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TOM GREGORIO IS 2014 SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR: Charter member Tom Gregorio became our 22nd Sportsmanship winner and in so doing, proved that not all nice guys finish last. The proud owner of no less than nine WBC titles and our 19th ranked career laurelist, is now also the highest ranked player with a Sportsmanship Award to his credit.
Tom earned his nomination in the Bitter Woods tournament—an event he has won six times. He noticed his opponent had left a hole in his defensive line with potentially crippling consequences. He pointed out the error and allowed his well-versed adversary to correct the error before playing on. It cost him the game, the tournament and team points in one fell swoop, but his fellow members rewarded his chivalry with 13.3% of the vote to claim our biggest prize—a free week’s lodging at WBC 2015.
Other nominees drawing voter support were Nick Henning, Tim Horne, Katherine McCorry, Doug Smith and Julia Carrigan. Thanks to all our good sports and to the 285 members who took a moment to vote for them. Get the details on our Sportsmanship page.
2014 PATRONS: BPA’s list of Patrons for 2014 is now posted. Please report any inaccuracies to conventiondirector@boardgamers.org no later than Feb. 28 to ensure an accurate listing in the upcoming Yearbook.
2015 EVENT LINEUP: The initial lineup of eligible events for the 2015 Century and 25 Continuing Trial events has been updated on the Preliminary Events List/Orphans page. It is now closed to all but Vendor- and Sponsor-supported entries. However, event forms for additional events seeking Alternate status to fill any vacancies and/or troll for Sponsor support will still be accepted until March 15.
GM COMMITMENTS: GMs are reminded to make their memberships current AND submit an event form by March 15. At that time, events without a satisfactory GM claim will be replaced by those events from the Alternate list for whom we have a satisfactory event form on file with a current GM commitment. You can now claim any qualifying OPEN event by completing the required Event Form after reading the GM Guidelines linked from the start of that event form. Nothing happens at WBC without a willing GM behind it. But please…do NOT volunteer unless you are going to fulfill the entire obligation.
And yes, I’m a bit stodgy about following rules. Over the years I’ve found it difficult to get universal compliance with the convention’s policies without reminding GMs of their responsibilities. Just assuming GMs will follow through each year as they did previously without reminding them of what is expected leads to mistaken assumptions which are difficult—if not impossible—to rectify at the last minute. So, bear with me please…
Submitting an event form annually accomplishes four things:
- It relieves me of the burden of assuming—often incorrectly—that nothing has changed.
- It reminds GMs of their obligations and hopefully gets them to think about their event in the offseason before it happens—perhaps causing an improvement or two in the process.
- It firms up deadlines—which makes the considerable effort we undertake to support our events a LOT more efficient.
- And to cynics like myself—yes, it constitutes a hoop for GMs to jump through to demonstrate their continued sincerity. It’s not much of a qualification, but like the requirement to pay one’s membership fee in advance, over the years it has demonstrably generated a significantly more reliable core of GM support. If taking the time to complete a form is too much to ask, then perhaps you’re not the best choice to be a GM. WBC prides itself on its volunteer’s performance. WBC DOES require more from its GMs than is the norm elsewhere—and we believe there is a cause and effect relationship as a consequence. We draw gamers from across the nation and the world for our unique brand of tournament emphasis. That comes with a certain responsibility to do our best not to disappoint them. So, thanks again for putting up with my efforts at quality control.
  
WBC 2015 TRIAL EVENTS NAMED: Our Annual December Membership Drive has ended and the members have spoken, returning 22 old favorites to another slot in our Tournament offerings for 2015 while admitting three new events for their WBC debut: Lords of Water Deep, Russian Railroads and Splendor. More details including the complete voting breakdown are provided on the Trial Results page.
EVENT CO-ORDINATION: Eric Freeman is again volunteering to co-ordinate 2015 Euro events in an attempt to minimize scheduling conflicts. If you’d like to be part of this effort, contact freemaneric@comcast.net.
