Curiosities — Quarterfinals
World Team Carcassonne Online Championship
2026
(Week 8)
Greetings expectant Meeples,
After another week of knockout action between the final 8 teams, Hong Kong, Ukraine, China, and Germany remain standing in the race to become WTCOC 2026 champions. Before the semifinals begin, Mr. Curiossonne takes a look at the latest records, rookie performances, and the journeys that brought our final four this far.
Week in review
- 13 duels had 2 games played (26 games total)
- 7 duels had 3 games played (21 games total)
- Of the 4 matches, 2 matches ended each at 3-2 and 4-1
- 0 games ended in a draw.
- 1 game was lost on time.
- No tiles were discarded
Weekly records
Score records
- The highest winning scores in a game:
- The game with the highest combined score:
- 252 qazxswedc (Chn) vs Setsugentou (Jap) at table #864540190
- The lowest winning score:
- The game with the lowest combined score:
- 136 Karaboudjan (Ger) vs SirGiuli (Arg)
Feature records
- The longest completed road:
- The largest city:
- The largest ruin:
- The largest field:
- 30 CTCTCTCTCT (HK) sharing the field with Defdamesdompi (Bel) at table #863980427
- Monastery points:
- 41 KR_ Knight_ Realm (Bra) (2 completed and 3 incomplete) at table #864560931.
- Tiles discarded
Game play records
- Latest first point scoring:
- 23rd tile: Sunny369 (HK) vs N2xU (Bel) at table #863981817
- Most meeples placed:
- CTCTCTCTCT (HK) placed meeples 22 times on table #863972519
Time records
- Shortest game:
- 12:01 Berna1871 (Bra) and Smile- (Ukr) at table #864546058
- Longest game without time penalties:
- 28:47 Sunny369 (HK) and N2xU (Bel) at table #863981817
- Shortest winning think time:
- Longest winning think time (tie):
Tile Carcanopoly achievements
- All curve roads - Berna1871 (Bra) at table #864543190
- All ‘big city’ tiles - should (Jap) at table #864541090
Rookies of the Week
6 rookies played this week, but only 2 won their duels. Thus, once again, we have two (Ukranian!) Rookies of the Week: Tor_UA who bested Besson00 (Bra) 2-1, and A1egat0r who triumphed over gdarruda (Bra) 2-0.
Fun fact, there are only 4 undefeated rookies remaining in this tournament: Tor_UA (Ukr), guguguleader (Chn), riddle771 (Chn), and superIRonHead (Chn). The Ukrainian is the rookie with longest undefeated duel streak this WTCOC 2026 with 3 wins, whereas the Chinese trio all have 1 duel win each. With only 2 matches left for each team, will the Ukrainian increase their tally by making it all the way to the finals and be the super rookie of this tournament?
The Final 4
This coming week sees the final four teams of WTCOC2026 duking it out for a place in the Grand Finals. On one hand, we will see WTCOC 2025 third-placed winners Ukraine take on Asian Cup 2024 champions Hong Kong; whereas WTCOC 2023 Champions China will take on the nation that brought us the game (not city) itself, Germany.
Let’s look back on the performances of these four teams in WTCOC 2026 alongside their ranking throughout these past few years (From WTCOC 2023 onwards because Mr Curiossonne’s assistant is still waiting for the Catalans to restore full access to everything beyond that).
Ukraine vs Hong Kong
Ukraine
- Group stage ranking: #1 in Group H
- Overall stats:
- Match wins 5/6 (83.3%)
- Duel wins 22/30 (73.3%)
- Game wins 49/74 (66.2%)
- Key players | Duel W-L (Game W-L) - Ranked by duel win % - at least 2 duels
- Smile- 4-0 (8-2)
- A1egat0r 3-1 (7-2)
- adrear 3-0 (6-1)
- Tor_UA 3-0 (6-2)
- Lawyer 2-1 (5-3)
- Results
- (G) Ecuador 5-0 (10-0) W
- (G) Spain 3-2 (8-5) W
- (G) UK 4-1 (9-5) W
- (G) Latvia 2-3 (5-6) L
- (16) RCP 4-1 (8-4) W
- (8) Brazil 4-1 (9-5) W
- Previous WTCOC performance
- 2025 3rd place (Knocked out by Japan 2-3 in Semi Finals)
- 2024 16th place (Knocked out by United Kingdom 2-3 in the RO16)
- 2023 22nd place (DNQ for playoffs)
- Having lost their chance at the 2025 finals due to a loss vs Japan, this would be a 2nd year in a row for the Ukrainians to finally make it onto the grand stage. Would they finally succeed or would they falter once more. Also, before the tournament, a friendly was held between the Ukrainian WTCOC and their Junior team, where the Junior team won 7-2. Regardless of how this tournament ends for the Ukrainians, would the Junior team would have fared better if they were fielded instead?
