Marvin Birnbaum, whose prowess crosses many genres, opposes Doug Galullo.	Joe Powell made it two championships in a row by besting Dave Rynkowski.

The tournament kicked off with a well attended demo that included both those who used to play and wanted a refresher plus others new to this classic. Unlike prior years, few actually stuck around to play in the tournament but several indicated that they wanted to go home and practice before jumping into the pond. If you have never played this game but you like and understand football, we strongly urge you to pick up an inexpensive copy of this on the second-hand market. It is a fun, easy to learn game that is enjoyed by nearly everyone that tries it. We have had good success in introducing gaming to non-gamers with this one and recommend it strongly if you have a football fan that you would like to introduce to the gaming hobby.

Unfortunately, attendance fell for the third consecutive year. A number of factors appear to have contributed to the decline. No "frozen tundra" could be found in Lancaster! The A/C was struggling to keep the room cool but hey, who ever said that football in August was supposed to be played in ideal temperatures? More impactful, several regulars either did not attend this year or were victims of schedule conflicts. This is both a blessing and a curse of WBC, as gamers face a multitude of choices how to spend their limited gaming time at the greatest gaming week of the year. Even our esteemed convention director, Don Greenwood, was not able to bless us with his presence as he skipped his annual grudge match with Bruce Reiff. Bruce has displayed long-term dominance in this tournament with championships in nine different years. The 2012 tournament would not yield a tenth; more on that later.

To be respectful to all of the participants in this event, we attempt to start each of our two heats promptly according to the published schedule. There were at least five potential players that appeared late for the start of a heat and unfortunately, they had to be turned away due to the brackets and pairings having already been determined and the games started. We feel bad turning anyone away so we strongly urge folks to enter in advance of the start time if they need a couple of extra minutes to finish their current event to make it to this one. The GM will attempt to accommodate folks that might need to run a few minutes late, due to a conflicting tournament, by matching them up with other players faced with the same dilemma.

The Wednesday heat drew 16 players -- an ideal number, although smaller than we would have liked. The first round resulted in a number of blowouts as every game, save two, resulted in double-digit victories. The Marvin Birnbaum vs Ray Stakenas Sr. game was an exception, requiring overtime for Marvin's 23-17 win. This was the only game this year requiring free football. Round 2 saw Marvin run out of gas versus Doug Galullo 20-10, Dave Rynkowski won a thriller versus Jim Vroom 26-24 and Ken Whitesell ran up a huge early lead and withstood a furious comeback attempt to defeat Bruce Reiff 42-28. In the heat semifinals, defending champion Joe Powell knocked off Doug by 11 points and Ken continued his roll with a 20-13 win over Dave. The winning streak ended at three for Ken in Round 4 as Joe was able to earn a return trip to the championship game with a comfortable 25-10 victory over his longtime league adversary.

Thursday's second heat, always the lesser attraction for some reason, drew eight players -- again ideal brackets material. Dave Rynkowski scored 50 points (the highest score of the year) to win by 35. Bruce Reiff also returned to form with a 35-9 win. Ken Whitesell improved to 4-1, besting former champ Bert Schoose 28-24 and Sean McCulloch upset Marvin Birnbaum 27-17. In the second round, David defeated Sean 24-17 and Ken joyously downed Bruce for the second straight day 21-14. Ken jumped out to a 10-3 halftime lead in the Heat Final but Dave answered with a 13 point quarter and held on for a close 22-17 win. Ken had a great tournament showing, making the Final of both heats and handing the perennial champion a good dose of humble pie. This guaranteed him third place in the tournament and first place in Don Greenwood's pantheon of heroes regardless of the outcome of the championship game.

The Final started badly for the defending champ as the opening kick-off was fumbled and Dave quickly converted this miscue into 7 points. The lead was doubled later in the quarter with another TD. Joe showed his moxie by putting together a 6:45 drive for a touchdown to cut the lead in half 10 minutes before halftime, but Dave responded with a FG for a 10-point lead at the half. Whatever the motivation speech was at halftime, it certainly worked for Joe. The second half belonged to the defending champ as he held Dave scoreless while scoring three unanswered touchdowns for a 28-17 victory. Joe's win was convincing as he won every game by double-digits, averaging 29.5 points on offense while surrendering only 16 points per game. His strong defensive play seemed to have fuelled his championship... funny how that happens.