GM SUPPORT: If you’d like to help out but don’t feel confident enough to run an event on your own or don’t want to make too long a commitment, you could still be of great assistance. Perhaps you are good at teaching games and would be willing to run a demonstration for a GM who lacks the time or skills to teach. If so, contact conventiondirector@boardgamers.org with a list of games you’d be willing to teach and we will pass along the offer to a grateful GM. Conversely, if you are a GM who uses a laptop at WBC to run their event, you should contact Andy Latto at andy.latto@pobox.com. Andy has developed a spreadsheet that speeds sign-in, does automatic badge-checking for pre-registrants. calculates the qualifying/seeding order for semifinalists, including verifying whether a win is in the first heat entered, and does most of the preparation of the event report form. He even promises it will generate a report suitable for sending in AREA results.
BoD NOMINATIONS: All BPA members are hereby notified of their right to nominate members for the three Board seats whose terms expire at the next WBC. To appear on the ballot, a member must be nominated in writing by at least three members; one of which must be himself/herself. Nominations must be signed and received at BPA, 7766 Valley View Court, Hickory, NC 28602 no later than Feb. 28 to be eligible for election in that year. NOTE: Email nominations are NOT acceptable, nor can a member nominate more than one member for the Board. When contemplating nominations, members are urged to consider that the BPA conducts most of its business by email and needs Board members who are able and willing to offer their time and skills to the organization in a timely manner. Board members should be considered more for their ability to contribute to the running of a successful company than for their attachment to any particular game or genre. Besides forwarding a signed nomination, each nominee should submit by March 1st a statement not to exceed 100 words summarizing what they can contribute in service to the Board of Directors of the BPA. Download the nomination form.
PBeM NEWS:
  
ADEL VERPFLICHTET: All thieves, detectives, exhibitors, and auction bidders are invited to join the action which begins Jan. 25. Put that BPA membership you just renewed into action immediately—with a tournament that will be over before the WBC! Each player will participate in five simultaneous, fast-playing preliminary games—leading to a pair of semifinals for the top ten. Check out the format at http://www.gameaholics.com/adv_bpa/adv_format.htm and then join by emailing john@gameaholics.com. You can see the action (including previous year’s results) at http://www.gameaholics.com/adv_tournament.htm.
ADVANCED CIVILIZATION: It’s Advanced Civilization in ten minutes a day! The fifth annual Advanced Civilization pbem tournament is now taking signups. Each entrant will get to play in two concurrent games, with the top eight players moving on to the Final. Games are played at http://civ.rol-play.com/ (play is free, but registration is required). Full tournament information is available at http://bpa-civ.rol-play.com/. To sign up, email the GM at kevinyouells@gmail.com by Feb. 26. Play begins on March 1.
The preliminary games for the 2014-15 tournament have come to a close. Congratulations to our eight finalists! The top finishers were led by Ed Coderre and GM Kevin Youells with two wins each. Joining them are two-time pbem champion Mads Lunau, in addition to prior finalists Jonas Lundgvist, Javier de la Fuente, and Joe Lux, Jose Dominguez and Steve Cameron join as first time finalists. The nations have been selected and early moves have begun.
BREAKOUT NORMANDY: With two rounds completed, eight players entered the quarterfinals of the latest BKN PBeM tournament. The pairings for Round 3 are Steve Andriakos vs Dennis Nicholson, Jim Eliason vs Don Greenwood, Henry Jones vs Kevin Hammond, and Dan Leader vs Jason Albert. Check out the details at https://sites.google.com/site/breakoutnormandytournament/bkn-pbem-9.
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Remember... all of the above PBeM fun is free to current BPA members.
Others may qualify with a $10 PBEM membership in the year the event starts.
All multi-day paid attendees to WBC are current BPA members for the balance
of that calendar year. You need not keep your membership current in order to
finish a PBeM event. Players may join the BPA throughout the year.
See the BPA Terms page for details.
BPA members who would like to see an email tournament for their
favorite game are encouraged to step forward as the GM of such an
event. BPA does not run tournaments. Rather, we are an organization
of gamers lending support to one another so such events can happen.
No one cares as much about your hobby as you do. Get involved. See the
requirements to host a BPA email tournament
at http://www.abovethefields.com/top_pbem/
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