Due to some health issues that resulted in a shortage of vacation days for your regularly-scheduled GM, I was called in as a substitute GM for this event which I've run in years past. Aided by Assistant GM Amy Rule, we prepared to face the daunting task of running this, one of the larger tournaments at WBC. I updated the scoresheets and created individual scorecards for each player to record the scores from all of the heats in which they played. These were very helpful in getting folks who had played in a previous heat quickly entered in subsequent heats, and in determining who would advance.

Heat 1 occurred on Tuesday at 6 PM during the mass start of post-auction heats. This meant that attendance at the first heat was less than 2011's 76, which occurred on event-lite Monday evening. So "only" 59 players were quickly set up at 15 tables, and then the signal was given to unleash the dogs of (economic engine) war. Among the 15 winners, Forrest Speck (Observatory, Mistress) got the most points with 112 points in a 7-round game, Mike Shea (M) had the lowest winning score with 48 points in a 5-round game, and John Weber (MMOO) earned 107 points in six rounds in the only 3-player game of the tournament. When the winners (invariably) asked about their chances for advancing, all I could tell them at this point was that last year 12 of the 16 slots in the semifinal were filled by multiple-game winners and the last four slots were filled by One-win-in-1st-heat-played contenders.

Nearly half of those players returned for the second heat on Wednesday afternoon, along with 25 new signups to yield 60 players at 15 full tables. Ian Streeb (1st turn M) beat Forrest's first heat score by one, winning with 113 points in only a 6-round game. In Lee Mewshaw's win, defending champ Charles Hickock could do no better than third in his game despite having both Mistresses and both Observatories. Joe Harrison, Thomas Johnston, Cary Morris, Randy Buehler, EuroQuest 2011 Champ Vien Bounma, and Emily Bacon all gained a second win. There were now 18 one-heat winners, 13 of whom were 1st-heat-played winners. If anyone asked, I told them they needed multiple wins or a win-in-1st-heat played and a good average finish.

32 returnees and 12 new entries manned 11 full tables for the third heat on Thursday morning. Larry Loiacono, Blair Morgan, Akihisa Tabei, Lawrence Solomon, and Kerrin Addis each won their second game, bringing the total of two-game winners to 11. That left 19 players with a single win, 11 of whom had One-win-in-1st-heat-played. If the last heat yielded five or more new two-heat winners, I might need tiebreakers to decide which of the two-game winners would not advance.

36 returning players joined another twelve new entrants to fill twelve tables for the final heat on Thursday evening. Stephane Dorais, Perrianne Lurie, David Rohde, and Steve Shambeda joined the two-win club for a total of 15, which meant that at least 1 one-heat winner would advance. Eric Monte and Bill Edwards were the only two new win-in-1st-played players (which now totaled ten), while six others (total of 13 now) got wins that were not in their first heat played including the GM (third try) and Kit Tull (fourth try).

The individual score sheets were very helpful when it came time to figure out who advanced and who were alternates. So on Friday at 1 PM the roll was called. Advancing were Stephane, Thomas, Perrianne, Larry, Blair, David, Steve, Kerrin, Randy, Vien, Emily, Lauren Vessey, Andrew Emerick, John, and two others whose names were on a semifinal score sheet that was misplaced between then and now. David beat Thomas, Larry, and Kerrin. Blair vanquished Emily, Stephane, and Andrew. Perrianne was victorious over Lauren and the two missing players, with Lauren being the closest runner-up to the winner and therefore gaining fifth-place laurels. Randy outpointed Vien, Steve, and John, with Vien having the second-best runner-up and taking sixth-place laurels. And due to a clerical error, the event got six plaques instead of four, which meant that Vien took home the much-coveted sand plaque ... albeit a tarnished one.

Perrianne got off to a relatively slow start in the Final as Randy picked up a first-turn Mistress, David and Blair got Judges, and she only got a Secretary. Even a fourth-turn Mistress was not enough to enable a comeback. At the end of regulation, it was Perrianne with 54, David with 59, Randy with 62, and Blair leading with 65 points. Then Randy and Perrianne each gained two points, and David one point for each 10 rubles they had remaining. And, as usual, it came down to the points for unique orange cards. Perrianne had five different, earning another 15 points for a total of 71. Blair did a little better with six cards, for 21 points and a total of 86. David came close to victory by getting seven cards for 28 points and a total of 88, but our reigning Caesar also got seven different orange cards for 28 points and a tournament-winning total of 92 points to win his third title of the week.

The honeymoon GMs; Amy and Norman Rule.	The finalists pose in mid-game.

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2012 Euro Quest Laurelists
Andrew Emerick, CT 1st Christian Moffa, NJ 2nd Vien Bounma, NJ 3rd Perrianne Lurie, PA 4th Jason Ley, WA 5th