Let the power flow ...	Philip Shea, Alyssa Mills and Kathy Stroh
Mark McCandless, Nessa Savarick and Jason Ley	Jake Jacoby takes a break from the Colosseum to turn on the lights.

Youth triumphs. Even though our champion is still under night driving restrictions, it didn't prevent Justus Hibshman from making it to the 10pm Final and showing the other finalists how to play the game. Just imagine what he would have done to this shark tank in the daylight.

Power continues to flow around the world. Boards were played on four continents, with a very heavy emphasis on Europe. So go the choices of the GM. We had 75 entrants for the opening heat on Monday night. With the help of the able assistant GM's, the heat was up and going in record time. The chaos of the start is overwhelming at times, but soon all is sorted out and the games are started.

USA and Central Europe were first up, with 15 boards being played, seven Central Europe and eight USA. Two games ended before step 3. Chris Grech had to go to 17 cities to claim victory over three opponents deadlocked at 16, and Kathy Stroh eked out a win on a four-way tie at 15 by 14 E's (25, 11, 9, 0). John Corrado miscalculated on his bid to win and ended up losing the tie-break to Bertha Torres-Harris, as he used his money to get to 15 while only powering 11. It's a risky strategy that can backfire.

Heat 2 witnessed 71 more energy brokers vying in China and Spain/Portugal. We had seven S/P and eight China. Another miscalculation cost Craig Trader a win versus Lexi Shea. Michael Shea earned his win with two coal plants and buying out the coal market, his #20 plant cost him 49 E's. John Karr had to go to 17 cities over two others at 16. Your's truly had to go to 18 in a 4-player game and wait for the tie break to claim a victory over two others. Keith Levy on China was able to sneak in his victory by not needing a new power plant at the last auction. Kurt Kramer and Antero Kuusi did and the money that Keith saved allowed him to buy that 17th city and take the game. Dan Farrow had to go to 17 cities and still had to wait on the tie break over Paul Sampson. Jarett Weintraub's 17th city was enough to top Catherine Raymond's 16. Eric Sokolosky had the lofty sum of 18 cities to claim his victory over two others at 17. Nessa Savarick's victory in China came on a three-way tie and was won on just 4 E's (every penny counts) over Jason Ley. Step 2 saw the #25 go for 62, the #32 for 80 and the #35 for 110. Mark McCandless purchased the #25 and #35 and that drained his money.

Heat 3 filled ten 5-player boards. France and Brazil were on tap for this night. Vien Bounma played on the doughnut of France; the Paris area wasn't chosen. In vigorous bidding the #11 went 24, #26 for 51, and #32 for 71. High bidding can really hurt as Daniel Hibshman spent 116 E's for the #32 and trailed the field, Loc Nguyen claimed the victory over two others. Eric Brosius ended his game early in step 2 by buying seven cities in the last round to end the game, powering only 14 cities with the next competitor back at 12. Being aware of how many cities people can power is important.

We ended the preliminaries with 37 different winners, including three double winners; Eric Brosius, Nessa Savarick and Dan Farrow. Although we had a shortage of the published semifinal board, UK/Ireland, two semi-finalists stepped forward and visited the Dealers to purchase a board. Note to self; don't use the newest boards for the semis (or contact Rio Grande Games for a kickback). After sufficient time had elapsed and the no-shows were accounted for (or not), we arrived at five boards for 25 semifinalists. Scotland and Wales were the areas omitted as all boards wanted to visit the Emerald Isle.

· Vien Bounma earned his way into the Final with a win over Bill Burch by 23 E's. Burch tossed two oil cans as he upgraded his #5 plant to the #29, but that only got him to second place. Even with Vien spending 45 for #25, Scott Fenn getting the #31 for cost was only good enough for third.

· Justus Hibshman had to go to 16 cities and win the tie break by 16 E's over Chris Kalmbacher. Eric Brosius' 149 E's was only good enough for a third over the others at 15 cities.

· Jim Savarick leaped past the logjam at 14 to go to 16 and victory over Thomas Lind at 15. Kevin Broh-Kahn spent big bucks to get the #20 for 39 and the #25 for 50. Unfortunately, it left him short at 12 cities and in third place.

· Dave Rohde built to 15 to end the game and lost by 13 E's to Michael Shea, both tied at 13 cities powered. Sam Packwood's bid for glory came to naught as his 13 powered cities wasn't enough.

· Eyal Moses powered his 14 cities, and Chris Senhouse claimed second by 22 E's over Sam at 13 cities.

Chris Kalmbacher's close finish in Semi #2 earned him the sand plaque, but not a seat at the Final. The Final was played on the Quebec board. Needing only one board, it wasn't hard to come up with it. The Gaspe peninsula was left out of play. I at least know how to pick Assistant GM's (if not how to play extremely well) as all three of my assistants survived the gauntlet; Vien Bounma, Eyal Moses, and Jim Savarick, joined by Justus Hibshman and Michael Shea.

Justus took the #3 for 6 to ensure going last (or first for the coming round). The others took their plants at cost, Jim #4, Michael #5, Vien #9 and Moses #10. Both Vien and Eyal expanded to two cities with Eyal the only one to power both. In Round 2, Vien took #6, Eyal #13, Justus #12 for 13, Michael #18 for 23 and Jim #22 for 22. Justus and Michael both expanded by two cities, Justus in Montreal and Michael in Quebec. Vien took the #7 at cost in the third round as no one else bought a plant. Vien expanded by two cities and Jim by one, putting Vien in the lead at 4 cities and the others at 3.

Round 4 saw multiple plants bought at or near cost; Vien #15, Eyal #29, Justus #21 and Michael #23, with Jim not getting into the act. Justus used his new found power to grow three cities to 6. Eyal and Michael grew two and Vien only one. Jim saved his money, as he was ahead on coal and had wind to power the other two cities. Round 5 saw the dam bust on plant spending. Justus spent 58 for the #26 and Michael was right behind spending 57 for #30, little did he know that this would be his last power plant. The others must have felt fortunate to get theirs at cost, Vien #33, Eyal #27, and Jim #11. It was Jim's third plant so he expanded two to 5 and Eyal expanded one to 6. Round 6 saw vigorous bidding on #36 with Jim getting it for 66. Vien got #35 and Justus #34, both being their last plants. No builds were made so step 2 was another round away. Only Jim purchased a plant in Round 7, #20 for 20. He was the only one to expand, two cities to set off step 2 in the next round.

As all were geared for step 2 expansion, only Jim bought a plant, #24 for 26. Justus expanded four to 10 and Michael ballooned by six to 12. Vien outdid him and expanded seven to 12, too. Eyal and Jim held back at two new cities apiece. As the last round started, the plant pool was atrocious and Eyal bought the #16 at cost, but was well behind in powering cities at 10, for fifth place. Michael was stuck at 11 and Vien was powering 12. All 3 had bundles of cash, but without the needed power plants, it didn't help. Jim expanded to his 14 cities capacity with 0 E's, which left it up to Justus to build to 15 to end the game and claim his victory at 14 cities and 50 E's.

A special thanks to my assistant GM's, Eyal, Vien, and Jim. Your help made it so much easier and I look forward to gaming across the table in the future.

The accessory that all the coolest Power Gridders have to have.	GM Anthony Daw oversees his finalists.