Buehler Triumphs At Great Western Trail!

Our tournament evolved in 2023, changing along with the game itself. Great Western Trail, already onto its second edition, added another way to play: Great Western Trail: Argentina. We added a third Heat to the mix, so that we could dedicate one heat to just Argentina. While overall the game has cooled down steadily over the years, this new heat was a success, and the feedback I got was that the addition was welcome. Expect Great Western Trail: New Zealand (just released after 2023 WBC and getting rave reviews early) to join the trail in next year's tournament.

It took a win and a second to make the cut to Sixteen this year, and those that did made for a formidable Semifinal field. Pretty much a Who's Who of great players...but what else is new? This is an "A" level tournament and it shows. The highlight of the semifinal was certainly Eric Wrobel taking out the last two WBC champs (Eugene Yee and Dalton Versak) in his Semifinal. Meanwhile, Dan Elkins survived two former Finalists (Rodney Bacigalupo and Brandon Buchanan) in his Semifinal as well.

With all the carnage of past winners and past finalists in the Semifinal...the 2023 Finalists looked like a new guard. Pretty much at least. Eric Wrobel has been playing the game since it came out, but he's finally broken through. Dan Elkins and Patrick Maguire are both accomplished players in the online scene, but after a disappointing (to them) WBC debut last year, that have broken through to the top as well. Only...one member of the Old Guard was still waiting for them here at the end: Randy Buehler.

After last year's blowout Final, we were hoping for a better contest in 2023, and we got it. Well, there was a little hiccup. A few minutes into the game, the players realized that they had gotten some of their personal decks mixed together (this happens sometimes, when bidding for turn order causes players to change seats, and things get messed up). They asked the GM for a remedy, and like any hard-working, thoughtful GM, his ruling was: "figure something out that you can all agree to, otherwise you are starting again." That method worked wonders as it always does!

Bids were low (Eric 3, Randy 1, then Dan/Patrick at 0). Eric started the game buying a builder and went Builder for the game. Randy was Trains, Patrick Cows, and Dan...Tried Stuff. Shredding. Yep. In the Final. It was a tough, slow, low-money game with a lot of hazards and the places to spend your money tended toward the end of the loop, making any breakout pretty hard. Randy squeaked his way into a win with Engineer, barely ringing the bell in time. The Young Turks will have to wait another year before the Old Guard gives way.