was surprised he actually ended up doubling up on the same resources that he had it was a really difficult board so here did he have access to a port I didn't notice that not in the beginning of the game sometimes players of a strategy to try so really strongly for resource to block other players sure and then get access to the port of that resource sure so he's still waiting for the white play that's Ricardo he takes his time what would we do let's let's think looking at this board I quite like the upper right corner are you thinking about the three four eight the three four eight so get tools and a break as my first placement and then try to separate or only you're only gonna get the resources from your second so I understand it but at least I see how not those years because I think that's such a juicy spot and then later I will try and spread out and get the best I can and I think also you know it's good for expansion to make sure you get good access to brick and wood early on yeah so another spot that so it shouts out at me is a spot in the middle of the board we got the three six eleven that you would or those are the wood brick and the sheep that was a fairly juicy spot long as you could get blocked out from or if you tell you if you go too far away from it what about the five six eleven yeah yeah yeah maybe even better the only problems you may see numbers you may get locked out of wood sure sure I mean that's the thing you can't have it all that that's the beauty of this game you can't have it all right it's worth pointing out for those who new to the game of Catan that the placement will work as follows the first play of his James will place first and he'll also place last the second play will place his the settlement second and seventh the third player will place third and sixth and the the fourth player in this case it's David perchick will place two settlements directly after each other in the middle of the game so sometimes I've often heard it said that the best positions to place off first and fourth you add a slight disadvantage placing second and third do you agree that's kind of true but at the same time I mean it's such a well-balanced game that you know the fact that moving first and moving last are almost equal in a sense some people say it's best to move last cuz you get to meet both moves at the same time yeah it is I think it's pretty balanced either what's gonna come down to the numbers how you negotiate is very important oh absolutely afterwards totally look at that Ricardo still thinking they're gonna have to put a clock on him maybe I mean this is unbelievable but it says this as standard so he's got the oh there we go we can give the phone back okay there we go we've got something here get the phone here but which had somebody's fun I'm just handing it back that had the victory points cool sorry back to campaign still Ricardo's thinking we talked about the five six eleven there's the five eight ten as well well that that would really dominate the week the weed supply which is interesting that at the bottom of the board the good thing about that five eight ten is that no one's going to be particularly attracted to the segment's next to the desert so it might mean you you can almost lockout other players from the wheat yeah but they are full wheat segments so it's quite hard to completely block people of okay he has done it he is gone for the ten for eight I think you're saying maybe eight one three yeah I would have gone for one down to the street but then again it's interesting you know the three in the ten are equivalent in terms of numbers but he's decided to go with the wood over brick about this move which is interesting I I imagined regardez hoping to make his first road segment towards the coast and grab the other juicy segments on that eight tile could be you have a trading port it's very reasonable to go down double up on the eight it seems very reasonable no waiting for Kel de Smith to make a move yeah what is she gonna do do you know anything about Kilda um great great games player she's from the Smith family they're a very strong family her dad Paul Smith is has been playing at the mine sports Olympiad for a long time when he's won many medals so I think the entire family's just a you know very very strong at board games very very impress the family and I'm sure she's she's she's no exception to that which is why she's at the final table she's done exceptionally well yeah yeah I know her father has won the awards in the past I think he's very good at a warrant and also I think he's playing the go today the go 19 but aunty that great go player and he's also very strong a fellow player anyway the whole family is just they're they're great at games so where would you go here I'm interesting well let's see I still think that 511 six six reasonable but the problem is going to be or access to or so maybe something like the is it the nine four eleven slot it's also also a pretty good pretty good option development cards are key in this game because development cards give you the hidden points and they also give you the option to to chase the robber away and both nights and enough nights will give you the largest army exactly and you're very you very rarely are able to win the game without getting either the longest road or the largest army card Ricardo's Chile means doing little bit of looks like messaging egregiously you wonder who's messaging I don't know we call most zoom in and see it but leaving will give him his privacy okay all right I selected that's right well yeah we were just tolerate the five great choice Kaldur I was thinking about that too and I think I think it's a great location it's tough in terms of where to put the road because you've been you know where other people are gonna put their settlement yet so one of the things that's really challenging in katanas you need to try to choose a road position that's not going to be completely snuffed out if you do you might find you actually have to build then two roads to build your next settlement that's right so she's chosen a road direction that's the unlikely or rather I could say is likely to give us some choices to either go left or to the right let's assume that the players for a second would be up the volume and see what they're saying can we listen to plays I think we can lower the volume we can only listen now to the studio [Music] yes the we see in the graphic the top right actually said David perchick now she changes temple which it did before so we're gonna fix that apologies for that that glitch it was James happens something happens into the top left it says David rotate so there were two David perch six per se but obviously he look could really be one day David perchick is a one of a kind a time that's right exactly speaking David particular is now his move and he's got a decision to make two decisions actually David perchick isn't a quite a nice position here because he's able to place two pieces together and walk out other place for example he may be he may be thinking David Patrick sent quite a good position here because because he's getting to place two places on top of each other he's getting to play the fourth and the fifth one simultaneously he can try to lock players out of a segment of the board that is perhaps he may consider others are not going to try and invest their energy so for example in the bottom right hand corner of the board James Ricardo and Cal have not attempted to contest that area and they're not the best numbers so David perchick is in a really good position to perhaps trying to lock out that side of the board it's true look there you go he's very good five ten and I expect any to go to the upper right he needs some sheep maybe if we can expect including we could take the two sheep there with it with some wood for example you wanna take the two nine six spot the two nine six by which rates a lot of space from self to expand lay here laid a nice expansion would really yeah it's true that's Susan I think that's a very good choice from David very reasonable good call and obviously he gets to choose which resources he wants to take well when you get to put down - well that's just the road when you put down both settlements you can decide which is the first which is the second at the end today he's going the other way there's this sheep he needed the sheep in the wood and he's gone he's gone for the left so he's wrong strong wood that's probably the best wood position I'm a little bit surprised by that I mean maybe maybe this is him thinking about the longest road already that may be true because these slots in fact he's already building towards a settlement I'm afraid I think he's he may find himself locked out slightly if do you see the desert 3:8 slaughter spot if somebody were to put a town right there it would completely broke break David's territory apart it's a cherub but uh you know it's not really the three it's not that attractive it's not um we have to see now what killed at us for a second and they can't do the aid 310 because you're not allowed to put settlements next to each other that's great that's obviously should have been a good two numbers so it seems reasonably safe in that sense oh he's kind of locked down on the bottom part of the board with allowing himself to what resources doesn't kill to have access to she's got wheat sheep and wood and and Bree that's right so she'd like to complement those ideally so what about the three four nine spot so that'll give her access to sorry though yeah the three four nine so we're talking about yeah the top towards the top right which it would be or brick and and sheep that seems that would lock out other players from the brick a little it a little and give her some negotiation power allow her to use her brick to negotiate good trades potentially I mean she's in tough position if she wanted to have all the resources she'd have to go for the eight and ten but that's not such a great position so she's not gonna do that and she wants to get three resources on her second put down second settlement I'd be tempted to go for the three four nine slaughter to try and give her the doesn't play I think that's a very reasonable play but she's engines but you know she's all and she's already got sheep with a great number yeah through front three four nine seems reasonable she's doing something very similar really yes well though she has slightly so so this is interesting she's she's chosen the six over the four a slightly higher frequency it is a bought but she does no no she does existed and all that's right no or it so a little bit risky but what's interesting she's gonna have a lot of sheep and that's gonna look for the traits if she can get a port that would be really powerful potentially are we able to see from this graphic where the the ports item it's a little bit hard we may have to zoom-in when we be able to zoom in and see where the port side shot maybe that it does it because it is hard to kind of see what's happening there let's see let's see if we can zoom in first that might be critical for this for the strategy coming yeah let's just take a look here we go words we're zooming in it's still kind of hard to see what's going on with these graphics they're two different types of ports of Catan there's a port that is limited to one particular type of was also it's a two for one port that's right so if you have a lot of access to see you'll see that you can see what it is or if there's a question mark then that's a three for one so for example caldas got fantastic access to sheep if she could get access to the sheep port she can in trade a sheep for two for one with the bank and she doesn't have to trade with the other players that's right the other type of port is a three for one port the tree for three for one trait you can always trade with the bank for four one so if you for example have too much wheat and you need to get our and all you can always trade for four one for the bank if the other players won't give you a better trade but if you have your own three for one port you can in trade with the bank at a better rate that's right so let's take a look what have we got here we've we can kind of see the ports we can see even though not that great actually it looks like the bottom right is brick and then the pike in the middle bottom is a three through one and then to its left another three for one so we can kind of see but let's let's look at the board again for a sec just to to think about what's going on here obviously it's