Wolff Repeats As Champion!

Forty-five players participated in the 2025 Five Tribes tournament. Across three Heats, twenty-one games were played. Four players won two Heats and would be separated for the Semifinal: Paul Klayder, Chris Katz, Allan Jiang, and 2024 champion Sam Wolff.

There were eighteen unique Heat winners, meaning two winners (Loc Nguyen and Luke Koleszar) could potentially miss out on the Semifinal. However, two other winners did not show up so Loc and Luke were able to advance.

In the first Semifinal, Sam Wolff scored 36 points from Viziers and 78 points from cards to win by a comfortable 30 point margin.

1. Sam Wolff: 178
2. Luke Koleszar: 148
3. Stephen Peeples: 126
4. Loc Nguyen: 117

In Semifinal #2, Chris Wildes used his first two turns to claim six Viziers and later employed the djinn Leta (claim empty tiles) to rack up 49 points in camels. This was just enough to hold off Trish Wolff and AJ Jiang.

1. Chris Wildes: 155
2. Trish Wolff: 150
3. AJ Jiang: 147
4. John Meyers: 108

In the closest Semifinal, Chad Martin and Ray Wolff ended up tied on 151. They also tied for the most Viziers, each scoring 25 points. Jay Matthews finished just one point behind with 150. Chad won the tiebreaker by virtue of going earlier in the turn order on the final round of the game.

1. Chad Martin: 151
2. Ray Wolff: 151
3. Jay Matthews: 150
4. Paul Klayder: 129

In the last Semifinal, Chris Katz used Jafaar (Viziers are each worth 3 points) to score 45 points from his Viziers. That along with 57 points in cards gave him a 20 point victory over Asa Furman.

1. Chris Katz: 171
2. Asa Furman: 151
3. Michael Vaz: 126
4. Angela Bender: 119

By virtue of the closest Semifinal margin, Ray and Trish earned 5th and 6th place laurels, respectively.

Chris Katz recorded the Final, which may be posted to YouTube in the future. Below are some notes from the game:

• The game was rescheduled from its original timeslot, however, the fire alarm delayed the start
• The Final featured three finalists from 2024 (Sam Wolff, Chris Wildes, Chris Katz), with Chad Martin earning his first Five Tribes laurels this year
• Chris Wildes once again used his first two turns to lock up six Viziers, while Sam and Chris Katz both prioritized cards before picking up three Viziers each
• Chad picked up the djinn Bouraq early, allowing him to spend Elders or Fakirs to place Palaces on the board. He ended the game with 45 points from Palaces.
• Sam claimed Sibittis, which allowed him to take three additional djinns from the deck over his subsequent turns
• The djinn Jafaar came off the deck ahead of a turn when Chris Wildes was last to bid. However, with his 6 Viziers, the table made him bid 12 to go first and claim it.
• Chris Katz and Sam both continued to prioritize cards, ending the game with 11 and 10 cards, respectively.
• Chris took a couple of Builder actions to end the game with the most coins (56)
• One of the djinns that Sam picked up from Sibittis was Kandicha, which gives you a benefit whenever you assassinate a meeple. He was able to assassinate one of Chris Wildes’s Viziers to take the lead there, 6 to 5

Despite ending the game with only 15 coins, Sam’s Vizier lead, 53 points from cards, and 24 points from djinns led him to repeat as Five Tribes champion. Final Scores were:

1. Sam Wolff: 160
2. Chris Katz: 153
3. Chris Wildes: 138
4. Chad Martin: 130

Congratulations to all the laurelists and thank you to everyone who attended the event.