Word Cup Day 5: Dave Wiegand is your champion!
The dust has settled, and we have a champion: Dave Wiegand. After outlasting a field of 39 competitors, Dave takes home a Word Cup trophy and a check for a cool $10,000. Congrats to the one and only Dr. Bing.
This outcome looked a little bit in doubt after yesterday afternoon, when Dave turned in an 0-4 session and suddenly had two competitors nipping at his heels, Will Anderson and Jesse Day. But this morning, Dave righted the ship. He disposed of Jesse in the first round of the day, Will lost his game at Table 2, and just like that, Dave was Gibsonized.
Dave is a world-class player and a world-class human, and it's a pleasure to crown him the winner. There's no doubt about it - he earned this title.
THE WINNERS
After Dave locked up first place, there was an exciting race for second place in the final two rounds. Jesse recovered from his round 29 loss and beat Thomas Reinke in round 30; David Eldar, meanwhile, beat Will for the second time in a row. That set up a second-place showdown between Jesse and David, in which Jesse emerged victorious. Jesse takes second, Will third, and David fourth.
Here's the full prize table:
1st place, winning $10,000 - Dave Wiegand (23.5-7.5, +1776)
2nd place, winning $5,000 - Jesse Day (21-10, +831)
3rd place, winning $2,500 - Will Anderson (20-11, +953)
4th place, winning $1,000 - David Eldar (19.5-11.5, +1214)
5th place, winning $800 - Ben Schoenbrun (19-12, +384)
6th place, winning $600 - Rasheed Balogun (18-13, +288)
7th place, winning $400 - Chris Lipe (18-13, -43)
Congrats to all seven of these fine gentlemen - and props as well to our class prize winners Brian Bowman, Peter Armstrong, Wolfram Poh, and Moiz Ullah Baig.
Big respect also to our Division 2 top finishers - Noel Livermore outlasted BJ Premore to win the top prize in that group. Well done, Noel!
GAME OF THE DAY
That would be the deciding game for the $10,000 top prize, of course. Check it out in all its glory.
ALL THE GAMES
Here are the final three....
Round 29: Dave Wiegand vs. Jesse Day
Round 30: Will Anderson vs. David Eldar
Round 31: Jesse Day vs. David Eldar
COMING UP TOMORROW
Absolutely nothing! Now, it's time to go home and get some sleep. It's been one incredibly exhausting week.
Congrats again to everyone who performed well in this week's event - and thanks so much to everyone who helped behind the scenes to make all of this possible.
We'll be back soon to congratulate everyone and thank everyone in more detail. Until then, farewell from Chicagoland. It's been a blast.