it's White's turn which is Ricardo he's a long thinker he's got a hard choice to make what's he gonna do what are you what are you thinking I would be tempted he has access to a reasonable lumber for a lumber section and lots of all so if he wants to do that upgrades later on he's gonna want to get either access to wheat directly or he's gonna want to try and control a resource that will allow him to trade for wheat so I would be tempted to go for the Lancer option and go for the four six eleven spot between the two Reds so if you look in the middle of the board that will give you access to even more or you know a better break which can combine well with your road and the bit of sheep yes that's right how about yourself which is a spot that must you must like well that's interesting so sorry so you're saying they don't think the dogs very best slot is force the for 911 slots just down from where he is at the moment between the turrets before 911 that allows them great access to break so yes which combines well with the wood to build roads and it will hopefully give him a controlling stake on the Oroville on the board which many of us have to trade with other players I mean what's interesting is he doesn't have wheat if you wanted to grab wheat how could he do it really really tough choice the only other was the 15 alive he's knocked out of the five it looks like right five eleven Zhou faulty what about through the eight and three I think he might the other tempting but then he splits as his settlement support they'll never connect that's yeah and then he only gets two resources and so the three so sorry so used to you do think the four nine eleven you lied I would go for the for nine eleven sport I mean that we complement that would give him sheep and break okay so you'd have everything but wheat we keep talking about what's good for the players but let's talk about another aspect of this is what about what might be good to hurt your opponents so for example if if Ricardo thought that his biggest you know biggest challenge for winning of the board was coming from let's say James Hipple how would you play a natural in that regard if you wanted to focus on defeating James here for what would you do and well obviously you can see that James Apple has or wheat and wood so he's missing sheep and brick so you can if you were to isolate the the sheep that could be very inconvenient and look he's done both he has taken both the sheep and the brick and a very aggressive move that's super grissom where the two roads are now headed towards each other between orange what's interesting here I want you two guys to notice is he gets by putting down his second settlement on on sheep wood and brick he actually has a road and he's going to get to make him move not only that I tend to build before the yellow a Dave exactly he's gonna build a road before before orange and therefore he for sure will be able to to have a road going down into the five - I think that's David perchick is gonna be pretty unhappy about that move that flame definitely quite unhappy so that leaves James Everwood to move yeah he's got a pretty few pretty good slots I would still be tempted by that for nine eleven slot and the other one that's pretty juicy might be the the six eleven twelve slot which gives them access to a good wheat port wheats segment and it gives them extra access to two wheat I think James got a James got a couple of good choices here it's true I'm a little surprised by a chorus move which is seems to be quite aggressively aimed against David perchick what is an aggressive move but then at the same time he does get three resources that are all different and the only resource that he's missing is weight which you'll get access to next up perhaps it's perhaps it's a move of the five weight will be will be a very solid wheat once he gets the lay down that road and the settlement the other nice thing about that is although the two slot is not a particularly great tile now um really isn't what it does mean is that when people are placing the robber they'd they they're not likely to place the robber ever on that time so you will always have it open well that's true it's a small it's a small thing but it might a small thing so look at James James is laughing he's and he's good moody six thinking oh look at that there can we have the audio up Carter's talking to him he's trying to convince James better than David perchick realize friendly strategizing notice friend is it sounds a Tom has a hard choice to make but a lot of interests options not that not that bad a position to be in okay he's doing it okay we've rotated the board maybe we can switch back to overhead all right there we go okay back so we can be quite disorienting to see the board rotated this is good they're shaking hands look at that everybody knows this is it they're going for gold there we go all right all right James just taking the middle of the board and he's rolling that's okay one of the things I think it's great about James's choices he hasn't doubled up on too many of his numbers say Zach wanted or were nice predators you've got adversity of numbers all right so we had a throw three so we have already some lumber for James he's trying to go for that great support I was thinking if that bands would be tremendous tremendous position for James if he can get to absolutely a six we heard a six so obviously is gonna lay down his road he's gotta lay down that road he will lay down the road absolutely on the two and five he's got a kind of locked David perchick the banker it's actually up to the players themselves to tell the banker that there's a resource that they require if they miss it he's laid down the road it's done he's getting ready to build that settlement there which will give him access to we the only resource that he's missing eight okay so that's some wheat for David some more stone ricotta cause we know Nicole I think James has found himself in a pretty good position you well see if he's able to lay down that Selma's gonna be great if he isn't then yes but can somebody stop him I mean Ricardo would have to build well he doesn't have people roadies remember he's gonna have to trade in two sheep I'm gonna be that easy to get that sell meant what about David he's gonna have to rebuild that road that road is now wasted which which direction he's gonna go is he gonna head up towards the top left of the ward I think so he's gonna have to there's not a lot of expansion suppose he's got to do that he's got to go for the mix of the day but again like he's gonna there we go now we've got the names the players up he said James I feel just caldas to quell this position in the middle of the board that road has also cannot be chemically expanded because you're not allowed to build past a settlement that's right in fact you know she's gonna need to try and build out if she wants to use that but then very hard that's why I killed is going straight for the port she may just give up on that road the the red in the middle I think if the players are not careful James is gonna walk away with this that's my prediction you know if he key if he lays down that for 911 settlement it's going to be tough for the other player I'll be very powerful very very powerful one of the things that can happen in kit10 is if a play gets an early lead and the other players are awake to this possibility they may start to play against James look at that the robber has been placed okay and he's already James already feeling the heat they're gonna take a card from him yes looks like so I think that's a great move from from David yeah David's right he's recognizing the threat that's been posed and now also wheat is so critical the other thing about wheat is that you will need wheat for building settlements yes and look he's got the wheat he's got the 5 minute he blocking out the wheat for everybody else so what David wants to be able to get the best trade possible for his own wheat that's right so by blocking other people's wheat he gets to control the market absolutely so actually very smart maybe David's a bit of a dark horse yay yeah I think I think we've got some great players on this board really do it's too soon to count anyone out a lot comes down to the dice as well absolutely and how you negotiate you all your position with the other players Shirley listen she would listen to the players for a listen let's listen a bit anybody would come I've got too many cars to do sorry doesn't waste time he tries to keep and just pushes on like a 7-speed plate so the robber is no other smooth that's quite a nice spot to put it on cuz it did hurt all three of her great spot makes a lot of sense it was a good number what number was that it was a seven so who's she no no the number was rolled 7 obviously but what was the number that's being blowed was it was a decent number I think it was it's gonna hurt them did you see if she stole a full bottle oh I didn't notice but she's doing a trade for sheep for one week a wheat isn't premium because she needs it she should be getting wheat up to five but maybe she's getting ready to build a settlement there no wheat wheat is such short supply that you might find the other players will try and steal that wheat oh by the way we've wrote another three this is a lot of threes unusually high number three which is great for Kelvin great for Kelvin and obviously great for James as well James is loving it I think Ricardo has made a few comments about nothing coming up from you a little bit unlucky Jim you see who lays down that first settlement which looks like well that's probably well both both Ricardo James and in fact all the players have got options to build one I'm a little surprised look there it is there it is okay it has been done okay what the heck is gone there look at that all for a trading port he's gone doubled up on the floor can we can we zoom it and see what arbitrators huh well what that is can we zoom in and see what the top question mark it's a three for one so that's a good trading spot for four David David he might actually try and trade his wheat although actually the week might be in such salt supply you can get even better trades with fairness right very interesting so currently we've got David in three points and the other players to march record is trying to get a good trade he's asking for for brick it looks like he was asking [Music] Wow was another three meter road I got three cards old car does complain that's also part of strategy begins to try to make people feel like you're feel like they can get good trades etc yes but also by you know by emphasizing that he's been unlucky he's also going to encourage people to trade with him more that's very clever actually now James is got a handful of wood so he's gonna try and get hold of some wheat or some probably some she needs that settlement on the four nine know where those two roads arguments to put that snow so he needs sex as well two weeks or two to look we actually see his world I do anything someone Carter just got some brick because Kilda has put down her settlement yeah Wow also a trading port good sports like a three for one is Line six that's very good for Celtic she's just got immediate payback that's right double down she's there she's very heavy on the six as you can see it roaming them all on sheep Wow and with her trading port she can do three four ones she might be encouraging people to to block it with the robber it's true he'd be a natural place if she takes actually one thing is quite nice for Zelda's position is that kalvin kalvin caldo sorry a position here is that her her wheat port is only dominated by herself so the other players will be trying to choose positions at the steps affect all the buggers by placing it on that six port on the side they only affect Kelvin do something that's right so unless he's taking a dominant lead people aren't going to really necessarily focus on her I will try and hurt more than one player James with blue is still waiting to put down his settlement as is Ricardo interesting our since our champions there they seem to be slightly behind at this point if I'd be worth talking about tiebreaks was it bit early for that um sure go for it on why not okay so um while we're waiting for the action to to heat up some more it might be worthwhile talking about how these storms is going to resolve itself in the in the current position is that James and ricotta have got 33 points but they won't necessarily win the game the winner of the gold medal will come from the winner