Alex Bell's 3D monster version was a BIG attraction - the kind of creation one should share with his hobby.	Jacob Hebner, Daniel Pappas, Mark Love and Alex Bell admire his mega board creation.

67% of games played used the 2005 MONSTERS Menace America edition, while 33% used the 1998 MONSTERS Ravage America edition. Semi-finalist winners decided among themselves which version would be played in the Final. Ravage continued using house rules established in 2005, to incorporate some improvements made in Menace: weakening the Navy sub defense by 1, reducing the Air Force fighter range by 1, and adding a southern California overlay map to strengthen the Marine bases (a copy of which was made available to players by the GM.)

Toxicor, who can pick two mutations and keep the best one, won 38% of the Menace games, including every semi-final. Tomanagi won 31% in Menace. The tournament champion, Tomanagi, as well as Frothomir, were the only ones who won two Ravage games. The western Gargantis in Menace, whose lairs are concentrated in one region, did not win a single game. Neither did Megaclaw. Konk, who is rarely chosen at all in Menace, won once, for Jon Anderson.

So you should get the mutations that appear on the score sheets, the ones that are used when the MONSTERS fight each other, right? Well... in 18% of the Menace games and HALF of the Ravage games, (including the Final), the winner reported NONE of those mutations.

The Menace players controlling the Army, with its stronger defense, won 38% of the games, while the Air Force player won 50% of the Ravage games. One 5-player (house rule option) game was played in Menace. Gary Andrews won as the National Guard player, the first recorded victory by a Guard player at the WBC.

Menace won by: Toxicor 6, Tomanagi 5, Zorb 4, Konk 1, Megaclaw 0, Gargantis 0

Ravage won by: Tomanagi 2 (champion), Frothomir 2, Bronacle 1 (semifinal), Glow Wyrm 1, Konk 1, Ixitpla 1, Dread Swamp Lasher 0, Dust Devil 0.

Menace winners controlled: Navy 6, Army 4, Marines 4, Air Force 1, National Guard 1.

Ravage winners controlled: Air Force 4, Army 2, Navy 1, Marines 1.

MON-STAR of the Silver Screen

Without question, Mikey Eoppolo of Dover, Delaware was the 2011 Best Actor to win a MON-STAR of the Silver Screen award. He was sent to Hollywood with zero health twice in one Ravage game, and once more in another game. But he won the game in his 4th heat attempt, and then proceeded to win the sole Ravage semi-final, advancing to the Final!

The Man Who Could Be King

Three-time champion Marvin Birnbaum had the biggest Menace MONSTER in the tournament, with a winning semi-final Menace score sheet of 65, which put him in the Final for the fourth time. Alex Bell had the biggest Ravage MONSTER in the tournament, with a score sheet of 56. Lissa Rennert, age 14, got 53 in the semi-final, and 11-year-old Gregory Breza made the semi-final with 53 on Zorb's winning score sheet.

First Family of MONSTERS

The Doughan family. While Andrew was the top adult seed with three wins, plus the junior champion, his brother Cal was eligible to play as an alternate, but didn't show.

WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT?

Alex Bell of Columbia, MD brought a Ravage board that he created that is four times the size of the original. It had miniature cities of varying size to match the health points in the game, plus miniature MONSTERS. Even after he'd won, he brought this visual spectacle to all four heats, so that everyone in the tournament could see it, while some played at it. For that he was nominated for the Sportsmanship Award.

The Semi-finals - ALWAYS Check for Alternate Status!!

11-year-old Andrew Doughan became the top seed in the adult tournament, as the only player who won three heat games - winning every preliminary game he played. Once again, Kelly Czyryca won two heats, but had to leave on Saturday. Only 12 of the 16 unique qualifier winners appeared for the semi-finals - making four alternates very happy: including three-time champ Marvin Birnbaum and Derek Landel who used their second chances to advance all the way to the Final. The third alternate Lissa Rennert took 5th place. Your GM was the next eligible alternate. Curses! Foiled again!

There were three Menace semi-final games and Alex Bell's giant board was used for the lone Ravage game. Derek Landel, as the last alternate in, ended the brief reign of top seed Andrew Doughan in a Menace game. Derek also beat Lissa Rennert and Craig Melton.

