Brad Johnson moves his robot en route to his fourth Robo Rally championship as Tom McCorry and Davyd Field observe.	A ten-player Final made for a crowded board but it was faster than imposing a Semi-Final round on the players

AFL-CIO it ain't ...

It only took eight years, but I finally got the timing right. For the first time in WBC history, I did not have to adjudicate a single game of Robo Rally. Perhaps it was my complete lack of planning, or possibly the fact that I played only as an eliminator (to make up for my lack of planning) that made the difference. Naturally, since I was playing only as an eliminator, that meant I would win my first heat game. Four-time champion Brad Johnson also won his first heat, and his second, reducing the field to ten finalists. Ten players in what was designed as an eight player game called for some interesting innovation on my part. Fortunately, I was up to the challenge. Cards from one new and one old set were combined with initiative ties decided in favor of the old set. We also used one set of painted robots with two unpainted robots from my extra set of robots. Ten players also meant more conflict in the early stages of the game. Roderick Lee started off the fun with a Turn 1 pit dive. Legend Dan Hoffman followed suit in Turn 2 after a push from Ken Samuels.

Most of the players reached the neighborhood of flag 1 at the about the same time. Brad Johnson was the first to touch it however, and was somehow able to make good an escape from the ensuing battle around the flag which he parleyed into a significant lead that would eventually prove to be unstoppable. Steve Cuccarro touched second followed closely by Josh Githens who pushed Steve into the pit next to the flag to get there. Nick Henning got there fourth follwed by Ken Samuels, Roderick Lee, Legend Dan, Cliff Ackman and Bill Navolis. Rich Shipley suffered a series of unfortunate incidents, including one where Steve and Bill sitting side by side on the board both moved three spaces forward pushing Nick and Rich onto the fast conveyor off the board, and was eliminated from the race before reaching the first flag. Brad took a few hits on the way out of the battle zone resulting in a shutdown that allowed Steve to gain a little lost ground back, but he was still able to reach flag 2 first, with Steve not far behind.

A combination of good cards and cagey play got Brad quickly to flag 3, but not before Legend Dan managed to get eliminated when he drew nothing but Move 2 cards with a pit directly ahead. Steve was the only other player to make flag 2 giving him a solid second place. Cliff Ackman and Bill Navolis in a remarkable comback managed to get closest to the second flag to take third and fourth with Josh, Ken, Nick and Roderick filling out the top eight slots.
   
One item of note, this year we used the "old" rules as I can think of no way to make the use of the docking station fair for all players. I am however willing to entertain any arguments and/or suggestions for the use of the "new" rules. Please feel free to send comments/suggestions to spaceman@dcgamers.org.

Tamara Houde rides herd on her young Robo Rally competitors.	The next generation of Robo players: Be Afraid. Be very Afraid!

25 little robot engineers battled to secure the Robot Rally award with Keith Boone emerging triumphant. He was followed in order by:

2nd: Cameron Graf

3rd: Evan Boone

4th: Dan Lewis