Decathlon - Evolution (Event #3)

It was a wild night at game #3, featuring murder birds, memes, and a three-way tie for second place in the championship game. We wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

Winners

1st Place - Megan Prettyman
2nd Place - Danielle Harris
3rd place - Daniel Halford

Overall Decathlon Standings

Amanda Ayers - 1

Kyle Dineen -
Emily Field - 1
Ben Fish -
Jonathan Fish -
Samantha Fish -
Daniel Halford - 1

Danielle Harris - 5

Dave Harris - 2
Hubert Lee -
Megan Prettyman - 6
Kader Riddick -
Caralee Shepard -
Kaitlyn Steward -
Matt Stewart -
Erin Salter -
Wells Thompson - 1

Michael Williams - 3
Calvin -
Stephanie -

The Games

As you can see above, we had the following results from Thursday night's games.

Game #1

Dave - 77
Danielle - 59
Megan - 56
Michael - 55
Fish - 45
Amanda - 42

Game #2

Kyle - 83
Daniel - 57
Calvin - 51
Caralee - 46
Stephanie - 45
Emily - 38

Game #3

Megan - 75
Danielle - 73
Daniel - 73
Kyle - 73
Dave - 67
Calvin - 30

Right before the games tonight, Dani and I kicked off the Decathlon Meme group me, and it was fire the entire night (thanks mostly to the efforts of Kyle and Dani). At the start of the night, Dani posted this:

I proceeded to go about trying to change her mind. The first game featured was really light on carnivores - our group just doesn't particularly like playing them. Dave played a carnivore out on turn 2 and proceeded to spam bird species out culminating in a bird predator. Dave used this duo to snuff out the only other carnivore in the early game while it was still a wee babe and went on to eradicate three other species with this combo. Amanda in particular was hit really hard, and Michael was on the receiving end of a carnivore dogpile on the last turn. This ended up being critical, as once again he lost to Megan by one point and barely missed qualifying for the championship game. 

One notable thing about these games before I continue is that I ended up giving everyone a preset starting deck: fertile, horns, foraging, and climbing. This was done to even out the difficulty curve and to eliminate the possibility that a new player would starve a carnivore on round 1. It still happened, but not on round one XD. 

To me, fertile was clearly the strongest of the four, I essentially gave it as a way to get everyone off to a good start - with the real choice being what to do with the other three cards. Of 12 contestants over the first two games, 8 played in on a starting species. In the finalist game, only one player didn't put it out at the outset. For better or worse, there was a very strong correlation between people who played Fertile out of this opening hand and placed. There also was a strong correlation between playing carnivores and winning, but that could be correlative rather than causal since experienced players are better at knowing how to manage carnivores. 

In any event, Game #2 was defined by a dominating performance by Kyle exploiting birds plus pack-hunting to build a flock of angry bees. Caralee eventually built a species specifically to hunt down the angry bees, and Kyle took carnivore off it the last turn, but the damage had already been done. Emily had all but been wiped out by his assaults, with Daniel and Caralee also taking big hits. Game #2 was notable in that it had contestants #19 and #20, Calvin and Stephanie, both in it. Emily and Amanda respectively brought them for the extra decathlon point, and the both acquitted themselves really well. Stephanie had a strong early game, only falling off on the last three turns, while Calvin managed to place. For all her sacrifices to bring down Kyle, Caralee fell just short of placing, and 2nd and 1st place were taken by Daniel and Kyle respectively. 

All eyes then turned to Game #3. This was a much more farmy game, with only a couple carnivores fielded by Megan and Dave for most of the running who declared a long-lasting truce to feast on Calvin. Danielle finally overcame her prejudice against birds and joined in throwing out bird species, with a record total of 10 on the board by the end.  Then on the last turn, all hell broke lose as Daniel debuted his own pack-hunting avian carnivore. The bloodletting began all around the board, and as the dust settled, it was clear that it was close. 

It turned out that while Megan had clearly won with 75 points (and with 6 decathlon points now all but clinched a top 4 spot), there was a three way tie at 73 points between Daniel, Danielle, and Kyle. The tie break was trait cards. Everyone held their collective breath and counted. 

Dani: 12

Daniel: 11

Kyle: 9

And so, Kyle was narrowly eliminated from top three, prompting the following memes. 

GG to all, an amazing series of games. Easily the best Evolution games that have ever been played under our roof. 

Tonight produced a ton of nominations. Here are some of the more memorable ones: 

Megan - Brittany Award

"She created murder birds and ate everyone, leaving only devastation in her wake (and she won)."

Kyle - Brittany Award

"BEES"

Fish - Jeremiah Award 

"He sacrificed his best species to feed Dave, Megan, and Michael's avian species."

Amanda - Jeremiah Award

"Her species were quite delectable."

Megan + Dave - The Beth/Taylor Friendship Commemorative Medal

"They teamed up with their trash murder birds and killed everything."

What can I say by bird is truly the word. Tomorrow, preview for Root!