Hong Kong
- Group stage ranking: #1 in Group F
- Overall stats:
- Match wins 5/6 (83.3%)
- Duel wins 18/30 (60%)
- Game wins 39/69 (56.5%)
- Key players | Duel W-L (Game W-L) - Ranked by duel win % - at least 2 duels
- Helic 2-0 (4-0)
- Sunny369 3-1 (6-4)
- CTCTCTCTCT 4-2 (9-6)
- LSC 3-2 (6-4)
- Eugenetse98 2-2 (5-5)
- Results
- (G) Finland 2-3 (6-7) L
- (G) Belarus 3-2 (7-4) W
- (G) Mexico 4-1 (8-4) W
- (G) RCP 3-2 (6-5) W
- (16) Romania 3-2 (6-6) W
- (8) Belgium 3-2 (6-4) W
- Previous WTCOC performance
- 2025 18th place (DNQ for playoffs)
- 2024 17th place (DNQ for playoffs)
- 2023 27nd place (DNQ for playoffs)
- This is the team’s first appearance in the brackets and they have yet to lose a match since Week 1’s loss vs Finland. Also, the team have yet to win their matches in a convincing 5-0 manner, with many duels going 3-2. While it does seem that the team core players of Sunny369, CTCTCTCTCT, and LSC (who have been fielded consistently since their victory over Mexico) are able to step up when needed for the team, which other two players would the team captain call forth to round up the team and give them the best chance to making their first WTCOC finals?
Past meetings in WTCOC (2023 to now) : None
China vs Germany
China
- Group stage ranking: #1 in Group A
- Overall stats:
- Match wins 6/6 (100%)
- Duel wins 22/30 (73.3%)
- Game wins 50/75 (66.6%)
- Key players | Duel W-L (Game W-L) - Ranked by duel win % - at least 2 duels
- Xing1007 4-0 (8-1)
- 203club 4-1 (9-2)
- mitaocat 4-1 (9-3)
- tomatoken 4-1 (8-5)
- qazxswedc 3-2 (8-5)
- Results
- (G) Croatia 3-2 (8-4) W
- (G) Peru 5-0 (10-4) W
- (G) Greece 3-2 (8-5) W
- (G) Hungary 5-0 (10-3) W
- (16) Colombia 3-2 (7-5) W
- (8) Japan 3-2 (7-4) W
- Previous WTCOC performance
- 2025 10th place (Knocked out by RCP 1-4 in RO16)
- 2024 10th place (Knocked out by Portugal 2-3 in the RO16)
- 2023 Champion (Defeated RCP 4-1 in the Finals)
- The only team left undefeated (by match) in the tournament - And a team that apparently either wins convincingly with a 5-0 scoreline or just barely with a 3-2 scoreline (China have not had a 4-1 scoreline this tournament). Of the 10 players in the team, 8 players have at least a 60% duel (and game) win rate and 4 are undefeated thus far in their duels (albeit 3 of the 4 have only been featured once this WTCOC). While the team is clearer supported by its 5 core players of Xing1007, 203club, mitaocat, tomatoken, and qazxswedc (playing 58 of the 75 games for the team - winning 42 of the 50 they have won), does the team have any need to cycle out their players for this SF?
Germany
- Group stage ranking: #1 in Group C
- Overall stats:
- Match wins 5/6 (83.3%)
- Duel wins 18/30 (60%)
- Game wins 41/74 (55.4%)
- Key players | Duel W-L (Game W-L) - Ranked by duel win % - at least 2 duels
- yzemaze 5-0 (10-2)
- Karaboudjan 3-1 (7-3)
- Leuschi 2-1 (5-3)
- kostra 2-1 (5-4)
- HappyTim7 3-2 (6-6)
- Results
- (G) Czech R 3-2 (6-5) W
- (G) Australia 3-2 (8-5) W
- (G) Lithuania 3-2 (7-5) W
- (G) Thailand 2-3 (6-7) L
- (16) Poland 3-2 (6-7) W
- (8) Argentina 4-1 (8-4) W
- Previous WTCOC performance
- 2025 22nd place (DNQ for playoffs)
- 2024 20th place (DNQ for playoffs)
- 2023 9th place (Knocked out by France 2-3 in the Wild Card round)
- Having just recently broken the curse of only being able to win (and lose) with 3-2s this WTCOC and featuring also the player (yzemaze) with the highest undefeated duel streak in the tournament, Germany is nonetheless facing an uphill battle vs China. However, given China's propensity of not ending their match with a 4-1 scoreline and Germany’s frequent 3-2 scores, would another potential 3-2 scoreline work in favor for the German team?
Past meetings in WTCOC (2023 to now) :
2024: (G) China defeated Germany 3-2 (7-5)
4 players in WTCOC 2026 played in this duel: kostra (Ger), yzemaze (Ger), 203club (Chn), mitaocat (Chn) - with mitaocat (Chn) being the only one to win their duel.
Who are you rooting for this semi-finals week?
Thank you for reading, sharing & caring,
szigfrid, JinaJina, Mingo, kaika87, posij118 😘