of this game no matter what the points right before the game and if the ours is a tie if there's some sort of dispute for the second and third place the the following rules will be applied to just to break the players it's called a tie-break so the one will be the board plane so for example someone from the second position will be looking at for pneumonia is that correct a time so we're looking at board number one yeah and if or if someone even bought to say the winner from board two were to catch up to the player who came second on this board then because the player came second played on board won in the final round they would be ahead in the type gold can only come from this table and gold and gold can only come from the winners this time then the next tie break is the most number of wins during the tournament so for example if one players got two wins and another players got three wins and the play with three wins as an outright first place yes when yeah yeah that's great as an out for first place and if that's still tie then you will go down to the number of second place finishes James and David of both won three out of three games where the card is only one two out so that could factor into tiebreaks that's that that's a good point the next tie break if it comes down to this tie breakers the head-to-head results have you played on the same board for example as player like Kaldur played on on the same board as ricardo and recorder happen to be ahead of Calva then Ricardo would win that tie break and the other topics would be were all really required those are the some of the time not not worth getting into those all weekend so we got some more as a tarik tight breaks basically yeah but one way or another the tie any ties will be broken by our tiebreaker rules and they add a pretty much it's unlikely I guess it's possible they wouldn't but it's highly unlikely I think the planes themselves would be quite aware of these table rates going into this final round oh yeah well certainly in terms of points victory points going in they know that James Happel has 33 in the David perchick has 33 that's key that's and that is key so for example if keldo were to win with 11 points and one of those players had nine they'd still be ahead of her yes noticed some James's repeatedly China for all for some for for other resources he's got a handful of all he's got a lot of or he's clearly looking to lay down that settlement he's struggling to get ahold of brick I noticed none of his numbers have appeared for the brick Wow at 11 and the 10 and I don't see any numbers they need a reasonable numbers but they're from the terms not bad have you discussed the the ratio of the numbers the probability of disappearing go for it well just very briefly two dice are thrown the the sum of the two dice I added together and that will tell you which tile is produces a resource so for example if you throw a five and a two but it's rather five and a three or that's a better example then five adds three means eight and the two tiles that would be produced as the or on the top right and the wheat in the bottom bottom right now they're multiple ways for eight to be formed you can have a 6 and a 2 you can have a 5 and a 3 and you can have a for one or for now the 6 and the 2 can occur twice you can either have a 6 under one dice or the 6 and the other dice and vice versa with your two what's nice about the katana board if you look at the dots under the number it tells you they tell you how many very how many times it can occur you know how many options within all the permutations of rolling perfect to two dice if you notice though there are 36 combinations obviously and this tells you you know that the for your three ways to get a four which obviously is the two two and the three one either way correct and so those dots are very useful for knowing the likelihood of getting having your number hit very useful so and obviously the most popular number to be rolled is a seven which can be done six different ways that's correct yes six means the roba I noticed caldas just built two roads which is really well there we go she knew the other place he had nothing she we thought about this this she's gonna have to go and expand somewhere and it makes sense those numbers are not good numbers but maybe that's where she thinks she can go and do so yeah the other great thing about his eyes those are graceful numbers it means she keeps hold of the other of the weak receives an and that other sheep that's being blocked that's a good sheep that's a sis so that will be that will be good so it's quite a natural position a five has been rolled that's good for Kilda good for James and good for David as well with we think Ricardo's found himself quite squeezed out of this at the moment Ricardo has still are still waiting to lay his first settlement obviously that was a white white still needs to put that summit on the bottom right and the fiber right at the start of the game I was suggesting it that Ricardo should have gone for that for nine eleven spots seven i I really think that that would have been a slightly more cohesive move keep his pieces two closer together that's very possible when is James gonna do here obviously is gonna get to move the robber now that one thing about the rules if you not familiar with the game if you have more than seven cards in your hand at this point one seven is rolled when a seven is rolled exactly thank you you lose half of your cards you do get to choose which cards you keep but you do lose half your cards so you got to be a bit careful that and look James a 17 lose half of his cards ouch that is painful that's painful painful is I'm lucky at least he's gonna get one card back using the robber a placing on someone but still very uncomfortable so where's where would you place it would you trying to D whose user car who's James is tough you know that's Christine I mean going back on the ten brick is very natural because it hits everyone but him or no the timber occurs part of James's boat oh sorry sorry sorry of course sorry that doesn't make any sense so ouch that's not easy to choose from I would that's right for blue I hope you tips and get model people is tough he could double up on a six I would do the nine sheep perhaps that's possibly what note the nine sheep is him as well no he's not hasn't built yet obviously wanted to you could do it but then if he's gonna build on the 1194 soon wasn't we listen to the audio from the whole to see what James is trying to think okay eight tons just stepping out for a moment he'll be back soon all right we've got a major moment in the game well Murali James was able to build the Google the settlement out of the board in a very very graceful may that is a pretty wonderful spot for which yes that's heard that it's good for everybody so I thought it was one all right welcome back a major moment in the game may ton oh yeah James will put the the he knew that Zelda had sheep which he needed please can you make a little space here my chair I'll squeeze back in thank you great thank you majored major moment in a game James put the robber on caldas and there are such buildings built as something he managed to get a cheap offer our belief and he was able to sit within that super juicy spot Sir James he lept lipped to the front of the parliament it looks like great positioning for James I think Ricardo is gonna struggle though yeah really does look like that well Ken Ricardo can record to recover from this position Jim I don't know he's got it he's got to lay down that that settlement white needs to put us on five to a four there we go he just built James just built it and indeed he's got your and Richard gets the wood yeah I would say that that settlement has given James a major boost your energy boost in fact if you were going to interesting what where would you upgrade into a city for James I'm not sure choice I would do the wheat Balu there's nothing the five the five nine ten to five military very natural place to go it's true certainly that would give you more or and wheat to make more city exactly yes the other juicy spot is the three ten eleven to help you build roads so you can expand quickly into territory yeah it's awfully true although war else does he need to explore worlds does a blue need to expand to one thing who's threatening to do I think blue suddenly found self in a great position he's trying to build a longest road through the the the segments 411 between the old oh I see and in the five for all wheat as possible and in Huey it very hard to break that road because you can't build any anyway on it one of the rules of Catan is that if you have a road that gets built on the road the road is broken and if James were to connect his to settlements in the middle of the board to the settlement at the top of the board that would be in a braid the road that could not be broken it's true so I think James has found himself in a very very good go for longest road later absolutely very interesting he doing okay Ricardo has traded he's giving up some of that or he's gone in wood I think people are realizing oh look at that look what's going there's about to be a trade here I know that's not a trade that looks like it was what he was doing that with a bank excuse me that's David dealing with the bank after a trade so he just bought a development card it's always powerful to have a development card developing cards are key to this game you can't play the development code at meet he you played it but you can't played on the following around fits for example a soldier I heard that a for has just been hit again so the David's got lots of all its lumber that's a fantastic for him it's true these James got more so what is David here with with orange want to do I would say that that he firstly one of the things he would like to do is connect his cities to ensure that he gets the longest road but I would say he would be trying to build at that spots of 3/8 which is already open yeah which gives some extra access to to lumber and two weeks expanding on the top of the board towards way Kaldur has has built her roads is another option but it's he's gonna have to do that very fast because if Kaldur gets down the the settlement the nine eleven twelve positions will make it nearly impossible for him to get around it that's true I think suddenly James's son found himself in a very noise position true it was David doing James oh he's just by developing a card okay he's got a sneak peek at it so they're all tell the David and James all have developing cards seven and ricotta's had a bit of a bit of a good eight ouch I'm lucky James's card oh he's been very unlucky now okay so you gave up four sheep there are the Sheep yeah that's that's that's initial move by Ricardo wasn't optimal in my opinion don't know but then again he he James that are really clever move to go for that middle position took the risk and it paid off absolutely James James's ability to to to go for the 10 3:11 the double brick in the wood was very very wise choice and led to a second strongest you also need to be a bit of a psychologist to play this game we all don't generate absolutely what is going on here he needs to regarding suicide were to put the robber he was decide who and where what would you do if you're Ricardo where would you put the robber I mean certainly nice things ago his main problem is James now I would be tempted to put it on the number 11 you can do that that's 211 is enrolled frequently enough to do it's not a great spot but it does affect James maybe the five if you want to hurt James you go for the five wheat maybe the find that there's also good SPO tell does five any indeed has done it there's a good call good call a to them yes thank you yes that's a that's a very good spot and he's got to take a card you can take it from James and I think he's gonna take it for James I think we'll see looks like look at that lots of or a Carter's got a tremendous amount of war but no X is two weeks like that five or that said another seven Wow ok Kilda is moving it and again hitting everyone but herself first bill perfect it's a good look it's a good position and who's she gonna take it from from James again people recognize recognize danger of his his positioning his settlements all three settlements very powerful but even though it hurts because he's losing resources every time the robber hits at least it's hard for them to block him out he's got so many good numbers and heat and and a lot of the different numbers don't match so for