Winter Activation Meeting 2013 (WAM XI)
Feb. 14, 2013

The 2013 annual get together of the "Card Sharks" was held in Timonium, Maryland on Jan. 24-27. 25 CDG players made the trek this year (22 preregistrations and three walk-ons), a decrease of almost a third of last year’s total of 36 attendees. While the weather was not great, blaming the poor showing on that makes little sense. We have had worse weather in the past and it never hurt attendance before. Several regulars were unable to attend because of conflicts, but that is an issue every year to varying degrees. So why the big decrease? Is this the end of the road for WAM? Is attendance in the mid-20's the new norm? Is that number viable or sustainable? Those are all good questions and I don’t know the answers. I will say this, though; if you are reading this and you have never been to WAM, then you are missing out on a fantastic weekend and time is running out for you to give it a shot. Every year at WBC a dozen people tell me that they really want to attend and that next year will be the year they finally take the plunge. And every year one or two of them show up at WAM and tell me what a great time they had and wonder why they had never come in the past. Well the end could be near if we don’t get the numbers up, so contemplate that next Fall when you are thinking about attending WAM. That’s my rant for the year. We love new blood. If you like CDGs and competitive play, then I guarantee that you will love WAM.

This year’s formal tournaments with scheduled rounds were:  Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage (HRC), Twilight Struggle (TWS), Washington’s War (WWR) and Labyrinth (LBY). Once again, James “The Master” Pei dominated the field, successfully defending his HRC and WWR titles from last year. Marvin Birnbaum also had a good weekend, winning his second WAM title in TWS and earning laurels in HRC and WWR to become the only player to earn laurels in three tournaments). Greg Ottoman won the inaugural LBY tournament (and added a 6th in WWR). A few other players earned laurels in two tournaments: Wixson (a 2nd and a 4th), Jeff Finkeldey (two 3rds) and Randy MacInnis (a 5th and a 6th). All tournament winners can pick up their plaques at WBC in August. Tournament AARs and updated Laurel standings can be found on their respective WBC event AAR pages at the links above.

Players were asked to sign up for each tournament just prior to the start of Round 1 and at the start of each successive round attendance was called off of that list. Each evening a detailed schedule of the next day’s events was displayed. We continued the concept of Open First Rounds on Thursday (because it is a travel day) and Round 5s (if required) being scheduled on Sunday morning. There were no Round 5s this year, but because of the crowded Saturday night schedule we allowed some Round 4 games to be played Sunday morning.

Outside of the tournaments there was plenty of open gaming. Seeing action were: A Few Acres of Snow, Mr. Madison’s War (a definite possibility for a WAM tournament next year), Andean Abyss, Pax Baltica, Seven Wonders and Pacific Typhoon. Games ran pretty much non-stop from 0900 in the morning to as late as 0200 at night.

I will conduct a poll of all of this year’s attendees by email this Summer to determine the tournaments for next year. As in the past, any new game will have to be published by the time of WBC to be included in the poll. I have some WAM XI tee-shirts left over. They are red with yellow lettering and this year’s theme was Scipio Africanus. If you would like one, please send me an email. The cost is $15, not including shipping. I will bring any extras I have to WBC in August.

Thanks to everyone, both new and long-time WAMers, for the friendly rivalries and camaraderie that makes this one of the most fun weekends of the year. I would also like to thank Terry Coleman, Paul Gaberson and Randy MacInnis for serving as GMs and for otherwise assisting me.

Keith Wixson
WAM Director

16 players

1st: James Pei
2nd: Keith Wixson
3rd:
Michael Sosa
4th:
Marvin Birnbaum
5th:
Randall MacInnis
6th:
Tim Miller

Write-up

12 players

1st: Greg Ottoman
2nd:
Evan Harris
3rd: Jeff Finkeldey
4th: Larry Fryer
5th: Kirk Harris
6th: Paul Gaberson

Write-up

20 players

1st: Marvin Birnbaum
2nd:Michael Mitchell
3rd:
Jeff Finkeldey
4th:
Keith Wixson
5th: Bill Edwards
6th:
Randall MacInnis

Write-up

19 players

1st: James Pei
2nd:
George Galuschak
3rd: Derek Landel
4th: Roderick Lee
5th: Marvin Birnbaum
6th: Greg Ottoman

Write-up

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