Settlers of Catan set an alltime attendance record with 175 participants. More than 100 preliminary-round games were played. Participants had the choice to play in as many of the four preliminary games as desired.

The tournament consisted of four preliminary-round qualifying games, with points being awarded to each player based on their finish in a game. The top 16 qualifiers from the preliminary round advanced to a one-game semi-final, and the winners of each semi-final advanced to a one-game final. Each preliminary-round game and the semi-final game were played in a duplicate format, with each game played on a predetermined board, to ensure that one table's game is neither easier nor more difficult than any other game played (at the other tables) during that round. Each game was four-player, played to ten points, or to the published time limit.

After the first two preliminary games were complete, nine participants had won both of the games they had played. After all four preliminary games, only Josh Githens had won all four of his preliminary games. Each of the participants advancing to the semi-final won at least two preliminary games.

The semi-final round was scheduled for Sunday morning at 9:00 am. This time created a conflict for only one of the 16 that had earned the right to advance to the semi-finals: Josh Githens, the tournament's top-seeded participant, had to step down to play in his team event. This allowed the tournament's first alternate, Kimberly Foster, the opportunity to advance to the semi-final round, and guaranteed Josh 5th place.

Each of the tournament's four top-seeded players was assured no competition amongst themselves in the semi-final round. The remaining 12 semi-finalists were then randomly assigned to one of the four games. Only one of the tournament's four top-seeded players, David Platnick, was able to win and advance to the final. Kathy Stroh won her semi-final game (against P. LeBoeuf, L. Stokes, and top-seeded W. Wible), 10-6-6-5, with development cards. On her last turn, she built three roads to take the longest road, a settlement, and turned over two victory points. The second semi-final game had K. Foster against L. Kendter, GJ Shufeldt, and the second-seeded Joe Jaskiewicz. Joe, the runnerup in this semi-final game, was the sole "possessor" of the robber for the first half of the game, and that benefitted Kimberly Foster. In the end, the game became a two-player race for cards with both Kimberly and Joe at nine points. Kimberly won the race to advance; 10-9-8-5. In the third semi-final game, David Platnick, the tournament's number 3 seed, controlled the largest army and turned over three victory points on his last turn to defeat D. Rynkowski, P. Rennert, and J. Diedrich, 10-7-7-7. In this game, rumor has it that D. Rynkowski fell victim to a vast right wing conspiracy led by Platnick and Rennert. In the last semi-final, Brian Conlon ran away with a victory over H. Siegelman, N. Anner, and number 4 seed M. Barnes, 10-7-5-4.

In the final, Foster went first, followed by Platnick, Stroh and Conlon. On turn 3, Platnick upgraded one of his settlements to a city, and Conlon built a settlement. Stroh built a settlement on her fifth turn. The eighth time around the board, Platnick took the longest army. Foster basically had a monopoly on ore and also had the 2:1 ore port, allowing her to take the longest road on her tenth turn. Stroh took the longest road away from Foster on turn 13. However, on Foster's 16th turn, she was able to take the longest road back from Stroh, and would not relinquish it for the remainder of the game. Later that turn, Conlon built a settlement on the 2:1 wool port, beating Foster in a race to that port. On his 17th turn, Platnick built two roads, a settlement, and a city to take him to seven points (with the longest army). Foster played two victory points on her 18th turn, to take her to eight points (with the longest road). Platnick pulled into a tie with Foster on his next turn by playing a Year of Plenty to complete a settlement, taking him to eight points, and on his 19th turn, took the lead by upgrading a settlement to a city. On the 20th turn, Stroh and Conlon each upgraded a settlement to a city, taking Stroh to seven, and Conlon to nine points. Foster then built a settlement to make a thre-way tie for the lead. That tie would be short lived. On Platnick's turn, he was able to upgrade a settlement to a city for a 10-9-9-7 victory.