example he's he's scoring on four or five almost every row or something almost every roll he's getting something yeah it's true he's so does a good position and work you know Kilda has is very strong in the six so what do you think is it better to have diversity in numbers like that I think it's I think it's essential to try and spread your numbers that you're constantly getting a small amount of resources coming in because otherwise if you just have over eight cards or none right like that's not good it can be a bit of feast and famine if you focus too much on some really good numbers but for example if you've got cities which are wood you made you get double resources on the number six for example you love multiple verse you can suddenly find yourself with a lot of resources yeah and you can get hit by a robber very easily then absolutely the other thing as well is that if you get a bit unlucky and the number doesn't come up a lot you can find yourself with in famine mode and you don't get anything well I prefer spreading the numbers I think that's very sentence along it's similar to resources were you there it's even more fundamental to diversify resources yeah absolutely unless you can access to a a critical port yes of course that's true also very smart strategy it's orange and red reports we joined here by a demo so service who's off camera at the moment but he's actually sure we would do it we can do a quick little interview demo so you want to jump in here for a sec okay I'm gonna okay yeah are we rejoined now we just want a ton just four cases seat we're joined now by demis hassabis who's one of these sponsors of the event and also of sit down please how's the game going it's it James's James was in a quite a tough position but he had a fantastic move in the middle of the board he got the for 911 spot yes and his positions suddenly become very powerful Ricardo's been blocked out of the game I think record is gonna find it tough to recover the only spot that I recorded really has available to him apart from the the 5:2 spot on the coast is the a3 spot on the top of the board but you can see since the beginning of the game he hasn't come through he hasn't beaten built it a row a single Road it's not a bad spot though the IIITs pond it's not a bad spot that's reserved spot right and nobody will challenge the five teacher for a while so you can probably anyway from it James why isn't expanded to the a3 spot early oh is it because he needed to block out David virtually took a flight but since then he hasn't he hasn't got access to wheat and he has found himself with no access to - he does have two spots in lumber but the two hasn't been thrown out yeah he's a bit of trouble when he hasn't got a port right colours James James is blue in a really strong strong nothing about David perch exposition as well as he's got very very strong control of the wheat for the moment yeah and a lot of the players are struggling to get hold of wheat yeah so he can probably go good trades with that yes that's good so maybe that's why Ricardo needed to block that I think it was gonna run away with it poorly how's your game doing I finished my game okay I won my game today no the last game but it's not being a good time at this game this is quite quite a good high quality final table as James on who are the people on three wins here okay so we've got James Hipple on 33 points with three wins david perchick is on three points also with 33 points so they wanted 11 points in each game Ricardo and killed on both on two wins apiece Ricardo is 31 points and caldez 2's 31 but according to the tiebreak system the winner whoever the winner is what when they will win the now we get a chance to look at the players the car is smiling even though he's in a difficult position a lot of sheep came out there early on we had a lot of threes being rolled into had a glut of lumber James has got good position on all on the rock yes if you were James and you were to have the opportunity to upgrade which one would you upgrade first I think probably this 9 5 10 we were thinking of you because it gives you the opportunity week as well yes probably and you can do further upgrades after that yeah yeah I think he's got a nice position here isn't he I think so the other thing is well if you notice if he if he's able to connect his two settlements in the middle of Thomas Road longest road and a can't be broken yeah that's her lock on that as well right yeah very tough for the other places Red's not gonna be able to connect the city's over yellow may be able to challenge if he's able to get it good or I can do the Kentuckian if he gets Road building if he gets the James if James was able to build those three roads difficult place - James has got the best position on wood as well right so he's getting built Road building material now we're not able to tell from the resolution where the or the lumber porters looks like it's there by the nine or nine twelve so James may be aging to try to go for that one before later I don't even there's not enough lumber in the game is that whitter p doing trading even two for one doesn't feel like a lumber cow no but you might suddenly find yourself in a gluttonous tree yeah maybe a lot of three that's wrong I don't think anyone's even play the development cottage usual development quarter play to the stages see soldier to move the other I don't believe we've had a development God played yet so the this longest army is not yet in play I mean maybe they're all kind of a case sort of equally hitting almost all the players that where it is now probably not critical that anyone gets set off of there yeah it's good for her but I mean that no one else really needs to desperately remove it they kind of plain chicken with each other he's gonna remove it at first what's your strategy Dennis if you do find yourself a bit darling you're like do try I think you go for cards really I think if you're if you're hemmed in or you're unlucky early I think you've got to try and power up on cards it would be wise strategy try and I mean there's a little bit of luck involved obviously what you get there you don't want VP's early but the other stuff gives you some power later so you don't go for development yeah development cards develop yeah that's right so if you're behind early I think going for development cards would be the hemmed-in like Ricardo I'm imagining he's probably getting a few cards he's trying to although he's not really on the right things to do that as he hasn't got wheat for example he's got no access to Wheaton yeah so that's the other reason why he had to go for the five - that is his only wheat he desperately needs to build there right yes he'll be back in the game if he can build it - yes - to villagers see he did manage to pull the road down to the house tommy's he's not even picking up and he's not picking up brick at the moment either so so I was wondering do you do you try and get the other players to feel more sympathetic to you too yeah you should yeah of course I mean they should be trading with Ricardo now but everyone knows how dangerous a player he is he's a showman he's the current champion is nice I was in the final table with him yeah so he won last year maybe he won the lawyer before as well so he's on the floor a hat-trick if he wins at Lee so he's you know very good at coming up from from quite far behind so you can't you can't really give him too many good trades even in this position you know David's position is probably gonna stall soon because he's got no access to it you know it looks good in a moment but he really he's not it's gonna I think in the mid game he's gonna start stalling I agree unless he's got good ports what is this that's a 3-1 port and this one down here well he's blocked from that now this one I don't know where's the wheat port that would be very useful for him it's over there so he can't get to it I mean how is he gonna get his all he's gonna have to trade with the bank I guess he may be able to perform with some sort of fur pact with Ricardo swapping ricotta yeah or with his wheat yeah that's probably what he'll have to do yeah I don't like that I don't like that his position from here so would you say that Kaldur and James are looking Jake James I think it's just quite well in the lead I would say I agree but Tilda knocked out let's see she's got she's not really on either right so James is really in the prone position playing James is clearly yeah careless positions pretty good she's got some expansion over here yes and if she builds that nine eleven twelve spot it's gonna make it very difficult for James to expand yeah the six six eleven twelve you mean sorry six eleven twelve characters and then she's got a lot of sheep where's the Sheep pulled the sheep that is that's that's a three full report I'll be able to zoom into the board try and find a sheep report see I mean that's the sheep board that is the sheep or oh that's a sheep board if you can get there she's gonna be she's on she's got three on sixes yeah so she just needs to build one there and then one more there and I think she would be in the lead then look with the sheep port and she's not really he when he came tested for the G port alright so David's just build a new settlement in a pretty good spot the 3/8 it is next to the desert but it gives them great access to wheat so brick lots of brick that's a good James we think James is probably in the lead yeah and that's given him a nice boost okay James looking for wheat obviously he's struggling to run away he's trying to build a settlement yes I would be very cautious about trading with James no they're over the place I actually like caldas position I think it's got good very good potential mmm she's lacking oh but if she can get to the sheep or the other thing as well as if she can build on the coast or at least build where her settlement is it mean if somebody have to build all the way past her before locking her out of the of their port yeah I don't think anyone's gonna realistically look around the port with with the amount of how few break it there is in the game I mean the bricks pretty pores and it's three ten eleven yeah she's on two of them so she can get enough bricks road-building would be a gorgeous card in this game the road big guard is one of the four though not familiar with the game one of the development cards is ability to build two roads the road building card fantastic card particularly in the early parts of the game when you can get both hemmed in and especially in this game where wood and and bricks are particularly rare yes somewhere you know which is not very unusual all right James has done an upgrade Wow okay so James has just gone from being clearly to very clearly very clearly thank you for that yes clarification well it's that's pretty good and and that even makes that wood port sort of pretty useful now potentially he's doubled up on 10 I think James gonna be difficult stop with you get moving soon with that sheep what might be a bit too far to get into play yeah she's gonna need to build it if she can get it soon yeah maybe she needs to skip the village building and go just get roads quickly another one yeah because it's so she's got enough sheep she's already on two sixes that's a good point so maybe another sheep isn't however diversified in wheat and I'd be useful it would be but it's any 11 so just get to the port to speak English she's on three times on sit on and six just so getting a fourth one I don't see how that's very useful to her I mean the 11 the 11 we is okay but given our air brick so I think you've just got to go for the she needs three bricks to get to the poor and build the village did you notice James stole from killed and I think he realizes killed yes tells us definitely his main competition yeah she can get to the poor I would say she's in the lead but she needs to do it in the next few goes I noticed James his body language he knew he sort of leans back and he starts nervous energy he realized that tell me and of course for James this is important not just for settlers but for retaining his Penta mind cuz he's the pen to my champion hears this and if he starts off with a full full score I mean that's and and one of the main games says wait for him write him up nicely I think James is going to have to be feeling very very good here and of course Ricardo wants to his three in a row does Ricardo actually go for the Penta mines I mean he's a euro game specialist yes you're a game champion he's amazing at these kinds of