So how did Pete Stein end up in Lampeter? Must be that lousy schedule guy's fault again. So how did the Euro players enjoy the warroom "heat"?	Aahh ... AC .... that's more like it. Back in Paradise ... literally ... for the next heat after seeing how the other half lived in Lampeter. Next year I'll have to schedule Pete in a broom closet.

I'll start off with the same mantra I have every year. BRING A COPY OF THE GAME. This year I had to again shoo away people due to a lack of games. I can usually sneak in a few last minute players, but if you don't bring a game and you get there right before the cutoff time, you're taking a chance.

The usual families were in attendance with a few new ones. Strocks, Keatings, McCorry, Friedmanns, Yaures, Collinsons, Wojtaszczyks, Beachs, Hennings, and Langes filled the entry lists. Not the Twelve Tribes, but impressive nonetheless. If you're looking for a game the whole family can play, you ought to try Ingenious. The rulebook is a two-sided sheet with lots of pictures and the game takes under an hour. And for a simple game, I'm noticing a lot of the same faces advancing every year. OK, one of them is that Reiff guy, but it's not just the super sharks. It is nice to see a lot of people are in for the long haul.

After 70 preliminary games, we had more than 16 players with two wins for the first time. For now I think I'm going to stick with the current format and see how things go next year, but there might be a quarterfinal or some other change in the future if the trend continues. We'll see.

As with any Sunday morning semifinal, the top 16 players don't always keep their appointments with fame and fortune. I was missing enough people that if the double winners who were outside the 16 had appeared, they would have been in. Meanwhile, when it was obvious that I was going to have an empty seat or two, somebody said, "Joe Yaure's back in the room and he's high on the alternates list." One phone call later and Joe was there in a few minutes. That turned out to be a fortuitous call.

In the semifinals, the aforementioned Joe managed to defeat Bruce Reiff, David Metzger and Ted Lange. That already made his late entrance noteworthy. At Table #2 Matt Calkins, your humble GM and Samantha Berk were no match for Rebecca Hebner who enjoyed the largest margin of victory over our apparently unworthy selves. At Table #3 Katherine McCorry finally made her way into the Final over Carolyn Strock, Laura De Walt and Ed Kendrick. The last Final ticket belonged to Matt Craig at the expense of Jon Gemmell, Paul Rubin and Emily Bacon.

In prior Finals, the title game tended to be a defensive struggle. Not so this year, but the last few turns were still nerve wracking as the right tile would have crowned a champion on numerous occasions. But time and again they didn't have it. Finally, last-to-the-party Joe won it all with a score of 11. Katherine trailed with 10/12, followed by Rebecca 10/11 and Matt 9.

Lynda Shea, Amy Rule, Alex Lange and Joe Yaure put the noodle to work.	Samantha Berk, Lisa Gutermuth, Ken Samuel and Pete Stein play color dominos.

Alyssa Mills ran a Junior version of Ingenius for 28 budding geniuses and again the young ladies dominated - ensuring rough times ahead for the gents of future generations.

Final Standings
1st - Donte Saccenti
2nd - Dagny Lytle again for the second year in a row.
3rd - Elena Kelbey
4th - Mandy Mossman after winning it last year
5th - Ethan Shipley-Tang - down from 4th last yea
6th - Wes Lewis