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#30180
Soon I will post a report of the latest WBA activities at the Grand Prix in Celle here. There were badges, a betting frenzy, a nice game between the chairman and the FCA, and an 30-hour-time span with nearly no sleep but lots of beers (starting before noon and keeping it up till about four in the morning) :cheersR:

Which may actually be the reason why this report isn't written at this moment. :x
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#30279
“Masters of the Universe” promised to be one wacky tournament. Affiliations were to be given out randomly to participants who were fighting not for their own, but in couples for the good of their affiliation. Affiliations were never pitted against each other (no Klingon Civil War this time), and the whol shebang inspired me, the chairman of the WBA, who unfortunately couldn’t partake in this tournament, because the announcement of the affiliations was after the date I left my home for a two-week visit at my parents to whom I didn’t want to schlepp all my STCCG cards.
And so I pronounced a betting game between those affiliations. “Wettscheine” (betting tickets or whatever, the WBA doesn’t translate everything, we’re lazy bastards) to the value of up to one Euro were sold, promising the fix quota at the moment they were bought. Any proceeds from this endeavour would go directly to the World Biermeister Association, while any losses would be paid for be myself. Thus the bottom line on any Wettschein: “The WBA thanks for your generous donation.” And here are those quotas:

14th of November, nine days before the tournament, initial pronouncement:
FER: Ferenginar (Tobias Rausmann & Marwin Wanek) 1,5 : 1
TNG: Earth, Cradle of the Federation (James Hoskin & Markus Eberlein) 3 : 1
FUL: Founder’s Homeworld (Tyler & Kathleen Fultz) 3,5 : 1
ROM: Romulus (Will Hoskin & Sandra Wanek) 4,5 : 1
STF: Earth, Humanity’s Home (Sebastian Kirstein & Ulf Benjes) 5 : 1
TER: Terok Nor (Markus Richter & Thorsten Wanek) 7,5 : 1 , or shortly
FER 1,5 TNG 3 FUL 3,5 ROM 4,5 STF 5 TER 7,5
At this quota, Sebastian Kirstein bought the first Wettschein for Starfleet (the affiliation he was going to play) at 5 : 1

18th of November, after Marwin Wanek (FER) was replaced by Lars Flitter and Ulf Benjes (STF) was replaced by Jens Petritzki:
FER 1,8 TNG 2,6 FUL 3,5 ROM 4,5 STF 4,8 TER 7

21th of November, 1st day of the Grand Prix, after I had heard from Sebastian that he wasn’t going for a solver but rather for a killing spree via dilemmas:
FER 1,8 TNG 2,5 FUL 3,3 ROM 4,4 STF 5,2 TER 7
These odds were still current when I arrived in Celle on Saturday morning, and Thomas Schneider, one of three non-paticipants betting, bought a Wettschein for the Fultzens Dominion at 3,3

10:26 (most times given are more or less “felt” times, since my cell phones battery was down):
FER 1,7 TNG 2,6 FUL 3,1 ROM 4,5 STF 5 TER 7
Tobias Rausmann was the third better, and by putting his bet on the Fultzens instead of his own affiliation (Ferenginar), he stirred up both quotas.

10:29:
FER 1,9 TNG 2,5 FUL 2,8 ROM 4,4 STF 5 TER 6,8
No sales after this update, but the public interest was building at this point, a queue was forming before my box office.

10:31:
FER 1,7 TNG 2,4 FUL 2,3 ROM 4,3 STF 4,9 TER 8,5
Lars Flitter here put his money on (his own) Ferenginar before the quota could fall lower.

10:34:
FER 1,5 TNG 2,5 FUL 2,3 ROM 4,4 STF 4,8 TER 8,5
The next non-participating better put his money on Fultzens Homeworld: Christian Zipper. The quota would not recover from this early favouritism.

10:37:
FER 1,5 TNG 2,6 FUL 1,6 ROM 4,8 STF 5 TER 8,9
Oliver Thust, the third and last non-playing better, was the first to put his money on one of the initial favourites, TNG-Earth

10:38:
FER 1,5 TNG 2,2 FUL 1,5 ROM 4,7 STF 5,1 TER 9,2
Markus Richter, who earlier reported about the bad form of his Terok Nor deck, used the recent peak of his quota and placed a bet on 9,2 : 1

10:40:
FER 1,6 TNG 2,3 FUL 1,4 ROM 4,6 STF 5,2 TER 8,5
Tyler Fultz returned the favour of Tobias Rausmann and put a bet on his strongest competitor (FER).

