When it comes to Origins of World War II as a tournament game at WBC, never make predictions. Attendance had slipped to twelve participants during 2002-2003. Soothsayers of the gaming world had pronounced OW2 dead and destined for the "dead pile." Wrong. The game rebounded this year with 16 players. In addition, it crowned its first three-time winner while admitting three first-time laurelists to the player rolls.

Due to the number of participants, we were able to support four tables of four players in the qualifying round of the single elimination tournament.

At Table 1, James Dougherty, a man of the cloth, posing as the English diplomat, captured the victory with 22 points, a sizeable point accumulation. Fellow diplomats Jason Matthews (Germany), Greg Berry (USSR) and David Rynkowski (France) played well but could not match the parson's points.

At Table 2, the margin of victory was much thinner. Kevin Wojtasczyk representing England finished with 18 points. William D. Lentz (USSR) had 17 points followed by Joseph Collinson (France) with 15 points. Wally Hnatiw, in the role of Von Ribbentrop, steered Germany to 12.5 points.

At Table 3, Stephane Dorais, Rob Kircher (a two-time champion), Brad Jones, attending from West Palm Beach and the GM in 2003, along with Nick Anner were involved in a rather cerebral match. A single point separated the top three players of this match. Both Rob Kircher (USSR) and Nick Anner (France) finished with 16 points. Brad Jones (England) concluded with 15 points. Rob Kircher advanced due to his bid, which was utilized to break the tie results. For the third time, Germany finished in the final position with 10 points. The placing of Germany in the qualifying matches was unexpected. Rob Kircher moved forward

Table 4 sported both veterans of the game and a newcomer. Daniel Pappas, son of Eugene Pappas, a mere lad of about 10 years old finished exceedingly well. In fact, he technically finished first with 15 points in the role of England. Roy Pettis (Germany) and David Weinstein (USSR) had taken the cooperation route during the game and both finished with 13 points. Eugene Pappas (France) took the last position. Due to a scheduling conflict, Daniel wasn't able to attend the championship game. Roy Pettis, who had won the tie with David Weinstein, was chosen to advance to the championship. Congratulations Daniel!

The championship featured Rob Kircher, previous two-time champ, Roy Pettis, an OW2 veteran, Jim Dougherty and Kevin Wojtaszczyk. Once again, the differential between first and second place was razor thin, in fact, a mere half point! Rob, acting as Germany, eked out 17 points to Roy Pettis' (USSR) 16.5 points to defend his title and claim his sixth wood. It doesn't get any closer than this. Kevin (France) and Jim (England) followed with 14 and 12 points respectively. It was a pleasure observing the 4-player version of Origins come down to this ending-a squeaker.