Jordan Halberstadt, Scott Smith and Bill Powers in a preliminary game.	The Final was a 2007 reunion - only Rod Coffey was new.

Kingmaker started Friday morning with a small but eager group of players. We played two boards in the first heat; a 4-player and a 5-player game. Defending Champion Nick Benedict won his game by only three points in a two-king game. The other game was a sole king victory won by three-time champion Justin Thompson.

The Demo on Friday night was well attended. We had over 20 folks gathered around the table. Most of those players made their way to the tournament an hour later. We had 21 players in the second heat so we played three 5-player games and one 6-player. Keith Wixson won his game as sole king, Nick Benedict won again as a sole king and Justin Thompson won again, this time on points.

I had moved the third Heat to Saturday at10am hoping that would allow more folks to play. We had two boards. Rod Coffey, back from Iraq, won his table by points and advanced to the Final. Former Champion Jordan Halberstadt gave Justin a run for his money but was unable to prevent the GM from winning his third preliminary game in as many tries. Jordan and Stanley Buck had the highest 2nd place finishes and made the Final as well.

The Final five was now set and the initial deal gave everyone a reasonable position. Key events fell quickly. Nick was wiped out on Turn 3 with no cards remaining on the board. Justin stepped out of his power base to destroy Jordan and lost not one, but two nobles and Jordan's noble also was killed on the same card. Three nobles felled by one card -- not something you see every day. The next turn Rod marched in and crushed Justin's forces which left him in 5th place! Rod and Stanley marched around each other trying to attack the nobles being pulled away. A few actually were killed. While this is going on, Nick is rebuilding. He plays Neville and sails to the continent to get the100 foot solders. Now Nick is back from the dead and a major force. He strikes a deal with Stanley to crown him king. Nick gets an heir out of the deal. Parliament is called and Rod, Nick and Jordan split the spoils. Stanley got nothing and is now the target of the three-headed monster! Justin decides to cause as much havoc as possible and help Stanley. Nick suffers a late defeat, Rod loses a few of his guys and Justin ambushes Rod's Queen late to seal Stanley's sole king victory.

Stanley Buck 107
Nick Benedict 63
Jordon Halberstadt 41
Rod Coffey 09
Justin Thompson -08

I was mighty pleased with the quality of play in 2008! We made up in quality what we lacked in numbers. All six of the laurelists had seen the Final table before and four of the top five laurelists were present in this year's Final. In fact, five of the 2007 laurelists repeated. The only "newcomer" was Rod Coffey who was otherwise engaged last year in Baghdad!