The new Multiple Entry, Single Elimination format was a huge success with a record 70 players competing in the tournament. The two initial heats consisted of four 4-player and thirteen 5-player games. A top score of 118 was obtained by Rob Flowers in a first round 5-player game.1999 champion Stu Hendrickson played in the second preliminary round and was eliminated. 2000 finalist Rob Flowers and tournament winner Anthony Burke made it to the semis but got no further. The highest score in the semi finals was 110 points for Nicholas Benedict.

The final consisted of two newcomers to El Grande, Nicholas Benedict and Gary Pressner, who both played the game for the first time at WBC 2001. The other finalists were Peter Martin, Barbara Flaxington and Jason Levine. The starting Grande positions for the game were: Nicholas in Basque Country, Barbara in Seville, Jason in Catalonia, Gary in Valencia and Peter in Aragon. The starting positions did not give any player a large potential scoring advantage over any other player. Nicholas bid the highest with a thirteen power card in the first round. He chose the action card where his fellow players must remove two caballeros form the board. Since the game had just started this cleared the board of all caballeros except Nicholas's. Barbara was next with a twelve power card and chose to score the Castillo card for an early five point lead score in round 1.

In round 2, Peter played the first action card with his thirteen power card play, scored the five regions, and took the lead with twelve points. Gary moved his Grande to Granada were he had caballeros and could potentially score higher. Jason spread five caballeros about the board to his advantage. Barbara held a distant second with her initial five points from round one. Gary, Nicholas and Jason were tied for last with three points each. In round 3, the first general scoring round, Jason playws first with his thirteen power card. He scored the region with the least Caballeros. Two regions were tied for the least caballeros where Jason has his Grande in one and the majority in both giving him an additional 11 points. At the end of the first general scoring round, Jason is in the lead with t31 points. Barbara is second with 26.

Barbara played the thirteen power card in round 4 giving her the score the fours action card. This action gave the leader ,Jason, additional points, but brought Barbara two points closer to his total. Jason played the 8-4 mobile scoreboard onto the Castillo, making it even more appealing for players to drop caballeros into it. In round 5, Nicholas played score the fives, which closed the point gap for four of the five players. Jason moved his Grande to improve his point potential and still held the lead with 38, leading Peter with 36, and Barbara and Nicholas with 34 each. In round 6, Jason increased his lead by playing the score the Castillo action card. By the end of the second general scoring round Jason has 66. Nicholas is now second with 56 and Barbara is in third with 54 points. Peter and Gary bring up the rear with 50 and 48 respectively.

More points are scored in round 7 by Barbara playing the score the four regions. This closes the point gap slightly between first, second and third place. Jason goes first in round 8 by playing the twelve power card. He scores the first place in each region. Jason now has 82 and Nicholas jumps into a healthy second with 79 points. In the final round of the game, round 9, Gary goes first by playing his thirteen power card. Gary moves the king to secure himself an extra two points in the final scoring. Jason plays second and attempts to place a mobile score board, but Barbara vetoes his move. Barbara scores the region with the most Caballeros and Nicholas does a special scoring on the region of his choice. Scoring again favors Jason by widening his lead. Behind by eight points, Nicholas is the closest to catching Jason, with Barbara down by twelve points. The final general scoring round takes place.

The new EL Grande tournament champion is Jason Levine with a total of 106. Second place goes to Nicholas Benedict with 104. Rounding out the final in third, forth and fifth place are: Barbara Flaxington with 96, Gary Presser with 85 and Peter Martin with 66.