Lost Cities is an easy-to-learn 2-player card game, and an excellent test for all gamers, age and gender neutral. Players with copies of the game should bring them! Extra copies will be needed. This event has turned away players in the past and will doubtless do so again this year for lack of games. Bring a copy of the game if you expect to play.

There will be a Demo of the game for players who have never played. It is a simple game of placing cards, representing an expedition, in numerical order to maximize points. The challenge is each expedition has an initial cost in points, so the decision to commit to an expedition is the hard part. Many of us have found this simple game an unending challenge to master, which is why we get a hall full of players for each Round!

Swiss Rounds: Swiss Rounds, each scheduled for 1 hour, determine qualification for the continuous 45-minute Single Elimination (SE) Rounds. Players may play in as many of the Swiss Rounds as they wish. Each Swiss Round is one game of three hands for two players; the heat winner is the one with the highest total score over those 3 hands.

Games will be played according to the box rules with one modification: Before play, opponents will shuffle and cut the cards to determine who plays first; higher numbered card plays first for the first hand only. As in the box rules, in later hands the player with the higher total score goes first. Before play, I request that opponents count the cards to verify that the deck is complete with sixty (60) cards. During the Swiss Rounds, tied scores after three hands will be resolved by a 4th, 5th, etc. hand until any tie is broken.

If there are an odd number of entrants, the GM will play as an eliminator (i.e. can create a loss for the entering player, but the GM cannot qualify for single elimination).

Only players with two (2) or more wins in the Swiss Rounds will qualify to advance to the Single Eliimination portion of the tournament.

Advancement Tiebreakers:

No further tie-breakers are required as all winners of two or more Rounds (and only those double winners) will be eligible to advance to the single elimination. If there are an odd number of qualifiers at the beginning of single elimination the GM will play as an eliminator only.

Single Elimination:

Single Elimination will begin Saturday evening and run continuously through the Championship Round. Once it begins, the SE Rounds will feature approximately 45-minute rounds. Usually the top four players will take about 4 hours of single elimination to get to the championship round.p>

For the Tournament and WBC Laurels, places 1 through 4 will be determined by game results in head-to-head competition. Places 5 and 6 will be determined by using the approved WBC rule awarding 5th place to the quarterfinalist defeated by the champion and sixth place to the quarterfinalist defeated by the runner-up.

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