My Week of Go Activities: I Won The January BenKyo League By Brute Force

I'll make short work of my usual activity charts because I want to devote the bulk of this post to writing about the BenKyo League, and promoting it a bit.

It was a busy week with almost 35 hours of Go Activity. Nearly 50% of that time was spent watching Live Streams. Clossius came in at position #1. He's gotten serious about doing more streaming in the new year, and he lived up to his promise in a big way this week.

Also this week is a benchmark lesson with Clossius. It is lesson #50.

 

Now for the big news this week:

I managed to win the January BenKyo League by brute force alone. For the first time this month we were allowed to play every other league player twice which clearly worked to my advantage. It would also have worked to the advantage of anyone else willing to put in the time and the effort to schedule and play a large number of games.  

Below is a portion of the League Spreadsheet that shows the points earned by each participant at the end of the month. My row is highlighted in green. The player in the lead is always highlighted in green on the table and, as far as I know, Ben did not need to highlight a different row throughout the month.

When I say that I won by brute force I mean that even though I lost half of my games, I played so many that I earned enough points to pull well ahead of my closest competitor. I played a total of 16 games while he played 8. He had an impressive win ratio, losing only one game. However, the league awards three points for a win and two points for a loss to encourage participation. Therefore, playing many games can result in a win if other players fail to fill out their row. 

I have no doubt that my main competitor would have won easily if he had been able to fill his row, so I kept a careful eye on the situation, going so far as to play two additional games on the final day of the month to be extra careful.

Clicking on the full table below provides context. 

Aside from the one player who said he intended to be inactive this month, I managed to fill all but two spaces on my row.

Given the fact that my AGAID# is 8, my results feel somehow fated in retrospect. 8 wins, 8 losses.

The BenKyo League is a Tier 4 benefit of BenKyo Baduk on Patreon.

Now is the perfect time to join in the league since the month is just beginning. 

All games are handicapped so everyone has a chance to win the league. Victory comes with a prize of a 90 minute Private Lesson with Ben. Join Tier 4 and ask Ben to add you to the table. 

Let's play!