Mark McCandless, Tom McCorry and Marc Geary hatch their nefarious plots.	MarK Neal and Rebecca Hebner eye the course as they program their robots next move.

Ah, the joys of GMing. Once again I find that I am glad I have chosen a game that is almost as much fun to watch as it is to play. At least since I offer two heats, I actually get to play twice each year. Of the 13 people who qualified for the semi-finals, only nine appeared and by mutual agreement of the players and myself, we instead held the Final, even though that meant the game wouldn't be likely to complete before 1 AM (way past my bedtime these days.)

As pieces were being handed out, I was giving out life markers (heads). As I handed them to Alex Henning, the only lady to make the Final this year, I stated off handedly something to the effect of "for this year's winner". Little did I know how true those words would ring, nor how much excitement would go with them.
The game started out as my setups typically do, bloodily. Two robots were killed before the end of the first turn - one by Crusher, and the other in a pit. And there was the usual level of damage being administered. Alex got off to the quickest start touching Flag 1 on Turn 5 with reigning and six-time Champion Brad Johnson close behind her. Jason Levine was the third to touch on Turn 6 with the next closest player touching five turns later. Much of this delay was due to the pushing and shooting going on in the pack behind the leaders.

Unfortunately for Brad, he managed to get caught up in the fighting, in particular with his teammate Bill Dyer of the reigning Team Tournament champs. On Turn 15 Brad's final robot was lost to a crusher. Thinking his chances of catching the leaders slim, Bill chose to drop out of the race in favor of an early bedtime with the long Sunday drive home looming.

Meanwhile Jason and Alex had raced ahead, with Jason overtaking Alex to touch Flag 2 on Turn 10, with Alex only a turn behind, but badly damaged. By Flag 3, Jason was three turns ahead of Alex, and it looked like nothing could stop him. The player in third place, now Jeff Finkeldey, didn't make Flag 2 until a turn after Alex got Flag 3.

On Turn 22, Jason, certain that nothing could stop him from touching Flag 4 and winning the game, put down only two cards until I advised him to fill in his program. He probably shouldn't have given his intention away. Ewan McNey, on his way to Flag 3 still took a short detour to mess with the leader. As cards were flipped, Jason started to pick his cards up, thinking he had clearly won when he was challenged from across the table "Put Those Down". By an ingenious use of conveyors, not only did he manage to push Jason's robot off the final flag, but he pushed him onto a conveyor which swept Jason into a pit. Leaving the door open for Alex, our first female champion, to touch the first flag on Turn 23.

Claiming she was going off to get something to drink, the champion left the room to, apparently, dance through the halls of the Host proclaiming her victory to everyone she saw. Meanwhile, Jason was able to make it from his archive point to the flag on the following turn despite further attempted interference from the now closing in field. Despite the efforts of the rest of the field, the next nearest player, Dan Matthias was still three turns behind the leaders.

All in all it was a very exciting and highly emotional game. Jason, ever the gentleman, took his loss very well. Congratulating Ewan on the spectacular move that cost him what would have been his first Robo Rally title.

Alexandria Henning, about-to-be-surprised Jason Levine, and Roderick Lee.	GM Marc Houde and all his finalist 'Bot drivers. Note Ewan is standing to keep a closer eye on Jason.