10:42:
FER 1,2 TNG 2,5 FUL 1,5 ROM 4,5 STF 5,3 TER 9
And the lovely Mrs. Fultz followed suit, totally disregarding the ridiculous low odds of 1,2 : 1.

10:43:
FER 1,1 TNG 2,5 FUL 1,6 ROM 4,9 STF 5,4 TER 9,5
Now Jens Petritzki of the Starfleet coalition used the day’s highest quota and put a bet on Terok Nor at 9,5 to 1. This would propel the Starfleet odds to new heights, but made Terok Nor into the Affiliation that truly terrified me, because if this underdog would win, the WBA would make no money and I would lose quite a bit (8,70 Euros at this point).

10:44:
FER 1,3 TNG 2,5 FUL 1,7 ROM 5 STF 5,5 TER 5,6
No new bets.

11:07: (Shortly before the first round of the Grand Prix)
FER 1,4 TNG 2,6 FUL 1,8 ROM 5,2 STF 5,6 TER 6,0
No new bets, the attention seemed to have shifted to other activities at hand.

13:25: (After two rounds of the Grand Prix)
FER 1,5 TNG 2,7 FUL 1,7 ROM 5,5 STF 5,7 TER 5,8
James Hoskin used the so far highest quota of the day (2,7) to put some money on himself (TNG).

... to be continued ...
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#30490
14:00: (This must be after the really quick loss against Sandra)
FER 1,9 TNG 2,3 FUL 1,8 ROM 6,1 STF 6,1 TER 5,1
No new bets, I went out to fetch a bite to eat.

15:00: (Still during the main break, slow betting, I had to try to lure some new betters)
FER 2,1 TNG 2,3 FUL 1,9 ROM 6,5 STF 6,3 TER 4,7
No new bets, new strategy.

15:05: (I quickly calculated how high the odds for Ferenginar could get without me actually losing money)
FER 8,5 TNG 2,5 FUL 2,1 ROM 6,6 STF 6,2 TER 4,5
I have to admit there weren’t that many players around that hadn’t bet yet, but at least I had given those a chance to earn some quick money.

15:10:
FER 5,2 TNG 2,8 FUL 2,3 ROM 6,5 STF 6,1 TER 4,6
No new bets.

15:15:
FER 2,8 TNG 3,1 FUL 2,0 ROM 6,2 STF 5,9 TER 4,4
No new bets. Ferenginar has shrivelled down in the rain again.

15:25:
FER 2,5 TNG 3,2 FUL 2,2 ROM 6,5 STF 5,8 TER 4,5
Still no new bets. Next round of the Grand Prix was supposed to start at 15:30.

15:33:
FER 2,6 TNG 4,1 FUL 2,1 ROM 6,8 STF 5,9 TER 4,4
Will Hoskin had waited long enough for the top quota of his brother’s affiliation, TNG. That’s why they elected him to be the Financial and Consuming Advisor (FCA) of the WBA.

15:33,5:
FER 3 TNG 3,8 FUL 2,3 ROM 7 STF 6 TER 4
No new bets, everyone had to play.

16:16:
FER 3 TNG 3,7 FUL 2,2 ROM 7,2 STF 5,9 TER 4,2
No new bets yet, but I was pestering Thorsten Wanek that no one was yet betting on his wife, and that this may be the chance to save his marriage and even make enough money for a second honeymoon (whole-day-subway-tickets in Hannover go for something like 5,50 Euro).

16:20: Especially for Thorsten I announced a special anniversary quota for Romulus:
FER 2,7 TNG 3,6 FUL 2,4 ROM 7,5 STF 5,8 TER 3,9
And he couldn’t resist. I later unsuccessfully tried to convince Sandra also to bet on herself, but she wouldn’t support the WBA. In the end Romulus went second in the “Masters”. Close, but no cigar.

16:25:
FER 2,8 TNG 3,7 FUL 2,5 ROM 6,3 STF 5,7 TER 4,1
No new bets.

17:37:
FER 2,5 TNG 3,5 FUL 2,5 ROM 6,5 STF 5,5 TER 4,5
Note the unbelievable conformity of the odds.

