1993 Champ Steve Packwood is flanked by Paul Bean and Rich Atwater. You never know who will win Acquire which has had 17 different champs in 20 years.	No ... James, you can't move Lee to cover Richmond no matter how many Ops you have .. Imperial must merge with Continental. Who da you think we are ... Dockter?

Acquire, which is subject to wild fluctuations in attendance due mostly to format changes over the years, increased attendance to 72 players in 2010. Three heats of 4-player games were typical, with several 3-player games occurring as needed to allow everyone to participate. The heats proved to be remarkably similar in attendance with nine 4-player games played in each. Only nine of the 72 players competed in every heat.

The year's competition went well. Even with five iterations of the game design only one rules clarification was asked of the GM (twice): When multiple chains merge with one tile, the largest hotel chain takes over the other chains from largest to smallest. The main impact of this rule is the order of trade for shares in the controlling chain.

The competition featured no less than six past champions, including Gary Moss who made his first appearance since 1999, but this year's competitors overcame them all, ensuring a brand new champion in 2010.

The final consisted of Joshua Cooper, Fadi Deeb, Malinda Kyrkos and Dylan Routh. All but Kyrkos were first-time laurelists, Malinda having finished third in 2007. Game play was intense as players contemplated each tile placement. With only eight mergers in the Final, a low score could be expected but several early mergers had payouts worth as much as 8,000. In the fourth merger of the game Joshua made a bold move by trading for a controlling interest in Continental. This proved to be the key for his victory because Continental was the eventual game ending 41-piece chain.

Of the 28 regular games played, the average winning cash position was $48,600, down $2,000 from last year. 18 of the 28 winners were involved in the first merger of their game. So while an early payout gives an edge, judicious stock purchases and tile placement is still key to winning.

Steve Shambeda and John Tighe Sr, a couple veterans from Avaloncon days, battle some young turks.	John Tighe, Jr and Cliff Ackman merge against our favorite Englishman, Barrington Beavis, in the hotel wars.