Brian Mountford, Dennis Mishler, Helen Powell and Romain Jacques in a heat won by Dennis.	GM Blair Morgen matched his Phillies - finishing fourth - by falling in the play-offs.

Imperial is a challenging, thought-provoking three-hour World War I game with multiple paths to victory, extreme variability in play, and no luck. Designed and playtested by Mac Gerdts and his team over a ten-year span, Imperial is part of the Rondel Series that includes Antike, Hamburgum, and Navegador. On Boardgamegeek, Imperial ranks among the top 40 boardgames of all time, with more than 4,500 voting.

With the trappings of a Euro and the intensity of an old classic, we believe Imperial should have mass appeal at WBC. This year attendance was way down. Unfortunately, we accidentally double-booked ourselves against Navegador ( the newest and much hyped game in the Rondel series) and Puerto Rico (always a huge draw), so we will work to avoid that in the future.

This was our first year running Imperial and instead of heats we changed the format to single elimination with a Mulligan. In the Mulligan round Dennis Mishler, a 2009 laurelist, and defending champion Blair Morgen advanced. In Round 1, Romain Jaques advanced for the second straight year, as did John Shaheen and John Kilbride (the eight-time champ of various events who hasn't won a tournament in ten years).

Dennis Mishler became our third champion in five years as part of his bookends year to go with his Dominant Species crown. As champion, Dennis received a new copy of Imperial 2030, the latest version of the game that features an updated world map.