BPA September News
From: Donald greenwood (doncon99toad.net)
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2008 09:14:44 -0700 (PDT)
WBC: Attendance again reached new heights in 2008, topping 2007's record level despite $4 gas and a sputtering economy. A delightful, climate-controlled poolside pavilion combined with unseasonably pleasant weather increased our Open Gaming space, while tournament participation grew again. Our 154 tournaments included a record 16 events with triple digit entries, led by late-night favorite Liar's Dice with 212 players. Average event size grew to 47.1 participants overall and by the time everyone had left the Host was already 60% booked for 2009! Laurels were awarded to players from 41 different states/provinces and nine nations. The champions included 17 incumbents who retained their respective titles another year, six members of the fair sex, and 12 who claimed multiple titles, led by a prodigious Finn, Riku Riekkinen, who put an end to one of WBC's longest winning streaks by downing ex-Caesar Master Pei on his own For the People turf. Joining Riku with two titles were Harald Henning, Chris Byrd, Ewan McNay, Nick Page, Alex Bove, Bryan Eshleman, Jason Ley and Rob Beyma. Bruce Reiff and Chris Trimmer each tripled by winning three small events, but the biggest winner by far was Andy Latto who homered. The Massachusetts native's four wins included three Century events, just missing the never achieved WBC Grand Slam. Moreover, three of the four were triple-digit tournaments. In all, Andy bested 484 opponents while claiming the Ingenious, Lost Cities, Thurn & Taxis and Ivanhoe championships. And to prove he wasn't a one-trick Euro pony, he also found time to go 4-1 in Hannibal during the Omens pre-con. Newcomers made their mark also. 42 "virgins" won their first-ever WBC championship. All told, 79 players earned their first BPA laurels in what was again a glorious week of gaming.

More details on each and every event as only WBC does it will be forthcoming once ALL of our far flung GMs file their 400-word After Action reports. In the meantime, YOU can reward your favorite hard working GM or good sport by telling us why they deserve recognition as our GM of the Year or Sportsmanship winner. Our nominees are selected based on someone like you taking the time to single them out. Send in your comments to doncon99 [at] toad.net to determine this year's nominees.

DEBBIE GUTERMUTH WINS HOBBY SERVICE AWARD: Mrs. Gutermuth, long instrumental in the workings of WBC as photographer and behind the scenes accounting maestro for the WBC Auction, won easy election as the BPA's Hobby Service Award for 2008. The award was announced at the 2008 Annual Meeting. Details can be found at http://www.boardgamers.org/service.htm

AUCTION: WBC again got off to a classy start with a well run, combined Auction/Auction Store operation netting over $28,000 in sales. This figure was down 12% from 2007 in what turned out to be a Buyer's market, although the number of lots also fell by 7%. The average price for Auction Store sales actually increased. However, the workload for our staff was greatly reduced and proved that the Auction Store could be run with mandatory pre-registration. Only a few procrastinators were turned away and as a result our staff was able to return to gaming with a minimum of late night accounting duties. The details, as only WBC provides them, are available at http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc/auctionsales.htm and includes individual lot sales in both lot and price order ... just follow the links to the appropriate pages.

WATERLOO CHANGE OF VENUE: The next BPA mini-Con will be October 24th-26th for players of The Napoleonic Wars. Renovations at the Days Hotel have forced a change in site to the Comfort Inn in Towson, MD. Rates remain the same. This location also serves a complimentary breakfast and has a very convenient bar and restaurant service adjacent to the playing area available from 5 PM on. Check out the details at http://www.boardgamers.org/specific/wat08ann.htm

EUROQUEST VI ON TAP FOR OCTOBER: Major renovations at the Days Hotel in Timonium, MD are not expected to interfere with our Sixth Euro Quest convention this fall although an entire floor of the hotel will be closed for renovation. This will probably result in an even earlier sellout than usual so those contemplating attending should not procrastinate in making reservations. Full details are available at http://www.boardgamers.org/specific/eq08ann.htm

INCUMBENTS RE-ELECTED: The three BPA Board members whose terms expired in 2008 (Kaarin Engelmann, Ken Gutermuth and Bruce Monnin) were re-elected to three-year terms in the summer election. Details can be found at http://www.boardgamers.org/board/boardpag.htm




PBeM NEWS:

