Consul Andy Latto, Andrew Gerb and Caesar Raphael Lehrer provide stiff competition in this heat foursome.	Fnalists Bove, Moffa, Trimmer and Warszawski celebrate their soon-to-be-won laurels.

38 players sent expeditions to Goa this year (a 21% increase over 2008's attendance), giving us 14 tables in two heats and 18 total tables (three semi-finals and one Final).  We also had many close games, with more than half of all games decided by two points or less (including two ties).  Among winners, the highest score was 54 (by both Rod Spade and Aran Warszawski), and the lowest was 43 (Michael Isgur and Alex Bove, whose game lasted only seven rounds due to time pressure). 

In terms of winning strategies, a few interesting trends are worth noting.  While the tendency over the past few years has been for winners to advance their spice and expedition card tracks to the bottom, this year only five winners accomplished that task.  Cards were still very important, though, as 12 of 18 winners advanced that track all the way.  Having the flag at the beginning of the game (seven of 18 wins) and having most money at the end (11 of 18) also seemed to be the key to many victories, though the eventual champion had neither in the Final.

The heats produced but one two-game winner (Mike Kaltman), but he had to miss the semi-final to play Vegas Showdown.  Rich Meyer's absence, also due to a Final conflict, allowed first alternate Chris Trimmer to make the semi-finals.  Chris, a former Goa champion, had been the only player to finish the heats with two seconds. Chris quickly proved that he belonged in the elimination rounds, besting his semi-final opponents handily (48-42-41-33).  The other two semis were much closer, with Chris Moffa beating Jeff Meyer 49-48 and Aran Warszawski scoring over 50 for the third straight game to edge Alex Bove 52-51.  Alex's higher second advanced him, leaving Jeff (an unlucky second in two one-point games) in fifth place.  Steve Shamboda's second place finish (one point ahead of Rod Spade) in the first semi-final earned sixth place laurels.

The Final featured three former champions and a high-scoring, formidable contender.  In the early game, Chris Moffa advanced evenly while Chris Trimmer used his first turn plantations (double-ginger and double-cinnamon) to push quickly down the ship-building track.  Aran went for early cards but did not draw very well, at one point having to discard two cards before drawing two others.  Alex failed twice on colonies in the first round and fell behind.

Moffa used his two Phase B tiles (Espionage and Vice King) to advance the ship-building track to the bottom and three other tracks to level 4.  Trimmer's decision to buy two tiles in the first auction and pay to advance his colonist track in Round 2 caused him to have to use actions for money (he was the only player to take a tax action) and may have cost time he needed to catch up to the leaders by game's end.  Aran's bad card draws and lack of extra actions (he only bought the flag once) also cost him dearly.  Alex's purchase of six extra actions (three from the flag) helped him overcome a third failure at colonization to edge Moffa by two points, 51-49.  On the strength of six VP from two tiles (Duty and Mission), Trimmer finished third with 44 points.  Aran's unlucky draws continued to the end, with five expedition cards scoring only eight VP to give him a total of 39.

Alex thus becomes the first two-time Goa winner in the six-years of WBC vompetition.

Note: The move from three-hour to two-hour heats created a bit of controversy.  The shorter heats probably helped us draw more players, but the two-hour block also caused one game to end in Round 7 due to slowness.  I think we will have to go back to three-hour heats next year.  At the tournament level, Goa doesn't seem to be a two-hour game.