games but I don't know if he actually does he really try for the full hide line I have spoken to about this operator he is definitely very motivated by it but he's he's most motivated by winning the euro games at the moment yeah but that's almost um I think it's very easy for him I mean he's won the uragan he must have won it lost as he won it last two three years I think he's one of the last two years yeah I mean you know he's sort of unbeatable I think across all the euro games you know you can you can stop him in one but across the five or six I think he's pretty unstoppable although I came across a new American guy who's seems very good at these euro games as well come over specially for this and Porter's needs it's called lemon looms Barrett Sperling so I think you might want to watch out from the next few days hopefully we played a lot of Agricola apparently okay so if you if you're covering Agricola I think there's to be some pretty good games of that could you know BBC seemed against Ricardo almost and those kind of games and Kirsch has been claiming he's another Penta mine competitor has been claiming here he's been planting a lot of a great fellow as well so quite a big clash that one so it looks like if James picks this up he's gonna be favored again for the Penta minors name oh you'd already be starting with a sore knee with a score of in excess of 97 perfect start to the tournament yeah well we had a sixth day which means lots of sheep for Kaldur so she's got the three for one port so she can make some bricks out of those sheep she was in he's wood though right actually woods have that problem she's on wood and on rock it's pretty tough to get all the way to the to the port without without with so little brick and locks one of the interesting things is because of the four player game you can pick up a lot of resources from the other player's roles and in you know risk of losing half English courses for the for the bottle makes it harder to do the big four for one swaps at this point I would not be trading with James I agree with that Dobby they seem to still be thinking about it ricardo hasn't spoken up yet to say you know embargo on James James has got a great so Ricardo giving I think that record is probably desperate onz he gave up two then four one so he murdered okay maybe he was okay well he's blocking James's wheat the only way to stop him getting upgrades because he's got too much or access yeah so that weeds the critical one plus it stops Kilda on her main wheat so that's clearly the spot David and Ricardo want the robber on now how would James have got recorded to give him two or four four and Brooke I don't if he did I think it was just one for one I thought it was two I think it was one for one too would have been crazy I think it was one for one which even then you know I'm not sure but then record it you know if he doesn't build a village shortly he is basically out of the game yeah so I think he's got to just get a village so maybe he if he was paying attention he had know who's got the resource that is missing and I believe he's missing wheat so he's just gonna have to hope you can steal a weed yeah so who moved that then just now is that recorder or the server okay so he stolen something what did he go down something sweet yeah he needs wheat sweet baby he'll trade with the bank just you can do it he can trade for the bank well that's so expensive he can't if I'd anything can afford for all he's so desperate I know but he is just he's a Scot econ in his position he cannot afford food okay so what the ricotta will be trying to do is to try to encourage the other players to give him a better trade than four to one yeah the poem is is that when you do three two one trades although that's better for you it's even better for the person you're doing it for them giving it to the bank four to one so at some point even though three times technically better for you it's not really because give you too much to do but really the Sam suppose I was trading for him lightly two to one for the wheat by the way the way you isn't he needs a wheat is because he's got all the other resources and he needs to build a village so the only thing he's missing is a week we can see his hand he's got a sheep he's got a brick and he's gone well that was where would you build a few did get the the wheat would you build in the five Tuesday yeah you have to in this case because I agree you know he hasn't got any week Wow so use it three four - that's a great trade that's a good trade that would be better he needs he needs to wait oh and he's bought a development god yeah great realm for a coder yeah he's back in it now great trade for David and of course David did it because he doesn't get any all so what David will be able to do on his tone is do an upgrade because he's not he that so that was great for a card oh there's also great for David and they board willing to do with each other because they're in third and fourth position so that day that was a you know they had to get back into the game that's a perfect example of how the the person who leads sort of gains attention and everyone stops trading with them yes and blocks them with the robber looming so true that's how high-quality games should be played so obviously that's what we would expect from the final table the last round okay another good role for killed her six is always good for her and she's picked up four six earlier in the round so she's got a lot of handful of sheep she still she definitely doesn't she's pulling up more than seven cards now and she really needs to shoot that into into something you know two roads are Delius at this stage you might think maybe just build that village because I don't think and then she's got row building all year aplenty scan very hard to get to the to the port I would say actually her position was getting I think she might be behind now I think David if he can upgrade he still I don't know what port he's got was he got a three to one Paul go three two one so if he upgrades I guess he'd upgrade this family brick yeah he's still not getting any or it's really hard for him that's a one-off trade he's got that three or but he's not gonna get that normally know any cuz Ricardo was desperate in us in that position we might find though that if it continues in the search circumstance we Ricardo and don't find themselves in third and fourth position that they were willing to do their trade with each other a few times yeah but this is what Ricard always does like he's in I like recorded position now because if you look at it he's got he's getting everything he's getting he's got a reasonable number and he's he's getting a lot of all he just got another all there so he's the or King and he's got something on with that wheat on five he gets something he's got all of the resources it's got a ten on the wood it's got the brick he's got a he's really the only one who's got all of the you know resources not necessarily the best numbers but at least he's got all of them yeah that was a great a great turn for yeah and I think he decided that although that gave David a free upgrade although there was actually not hasn't got wheat in his hand so by assuming he gets the upgrade although it's see harder now with the eight block to on the wheat that doesn't really let David run away with it because he's only gonna get more of what he already is getting sure so in fact David's will never get access to all the Scout know David can't so this is another reason why I think Ricardo I mean of course James is doing very well but Ricardo's I think maybe second now because he has actually got access to all all resources and he's gonna get stronger as the game goes on because this is a great for rock with the Ted causes for an upgrade yes and hard to stop because it's getting double or and no one else is really you know there's the nine but that is going to really power him up at the end look honest just got a weed okay what was the number five were perfectly for there you go you know and he's not much with the eight blocked he's not doing any worse than anyone else now wins you know he's got a five so he's equalized it yeah about that getting to that point was key for him getting to the five to with the wheat so how do you control your emotions in the game I recorded for a long time was you know in a very difficult position and suddenly he's found himself back in the game yeah man easy for motor to keep yourself motivated you know even in bad positions you've got to keep pushing hard you know you try and fight your corner you know if people should trade give you better trades when you're losing takes effort though so you've got to keep a positive sort of outlook you just go into your shell on and think oh I'm just doing badly I'll be the people will just go it will go worse for you so that's a very good it's hard to do when especially when not so much the positions going bad because that you know that skill and in a lot of sense but if the if the dice falls are going against you which they're not a lot in this game it was six I call it six and eight games there's a lot of skill but that if the sixes and eights don't balance we should obviously most of the time they don't then someone's going to get an advantage out of that it can be that can be quite difficult then to keep motivated as soon as you see someone's shoulders drop yeah he going places got two nights now so she's going to be close to biggest army so you get biggest army for two points when you get three nights so she's got to development cause she hasn't played so probably she's got another soldier knee which she will play if the robber comes in one of her mounts James got a huge amount of things there you've got double was that annoying no he came out so annoying he's changed none by mean look at James's hand yeah so Wow night night if too many nines come up it's gonna be over for everyone I think actually though it's a great role this the six three five four four different ways of getting it you know yeah and and and James has basically got a lock on nine I mean two people are getting one sheep each but he's getting two rocks and two sheep yeah he just needs a five now he's got to the point now where most of the numbers he's getting more than everybody else yeah once you get to that point it's like a snowball yeah when you've locked the numbers and he doesn't need to be particularly lucky now on the dice walls he's got access to everything all these horses and he's doubled up on the things like rakaat it's hard for a card and it says a lot eight it's hard for the Cardo to catch up so how would you communicate if you earned one of Ricardo caldas or Davis position trying to communicate to the other players well I think you would point out and they probably are we can't quite hear what they're saying but I'm imagining there they are saying James is well in the lead I really think they should be embargoing James now because it's got so many cards and if you look at it there's no way from the catch up but like the fives James gets more he gets to wheat so he's winning on that xi you know he's getting a ton of brick tens he's matching people he's getting his you know he's getting a wrote in Road plus another wood so really other than eights and sixes so sixes are killed as number but three sheeps not that useful without without the sheep or so he's not that worried and then the a is you know at the moment only one or if Ricardo can make that into a city then at least his eights will be paying out and James will get nothing notice you you made the very good point about keldar trying to get to the sheep port you mentioned it again with the six has been so good for her yeah but it's too late you know she's waiting we did say it was you had to be soon and it's been three or four rounds around the table she's done nothing yeah I mean I don't think I'm not sure she's had the chance to although I questioned the strategy of getting lots of dev cards in her position she should have I would have got it to trade that those or something to get words because I think the village is what she really needed that it looks like David's gonna actually clear off all right in which killers know right that's that's that sort of terminal because the killers no I mean this she just took too long she had to make a road and she had to build or or build a village and just block David in as well even if she could have built a road at that point she could at least have extended to get to this yeah you know no it's terminal