Ex-champ Jennifer Drozd lost in the multi-player opening round to Cabbie Jeff Mullet.	Meredith Mattingly advanced out of this ladies' quartet in the opening round.

The Carcassonne tournament faced one of its toughest challenges this year: the schedule. Consequently, it dropped from the ranks of the Century and will need voter support to return in 2010. Normally Saturday afternoon is pretty quiet as far as regular tournament rounds. But with Dominion starting an hour earlier and running long and Ticket to Ride scheduled to start at the same time we found out who the really dedicated players were. As we have done recently, the first round was a multiplayer format with a maximum of four people per table using the basic set (71 tiles plus the starting tile) and the Inns and Cathedral expansion which adds another 18 tiles giving players 22 tile plays in the game.  The goal was to have 16 winners advance to the next round.
 
Round 2 started the 2-player format with one straight road tile removed from the basic set to give each player an equal number of tile plays (35) per game. With only 15 winners appearing, Rob Kircher by random selection had to play the GM (in an eEliminator only role) but was able to dispatch him easily 83-66. The Round 3 quarter-finals was highlighted by a classic tussle between Jeff Mullet and two-time defending champion Robbie Mitchell. Robbie finally met his match after winning 11 straight WBC Carcassonne tournament games. Things didn't get any easier for Jeff in the semi-finals as he had to face 2004 champion "Legendary" Dan Hoffman but he was on a roll and advanced to the Final for his ultimate test. The champion of the other bracket was Lisa Gutermuth who was aiming to return the title to the family where it was first won in 2002 by Debbie Gutermuth. In a very-well played Final game, Lisa pulled out the win over Jeff with a 124-120 nail biter. This is the second time that Lisa has followed in Debbie's footsteps (Formula Motor Racing being the other family conquest).
 
Next year we hope to work out the scheduling snafu and are looking to add a mulligan multi-player round earlier in the week. This would allow winners from the mulligan round and the winners from Round 1 to meet in a 32-player Round 2 starting the 2-player format. This would mean five rounds on Saturday (plus the mulligan round earlier in the week) to determine the WBC Carcassonne champion. We are also considering adding another expansion in the multiplayer round to give players a few more tile plays in the game. The simplest addition would be to use the River starting setup which would give players another four plays. Feedback to the GM on the format and proposed changes is always appreciated.

GM Tom McCorry (left) poses with his final four. Forner-champ Legend Dan was favored, but he and Meredith fell in the semis.	Jeff Mullet pretends to put up a good fight in the Final but that sneaky Dukee was too much for the Cabbie. ACC rules!