Paul Skrabut moves under Frank Hasting's careful gaze in one of the qualifying heats.	Chaka Benson, James Freeman and Michael Powers in a qualifying heat.

Renier Kniza's tile placing masterpiece, Euphrat & Tigris returned again as a Legacy event where it continues to get consistent, if unspectacular, support, drawing 35 players over two heats. The event again used a rules variant to balance the advantage of the first two players. Instead of their normal two actions, the first two players received one action for the first turn only. The distribution of wins for 4-player games was 4 wins (31%), 1 win (8%), 4 wins (31%), and 4 wins (31%) for players moving first through fourth, respectively.

Four winners plus the best four runners-up from the heats filled two semifinal tables. Four additional winners qualified but declined to attend. In the first semifinal, two-time returning champion Eric Freeman won (5-6-7-12) and Steve Scott (4-5-5-7) advanced as the runner-up. Another finalist of the last two years, Patrick Shea (4-4-5-5) finished third. In the other semifinal, GM Craig Moffitt won (10-10-11-13) and Romain Jacques (7-10-11-15) took second. The winners, Eric and Craig chose to move 3rd (Lion) and 1st (Archer) respectively in the Final. Romain and Steve became 2nd (Bull) and 4th (Potter).

Craig setup in the Northwest with his King, Trader, and Priest, looking to build one or more monuments in the corner, as he had in the semifinal. Romain started at the intersection of the two rivers to the East with his King and Trader and quickly built the Green/Black monument in Round 4. Meanwhile, Steve opened conservatively in the Southeast and proceeded to slowly build his support with tile placements.

The conflicts started immediately after the first monument was built. Eric had seemed to be planning a monument of his own in the Southwest, but changed his plans to relocate his Trader for an immediate war (external conflict) against Romain. However, with no support on the board for either player, Romain had the green tiles in hand to match the attack and prevail.

Next, Craig jumped into the same spot, this time with a revolt (internal conflict). This time, Romain didn't have enough red tiles and Craig grabbed a treasure and control of the monument (for now).

Craig built his own Blue/Black monument in the Northwest with plenty of distance from his neighbors. However, in the center, the ownership of the Black/Green monument finally stabilized when Eric's Trader won a revolt against Craig to secure the monument for several turns. Play continued quietly for a few turns as the current monument ownership defined the player's low scores going into the late midgame. Finally, Eric's King in the Southwest expanded far enough to merge with Craig's undefended territory in the Northwest. Chaos swirled around the west as Craig was able to use a winning blue war against Romain to split away most of Eric's settlement support. However, Romain's defeated farmer soon got revenge by winning a revolt and gaining control of the Blue monument.

Peacefully building his strength most of the game, Steve decided it was finally time to take a risk and make his play. He started by warring with Eric's King and Romain's trader to the southwest, winning both fights. Next, Romain joined the northern Kingdoms and scored two sorely needed red points against Craig's priest. However, Craig also addressed his weakest color when he was able to defend against Eric with his Trader in the same merger. Craig also won a King conflict that shattered the connectivity of the eastern kingdom to end the conflicts.

Together, these two conflicts created a huge Red kingdom in the south in crisis (1-tile away) with a medium sized Red kingdom with Romain's priest. Eric used this opportunity to win two red conflicts in the same turn and boost his lowest color. First, he won a revolt against Steve to take control of the Southern Kingdom. Then, using the last tile from his hand (a Temple!) he merged with the central Kingdom and won again, netting a total of five red points.

Steve again used his long-built support to expand north and win a Trader conflict against Craig. Amazingly, after this conflict, all three Monuments on the board were completely disconnected from any Leaders. Reduced to one Leader on the board and with the other players catching up quickly, Craig elected to discard his hand twice and end the game. It turned out to be just in time, as he barely had the most points when the scores were revealed and won his own tournament for the first time in eight years at the helm. Craig finished with 6/7/11/15, Steve 6/7/8/10, Eric 6/7/8/10, and Romain 5/5/6/15. Despite the exact tie for second, Steve earned runner-up wood due to his disadvantage in Turn Order.

Next year, the 1/1/2/2 action rules variant and hypothetic treasure margin-of-victory tiebreaker will be kept. The GM would like to thank everyone for his or her participation and is looking forward to another great event next year.

Anthony Lainesse and Euro co-ordinator Eric Freeman try to advance.	The finalists rejoice in making it to the third round and a try for legacy wood.