2008 GM of the Year
Dec. 14, 2008

Past GMs of the Year | A GM’s Plea | How Are GMs Selected? | GM Guidelines

As is our custom, every year we select one GM to single out as WBC’s GM of the Year. This GM is awarded a free room for the five days of WBC. Using the current selection process, GMs may score a maximum of 96 points and a minimum of 12.

We are pleased to award the Best GM honor for 2008 to Tom McCorry with a score of 81 based on four 1sts, two thirds, a 5th, and a 6th. Overall, scores ranged from Tom's 81 to a low of 16. This was Tom's first Top Six GM performance although he has long been active at WBC as a GM and especially as a purveyor of the top new Euros based on his annual field trips to Essen. 

This year Tom drew the attention of the judges for running two events; the brand new Agricola and the always popular Carcassonne. Although Carcassonne's attendance has actually declined under Tom's control, that is because he has abandoned the four-heat format of his predecessor's for a more condensed one-start format using two-player games. As a compromise to those who favor multi-player games, Tom introduced a format change that used a multi-player first round to thin the field before switching to two-player games for the advanced rounds. As our GM of the Year, Tom will receive free lodging at next year's WBC.

Every nominee scored at least as high as 9th and as low as 6th with the Board splitting its votes in a wide cross section based on the importance each member gave the various categories. The Board's eight 1st votes were split among four nominees. Finishing second in the voting to take his second Top Six nomination with none of those 1st place votes was Eric Brosius, who garnered a score of 70 for hosting Princes of Florence. Kevin Wojtaszczyk, like Tom McCorry, garnered his first Top Six honors to finish third with 62 points including half of the remaining 1st place votes for hosting the Middle Earth pre-con for War of the Ring.  Rounding out the remainder of our Top Six GMs with their second Top Six finishes were John Weber (Puerto Rico & Vegas Showdown) with a score of 56, Kathy Stroh (Settlers of Catan) at 56, and Ed Beach (Here I Stand)  with a score of 52. Well done all. Our sincere thanks to you and all others like you who try to make WBC a little more special every year.

Boardgame Players Association Last updated 12/15/08 by kae.
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