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2005 GM of the Year :: Larry Lingle Click banners for information

Pirate's Cove

BPA is proud to present its 2013 GM of the Year award to Larry Lingle for 15 years of service to WBC—tracing back to his appointment as one of the original members of the Board of Directors in 1998—and culminating in his current tour of duty as tour director of WBC's own Pirates of the Caribbeanride.

"Cap'n Larry" has been at the helm of the Pirate's Cove event for nine years—during which it has grown from humble beginnings to last year's triple-digit mega field of 121, making it the 18th largest WBC tournament. 2013 marked its fifth straight year of rising attendance and fourth consecutive year of triple-digit participation. Cap'n Larry's Pied Piper success story stems from his transformation of the Marietta room into a veritable smuggler's cove of pirate accessories ranging from talking parrots to chains of shame and walking the plank. His crew is a motley lot liberally adorned with eye patches and hooks and munching on chocolate doubloons. In short, its one big party and "Arrrgh" fest. Larry also ran the Adventurers with a similar theme and accessorized trappings in the form of fedora hats and a bullwhip but to less acclaim.

The Cap'n owes his selection to consistently high marks from the Board, faring no worse than 7th in our 12-point scoring system, despite getting only one first place vote. His score of 77 bested runner-up Nick Ferris by seven points. Nick was a rare rookie nominee who garnered the most top votes with four top picks from our eight board members. Nick impressed the Board with his ability to handle two mega events (Dominion and 7 Wonders), while introducing an effective new system for quickly assigning random tables. Move over Claire and Ivan—we now have a third organizational guru.

Placing third with 69 points and three top votes was the retiring Dan Dolan in his farewell appearance as the colorful GM of Elchfest. The voice of Dan's World and a worldwide Moose booster will be missed wherever flicking games are played or "rugrats" roam. Rounding out our crew of Top Six GMs were Pierre LeBoeuf (61), Terry Coleman (61) and Gregory Crowe (60). Pierre, who earned his fourth Top Six award, also is stepping down as GM of 18XX after 14 years. By moving the event to the pre-con he returned it to its highest attendance (61) since 1994.  Terry Coleman picked up his second Top Six Award for his tenth presentation of the always well received March Madness event as well as his continued willingness to help out with a second orphaned event. This year it was A House Divided fans who had Terry to thank for keeping it on the bill of fare. Greg Crowe earned his first Top Six notice for his 11th year of top drawer efforts with Titan: the Arenain both adult and junior formats. However, 2011's rare bestowment of Legacy status on the event was every bit as much a reflection of Greg's efforts as on the game itself. 

Great efforts all. Would that we had more of their ilk. Larry wins free accommodations at WBC 2014 and our thanks for being the best of the best.