Matt Tolman bested Rich Meyers to advance from this table as the attrition to the title progresses.	Joe Maiz and his helpers ran the Settlers event for the first time - no small feat for a single start event drawing in excess of 100 players.

For 2009, we used the same format that KOSMOS uses for their tournaments in Europe, with one difference. This has each player placing a Settlement/Road, a City/Road, followed by another Road. The resources given to each player was based on the city location and allowed players to collect two per location. This gets the game off to a quicker start. It also helps keep the games moving along with 90 minute rounds (including setup and initial placements). This format worked well, and we did not have any games called due to time. 

The format has players settling in three preliminary games. Each of these games earns the players points, which are based on placing 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th (5, 3, 2, and 1 points, respectively). The 16 highest scoring settlers at the end of the three rounds advance to the semi-finals. Ties were based on winning in round 1, 2, 3 and a point win margin, if needed. 

Overall, Settlers was fun to run. I did ask for feedback and was rewarded with lots of suggestions and positive feedback. Next years tournament will have a lot of the corrections needed, such as one good per tile, to make the game more competitive and less luck on your setup and rolls. As a GM, I will provide the necessary adjustments and provide more information on setup, rules and other information that was requested in the feedback in order to give all of the players a positive experience. 

All games had new players in each of the three initial rounds, so it worked to the benefit of the game to accommodate new players in all of the rounds. With a total of 113 players, there were 26 games played in the first round, 20 in the second round, including two 3-player games, and 18 in the third round. 

After the preliminaries, the number crunching for the top 16 began. In past years, a total of at least 11 + tournament points were needed to advance and this year was no exception. Of the 16 playoff players, only two won all three rounds; the rest of the semi-finalists had at least two wins. Tie-breakers were needed for the final slots.

The semis started on time and four tables were randomly setup. All four games were close throughout with the winner in each case prevailing by a single point. Dan Ottey, defending champ Matt Tolman, Rick Dutton and former champ Charles Faella advanced. Dan won 10-9-8-8, Rick 10-9-8-7, Charles 10-9-7-5 and Matt prevailed 10-9-8-5. In a large event where repeating is rare, three of the four finalists had sat at the Final table before.

FINAL PLACEMENT: Charles and Dan took the favorable wood-brick tiles while Rick and Matt took the ore-sheep tiles. After placing the initial cities and third road, Dan took the first roll and away we went. 

EARLY GAME: Round1 - Charles and Matt had two settlements built using their starting materials, Matt on the 3:1 trade port and Charles built another on the forest tile. Dan took the builder angle early, thus he and Charles were in the race for the longest road. Charles took the early lead on road building and eventually got the longest road by Round 4. Rolls seemed to favor the builders early, but when the ore tiles rolled, Rick made good use of trades to eventually build a second settlement. He took the Development card strategy and continued to buy at least one per turn. Eventually, the four red numbered tiles were filled - the 6 tiles had the brick and wood while the 8 tiles had the ore & sheep. Matt had setup on favorable tiles, but the rolls never happened to be in his favor, but eventually he was able to trade for goods. All trades were very selective and required 2-1 on goods to get something a player needed. 

MIDGAME: By the end of Round 5, points on the board were: Charles: 6 (one city, two settlements and longest road), Dan: 4, Matt: 4 (each having a city and two settlements) and Rick: 5 (two cities, one settlement). With Charles having cornered the wood-brick tiles, he was able to continue his longest road down the coast and trade for the occasional item needed to build. Rick continued his development card strategy and consistently had at least one card showing face down. He used the soldier cards to move the robber off his tiles to continue the ore-sheep tiles (both an 8 tile). Dan was giving Charles a run for his money on the road building as he was always 1-2 road segments behind him. Matt had unfortunate luck on rolls as his tiles never seemed to produce, and when they did he would get hit with the robber - one way or another. 

END GAME: Round 7- Scores at the end of this round were: Charles: 7, and the other players all had two cities and a settlement (5 total); The difference was Rick had two soldiers showing. 

In Round 8, Rick used another development card and played his soldier, giving him the largest army and a total of seven points. Charles then was able to get a needed ore and build a second city, giving him eight points as well. Dan took advantage of that and was then able to build the longest road and took the title from Charles, giving him seven points. Rick then was able to build a second settlement, giving him eight points. 

By the start of Round 9, the Longest road title was taken back by Charles. With two players on the brink of winning, Rick rolled his turn and the rolls were in order: 8-5-8-8 - giving Rick a total of six ore and nine sheep collected by the end of Round 9 on his turn. He was able to upgrade two settlements to cities and declare victory. End game scores were: Rick10, Charles 8, Matt 6, Dan 5. 

The finalists in their fifth game of the day ...	... under the watchful gaze of GM Joe Maiz.