The Meeples Have Returned!

We had 148 individual competitors participate 246 times over the course of the three heats. Each heat had over 70 players, with the most popular heat being Heat #1 on Monday night with 96 participants.

22 players entered all three heats while 54 players entered two heats. 72 players entered one heat only. Of the 72 single-heat entrants, one of them advanced to the final (Jim Fardette – 1st). Erica Foley (3rd) competed in two heats, while Chris Russell (2nd) and Virginia Colin each played in all three heats. Jim, Erica, and Chris each had one win each and no 2nd place finishes, while Virginia earned a bye in the Quarterfinals by winning one heat and taking 2nd place in her other two heats. Six players received byes in the Quarterfinals this year: those with two wins in qualifying heats and those with 1 win and two 2nd place finishes.

One of the Semifinal tables ended in a tie for first! Virginia Colin and Katherine Hitchings each scored 74 points and both players had 3 farmers on the board. However, Virginia had 1 unused meeple at the end of the game and Katherine had none, so Virginia won the tie-breaker and qualified for the final.

The final was played on the Giant Carcassonne board using character meeples. Jim Fardette went first and selected the Purple Wizard for his character meeple. Chris Russell went 2nd selecting the Swamp Dragon, followed by Virginia Colin (Koala Bear), & Erica Foley (Astronaut). Jim used the most farmers in the game (4), while the other players each used 2 farmers. This proved to be a winning strategy for Jim as he took victory in the game with 89 points, followed closely by Chris with 85 points, then Erica with 62 points and Virginia with 52 points.

In 2022, we continued using the alternate rule which enables every player to play with the same number of tiles. In a 3- or 4-player game, the starting player will play their meeple directly on the start tile instead of first drawing from the tile stack/bag. In a 5-player game, one curvy road tile needs to be removed from the set before play begins, and then the first player will draw a tile and play their meeple on the first tile drawn.