Game of the Year (GotY) 2011

[Adam Gillard]

Following the round of nominations (thanks to those who submitted them), 13 outstanding candidates for GotY 2011 have emerged. There were a further 17 games that missed out on making the final poll by a single nomination, and these are given an honourable mention below. The poll itself only consists of the 13 games (A-M) listed under the heading 'Nominees'. Each person may select up to 3 options when voting. You will not be able to change these options once you have submitted your vote. Voting will close on Sunday 12 February 2012 at 2am. I hope you enjoy looking over some great games of apterous from 2011. Happy voting!

Nominees

Game A: Matthew Tassier 200 - 0 Apterous Prune
Game B: Paul Howe 209 - 0 Apterous Prune
Game C: Apterous Prune 0 - 73 Anglo Italian
Game D: Innis Carson 200 - 0 Charlie Reams
Game E: Apterous Sponge 80 - 200 Matt Bayfield
Game F: Apterous Prune 0 - 150 Drew Halliburton
Game G: Apterous Prune 0 - 200 Drew Halliburton
Game H: Adam Gillard 115 - 105 Innis Carson
Game I: Apterous Prune 0 - 200 Innis Carson
Game J: Edward McCullagh 116 - 26 Michael Cullen
Game K: Matthew Tassier 158 - 0 Apterous Prune
Game L: Bob De Caux 176 - 0 Apterous Prune
Game M: Andy Platt 197 - 0 Apterous Prune


Honourable mention

Mr Dog 0 - 89 Innis Carson
Apterous Prune 0 - 200 Matthew Tassier
Kirk Bevins 109 - 119 Innis Carson
Sam Goodyear 110 - 90 Apterous Rex
Apterous Prune 0 - 101 Adam Gillard
Josh Hurst 178 - 256 Innis Carson
Milo McKenzie 178 - 0 Apterous Prune
The Duellist 0 - 218 Bob De Caux
Jack Hurst 144 - 136 Innis Carson
Adam Gillard 119 - 168 Innis Carson
Apterous Prune 0 - 174 Nathan Stone
Apterous Prune 0 - 188 Joe Denniss
Dan McColm 173 - 106 Apterous Sponge
Apterous Rex 256 - 246 Innis Carson
Apterous Prime 118 - 144 Conor Travers
Anglo Italian 154 - 160 Catriona Cappleman
Scott Gillies 131 - 113 Apterous Sponge

[Eoin Monaghan]

That was incredibly tough. Thanks again for running this, seems to be very smooth.

[Adam Gillard]

36 votes have been cast so far, and there's a clear front runner with an impressive 11 of them. It's pretty close amongst the chasing pack, as there are four games with between 4 and 6 votes. Plenty of scope for things to change yet, especially in the contest for Runner-up and 3rd place.

[Adam Gillard]

Now 49 votes have been cast. The leader has sprung out to 15 votes, and very excitingly there's only one vote between the next 4 games, with 3 games tied on 7 votes It looks like it's going to be very close for Runner-up and 3rd place.

[Adam Gillard]

Under a week left to vote!

[Adam Gillard]

Into the last 6 hours of voting now! If you haven't voted yet, you could make all the difference for the Runner-up and 3rd place prizes!

[Jon O'Neill]

Well that was a fucking waste of time, I voted for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places, changing nothing. Democracy is a sham.

[Adam Gillard]

But this flood of last-minute voting has changed things if you look at the latest standings! Could be more drama yet... stay tuned for the results!

[Adam Gillard]

The poll has now closed. There were 60 votes in total (from a minimum of 20 different voters). Thanks to all those who voted and to those who helped me to compile the nominations and make some other decisions along the way. Thanks also to Charlie for advertising the poll on the apterous homepage. Here are the top 3 (drumroll please...):

1) GotY 2011: Edward McCullagh 116 - 26 Michael Cullen
2) Joint Runners-up: Apterous Sponge 80 - 200 Matt Bayfield; Apterous Prune 0 - 200 Innis Carson

Congratulations to the top 3 and to all those who made it to the shortlist. Special congratulations to Edward McCullagh (and Michael Cullen) for scooping the top honour against some very worthy competition. It was always very close for the Runner-up position, so it seems fair in the end that there was a tie.

