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Tzolk'iniesta
To celebrate the coming European Football Championships, we at Zatu have decided to arrange our own Euro Tournament to find the definitive best Eurogame. After years of debate (shouting our opinions at one another), we still cannot decide on our favourite Eurogame! Therefore, we have decided to put it to the Zatu community to determine via knock-out tournament: which is the greatest Eurogame of all time? At the tournament's conclusion, the winner will go down in history as the greatest Eurogame of all (so feel free to correct anyone on this as it will be 100% official). But before I go any further, let's look at our definition of a eurogame.
Ta-Kane-oko!
Luckily for us, the Eurogame genre casts quite a wide net in terms of games it covers. We've therefore taken the loose definition of a tabletop game which leans towards indirect player interaction (no room for Risk here) and includes abstract physical components. This definition works really well for us as we can fit all of our favourite games in (sorry Amber, still no room for Tiny Towns).
Lorenzo Il Magni-Figo
Now we have that out of the way, how will the tournament work I hear you ask? Well, quite simply it will run parallel to the football - some may say less interesting - equivalent. However, rather than physically playing each other, our eurogames will advance by being the best performers of our match polls (our equivalent of "games") that we will be running on our Twitter account @ZatuGames. Initially, we will have a group stage, which includes six groups of four teams each. In an exciting and potentially chaotic twist, each group's members will all "play" each other at the same time. This means six initial games to decide the group winners and loser depending on how they have faired with the public vote. The two eurogames with the highest vote share percentages in each group from our Twitter polls will progress to the next round, the round of 16, as well as four of the best performing third-placed eurogames. From there, head to head knockout games will take place in order to eventually decide our winner. So, let's look at the eurogames involved and which groups they've been randomly drawn into.
Terraforming Maguire
Pundit's notes:
As the inaugural Eurogame championships, this really is a difficult competition to call. Especially considering the tough qualifying rounds that left former greats unable to qualify due to the quality of the more youthful sides involved. For example, Lords of Waterdeep being unable to overcome Wingspan and Puerto Rico's lack of pace being overexposed by The Lost Ruins of Arnak. Looking at the group stages themselves, the draw hasn't been particularly kind to any of the early favourites. For example, Terraforming Mars will have to vanquish the juggernaut that is Ticket to Ride as well as the classic Agricola to advance. Another group in which we could see a controversial early exit is Group C, which I think we can fairly call the Group of Death. Any of those sides could be eliminated in the early stages.
Carcassterling (sorry, running out of puns)
Therefore, it's set to be a mouth-watering competition. As I mentioned, be sure to keep an eye on our Twitter feed; the first matches will be played on Monday 14th June with a new fixture every other day. So, make sure to start deciding on who you want to be crowned the best eurogame of all time now! Be sure to check back here regularly for updates and results as we fill in the Zatu Eurogames wall chart. If you're interested in finding out more about any of the featured games, click here! Happy Eurogaming!
Results (qualified in bold)
Group A: Brass Birmingham 60%, Terra Mystica 14.5%, Orleans 12.7%, Carpe Diem12.7%
Group B: Ticket to Ride Europe 56.7%, Terraforming Mars 31.3%, Agricola 10.4%, Cooper Island 1.5%
Group C: Everdell 31.4%, 7 Wonders 27.5%, Viticulture 21.6%, Splendor 19.6%
Group D: Root 37.7%, Takenoko 37.7%, Architects of the West Kingdom 13.2%, Istanbul 11.3%
Group E: Carcassonne 41.9%, Catan 32.1%, Lost ruins of Arnak 13.2%, Castles of Burgandy 13.2%
Group F: Wingspan 65.9%, Great Western Trail 19.5%, Tzolk'in 9.8%, Lorenzo Il Magnifico 4.9%
3rd Place Play-off: Lost Ruins of Arnak 34.9%, Castles of Burgandy 32.6%, Orleans 27.9%, Carpe Diem 4.7%
Winner:
After a hard-fought final between two gaming-greats, Ticket to Ride Europe took the victory against fellow finalists Carcassonne 56.6% to 43.4%. Congratulations to Ticket to Ride, the Zatu Eurogames 2020 Champion! Thank you to everyone who voted! We look forward to hosting more of these in the future, bring on the 2022 World Cup!
