GM Craig Moffitt with his finalists.	E&T was voted Legacy status in 2008 after ten years of consistent performance.

Legacy status returned this Kniza tile placing masterpiece to WBC as a Century event this year. The tournament again used a rules variant to address the advantage of the first two players. Instead of their normal two actions, the first two players received only one action during the first turn. The distribution of wins for 4-player games was 4 wins (26%), 3 wins (20%), 5 wins (33%), and 3 wins (20%) for players moving first through fourth, respectively.

Ten winners plus the best two runners-up from the two preliminary heats manned three semi-final tables. In the first, newcomer Nick Page (4-5-5-5) playing from the fourth position managed to upset a table that included 2005 champion Matt Calkins. In the second, Haim Hochboim (9-9-10-11) narrowly defeated Eric Freeman (7-9-13-16). In the third, top-qualifier and two-time prior champion Jeff Cornett (6-6-7-7) defeated Bill Zurn (5-5-7-7). Eric survived to fight another round by advancing with the best runner-up finish. With two extra treasures his score would have been winning, but Bill needed two extra treasures just to tie the leader.

In the Final, Jeff had the first choice and selected the third position. Nick (first), Haim (fourth), and Eric (second) rounded out the table. First-time finalist Nick started the game by placing his King by the central North treasure. Eric also used his one action to place his King in the Southwest. Jeff had two actions and immediately started the competition for the Northeast treasure by placing his Farmer and Trader by the river delta. Haim took the last open corner in the Northwest with his King. In Round 2, both Eric and Haim consolidated the kingdoms they started while Jeff and Nick inched towards the prize.

In Round 3, Nick made a bold claim on the disputed treasure by using a disaster on Jeff's farm. Undaunted, Jeff played two more farms blocking Nick's path. This finally convinced Nick to change direction and encroach on Haim in the northwest. Meanwhile, Eric had established a solid base and a potential green monument far from the other players. The following picture shows the board after Eric's play in Round 5.

In Round 5, Haim severed Nick's settlement peninsula with a disaster and used a settlement of his own to pick up the abandoned support. Unhappy with his shrinking kingdom, Nick used five temples to win an internal conflict against Jeff and then nabbed the southeastern treasure.

After Jeff joined his and Nick's two kingdoms into a large mixed kingdom, the players were content to expand quietly for a couple rounds. This lasted until Round 8 when Eric built a Green/Black monument in the SW corner (see Picture below). Although none of the other players were near enough to bother Eric, they felt the pressure to shake things up and score more points.

Haim finally placed his Farmer onto the board when he attacked Jeff, but he lost when Jeff revealed four tiles to match his support. Haim repeated the same move again, but this time neither player had any temples in their hand and Haim won 2-1 from adjacent temples on the board.

Nick started Round 9 by inching his isolated Farm kingdom closer to Eric's. With one extra farm on the board and several in his hand, Eric considered causing an external conflict to gain blue points. However, he instead played the farms to sure up his connectivity. This turned out to be a critical decision as Nick had plenty of Farms and had laid a trap.

Next, Jeff caused the first external conflict by attacking Haim's kingdom. First, Haim was forced to be the attacker against Nick's trader. Then, Jeff defeated Haim's Priest and netted two red points.

Still with a powerful Farmer on the board, Haim merged south and attacked Nick's Farmer to net three blue points. This also caused a King conflict that Jeff was able to win as the defender for four black points with only extra one settlement when Nick had none.

In Round 10, Nick claimed his third treasure after he linked up his Trader to the remnants of the southern kingdom. With only three treasure left, the next treasure removed would end the game. Meanwhile, Eric once again had no neighbors within two spaces, and he played tiles to bolster his support against internal conflicts. However, low on red points Eric would be forced to discard from his hand next turn in hopes of pulling more temples.

In the east, Jeff severed the eastern kingdom with a catastrophe to place his Trader uncontested with the majority of the markets. He followed this up in Round 11, by overwhelmingly attacking Nick's trader for two green points. Haim was slowly recovering in the Northwest, and built the game's second monument this round. He would have preferred Black/Green, but instead was forced to build Black/Blue.

In Round 12, Nick immediately fought Haim over the monument, adding five temples in the internal conflict. After winning, he dropped his Farmer into the 3-support hole left behind for full control of the monument. Eric inched his kingdom north and opened up the possibility of ending the game from treasures. After Jeff scored two red points from placing temples, Haim risked a 2-to-tie internal conflict against Jeff's priest and won.

In Round 13, Nick placed two tiles and continued to control the monument for a total of four points. Eric used a catastrophe defensively to remove the last support of Jeff's King. Jeff caused the game's last conflict when he again used his large market support to defeat Haim's trader and net two points (see picture above). Haim won the subsequent Farmer conflict and prevented Jeff from claming the treasure. Haim then began his turn with an empty tile bag and ended the game after placing his King and a settlement.

Eric's isolationist monument strategy paid off with a score of 7-7-9-10 (lowest in red). Nick was a close second at 7-7-7-8 (lowest in black/red) and would have been able to win with one extra turn. Jeff 6-6-7-8 (lowest in blue) and Haim 5-5-8-8 (lowest in green) rounded out the table. Next year, the 1/1/2/2 action rules variant and hypothetic treasure margin-of-victory tiebreaker will be kept. The GM would like to thank everyone for their participation and is looking forward to another great event next year.