Gen Con 2018 Tournament Statistics

Posted By pandabrett on Aug 14, 2018 | 0 comments

The aftershocks of Gen Con 2018 just keep coming. It was an amazing con, and one of the highlights was the big DCC Team Tournament.

The 2018 Gen Con DCC Team Tournament brought together Judges and players alike as they competed in our title event, Riders on the Phlogiston. This year 98 players competing on 18 different teams took on the deadly challenge, more than doubling the size of the last year’s tournament. Over the course of four brutal days and three hard-fought rounds, many PCs fell and a record number of teams were wiped out in TPKs. Eventually two champions emerged: the first place Hammertoes and the runner-up Lords of Sarcasm. You can read Harley’s recap of the tournament here.

We now present the official tournament stats, including all the Judges, rooms and authors that contributed to this year’s amazing event. And we’re proud to introduce the Count Dante Tournament Rating System! This is a new rating scale for the deadliest tournament modules based on actual play results, described below.

Now, let’s get right to the results!

Round 1 Results

* Games that ended in a TPK

Round 2 Results

Round 3 Results

* Games that ended in a TPK
**Tie breaker determined by a d20 dice-off during the awards ceremony at the Goodman Games booth, where the Lords of Sarcasm rolled a ‘7’ and the Hammertoes rolled an ‘8’ to carry the victory!

TPKs by Round and Judge

Deadliest Rooms by Round

Deadliest Judges

Our Dark Master points to the winners of last year’s tourney, forever remembered on the Doom Gong.

Deadliest Tournament Modules

Introducing the Count Dante Tournament Rating System! Because tournament modules are played at Gen Con over a large sample of tables and judges, we are able to quantify their danger level. Based on this quantification we have a new rating system to use as a guide when selecting your next adventure to run. Here are the ratings for this year and last year’s tournament adventures, Riders of the Phlogiston and The Black Heart of Thakulon the Undying. Future tournament modules will also use this rating system once they are put through their paces at Gen Con or other large gaming events!

*Based on the ratio of killed PCs (eliminated) to players for every PC that entered the dungeon across all rounds:

Type I – 0.0 to 0.2:1

Type II – 0.2 to 0.4:1

Type III – 0.4 to 0.6:1

Type IV – 0.6 to 0.8:1

Type V – 0.8 to 0.99:1

Type VI – 1:1, or 100% lethal!

Most Popular Pre-gens

1. Lawful Wizard (13 out of 18 teams selected)
2. (Tie) Lawful Cleric (12 out of 18 teams selected)
2. (Tie) Lawful Dwarf (12 out of 18 teams selected)
4. (Tie) Lawful Warrior (10 out of 18 teams selected)
4. (Tie) Neutral Halfling (10 out of 18 teams selected)
6. Chaotic Cleric (9 out of 18 teams selected)
7. Chaotic Warrior (8 out of 18 teams selected)
8. (Tie) Lawful Thief (7 out of 18 teams selected)
8. (Tie) Chaotic Thief (7 out of 18 teams selected)
10. (Tie) Chaotic Wizard (5 out of 18 teams selected)
10. (Tie) Chaotic Elf (5 out of 18 teams selected)

Notable Team Compositions

• Holy rollers: Teams with two clerics – 3
• Let the warrior open it: Teams without a thief – 4
• Power magic-users: Teams with four or more spellcasters – 2
• Let the gods decide: Total number of lawful vs chaotic characters – 54 vs 34

Special Awards

• First Blood, Part 2: Judge Michael was out for revenge from his showing last year and managed to TPK Team Chaos in the first hour and a fifteen minutes of the tournament!
• Triple Crown Favorite: For the second year, Judge Terry was one of the most lethal elements of the tournament, last year as a writer, this year as a judge.
• Almost Broke the Designer’s Hearts: In the very first roll of round 1 at Judge Jeff’s table, a young player rolled a natural 20 on her cleric’s spell check, only to fall to the dice minutes later, bringing her participation in the tournament to an end and dooming her team. However, the tournament staff watched in awe as Judge Jeff kept the whole table engaged even as the rest of the team fell one by one until only a single PC remained, whose epic story unfolded to the cheers of his party.      
• The Backup Master: Judge Rick not only helped behind the scenes with all the coordination efforts for the tournament, but had to be prepared to run in any of the judge’s slots in case there was an issue. His masterful preparation payed off when he was called to serve in the second day of round 1, taking his table through almost four hours of play to an eventual TPK!
• Atlas of the Phlogiston: Judge Tim shouldered an amazing four teams and 21 players across two rounds of the tournament, meaning that 1 out of every 6 PCs went through his tables.
• The Student is Now the Master: After helping behind the scenes last year, Judge Eric made his debut as both a writer and a judge, and took the crown of earliest team TPK in round one!
• All Shall Pass, Sort-of: Judge Aaron’s three teams had the least amount of deaths for any tournament judge, but in a very deadly year he still managed to take out 11 characters that came through his table!
• Robbed of Glory: Judge Jonathan prepped just as hard as any other judge, but fell to the fates when Gen Con no-shows caused a consolidation of his table with another judge’s. However, he ultimately earned a symbiotic victory when the newly aggregated team fell less than two hours later.
• Divine Salesman: Judge Marc had not one, but two teams use divine aid for the first time in tournament history, with one of the clerics rolling a natural “30” on his d30 spell check granted by the gods.
• Deadliest Portal: In the first round, Judge Harley’s door-artifacts slew more players than the actual monsters as the PCs struggled to pass through them against a ticking clock. A dozen PCs were crushed, maimed, and trapped over the course of a few rounds, making teams that could not find an easy way through spend valuable time and resources to overcome the devious obstacles.

Complete Stats by Room

Round 1

* Rooms that no teams reached during the tournament

Round 2

* Rooms that no teams reached during the tournament

Round 3

* Rooms that no teams reached during the tournament

This year’s finalists!