Only once in a lifetime (or once every two months) does an epic battle the likes of which this world has never seen come to play — where titanic forces must face each other down in a no-holds-barred contest to the finish.
mighty BEN “the Ben” (me) vs the awesome VRUSHALI-”I got stranded on my rooftop”
the venue: Yahoo Reversi
the day: Saturday, August 5th
the time: TBA
Will the veteran champion (me) overcome the novice yet again, proving his worthiness to the title? Or will the fire of youth (vrushali, cuz she’s *widdle*) overcome the wits of the aged champion (again, me)?
Reputations are on the line.
The Honor of two noble warriors is in question.
The rematch of the century.
Check back here for the post-event coverage and a special “getting to know the competitors” post
A recap of the last deadly game:
I hung out with Vrushali yesterday. The thing about hanging out with Vrushali, is on paper, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal.“Oh, you went to Bobar? And played Othello? Uhh… great?”
But — that’s where you’re wrong. We played the most intense one hour game of Othello possible. It started with me more or less dominating the map. I had set up traps and backup plans up the hizzo as I raced for the edges and corners — I thought I had her beat and completely outmaneuvered.
But then, I made a few too many mistakes, and she saw some critical points of attack that I just did not see. And BAM! Instant turnaround. She captures a corner, and then I desperately fight for another corner but BAM! I still lose that one. With Vrushali having two corners, it’s just not looking too good for me . . .
But, she herself makes a few strategic errors after her quick victory. Consequently, I also shift strategies and… began playing smarter. Before, I had only tried to set up my future moves and only considered how to counter possible moves by Vrushali, a focus which led me to not see some of her big expansion/key moves, but this time I made a conscientious effort to predict what she was gonna do. And, through a series of maneuvers, I effectively neutered her corner positions (making them useless offensively for her) and I deftly captured one corner which still had offensive value.
Of course, you’d think that well, Vrushali has two corners and Ben has one — isn’t the game over already? That’s what I thought for sure, but then I realized it was not clear cut by any means. Her corners had no offensive value, but she still retained a large chunk of the board, while I possessed a corner with offensive value, but only in one limited area of influence.
The last couple of moves were played completely nervously by the two of us — each trying to capture that last corner and clinch the game. Luckily, I figured out a way (this was during the last five moves) to prevent Vrushali from getting the last corner. That coupled with a bad move on her part on the third to last move and…
the final score: 34-30
Ben wins!