GM Joseph Maiz gets a chance to playagainst Ben Scholl who scored big at Euro Quest three months later.	Terri Wicks, Cheryl Mallon and Yoel Weiss trade for a shot at advancement in the biggest true swiss WBC tournament.

The 2011 tournament was the largest and smoothest event that I have run to date and enjoyed the largest attendance in 11 years. As a continuous round event, it was second only to the late night quick-playing events in drawing a crowd and far surpassed all of those in total hours. The format is a three-round Swiss to qualify 16 for single elimination play. All games were consecutive, including the playoffs, so it made for a full day (8 am to 6 pm for me). Players scored points based on finishing position and bonus points based on the strength of victories. Seating was random and players earned five points for first, three for second, two for third and one for fourth. Despite the multitude of entrants, several 2010 semi-finalists managed a return trip to the play-offs, including defending champ Robert Kircher, but none made it to the final round.

With the format change back to a settlement-road; settlement-road; road, the average game time was 85-90 minutes, with the shortest at half that and the longest nearing two hours. Most games were close, with the runner-up earning 8-9 victory points on average so we will continue this format for the foreseeable future. One key note to add for everyone: there were a few game score recording errors that could have been significant but were caught, so it is vital to ensure that everyone verify your own score before handing in the score sheet.

The swiss rounds were started at 9 am and continued till 2:30 pm. The lowest score to make the playoffs was a 12, which required two wins and a third place. The tie breaker system saw service down to the fourth tier, but did ultimately determine the Sweet 16. Chad Martin (besting Janet Ottey, Keith Richardson and Rob Kircher), Allyson Field (over Mike Shea, Yoel Weiss and David Hood), John Min (defeating Bob Wicks, Forrest Speck and Rich Miller) and Andrew Arconti (downing Rebecca Hebnar, Carolyn Strock and Chris Czyryca) all prevailed by a single point to advance to the Final.

The early game consisted of six rolls of the 6/8 combo for the first four rounds. Production was high. The robber appeared on Turn 14. Trading and building was fairly even throughout. Most players went for either the 3:1 port or one of the 2:1 ports that favored them. Trading usually was a 1:1 proposition, but every trade was made to benefit the participant's position somehow. In general, the game was not as serious and more carefree than some of the other Finals I witnessed that weekend. A total of 15 rounds were played. The dice delivered their verdict in the following proportions: one 2, four 3's, four 4's, seven 5's, eight 6's, nine 7's, ten 8's, six 9's, four 10's, two 11's and two 12's. Game strategies seemed to favor one of two classic routes in Settlers: Development cards and massive building/longest road. Andrew, the winner, took the middle ground and split his strategy by doing a little of both and it worked - he seemed to try to build something every turn that would increase his ability to get rolls with different numbers, and the position he had on the map seemed to give him more numbers for production. Chad went the city building route to increase his production, but was unable to expand fast enough to give him more positions that would increase his ability to build. John was doing the Development card route, but could not find the elusive 3-army combo in time. Allyson went all out for the longest road but was stuck on the edge of the map, with less common numbers for better production. The Final scores were Andrew (went third) 10, John (went second) 8, Chad (went first) 7 and Allyson (went last) 5.

Andrew will be deployed overseas this year and might not make it back for the 2012 WBC. We wish him the best and a healthy return to his family, his country, and of course, WBC. I hope to see everyone and more back next year to trade sheep for bricks!

Jason Long and Joseph Marriott	Carolyn Strock and Damian DiGuilio