18:45:
FER 2,7 TNG 3,9 FUL 2,7 ROM 6,4 STF 5,9 TER 4,7
No new bets, the box office closed at about 21:00

All together 13 bets, all with the highest possible amount of money (1 Euro). As long as Terok Nor wouldn’t win (18,70 Euros down the drain), the WBA would have earned a lot of money. I left 12,40 to my bookie, along with enough small change to satisfy all demands. The amounts of money that had to be paid according to the winning affiliation were: 9,40 (TNG), 8,70 (FUL), 7,50 (ROM), 5,-- (STF) and 4,50 (FER). In an unexpected action to let the WBA earn as much money as possible, Ferenginar won the tournament, Lars Flitter earned 1,70 Euro, Tyler Fultz 1,60 Euro and Kathleen Fultz somehow interpreted Rule of Acquisition #82 in a Klingon way. Instead of “The riskier the road the greater the profit” a Fultzian Rule of Acquisition could be: “The worse the odds the greater the honor”. And when Kathleen cashed in her 1,20 Euros at least her profit margin of 20 cents was way higher then that of several guys betting at odds of 5 , 7,5 , 9,2 or even 9,5 - and just helping to further the glory of the WBA.
:cheersL: Thanks anyway! :cheersR:

With these latest earnings and a quick recalculation of the costs of the last Biermeisterschaft (I paid for non-member Oliver Thust’s first beer, which was my - darn inebriated - mistake, and since Oliver ALSO paid for that beer, only the waiter profited from this. So I put the money back into the WBA’s account) the current treasure of the WBA consists of 17,50 Euros. My, those are mouth-watering prospects, fellow members! :cheersL:

[SD]Next time I will tell you about our 17th member Uwe J. F. Mindermann, and what he did to let the WBA shine in sparkling light.
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#30544
Here are the official results:
Horst wrote: Masters of the Universe
1. [Fer] Ferengi (Tobias Rausmann / Lars Flitter) 23 VP
2. [Rom] Romulan (William Hoskin / Sandra Wanek) 21 VP
3. [SF] Starfleet (Jens Petritzki / Sebastian Kirstein) 20 VP
4. [TN] Terok Nor (Thorsten Wanek / Markus Richter) 19 VP
5. [Dom] Dominion (Tyler & Kathleen Fultz) 18 VP
6. [TNG] Federation TNG (James Hoskin / Markus Eberlein) 18 VP
And if you don't believe me that the betting thing was awesome (not only from a financial POV):
JaglomShrek wrote:Also a special thank you to Thomas Vorwerk for organizing his great WBA bet
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#30579
Our 17th member is an honourary member, and the first member not at all acquainted with the rules of STCCG. Uwe Johann Friedrich Mindermann, a fellow member of my other club, the “Deutsche Organisation der nichtkommerziellen Anhänger des lauteren Donaldismus” (or short: D. O. N. A. L. D., see http://www.donald.org) owns a “Buttonmaschine”. A “Button” is the (more or less) German word for what English-speaking countries call badges, and Uwe did some of those both for my personal amusement (“Horst says: Keep patience alive”) and to adorn the breasts of some of the most prestigious WBA members. Unfortunately, several WBA members who were supposed to show up in Celle somehow couldn’t make it, and so I had to take several of those badges back home.
“European Biermeister 2007” and “Irish Biermeister 2009” (for the winner of a future tournament) would have gone to Tony Gammell.
“German Biermeister 2008” would have gone to Carsten Hartmann.
“Danish Biermeister 2009” and “Dutch Biermeister 2009” (more incentives for the WBA National Championship program) would have gone to Peter H. Møller and Auwerd Bijker, respectively.
I could, however, distribute the following badges:
“European Biermeister 2008”, “FCA 2008/09” and “English Biermeister 2009” went to Will Hoskin.
“Chairman 2008/09” adorned my own proud breast, and I kept the other badges for the National Championship program like some mentioned above and the one for Italy (so far badges for countries without WBA members haven’t been produced, but we plan to catch up with the production as additional members join our club).
For the next batch of badges I would like to have a “Hall of Fame” badge distributed annually to praise those loyal followers of the WBA that may not have won one of our prestigious titles, but represent the whole shebang with honour and a never-ending thirst :cheersR: . My personal nomination for the first Hall-of-Famer would be Derek Barry. Other WBA members may feel free to make similar announcements.

There are also plans for a Biermeister Rating Enveloping the World (this is only a working title chosen because of the nifty abbreviation “B.R.E.W.” :cheersL: ), but this endeavour will only commence after we had at least four or five official Biermeisterschaften.
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#31436
Those of you not satisfied with drinking beer while playing STCCG, but planning on the abuse of other alcoholic substances to enhance the experience should check out my latest tournament report on openCards.
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#31530
I'm afraid most of you know this song already, but I like it anyway. Is there something like Lego Star Trek out there? I would like to have some fun with it. Assume the bridge crew from TOS were singing and not this "Village People meets medieval European village". I'm sure it would be waaay funnier...

Lego beer song

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