fidelity yeah so I think held her now is I think this is that's game over for her and that that obviously puts David back in in contention yes he could go for those shame poor now he's got as many sheep as killed up but he's got some he's on two sixes I think so Ricardo Norton do something quick uni he needs to get city I would say on that eight yes or we could build another village and now he needs to double up on his eight like now the problem with it is is it's just not quite a great position he's two edge positions are not ports so that's that's actually quite inefficient yeah and he's you know he hasn't got he's not getting great amounts of of resources so do in a port not a lot of good expansion slots form either yeah I think I think mrs. James's is sort of getting close to in the back it's got to be a bit careful of David because David's gonna get longer mode if David manages to build a second bull the road at least to prevent his expansion there James may find it difficult to build more separates he may have to I don't think you could stop James burn more salmon he's got to around he's gonna get this 912 when he's got another point round annoying and he's got another point round but how about how about this is a strategy in this position you realize recorders struggling you're trying to trade to give Ricardo rose and trying to encourage him to build yeah but Ricardo can't get longest word what I would do it David now is just I would max out longest road I think he can make sure the road he can I mean you can't lock it but I think he can really put make it hard for James to take it and I so he needs to kick knock that off and then get that sheet poured and I think he's got a chance cuz then his main issue is he's not got all but he can sway to switch the sheet for that yep that would be what I would do it's a long shot still though because James position is just much more natural from here it's just a lot easier for James to sort of build up from here one of the things that's quite nice about David's position is he hasn't got a lot of overlap to numbers so whatever their dice roll comes up he's but he hasn't you know he hasn't moved his he's blocked on the on the Suzanna his best number it's a night yeah he needs but he can't because got no all he's got no rock so he can't that's why he's not presumed he's not moved it because he hasn't got a dev card and he can't buy one in college but presumably it's not I'm assuming that development card is of is not a night because I'm really waving step by now well that's a good point it was it might be a point guard about be hidden victory point guard could be or it could be you know you told god James's this is now looking terminal people yeah James is now I've got to what is that port that looks like a possibly brought deport he didn't build at the portables what he stood on the port is he was a port cover two years to so he's still on the port so he's I think this is tough now for them to stop him he's got it King do longest road if he wants it's gonna be another village here so he's gone seven it's got seven at least and then he can upgrade pretty easily because of what he's getting wacky thought would it be worthwhile for one of the players he sees how difficult it is to take on James now to try to give the resources for building a road that would block James in the middle of the board so broke Jones could not get there obviously yeah you could is that too crazy no it's not too crazy the only person who can do it I mean the Ricardo or Kaldur could do it but doesn't help them because they weren't beginning the longest road out of it surely David I'm playing a thought experiment so I'm now in Davis positions yeah and I say to kill her kill her your turn to trade your turn to build I'm gonna give you all these great resources if you were building yeah but he wouldn't because he'd have to give him Road building resources which he would just use to build the longest road so don't think any it's in anyone's if it was if it would also help Ricardo and David couldn't get the longest road then fine give him the road building material good prevailing this in this situation he's just got to hope he can out outlast James cuz if David doesn't get longest road there's no way he's getting to ten no before James so James James doesn't need I don't think Jamie's longest road he if he's got Road building or he might just do it if he can grab it quickly and and David doesn't get it soon because no one's got long as for the moment so obviously James could do it with just a single but I think James is gonna all he needs to do is do you know two upgrades and then he can build a village there and village there whose village on the two more villages on that on the nine square the top the nine rock so that's the easiest path to tend that's fairly on stop all at this point I mean they need to block his probably block his wheat his wheat on from the five square I think that would be really the only way to kind of slow James down you can also block his ten would what isn't all that useful for upgrades getting development card so yeah we tease James would be too worried about that my wheats probably the one who needs to do those blocks cards all sorts of things and David would probably be motivated to block a tweet because then it will give him more of the resource that he needs where's the rubber moved it's not strong the 8 is it I think sounds holding anything it's deciding where to put it it has to be ok that's Scott you've got everyone will be attacking James from this point on where he should be should be and now I need to wait Oh perfect great if David can build David on the road people can upgrade maybe probably but he needs to build a road just to make sure James doesn't get an easy and easy two points and just win James could conceivably build two points in one time then with the one road he gets the other team I turned that and that that wins so I was David I'd be getting a little bit worried at this point about not making just taking the longest road of course and that isn't that city building material right around I don't know what he's got in his hand though he got the three or from Rakata earlier he still got a three or I think somehow I expect him to do an upgrade little bit though he might have built cards with that one I think he's built cards with them so he probably doesn't have to be all so I don't think he's got the oh we had not obtained the image over and see the cards that David's got in his hands so he'll be to the wards all right he's got two three two one so he should be operating really I think now well though I think he's worried about the road so the other option is to build two rows and to take that longest road yeah I mean he needs one Road I don't think James can build two roads and and two points so if you build two roads which you can do no you can't no to me he's just got to build one road to take longest road in an upgrade yeah that's clearly what he's got to do so that's we expect him not to trade for for a week yeah he's on the upgrade and then he should take the road in my opinion to met just make sure that James can't sort of sneak a win with with the road because he has not brought the road that's very surprising yeah I think I would have built the road he's obviously confident James can't even though why he might not want to become too much retargeting self you know he's opened he's on six points that would make him on eight it would alert everyone to him closing in on the wind you know he's on eight he needs to just get to that port there and then upgrade and then he's basically he'll have longest road when he's on five one two three four five six seven with the road noise one two three four five six point six points so he's got eight points with the road right its longest road he's close you know and then if he gets annoying to the sheet court he's definitely going to be able to get ten quite easily yeah this is actually quite exciting he's not far off David may actually be in the need now so this is definitely between David and James James oh no no I've noted two eight on it earlier that the players who play first and fourth position tend to have a bit of advantage in this game it depends on what the tall positions but yeah they they they can be in advantage positions I mean first could be very bad since on some boards yeah there isn't a very good last square in for player often in the final placement which the first player goes first and last with their placement they can be left with a terrible square that doesn't mesh with what else they've got I quite like ain't last last is generally quite good who went last in this game David everyone lost lost over that's maybe that explains what evolution is pretty pretty handy no recorders just managed to build another settlement so he's bumped himself up to five points so good it's a good spot but as David pointed out because it's on the coast and not a report it's a little bit inefficient ok the robbers being placed James so who placed their robot gentlemen she she's got the largest army now so how many James on James on six I don't think he does he's been struggling to get hold of we sheep for a bit yeah for some reason I guess no lines come up not for a while yes I think I would say David is now possibly favorite ok caldas building a road kill this position is extraordinarily difficult well she needed the she needed the sheep port yes she died a mistake she's just going she's getting tons of she she's gonna get more sheep shortly no I mean he's got three two one port so it's okay but she's not getting enough she could have built she could have bought between the 99 of the nine wheat and the eleven Wheaton yes I think that needed to happen so you look at that obviously let David come out so that was an 11 so that's very good for food room James he gets his three bricks maybe he must build of Russia for yeah it's quite anxious I'm sure that's his plan so that's why I was David I would be really wanting to lock down the roads by building to between his settlements David's got a problem with bricklayer I don't see we've had a 10 for quite some time okay James is offering the brick he just got three of them okay trading with Cal does a good move at this point cos Calders in last place least two notes you might be trying to Wayne trying to get the resources to go to Bill another settlement as well one two three four five six points there was the longest orbital bump of up to a point yeah that's right David still thinking about what are we just gonna take a short break now thanks so much for coming - yes thanks very much for having us and where my brain yeah yeah I should have okay I'm joined here by Pushkin DeVoe he's one of the top ten Timon pantomime players and last year I think he came second is that crew I've come I came second for the surgeon array so looking to change out this year okay so which is your favorite of entity this man sports that's the tough question I really like a choir maybe that's my favorite but I love all the games now we'll get to talking to you more later but let's get back to this exciting game yeah so if we can go back to the game board James Heppell has taken a really strong position he's got excellent access to all the resources now it was a point in early on the game we'd look like a mappy but Darcy for joins but he's got a very strong position now and he can actually win it on his own he's got enough expansion slots David on the other hand in the bottom left of the corner has suddenly found himself with a lot of expansion material up on the bottom or top right he finds himself on one two three four five six points and he's building up to block James with has he got longest road results have the longest road now so he's up to eight point eight point Kaldur is unfortunately a bit out of this her best option now is to try to get favorable trades with the other players a bit of a problem for Keller is that of course if she gives a favorable trade - yeah the other players it also helps them but she's not gonna be a target for the robber for the rest of the game I'm surprised to see Ricardo not doing so well he's he maybe he won it last two years didn't he the record as a champion he was actually on a hat-trick or soon he was crazy you you you you you well I think record a saw the danger that was would suddenly get get it a strong lead Ricardo and and calda really have to maybe even try to cooperate with each other now just to try to get back into the game personally I'm really