Twilight Struggle remained the most popular CDW event at WBC for the fourth straight year. Mike Wallschlaeger and Robert Davidson played early on.	A couple of heavyweight laurelists in other events, neither Phil Rennert nor Kevin Sudy have put much of a dent in the Twilight Struggle rankings.

The 2009 Twilight Struggle tournament enjoyed an increase in participation, with 66 players (up from 54 last year.  The tournament employed a new balancing rule this year, with Early War scoring cards shuffled back in the deck on Turn 4 rather than Turn 3.
 
The challenge for the field this year was to dethrone three-time champion Stefan Mecay.  Early on, Stefan proceeded to mow down the opposition as usual.  But in the round of six, he finally met his match.  Chris Withers bid 4 for the Russians, then proceeded to defeat Stefan who blew up the world in his anguish as he was finally backed into the same corner which he had painted so many others others into the past three years.  The other pairings in that round were familiar faces who have done well in the past.  Rick Young, having finished as runner-up several times, defeated Dave Gerson, also in a Defcon 1 victory.  Meanwhile, Randy Pippus knocked off Mike Wallschlaeger. 
 
With the field reduced to three, Dave Gerson volunteered to play the spoiler roll, which the final three preferred to granting a random bye.  As luck would have it, Dave was randomly assigned to play Rick again.  Dave bid 4 for the Russians, then proceeded to knock out Rick with an AV on Turn 7.  That meant that the last remaining game between Randy and Chris was for the Championship.  Chris once again got the Russians (another 4 bid).  Randy's best efforts weren't enough.  The Russians jumped off to an early lead, headlining Vietnam Revolts and rolling a 6 on a coup of Iran.  Russia also was able to take Thailand and South Korea.  Russia's positional advantage was enhanced by De-Stalinization into South America and three plays of Red Scare (Turns 3, 6 and 7) including a Blockade Combo that ruined West Germany.  The US never recovered and eventually succumbed to Wargames on Turn 8.
 
After several years of relatively even results, this year, Russians prevailed 39 to US 17.  Bids were also up, particularly as the rounds went on.  The last several rounds saw almost exclusively bids of 3 or 4 for the Russians.  Obviously, some additional look at balance is necessary.
 
Our Sportsmanship nominee was Randy Pippus.  On four occasions, Randy's opponent made the mistake of playing a card that increased Defcon, even though Defcon was already at 2.  In each case, Randy graciously allowed the opponent to redo the move. 

Randy Pippus downed Steve Parrish in this match.	Ken Lee and Steve Dickson enjoy an early pairing.

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Considering the economy and the inclement weather, it can easily be argued that Twilight Struggle lived up to its name with a very respectable 21 Cold War participants. Of the 38 games contested, the Soviet side won 23, or just over 60%. As one would expect, bidding still tends to strongly favor the Soviet side, though there were some significant wins this year with the US.

Although some notable players were absent, this was still a strong field, featuring multiple Twilight Struggle champions from years past. Defending WAM champ Stefan Mecay used mostly Soviet supremacy to steer his way to victories (over Jay Meyers, Terry Coleman, and Steven Brooks), but he did play the US for the only time in this year's event to score a win over Keith Wixson. Chris Byrd, on the other hand, was splitting his time fairly evenly between sides while defeating Jeff Finkeldey, Justin Rice, James Terry, and again, Keith Wixson in round 4, to make the Final.

To Keith's credit, he bounced back from tough losses to both Stefan and Chris to finish fifth, including a first-turn TKO of Randy MacInnis, which has to be one of the fastest tournament games on record. Likewise, Steven Brooks started out 3-0, only to run into the Stefan Express, and settled for a fourth-place finish. Bill Edwards continued his recent strong Twilight Struggle play at WAM, finishing third with wins over Chris Bauch, John Wetherell, Jeff Finkeldey, and Mike Mitchell, who finished sixth. Rounding out the Top 10 were Terry Coleman, James Terry, Randy MacInnis, and Jeff Finkeldey.

The Final was a tempestuous affair, where Chris had great cards with the US (he was able to purge the Russians on both Turn 2 and 3), balanced by Stefan pulling out one key war roll after another for the Russkies. Both Mid and Late War stayed tense, with the score fluctuating between +3 and -3. On the decisive last turn, Chris played Duck & Cover for his headline, forcing DEFCON to 2. After playing Terrorism on the Soviets, Chris had backed Stefan into a corner. Stuck with KAL-007 and Tear Down this Wall events - and without the China card to fall back on - Stefan was doomed to blow up the world. Even had he been able to somehow avoid this fate, both players agreed that the US would likely have won in final scoring. An epic from two of the best card-driven wargame maestros, it was thrilling to watch. Chris thus adds a Twilight Struggle crown to his Paths of Glory and 1960 wins in prior WAM years. Congrats to Chris, Stefan and all the gang for making this event so much fun to run. Can't wait until next year.