facts in five [Updated October 2006]   2006 WBC Report       2007 Status: pending 2007 GM commitment Rich Meyer, MA 2006 Champion Offsite links:   Event History Year Champion Total 1993 Luke Kratz 23 1994 Eric Olin 25 1995 Chuck Foster 24 1996 Luke Kratz 25 1997 Stephanie Greenwood 19 1998 Caleb Cousins 29 1999 Shantanu Saha 17 2000 Randy Cox 31 2001 Aaron Silverman 34 2002 Doug Hoylman 48 2003 Aaron Silverman 43 2004 Doug Hoylman 31 2005 Sean McCulloch 40 2006 Rich Meyer 37  Laurels Rank Name From Last Total 1. Aaron Silverman FL 03 44 2. Doug Hoylman MD 04 42 3. Randy Cox SC 03 31 4. Richard Meyer MA 06 30 5. Richard Irving CA 04 24 6. Pitt Crandelmire MA 02 24 7. Paul Bean MA 06 20 8. Sean McCulloch OH 05 20 9. Shantanu Saha NY 99 20 10. Ted Drozd IL 06 12 11. Steve Cameron PA 00 12 12. Francis Spencer MD 04 10 13. Roderick Lee CA 05 8 14. Winton LeMoine CA 04 8 15. Debbie Bell MD 01 8 16. Caleb Cousins ME 01 8 17. Sean Cousins ME 01 8 18. James Hopkin CA 00 8 19. Stephany Greenwood MD 99 8 20. Jason Arvey VA 06 6 21. Gordon Rodgers PA 05 6 22. Roy Pettis VA 03 6 23. Eric Brosius MA 06 4 24. Robert Cranshaw RI 05 4 25. Frank Cunliffe PA 05 4 26. Luke Kratz ID 04 4 27. Donna Balkan ON 01 4 28. Andy Maly MD 99 4 29. Matt Amitrano VA 06 2 30. Gordon Elgart CA 02 1 2006 Laurelists Ted Drozd, IL 2nd Paul Bean, MA 3rd Jason Arvey, VA 4th Eric Brosius, MA 5th Matt Amitrano, VA 6th Past Winners Luke Kratz, ID 1993, 1996 Eric Olin, CT 1994 Chuck Foster, TX 1995 Stephanie Greenwood, MD 1997 Caleb Cousins, ME 1998 Shantanu Saha, NY 1999 Randy Cox, SC 2000 Aaron Silverman, NJ 2001, 2003 Doug Hoylman, MD 2002, 2004 Sean McCulloch, OH 2005 A Real Trivial Pursuit 38 people turned out to play Facts in 5 at 5 pm on Saturday. This time slot was opposite the huge game of Ticket to Ride, which significantly reduced attendance. It is recommended next year the game start at 11 pm or in one of the other 'down time' slots. The GM promised everyone they would be finished in one hour to allow them to make any of the huge number of heats, semis or finals starting at 6 pm on Saturday. Unfortunately, this caused the event to be more rushed than I would have liked. Nevertheless, there was still some time for crowd entertainment and the event was great fun. The first puzzle categories were: Tall Sailing Ship Parts; Mexican States; Van Damme Movie Titles; Revolutionary War Battles; Canadian Provinces and Capitals. Letters were B, C, M, Q and T. Jason Arvey led the pack, getting 16 correct answers for a score of 107. For puzzle 2, players had to name USA Military Ranks; Old Testament Books; Bahamas Islands; Dow Jones 30 Industrials and 2005 Commercial Passenger Airlines. Letters were A, C, E, P and S. Incidentally, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is not a rank; it is a job. Even a Corporal may be named to it. One person wrote Staff Sergeant, and it was quite humorously pointed out by a player that simply sergeant would have satisfied. Matt Amitrano got 18 right answers for a high score of 146. Puzzle 3 sought: The O.C. Characters; Knights of the Round Table; Shakespeare Plays; 20th Century British Prime Ministers and Gettysburg Generals using the letters A, H, L, M and T. (Lee and Meade were 'gimmes' for the last category, as were Major and Thatcher for the British P.M.s and Arthur, Lancelot and Mordred in the Knights. Eric Brosius and Ted Drozd tied with scores of 122, but Ed Kendrick of England led the pack with a score of 138. Puzzle 4 asked for: Napoleon's Marshals; Counties of England; Secular Nobility Titles; U.S. Constitution Signers and Common Non-Brand Cocktail Names with the letters D, G, K, L and M. Paul Bean, Ed Kendrick and Eric Brosius again scored well. Several players had to leave for other games and could not stay for the Final Puzzle. Of those who qualified, Jason Arvey, Matt Amitrano, Paul Bean, Ted Drozd, Rich Meyer and Eric Brosius remained. Special mention is made of Eric, who led the pack at this point with a gross score of 483. Just failing to make the cut were Ed Kendrick, Bill Beckman and Roderick Lee. Six padvanced to the Final round with all scores re-set to 0. Categories were: Penguin Breeds; Declaration of Independence Signers; Kentucky Derby Winners, Cruise Lines and Rolling Stones Albums over the letters A, E, F, M and R. This puzzle was much harder, since several slots had only a single correct answer, such as 'Epirotiki' for cruise lines. When the pencils came to rest and the brain cells recovered, Richard Meyer managed to squeak out a win. He got seven correct for a score of 40. Although Richie didn't know much about any category, he did manage to get at least one right in each column. All six knew Adams signed the Declaration, but only three remembered Ben Franklin did too! Oddly, only three of them thought to write "Rolling Stones" as an album title for the Stones. Only Meyer could name two Derby winners, getting Affirmed and Ferdinand. Sadly for Eric, who needs to vacation a bit more, he couldn't name a single cruise line. Next year, I may cut it to three qualifying puzzles to ease the time crunch on the excellent assistant GM­Kate Taillon, who was trying to score at light speed. Great effort was made to keep the categories varied and interesting. Each puzzle contained a wargaming category, a general knowledge category and a pop culture category. Letters were chosen that had both multiple answers for one letter and only a single answer for another to let everyone get some score, but make a perfect answer difficult. Very little argument about answers took place, since the answers were relatively finite. This helped speed the game, but it still needs to be at 11 pm earlier in the week to increase attendance and allow time for fun and individual scoring. I look forward to doing it again.  GM      Arthur Field [1st Year]  NA      arthur-field@charter.net   NA