hoping David wins this because if James was to start off with winning Catan that's 106 pence mine points with the new formula which is crazy yeah actually that's a good point to Ankush I'm not sure if we're the audio is life but and question made a good point there that this particular event is is we try an experiment this year where most events have a certain number of pantomime points but this year the settles of Catan torment and a few others are getting a multiplier of one point zero eight which means that if Jamie was James were two winners so I'm sure she's putting on his his Penta mind hat and and willing James David rather to to do very well on those games even though he's still gonna get a hundred and four so I suppose it's only two points but still could be critical knew there could be James's starts at very well it looks like he's gonna start very well again last year as well he started with like two or three golds in the first two days I mean even if James even if David were to win the state James Jones is coming seconds yeah and James started to surround with 33 points yeah so we sitting in a situation where even second place would say six or seven points will secure him second place actually saw the penultimate round of this tournament where he was it looked like he was locked out and madly one of the top women kept enter mind contestants she was winning that game but James somehow came back with some dice rolls and managed to take the win this would be a very impressive victory James all of these players are fantastic Laver you got to watch out there Dark Horse's so it's David's turn okay I think what often happens is the the really good players at Catan are able to work out not double up on numbers they're not doubling up on resources they have access to all the resources I think that's very important in the opening of the game later Anya is looking for like anywhere to build really because the start of the game determines the core of your economy that's the first 12 of the game and both James and David the leader our leaders are so what's the point situation we said David was on eight points before and now James is on once every four and kelder has the largest army is that correct so she has seven think seven points cards work as well so if you roll a seven in Settlers of Catan you must lose half your cars run der down so if you did have for example eleven cards you would lose five of those cards you get to choose which five but you would have to give him back to the bank all right Jay David about to make some big moves here he already has the longest row but he may want to protect it by building between demands is his city in the bottom his group of in the bottom now we are able to see the the players cards in this game but the players themselves the these would be secret I have a do you find that you able to track who's got which resources I think if you wanted to pay like really close attention you'd know exactly which player has but I don't know anyone who actually does go but you can have a rough idea of what people have certainly if somebody's just picked up a lot of wheat you're weird you need read you you may provoke the child play the robber on the properties if you notice what the previous few roles are and like what numbers people are on you can pretty much deduce what they have settlement in a road so does Ricardo have one facedown turn on card yes he does which we will have to assume is a point guard has he not used in a while he hasn't used it for a long time okay so we'll put him on six point six points I hope he stays on six points for my personal reasons but Ricardo sort of this world with 31 points yeah and I ended with 38 points in this tournament so if he was to get 37 now it'd be itlc so anguishes has finished all 38 congratulations on a fantastic score how many wins did you get I ended with two victories two Victor's this is exceptionally tense transposition I think they they are like on the edge so david has just announced that he's reached nine but he was also talking about how he might struggle to maintain his longest road yes he's what he has done is if he built on to that sheep port which is a fantastic port he does split his road slightly high V does a - very good roads - to extended by three down between the 3/8 and the bottom of the board and in between the 1018 down to his City how many words does he have left six yes six in his longest road so what are we for say if James the four bill falls good for David lots of lumber if James were to build seven or seven roads he would take the longest road you mean seven more so David really should concentrate on completing this road just to try to lock that but maybe he's just trying to get that time victory the other option is to try to take a few developments just hope you get lucky one of the developers might help David years he wrote the looking card of course yes okay James has just said he won't do do people lie in this game do they is it is what's the etiquette of the game if somebody says will you do this and do you find this is all fares and all's fair in love and war is that is there something educated I mean when it comes to trading like you have to agree on the trade you can't I don't stand exactly what you mean but you in the last game I just played Charlotte was like flying throughout the whole of the end game which is completely fair she's saying I've gone my side out of a victory point she had a victory okay so part part of the psychology is again well surely the game could have been a dream okay six that's that's the sheep actually yeah so you can buy a development card looking his he's got three words the goddess - its killed her to go if the if r7 doesn't come out horses routes victory I think he needs another development card it's very hard from to build a city and there's no place for his peer assessment so he has to gamble on Devon Claude here's one more spot build five oh he needs to not grow the news but if he doesn't know great he was well upgrades are very difficult especially with if you look at his he doesn't have any of your ones yes he doesn't know that's great so you'll have to either trade reform for the that's one of the weaknesses of this kind of strategy well there's not much or you can very quickly find yourself on seven victory points with five settlements and the longest straight but getting we we think we think Jeff is because I struggle to well anyway at least you could buy a car that's right to get a point that's true it is likely I can I have no access to rocks so let's see there's how many face-up development cards I see caldas got three nights James has got one night Ricardo have one card as well ricotta's got one face Dylan Caudill played I think resources we believe that card face-down as a victory point he hasn't played it for a very long time just you also have that victory point though so maybe there's three remaining in the deck probably victory points are they in total enclosure there are five victory points in the deck out of 25 cards so in the development card pack you get a variety of different types of codes one is a soldier like we just got oh your plea so what caldas just played is the year of Plenty I think it's caught so everybody must give her oh no she played the Monopoly but not be rather so that that's a great card she suddenly found herself with a lot of lumber and what's she gonna do int settlement great so caldo fancy if that's a victory point card she finds herself one two three four five six points plus the longest Archer on the eight point she's an 8 points that's a pretty good showing that's pretty good for one of the things that happened earlier which is that she had this road for a long time at the spot where David has built as his his settlement of the sixteen eleven or twelve spot and she didn't block Dave neither block David nor extended it to allow myself to expend ever Sarah Lee he thought that there was a clear mistake okay six right killed immediately scores from the build of the settlement gets four sheep come on sheep in fact he gets five she because she says she really needed that than achieve board I wish she wrought so David isn't able to win the game immediately if he were able to win it he would just plays well one might think that but Ricardo has a different style of victory because it often he likes to give a little speech before the victory why could be like lead like the villain in the Bond movie class to talk to bond he likes the showman yes record I like the villain in the Bond movies I'm not sure okay so that was a ton just coming briefly into short Caribbeans laptop I think in the previous rounds he gave a little speech after his victory and saw one of the other contestants they had something to say about Chris who's I think he's gonna end up coming forth like it's unclear what the etiquette is about imps for instance and game like poker if you if you had the winning hand but you didn't show anyone until if you like did about showmanship before declaring it that would be considered a slow roll and it's very very unethical in poker but maybe in seselis it's more allowed we don't know what the line is I personally I would find it a little bit rubbing your nose it is kind of but he does it in a good spirit Ricardo's great guys okay now caldas suddenly found us off with a head fistful of sheep he he'll roll another 60 so if she's able to hold on to the sheep until the trading fish I may be able to do something interesting Ricardo's now suddenly funds itself on four five six points with we expect that's a hidden victory point to that cuz currently some are we gonna see a sudden Dark Horse from Ricardo yet doing well he's very capable of coming back he's a he's a great player at that's gonna but he did win this we keep pointing out to two times oh he won last year and in 2016 rot caldas going to trade their cheap she's gonna have to get her in rid of that festival she she doesn't he she's very little limited space to build can we even find a spot row to build she can't you're not allowed to have been said list you're not allowed to build past someone's settlement so I think she can't she's gonna have to go for upgrades there's no spots so we sending a situation here where Kelly is not able to build any new settlements so she's just buying dwelling cards I believe or maybe that's a city I think it is yeah so she's upgrading our to a city yeah extreme expensive slot Ricardo says I think it cost 13 resources she had to give all right she's doubling up on that six again that's good did that put her on nine points one two three four five six seven eight potentially nine wins Wow we sitting on two people up to nine Jared should come and sneak Dave we sorted James is gonna walk us one two three four five six seven eight James is on eight so if he can sneak the longest road card somehow recorded five six what a finish this can often happen like this where the player in last place they don't get picked on and then they may gain some amends because everyone else is trying to stop the winner and they get a free right now calvess trying to look at her body language she's making small move it's in my opinion she's trying to stay out of everyone's eye which is smart move from another I wonder if people have realized she's online no one's mentioned it no I think we I think we I think Cal doesn't know a great position if she gets a couple of sixes in the next row just be able to do another upgrade the Dave is gonna see if you can get that tenth point David's gonna try to get hold of some war but nobody will get I think his only shot is to gamble for that victory point oh he's got a he's got a sheep bought of course so he's gonna buy Devon he's gonna buy and as he got it has he got it no okay so he's told he started when he has not got the victory points so a game continues you look at his face he's a little bit frustrated but that's part of the game hey eight well that's very good for David so if you can survive to the next one you have a fistful of wheat and that gave White's a bunch of wrong one so that's Ricardo Ricardo have seven points potentially now James did not benefit from the dates three so James Jones for his own fee he's had a few frustrating rounds cuz easy he got suddenly to seven or eight points and then he hasn't moved on oh yeah they definitely realized Coda's in the strong position they've blocked well spotted on couch thank you so if you notice on the far under little right of the board they killed his sheep port Schieffer tile has been