The six Round 1 winners prepare to do battle in the Final. Pick a leader and fire away.	Michael Ussery, Ernest Czyrvca, Tim Miller and Larry York pick their targets.

The 2010 Naval War tournament, given a second life when another qualifying event failed to generate a GM, continued to draw a small but loyal contingent of hard core players while attracting a few new players. This was in evidence at Table 1, with 2010 Battlecry champion Nicole Reiff making her first appearance. Although new to the game, she quickly caught on to Naval War's central guiding principle: Always be aware of who is leading at any given moment, and concentrate on sinking that player's fleet to impose the ten point penalty. Table 1's match turned out to be one of the evening's shortest, with GM Jonathan Lockwood and Robert Paul taking advantage of their successful destroyer squadrons to lead after the first round with 47 and 41 points respectively. Nicole then correctly zeroed in on Lockwood in Round 2, sinking his fleet with the aid of other players to limit his gains. Unfortunately, Paul was able to exploit his second place position with another successful destroyer squadron to win the match and advance to the Final with a total of 80 points. GM Lockwood finished second with 47 points, Nicole Reiff close behind with 43, followed by Daniel Pappas with 34 and newcomer Geoff Allbutt rounding out the field with 14.

Table 2 was more of a marathon affair, lasting four rounds before Ben Collinson Sr managed to prevail with 95 points to advance. He was followed by Melissa with 87 points, Thomas with 86, Craig with 63, and Patrick bringing up the rear with 19. Sorry for having to relegate the rest of you folks to relative anonymity, but that is what happens when you fail to put your last names on the score sheet!

Table 3 saw a previous champion making yet another serious bid this year, as Bill Place advanced to his third Final after four rounds of play with 85 points, followed by Greg Wilson with 75 points, Matt Bacho with 58, and two obviously shy players named Ernie and Ray with 56 and 44 points respectively.

Table 4 was dominated by veterans, with nary a newcomer in the bunch. Nevertheless, the redoubtable Jim Kramer managed a decisive victory in three rounds among this pool of "sharks", mainly on the strength of a 90 point surge in the last round (the most successful single round of the night) to win going away with 131 points! Left to flounder in his wake were Ruth Evinger with 49 points, Michael Ussery at 47, Matt Evinger at 40, and journeyman Alan Arvold at 34.

Table 5 hosted the only six-player match in the event, and not coincidentally, the only one to go five rounds, mainly because Mac Willingham and Stephen Squibb tied at 81 points apiece at the end of four rounds, thus forcing another round of play. The other players zeroed in on the two leaders, finally sinking Squibb's fleet and limiting Willingham's gains to nine points. However, this second life ultimately worked to the advantage of Frank Mestre, who parlayed an excellent 44-point fifth round to win the match with 94 points. He would be accompanied into the Final by Tim Evinger, who finished with 92 points as the highest runner-up among all tables. Mac Willingham finished close behind with 90 points, followed by Stephen Squibb with 80, Robert Brode with 77, and capable newcomer Rebecca Johnston with 71 points.

The championship match followed in the tradition of previous Finals, with all players mindful of whom the leader was at any given moment. At the end of Round 1, Ben Collinson led with 22 points, followed by Jim Kramer at 20, Bill Place and Robert Paul tied at 15, Frank Mestre in fifth place at 7, and Tim Evinger at -1 due to having his entire fleet sunk (apparently his formidable reputation had preceded him).

Round 2 saw both Collinson and Kramer lose their fleets, resulting in a significant shakeup in the standings. When the smoke cleared, Paul led the field with 49 points, followed by Kramer at 33, Evinger at 32, Place at 29, Mestre at 28, and Collinson at 12.

Round 3 featured Collinson and Place striking back with excellent rounds of 35 points each to pull back into contention. Coupled with the sinking of Paul's and Kramer's fleets to impose the penalty, this jumbled the standings once again. Place now was within striking range of victory in the next round with 64 points, with Collinson at 47 points along with Mestre (who had quietly moved up from fifth). Paul was still in contention at 43, followed by Evinger at 37 and Kramer at 26.

Round 4 proved to be the decisive round, and it became a free swinging melee, with three players eventually losing their entire fleets. In the midst of the chaos, Mestre demonstrated skillful verbal misdirection to conceal the strength of his position until the last possible moment, when he used a destroyer squadron to sink Evinger's fleet and impose a ten point penalty. That proved to be the margin of victory for Mestre, as Evinger would otherwise have won on the strength of his 49 point surge in the round, and second best round of the night. Mestre won with 79 points, followed by Evinger with 76, Paul in third at 74, Collinson at 62, Place at 54, and Kramer rounding out the laurels with 49 some 13 years after scoring his last laurels in this event. Congratulations to Frank on his first Wood in Naval War!