Marvin Birnbaum had played Ravage to earn alternate status, but chose to play a Menace semi-final. He ran a clinic, collecting Beserk, It's a Robot, Son of a MONSTER, and Whip Tentacles, plus 10 Infamy markers for extra attacks, with 18 health, the most in that game. That gave Marvin the highest score sheet in the tournament with 65. His victims were Gregory Breza, Jonathan Barry, and James Sparks.

Another three-time champion, Nick Henning, also won with Ravage, and chose to play a Menace semi-final. He defeated former finalist Erica Kirchner, who took 6th place, as well as Manuel Bravo and David Anderson. Many thanks to Erica, who stayed and helped record part of the turn-by-turn details of the Final.

Despite three trips to Hollywood in the heats, Mikey Eoppolo won the sole Ravage game convincingly, with 32 health, two Infamy, and Armor Scales. He beat Brian Pappas, former Junior champion Jacob Hebner, and the creator of the giant Ravage game, Alex Bell.

The Final

Oddly, Mike Eoppolo was the only finalist who strongly preferred the Ravage version. Nick Henning had two Ravage plaques and won Menace as the 2010 defending champion. Marvin Birnbaum had three Ravage plaques and Derek Landel had previously taken 2nd place in the 2009 Ravage tournament. Despite the vast Ravage experience of his adversaries, they all chose Menace in the semi-final. But they were happy to play Ravage in the Final, to accommodate Mike. They agreed to divide up a shrink wrap copy of the 5-film box set of The Fantastic Films of Ray Harryhausen, with the winner taking two. [SPOILER: There was more disappearing of MONSTERS off the map in this game than in any Final in the tournament's history!]

The starting positions:

Marvin Birnbaum: Air Force, Konk the Great Ape, at Lair #5 Gt Smoky Mtn

Nick Henning: Navy, Tomanagi at Lair #2 California Current

Derek Landel: Marines, Bronacle of the Depths, Lake Ontario

Mike Eoppolo: Army, Frothomir, Quebec, Canada

Turn 2: Konk stomps Baltimore/Washington for eight health + infamy. Tomanagi stomps Los Angeles, defeating the National Guard there for seven health. Bronacle attacks the Guard and Army at Syracuse for one health & toy. Frothomir attacked Boston for seven health.

Turn 3: Konk attacks Harrisburg for one health and mutates at 3-Mile Island, gets Son of Monster. Tomanagi stomps San Francisco, defeating the National Guard there for seven more health. Bronacle stomps Chicago for five health. Frothomir attacks the AF and Guard at NYC for 11 health.

Turn 4: Konk disappears off the map. Tomanagi stomps Portland for one health. Bronacle stomps St. Louis for five health and one infamy. Frothomir stomps Toronto, his Goal for eight health.

Turn 5: Konk appears at Lair #3, Grand Teton. Gains eight health from Son of Monster. Marvin attacks Frothomir with six AF fighters. Gets Laser Mines through Research success. Tomanagi and Bronacle both disappear off the map. Frothomir mutates at 3-Mile Island, gets Atomic Breath.

Turn 6: Konk disappears off the map. Marvin attacks Frothomir with his AF at 3-Mile Island, exclaiming "This is like shooting swamp rats!" Tomanagi reappears in Lair #3, Gulf of Mexico. Frothomir disappears off the map. Mikey moves his Army towards Tomanagi. Bronacle reappears in Lair #2, Salt Lake.

Turn 7: Konk reappears in Lair #2, Mt Whitney and makes a Research roll. Tomanagi stomps San Antonio and gets the Alamo infamy marker. Bronacle mutates at the Nevada Test site, gets Whip Tentacles (three dice per attack instead of two per round in Ravage.) Frothomir reappears in Lair #2, and stomps Calgary.

Turn 8: Konk and Tomanagi both disappear off the map. Nick fires Defense Satellites, hitting Bronacle and Frothomir. Bronacle disappears off the map. Frothomir stomps the Great Coolee Dam; Mikey places the Blonde Lure at Great Salt Lake, forcing Bronacle to reappear there.

