This has been an interesting year, 2024 happens to be the 24th time I have run this annual event, and it is a testament to the people who come to this event that this is the first time I have had to have words with a player over their behavior. It is a further testament that those words did not get heated and resulted in a decent outcome for all parties concerned.
I am terrible at record keeping, and as such I have often been a bit haphazard in submitting our results to the A.R.E.A. group. Fortunately, last year Bruce Monin (who is a wonderful person) agreed to handle that for me. I just sent him home with all of the result sheets, and voila, A.R.E.A. Reports handled. This year, I even remembered to take pictures of the sheets, so I would have all the information I needed to write up this report. Unfortunately, the phone I used to take those pictures went into the pool in my pocket very shortly after the con, and as I am somewhat distrustful of cloud storage, I do not have my pictures backed up automatically, so the phone and the pictures were a total loss
Some interesting things of note, this year was the first year we offered the option of playing with the newer Renegade version of the game. The majority of players prefer the original, as do I, but I also enjoy the new version. While I don't believe we had any takers in the Heats, we did use the boards from the new set to make the Final more interesting, though we stuck with the original rules which seemed to work well. This was the first year in a long time that we have been able to award the Kaarin Englemann Memorial Crash and Burn award and Player Aid (new and improved) in every round including the Final. While the names of most of those winners were lost with my phone, seven time champion Brad Johnson won the award in the Final when he was the first (and only) player eliminated. Young (to me) David Spencer was unstoppable this year as he cruised through both the Semifinal and a Final game including 5 veteran players with 3 past Champions, not only were his card draws remarkably good, but he played them like a true champion.
Finally, I will say I was pleased to see a number of new players join the ranks of Roborally players this year. It is my favorite game, and while I know it is not for everyone, I encourage everyone to try it as those that do like it tend to come back year after year.
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the Robot Wars begin in the Grand Ballroom. |
He looks like he has an evil plan for his robot. |
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Planning there next movement. |
Finalists with GM Marc Houde. |
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