See you again for GotY 2012!

[Ian Volante]

Good to see that person v person won.

[Gavin Chipper]

Good to see that person v person won.

But, and no offence to Michael Cullen, it didn't win for that reason. It might as well have been against Prune.

[Adam Gillard]

Good to see that person v person won.

But, and no offence to Michael Cullen, it didn't win for that reason. It might as well have been against Prune.

Possibly the best person v person game of the year only came 2nd in GotW voting and that's probably why it didn't make it to the final poll, since at least two of the people who sent in nominations only considered GotW winners (if I recall correctly). It missed out by a single nomination, hence the honourable mention. I still don't know how many people would have voted for it though. Foreign games don't tend to do that well in the voting, and only one other game notable for a close person v person contest made it to the final poll (Game H, which finished in 6th place).

[Gavin Chipper]

Good to see that person v person won.

But, and no offence to Michael Cullen, it didn't win for that reason. It might as well have been against Prune.

Possibly the best person v person game of the year only came 2nd in GotW voting and that's probably why it didn't make it to the final poll, since at least two of the people who sent in nominations only considered GotW winners (if I recall correctly). It missed out by a single nomination, hence the honourable mention. I still don't know how many people would have voted for it though. Foreign games don't tend to do that well in the voting, and only one other game notable for a close person v person contest made it to the final poll (Game H, which finished in 6th place).

There have been loads of good head to head games, of which that is just one. My epic game against Innis here is a personal favourite of mine, and goes unrecognised as the highest joint score ever in an aegilops numbers attack because it counts it as a custom game, and it didn't get a single nomination. But I'm biased of course. But anyway, my point is actually that good close head to head games actually happen quite frequently, and I'm not sure on what basis you'd decide that that French letters attack was any better than many others you could pick. And that goes for most head to heads. Edward's GOTY winning game was a landmark (the first and so far only max in that variant), so it stands out more. Dale Levell's 170 against Innis in 2010 stood out obviously, but that didn't even win!

[Jon Corby]

and I'm not sure on what basis you'd decide that that French letters attack was any better

I dunno, "French Letters attack" sounds pretty intriguing to me.

[Adam Gillard]

Possibly the best person v person game of the year only came 2nd in GotW voting

There have been loads of good head to head games, of which that is just one. My epic game against Innis here is a personal favourite of mine, and goes unrecognised as the highest joint score ever in an aegilops numbers attack because it counts it as a custom game, and it didn't get a single nomination. But I'm biased of course. But anyway, my point is actually that good close head to head games actually happen quite frequently, and I'm not sure on what basis you'd decide that that French letters attack was any better than many others you could pick. And that goes for most head to heads.

Agreed, there are great head-to-head games that go unnoticed all of the time, like 15 rounders where maybe there aren't 14 maxes each but it's nip and tuck all the way, or big comebacks in other variants (my turn for self-promotion). I just picked the French Letters Attack out of the head-to-head games listed in this thread.

[Adam Gillard]

Also, non-max games against a bot, even new high scores or new "Most maxes" records, don't tend to get recognised (the two there had comments but no nominations ). With "Most maxes" records, I think unless someone spots it and brings attention to it, then it will go unnoticed simply because there is no chat announcement (unlike for a high score). This time the 4 examples are all necessarily from my games, because if I'd noticed such performances from others, then I would have nominated them and they wouldn't be good examples of "unnoticed" games.

[Charlie Reams]

and I'm not sure on what basis you'd decide that that French letters attack was any better

I dunno, "French Letters attack" sounds pretty intriguing to me.

lolz. Item idea?