Turn 9: Konk reappears in Lair #3, Grand Teton. Tomanagi reappears in Lair #5 Gulf Stream in the northeast. Bronacle meets the Blonde Lure... and six AF and three Army units, plus Marvin uses Antimatter and Stabilizer Ray, taking away Bronacle's Whip Tentacles! The AF reduces Bronacle to two health, but he survives the Army attack, with one health left! The GM gives Derek a package of Hershey's Kisses for surviving the Blonde Lure's "affection." Frothomir stomps Seattle, which is also a Challenge Site in Ravage, Mount St. Helen's. Mikey gets Mech-Monster through Research. His Army sends Bronacle to Hollywood! Mikey then gets the other military monster, Super Colossal Guy, through Research.

Turn 10: Konk disappears off the map. Tomanagi stomps Philadelphia for its two dice of health plus another die for being his Goal site. This is the 20th stomp, initiating the Challenge round. Bronacle rolls to break out of Hollywood, but gets a 5, which is not enough. Marvin reassures Derek, "You and the winner will be the only ones still alive at the end. It's better to live as a slave than to die free." Frothomir swipes control of the Challenge by remaining at Mount St. Helen's.

MONSTER Challenge: Mikey's Frothomir has Atomic Breath (add 1 to all attack rolls in Ravage), 15 health and two extra attacks from infamy. He attacks and loses to Marvin's Konk, who has 27 health and three extra attacks. The win adds Frothomir's 15 health, so Marvin attacks and beats the military monsters (which must be attacked last with Menace's different rules.) Marvin only has 11 health left and offers to surrender to Nick, who has 30 health and two infamy. But Nick encourages him to play it out, and see what happens. Tomanagi hits Konk once, while Konk continuously pummels Tomanagi. Marvin and Nick both have three plaques in this event, so they laughed as it became a real battle. Konk was down to two health while Tomanagi was cut to six. Marvin could win with two more hits, but Tomanagi finally prevailed. The tie in plaques was broken, as Nick Henning, who was also the first Junior champion from 1999, emerged as the King of the Giant MONSTERS. There can only be one!

Derek Landel , Matthew Morgal, Katie Breza and Erica Kirchner	Gregory Breza and Rick Bynaker

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 MONSTERS Menace America Junior

12 little MONSTERS appeared from their lairs at the crack of noon Saturday for the Junior tournament. Most did not know how to play, but Andrew Doughan did - having won threee adult heats already. The total stomps were reduced for time control, and one game was shortened with a further cut in stomps. The game is poorly balanced if nobody operates the 4th military, so Nicholas Evich was taken as an alternate to fill the final board. At the age of 6, Ethan Shipley-Tang became the youngest player to win his way into a junior final.

The four winners of Round 1, played another shortened game:

Ethan Shipley-Tang, age 6, Megaclaw and the Navy

Andrew Doughan, age 11, with Toxicor and the Army

Nicholas Evich, age 12, Tomanagi and the Marines

Matt Reizin-Prior, age 12, Zorb and the Air Force

Highlights:

Megaclaw stomps Chicago, Toxicor stomps New York City for 16 health, Tomanagi stomps the OK Corral, Zorb stomps the Alamo.

Megaclaw stomps Atlanta, Toxicor stomps Philadelphia, Tomanagi mutates at Roswell, getting Kinda Friendly, Zorb stomps an Army base northeast of Birmingham.

Megaclaw mutates at 3 Mile Island, getting Armor Scales. Tomangi uses Kinda Friendly to remove three National Guard units, and stomps Los Angeles for 15 health! Zorb disappeared.

Megaclaw stomps St. Louis. Ethan fires two cruise missiles at Toxicor. Andrew sends tanks after Megaclaw.

Andrew gets control of the Challenge with 21 health and Armor Scales. He knocks off Matt's Zorb and rolls up his five health. He attacks and defeats Ethan's Megaclaw, who has 21 health and three infamy. He now has 36 health to face Nicholas' Tomanagi, who has 27 health and two infamy. Toxicor prevails and now has 32 health to face Captain Colossal. Andrew Doughan becomes the 2011 Junior Menace champion, adding that to his three adult heat wins.

The other junior laurelists were Nicholas Evich, Ethan Shipley-Tang, Matt Roizin-Prior, Caitlin Jaeger and Theo Cresanzi in that order.

The next wave of monsters wait in the Minors ready to challenge the Henning dynasty.	GM Mark Love presents head monster Andrew Doughan with his spoils. One closer to dad.