Ivanhoe had a nice 33% increase in its sophomore year. Fortunately, there was some space two doors down in the Belmont room for the spillover as there was no way we were all going to fit into the Polo room. The event went smoothly enough. I had hoped to finish the tournament before 6 pm. We finished at 6:03 pm. We hit a snag in the second round as one game took over 105 minutes to finish and some who had finished their game were impatient to start the third round. At the start of the third round I said I would adjudicate any game after 90 minutes. The threat must have worked because the third round was completed in 45 minutes and the finals were over in a little under an hour.

It took 23 points to make the finals. The top qualifier was Bob Runnicles with 27 points, followed by Eric Eshleman and Laurel Stokes with 24, and then David Sidelinger and Steve Scott with 23. You earned points by adding the number of chips won with a bonus of five points for 1st, three for 2nd, and one for 3rd. In the finals the tournament came down to a final joust by Laurel and Steve, winner take all, as they both had four chips and they were jousting for a purple chip.

Changing the tournament scoring system to include bonus points for first, second, and third worked miraculously well as we had five clear cut players for the finals. Without the bonus points we would have had a five-way tie for 4th. As it turned out, the first tie was for 8th place.

There was some controversy over the loan rule change for this tournament which was to keep the chip drawn to determine who goes first. Some players felt it gave the person who drew purple an unfair advantage. It probably did even though the results didn't substantiate that. If I GM again, I'll eliminate the house rule and go back to playing the game "out of the box".

There were some comments that a better format would have been to offer multiple heats. That would have eliminated the problem of players waiting until all games are finished to start the next round. It also would have eliminated the inconvenience of spending half a day in one tournament. I'm not sure I want to GM Ivanhoe again next year so its available for those who think they have a better way.