Mind Sports Olympiad 2024

Hive was back at the Mind Sports Olympiad! This event occurs every year in North London (at JW3 in Finchley) at the end of August. For a week, more than 100 players from a few different countries (UK, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, South Korea, Mexico, etc.) meet to play competitively in many popular board game tournaments (up to 3 per day!). 

Among Chess, Poker, Quoridor, Catan, etc., Hive was there too for the third year in a row.

The tournament was fairly small but the level was pretty high. 11 players were there, including 4 players who took part in the World Hive Championship in the past at least once. The rest of the players, even if not Hive specialists, were also used to competitive tournaments of abstract games.

After 5 rounds, Francesco Salerno (Frasco), came up on top with 5 points out of 5 after tough games against the players who reached silver and bronze medals: Pedro Alvarez Ruiz-Dorizzi (Ordep Cubik) and Maurizio de Leo.

Two medals also for the (all-Spanish) junior ranking. Gold for the above-mentioned Pedro, and silver for Mario Hernandez-Concepcion from the Canary Islands.

You can see the final standings in the picture below.

Thanks to the MSO for letting us run this tournament again, and Gen42 for sponsoring, see you next year! 

Surprise: not in London anymore, but in Spain! (MSO 2025 will be held in Palma de Mallorca, 13-20 April). A Hive tournament will be almost definitely held again there.