Dan Cetorelli ponders his move in the second heat as Keith Ferguson watches. Dan would finish fifth.	GM Craig Moffitt oversees his four finalists: Patrick Shea, Ken Shoda, Eric Freeman and Bryan Berkenstock.

Attendance remained steady at approximately the same levels this event has drawn since gaining Legacy status. The tournament again used a rules variant to balance the advantage of the first two players. Instead of their normal two actions, the initial pair received only one action for the first turn only. The distribution of wins for 4-player games was 4 (29%), 4, 4 and 2 (14%) for players moving first through fourth, respectively.

Eight winners plus the best four runners-up from the preliminary heats filled three semi-final tables. In the first, 2009 runner-up Patrick Shea advanced (6-7-12-12) by a margin of seven hypothetical treasures over Dan Cetorelli (4-5-5-7). In the second, Craig Moffitt initiated a critical farmer battle with defending champion Eric Freeman. Eric had just drawn a fresh hand that fortunately included the three farms he needed to win the conflict. This proved pivotal, and he advanced by a healthy margin. In the last semi-final, Bryan Berkenstock (8-10-12-13) scored a rare victory from the fourth seat, but Ken Shoda's (6-7-9-11) was only five hypothetical treasures behind, earning them both a seat at the Final.

Eric had the first choice and selected third (Lion) player in the Final. Bryan (fourth, Potter), Patrick (first, Archer), and Ken (second, Goat) completed the table. Patrick opened in the southwest with his King, later expanded with his Trader and settlements to claim the corner treasure. Ken started out nearby in the southeast with his Trader and expanded in the other direction with markets. Bryan started in the northeast corner treasure with two disjointed kingdoms. Lastly, Eric got out of the gates fast with a round 4 black/green monument in the northwest that soon drew hostilities.

Patrick used the first catastrophe on the farm that connected Eric's leaders to the monument and dropped in his leader. Immediately after, Ken dislodged Patrick with an internal conflict. However, Eric got the last laugh, as his catastrophe onto the corner temple removed all the usurpers' support and he reconnected and held the monument for several turns.

Eric's ability to build, hold, and reclaim monuments proved decisive as he finished with the winning score of 14-14-14-16 (lowest in red) to retain his title. Ken was second at 19-10-12-14 (lowest in green). Bryan 7-7-9-10 (lowest in black/red) and Patrick 6-7-7-9 (lowest in red) 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.

Bryan started the first external conflict when the northern kingdoms joined. His king beat Eric's, leaving a huge 4-temple support hole. Eric then exploited the opportunity to win a Farmer conflict and build a red/blue monument. In the meantime, Ken and Patrick's traders fought an external conflict in hopes of scoring green cubes and claiming more treasures.	Bryan's farmer and Eric's regrouped king shared the next monument built on the river delta. However, the massive northern Kingdom soon bumped the leaders from the northeast to the benefit of Ken (red) and Eric (blue and green). With the tilebag nearly exhausted, Patrick built the final monument (red/black) of the game in the southwest.