Sissy is the Round-Robins Winner of the 2023 XLeague after landing victories against Harry and Nici on Saturday.
“Triple Crown Queen” Sissy (14-10) will have a chance to add to her trophy cabinet as she will enter the first-to-4 Final Series with a 1-0 head start.
Even though Nici (12-12) will go into the first-to-3 Qualifying Series with a 1-0 head start, the momentum should be on her Dad’s side.
While Nici, who had a one-game lead going into the final DRR, lost all of her four at-boards of the weekend, Harry (10-14) won 3-of-4, thus snapping a 2-10 stretch from the previous three DRRs.
Sissy had a rough start into the evening as the die again seemed to heavily favour her husband who took a quick 3-1 lead with his yellow pawns. But after the die changed its mind, Sissy was able to stop multiple potential winner laps and prevent match-point situations.
Even though she never seemed to have a majority of pawns on the track and also suffered from “friendly fire” from her green allies, Sissy got her red pawns home and converted her fifth match point on a “1” after 44 minutes of play.
As he had nothing to play for with regard to playoff scenarios, Harry kept calm and responded to that loss with a brilliant tactical display against his daughter who also struggled heavily with “friendly fire” sabotaging all her efforts.
Still, Harry needed four potential winner laps and six match points to finally land a comprehensive 4-1 win on a “1” for his fourth red pawn after 40 minutes of play.
Despite her unlucky streak, Nici showed a lot of determination before the final at-board of the Round Robin Series because with a win against her Mom, she still would have won first place on the head-to-head tiebreaker.
However, good luck kept avoiding Nici. With the die completely on her side, Sissy quickly identified her yellow pawns as go-to colour and moved them well while her black pawns provided reliable blocking support without causing “friendly fire”.
Nici got her only break when she stopped Sissy’s first potential winner lap three quarters around the track. But after only 26 minutes of play, Sissy ended her third winner lap on a “2” for yellow, converting her second match point for a 4-2 win.
The first two of up to four games of the Qualifying Series are scheduled for Boxing Day. The Final Series is expected to begin on 28 December with the first of up to six at-boards.