WOJTASZCZYK WINS AMUN RE: Kevin Wojtaszczyk emerged triumphant over a field of 30 players in our first on-line Amun Re Tournament. The 30 engaged in a round robin format of six five-player games to ensure that each player played everyone else once in the six-round preliminaries. Tom Dunning emerged from the Preliminaries with the top score of 47 followed by Kevin in second with 43 points. The top 12 scorers then engaged in a three-round semi-final, again playing each other once in three four-player games which proved to be very close - one game being decided by a total difference of just three points between first and last. This led to a five-player Final for the title. Mike Kaltman (6th in the preliminary round) took second followed by Alex Bove (5th), Eric Freeman (4th), and Tom Browne (3rd). Tom Dunning fell to sixth. Laurel updates are posted at http://www.boardgamers.org/yearbook/amrpge.htm

AMUN RE BEGINS ANEW: The next BPA Amun Re tournament to be played on Spielbyweb will begin October 1st. Check out the details at http://homepages.roadrunner.com/kwojtasz/Amun-Re/amun-re2008.htm

EDWARDS WINS MANIFEST DESTINY: Bill Edwards topped a field of 35 to score his first Manifest Destiny laurels - defeating designer Bill Crenshaw (second) and reigning PBeM champ Tom Taaffe (fifth) in the process. Other laurelists were Peter Staab, Stefan MeCay and Harald Henning in that order. More details and updated laurel totals can be found at http://www.boardgamers.org/yearbook/mfdpge.htm

SINIGAGLIO TAKES AFRIKA KORPS: Venerable grognard and PBeM GM Bruno Sinigaglio won his own PBeM tournament by being the last man standing in a 26 player single elimination tournament. Defending PBeM champ Ed Menzel was the last to fall on his own grenade when a last ditch attack vs Tobruk went horribly wrong. Other laurelists were Barry Smith, Jon Lockwood, Ted Drozd and Mark Gutfreund in that order. More details and updated laurel totals can be found at http://www.boardgamers.org/yearbook/afkpge.htm - expect a new event to get underway soon.

HAMMER OF THE SCOTS: The BPA Third Hammer of the Scots PBeM Tourney is set to begin Nov. 1st in a four-round swiss format. Players need to average at least a turn per day. The tournament website http://www.geocities.com/firstbse19/hospbem.html has all the details on bids and the PBeM aides to use. 

SHIFTING SANDS: The third round of the BPA Shifting Sands email tournament is complete. Bidding for the Allied side has averaged a little over 1 VP and the Allies have held a slight advantage in victories in this round. Through the first three rounds the average bid has been 1.35 for the Allies, with 27 Axis victories to 20 Allied victories. It has been nice to see about half the games go the distance to before the winner is determined. The next round will determine the final four players to enter the semi-final playoffs. Check it out at http://home.mindspring.com/~drueding/shiftingsands/

MARCH MADNESS: The Sixth Annual BPA March Madness PBeM tournament will be getting underway October 15th. There is a five-week time limit per game although many games end in under a week and by averaging a move per day, games take less than a month. Check out the details at http://www.nktelco.net/bdmonnin/mms_home_page.html

VICTORY IN THE PACIFIC: The second round of the BPA Single-Elimination VIP tournament has ended. 11 of the original 42 players remain. It was a good round not to be favored to win. The lower seeded players won seven of ten games! Only the Japanese did better - winning eight of ten (including the games of all three of the prevailing higher seeds). Nathan Zietlow, the top seed, is undoubtedly very happy that he had a bye for the round! The second and third seeds were eliminated in the first round. The fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, and ninth seeds were eliminated in the second round. After Nathan, the highest seeds remaining are Larry Meyers (seventh) and Pat Richardson (tenth). The single most remarkable game saw Robert Drozd (IJN) defeat Ray Freeman (eighth seed) by a single point even though the game appeared to massively favor one side only to dramatically favor the other side at the start of the next turn several times. See all the details at http://www.gameaholics.com/vitp_bpa/vitp_bpa_single_elim_07.htm

HERE I STAND: This tournament has completed its second round with three exciting games. Of special note are the games conducted by Jeremiah Peterson, who secured the only French victory so far in HISBPA21. In the same game George Young's Papacy came storming back in the final turn to secure a well deserved second place and earn a seat in the Final.  Kudos also go to Rob Seulowitz on his outstanding victory as the Ottomans in HISBPA20. The final is currently underway with the following players joining the aforementioned for top honors: Steve Caler, Mike Brophy, and Dan Gallagher. Check out the tournament website for full details: http://home.comcast.net/~ebeach/HISBPATourney2007.htm
 
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