floor so I think the players do suddenly realize now that Kaldur suddenly finds herself in a great position and we were predicting the earlier that she was cheap in October we can listen to the boys Ricardo it doesn't matter I believe you but it's not in my interest to trade at the moment okay cause like I got I quite run cars I haven't got what I've well I haven't it's not in my interest to trade because I've got a lot of cards so dice rolls may well on the hell me to win on my toes Ella what do you need one of the reasons David said that was because he just picked up the monopoly card I believe that's what we saw the camera so he's gonna pay very close attention toward resources or produced this around in another situation he might have traded with a cadre but he doesn't want to trade that because he wants to monopolize the wrong way not trader David yes let's see what happens David told the other players recorders traded with but kill to put that pedal to the table okay just a lot of points so it's very very close Ricardo you could get up some nine points potentially he is definitely gonna build something he's got about 15 cars in the Sun so if ricotta gets a nine points and assuming David wounds on the screen that puts record in a great position to come okay [Music] James is on eight points isn't he so he's probably gonna come second if James started this round with 33 points and three wounds exactly if you were to stay on eight points we get to 41 points which which should be good enough for syphilis I think definitely second one because even if Ricardo was to get nine points James James can never lose those guaranteed 41 points is a case there's a chance that he'll come third if David was to come second Kaldur was eldest daughter of 30 points 13 so she would end up in 41 in the instance and then but she would win the gold outright yeah so actually from a tactical point of view it might be in David's best interest to make sure kelder wins the game she would end up with 41 he would end up with 42 then he'd get the second place wouldn't he get first no because it's the winner of it's the winner of that ball oh is it always the winner it's always the winner of this board because David wouldn't have end up with more tournament points I understand he's it's the result in the final round the second time because they've had the board it has the gold medal has to come from this board that's the tiebreaker but I believe the first criteria should be that's that's not okay well if that situation was to - I'll see mine - turning 70 seeing winner of this game okay we'll have to check will check in the end for the for the taric's alright said we believe David's going to win the game oh he rolled a seven oh my goodness this could be so David has to lose a lot of cost for plenty not monopoly so he's still gonna get he's gonna win this game David so so we gonna get a we're gonna get David to come into the commentary booth in a second I think James particular game I think James gets very strong second place 100 so James James's last you spent Aman winner has had a fantastic start to the storm this is the first tournament - what's Olympia 2018 tonight James I think is fine the hare and tortoise I believe and may have an opportunity to even extend his lead we I'm not sure if we'll get a painter mind updates during this live show but hopefully tonight the results of today's at some point we're gonna hopefully get David to come give us let's just listen to the players i extremely came back yeah absolutely hind yeah so it allows me to bring me when you played that it was suddenly so picking two cards one point in the mono okay if you manage to build really frustrated for you I'm sorry congratulations David don't worry I'm proud I wasn't expecting to reach the top 16 so reaching that's final four Oh Ricardo's talking nonsence yeah he's he's a he's a very good settles okay Tampa David perfect we're about to get double person to comment Kelvin age 15 well done Calvin she came second on the sport we think she'll probably come third or fourth in the tournament okay um ladies and gentlemen we uh why we thank you very much John coach while uncle sure just luckily had a bit of a football injury and while uncle Sherm vacates the spot for for David I was gonna do physicians okay [Music] [Music] okay welcome back here really pleased to be joined here with David perchick hello David is the winner today of our featured event which has settles at Curtin not David um we're gonna have a look at the board later on over the board but tell me how you feeling ah drained although actually is I think the previous round was more stressful I'm not I'm trying to remember why but it's always stressful thinking you're going to get into the final but then when you're in the final at least I don't expect to win so it's then less stressful I understand the title the very end when I was waiting to get my tenth point and now we were watching the game earlier and we thought James wasn't a fan Terry opposition thought it was going to be difficult for you guys to stop him and and keldar made an interesting we think perhaps a bit of an error she didn't build on that six eleven twelve spot which enabled you to build on six minutes now how did you feel when you did you think that you're suddenly in a build there what were you thinking well I was looking at that for ages but its own because I had the road building card for quite a long time you kept hold of it did you yes and because at that point with with other people having better access to wood and brick I was not expecting to be competing for the longest road so it's only then useful to gain a settlement space so then I'm looking for opportunities and I don't I don't know what her cards were so I don't know whether she could ever have built there but I agree the key from my in terms of me winning that's the key moment because once I feel that I now have well it turns out access to the sheep port later on but I'm competitive on sixes because before that point she was doing so well on sixes that it was going to make a big difference we thought James was going to win but it but the person who was competing was her yeah one of the things that seemed to key in it and that phase of the game was that if Kaldur was able to get to the sheep port on the edge of the sea that would have perhaps given her a very strong position I'm not sure he was thinking that far ahead it was a long way away it was and it was difficult to build roads longest road was only six at the end which is quite sure that is a very short row typically thrown by the Layton 11 points okay and how did you feel about Ricardo early on he he seemed to be completely out of it he had strike he struggled to build a beginning and then suddenly towards the end he started to become a bit of a dark horse um well Ricardo is a very good player he's won this competition the previous two years in a row he's certainly one of the best players around I think he's got that he was saying he got to the semi-finals of the World Championships in the past Ricardo's so possibly he didn't win because he had such bad dice rolls from his point of view at the beginning of the game and then he plays very differently to me because what he was then doing was he was doing things that benefited other players more than they benefited him but they still benefited him a bit and then yes well even when he played the Monopoly and built his city suddenly he is absolutely back in the game and at that point I did actually say oh it's it's a four player game again because at that point I think any of the four of us could have won yes in fact Kaldur at the end was sitting on mine points yeah absolutely and that was only there was a five minute period where I did my game the six and then on Ricardo's next turn was when he did the the monopoly I think yes and so that's that's a really key moment because that's when James suddenly is brought right back to the rest of us we've all caught up yeah I mean there was a time there were James seemed to be running away with it and then he sort of stalled as the rest of you players seem to now one of the strategies in this game is to try to identify who's leading the yep and try to also communicate to the other place what's what's your strategy to try and get other players to give you favorable trades oh I don't I don't do that I'm that's not my skill set so there are many many people who are better at the trading than me about the best I can do is I set up so that I was hopefully going to have wheat when other people didn't yes there's a key the only thing I do in terms of the favorable trading is try to have things that only I've got so that I can sell them at a premium that's about the most I could because there are I know lots of people who play this and monopoly which is very much a trading game I'm not a monopoly player that's not I'm more about the tactics of the board position and things like that to roads and building the settlement on the on the sheep space that's more the area where I'm good okay I'm just um just returning to the Penta minders such you you here for the hot are you sorry are you here for the whole week dude I don't really enter anything I'd sometimes into the poker that I'd live in London so it are you tempted to I'm going to try anything else so this is the game that I'm best at in terms of these kinds of games I've been playing Settlers since it came out in 1995 because I was at university at the time so I've played it a lot and most other games I have not played as much certainly not competitively could you tell us a little bit about yourself or what you do for a job well I am a librarian I work for an international law firm and the the job there involves doing research for the lawyers so there's the traditional librarian staff of making sure that they have access to all of the books and all of the electronic databases that they need but there's also because the lawyers are very busy they don't have time to do the research and also they would have to build the clients for their time and we're cheaper so they get us to do it we think we're faster than them but it's more that they don't have the time and how often do you find time for your hobbies gameplay hobbies um less than I used to I've been coming to avid I've been trying to think whether I attended the first ever Emma so in 97 I think it was what probably did but I certainly haven't attended every year I've come here the last two or three years I think I got to the final two years ago actually of the settlers and Ricardo beat me to get revenge yeah well revenge isn't quite the right word but yeah I feel very happy to have have one not do we do we have an update on who came second and third in the tournament we believe James came second and I believe would have come second because she had did she have a victory point cards she came ninth on the board but in terms of the old avatar points total yes James had three wins okay we've just had the confirmation there we go thank you very much so we have held us so if we if we start from a first off from Roberto Ricardo rather the Ricardo started the the the top board with 31 points and he because of his eight points it becomes 39 he ended up coming fourth kelder gets the bronze medal 15 years old fantastic for that she played very well she did I assume based on two wins she played very well all day she has only played well in the final fantastic four killed her James hair-pull he's the Penta mine champion from last year and because of the 1.08 multiplier and the second position in this large tournament James is going to all play with 104 Penta mine points of attacks very good and in on the top spot with four wins out of four tough to do with this field we have David Patrick thank you well I mean you sort of have to win it at least to to get into the final so someone was going to win with with at least three wins but yeah I played well I had some luck that's how you win okay so we're gonna wrap it up now I just want to say thanks again to to David and hopefully we'll see you later in the week for some of the other tournaments thank you tonight we're going to be watching the hare and tortoise and we're going to be offline and until 8 o'clock this evening 8 that's 8 o'clock British summer time so you need to get your timezone sorted out

Channel: mindsportsolympiad

Views: 50,396

Rating: 4.614213 out of 5

Keywords: catan, championship

Id: v6tW9EvuJXM

Length: 131min 42sec (7902 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 25 2018