The finalists pose for their official picture ...	... and then are back to plotting their moves.

This year's RoboRally saw several firsts. For the first time ever, the GM missed a heat -- this was due to a conflict with the Bumper Car Arena Jrs tournament, which we did not catch until the last minute. Fortunately, I was able to get everything started and leave it to my assistant GM's to handle any issues. Considering they were done and packed up when I got back from the juniors room, it seems everything went well. There were no complete eliminations in the first heat (I must be slipping) so no Kaarin Engelmann Memorial Crash & Burn Award was awarded.

Heat 2 saw the first repeat winner of the KEMC&B: Evan Cagwin. To date only Kaarin herself has more difficulty with telling right from left, (and at least she's smart enough to write it on her hands). The second heat also saw, the closest game I have ever had to adjudicate. At the end of the time limit, all six players had touched the first two flags (tie breaker 1), and four of the six were within one card of the final flag (using the 'Tom McCorry optimal hand distance to the next flag tie breaker'). So it came down to who had the most lives left. That happened to be James Gilmere who had not lost a single robot. (Obviously, somebody did something wrong).

Round 2 was the worst turnout I've ever had for a semifinal. Of my 12 qualifiers (one of which was my wife), only seven came (and my wife was not one of those, choosing instead to go watch what turned out to be a pretty lame Drum Corp International Regional semifinal in Allentown). Sadly, one of the seven had to leave for a family emergency before we got started, so, that left us with six. Which it just so happens is the number needed to properly fill out the prize form. So, with the consensus of all present, the semifinal became the Final (for which we plan for an extra hour). Which would allow us to end just before the room got too crazy with Slapshot. All of the finalists were veterans of previous years, but only one past champion, Alex Henning, made the cut this year. Yes, that's right, for only the second time, Brad Johnson failed to make it to the semifinal round.

Despite the use of the Cannery Row board twice in the Final, robot deaths were down from previous years with only 12, although robot shutdowns were way up (averaging one or two a turn for 20+ turns) with an impressive four declared for Turn 4 though only three robots were alive to take advantage of them. There was also a turn where Bill Navolis's Hammerbot survived being pushed three times in the same turn while riding the cannery row conveyors.

Yet another first for this year, in every round, the starter board from the new Avalon Hill/Hasbro Edition of the game was used. However, rather than have every player pick a different spot to start, players were allowed to pick any start space they liked. If it happened they did not pick one that someone else did, then they started the game right off as a real robot. (Otherwise, they started virtual as in the past.) We have not used this board in the past, as the rules provided with it, give an inherent advantage to whoever selects their start space first. Our slight modification makes this a non-issue, so this board will likely make future appearances.

In discussing things with some of my veteran players, many of whom GM their own events, and the assistant CD, I am considering going to three heats next year. Much like myself, it seems most of them only get to play this game at WBC so providing more opportunities for all of us seems like a good idea. Next year I might even remember to put all of the requested information on the GM form.