Select
a year from the drop-down list for a low-down on the history
of Avaloncon and WBC.
See the champions for each year. Or choose to view the Laurels or Medals totals.
WBC’s
evolution gathered speed in 2002 despite
a poor economy. The event kiosks, now in
their eleventh year of service, got a facelift
to include a color-coded event sheet which defined each event by
experience required in a traffic light anology from Advanced (red—experience
required), to Beginner (yellow—mandatory scheduled tutorial attendance
required for the inexperienced), to Coached (green—event taught
in progress). Each event also included a full color pictorial
winners gallery of past champions to create
a mini “hall of fame” for each event at its place of concentration.
Event pre-registration was eliminated as
unnecessary given WBC’s player-friendly
policy of accepting all players present at start with a copy
of the game. Gaming space was expanded
and vendor expenses curtailed by cutting
vendor operations to four days. Meanwhile, Steve Okonski continued
to blaze new trails in conference services on the BPA website with
his personal scheduler in which players could program and print
color-coded copies of their personal schedules. The addition of
two pre-cons—separate mini-cons for the dedicated swiss play of Paths
of Glory and Hannibal in the four days preceding WBC—was used to ease schedule conflicts for the
long and popular card-driven wargame genre
while providing a partial answer to the minority call for an even
longer WBC.
The third leg of the WBC Triple Crown was borne with the advent
of the Caesar Award to name our top competitor of the Year. The brainchild
of Stuart Tucker, whose handicapping of the annual Team Tournament
had become a tradition all its own, the Caesar Award fairly measured
prowess in the entire spectrum of boardgaming competition regardless
of one’s preference in games; long or short, simple or complex, wargame,
Euro, rail or sport—all were fairly quantified in a point system
that gave each event a common denominator in naming our top competitor
of the Year while also factoring in email, mini-con, and finalist
points for a well balanced measuring stick that excluded no one.
Marvin Birnbaum emerged as our initial Caesar despite winning only
one Century event at WBC but padded his score with strong performances
at BPA mini-cons and email tournaments. Seven events had 100 or more
players, led by newcomers Puerto Rico with 152 and Carcassonne with
150. Jeff Cornett led the way with a triple for wins in Euphrat & Tigris,
Napoleon and Robo Rally although Dave Metzger had a “minor
league” homerun with four wins, albeit inclusive of three trial
events. Rob Beyma, Debbie Garver, Tom Gregorio,
Charles Hickok, Rob Kilroy, John Pack, Peter
Reese, Phil Rennert, Jon Shambeda, Mike Sincavage and Joe Sposito
all added doubles in the best year yet for multiple winners. Seven
defending champs retained their titles.
