Kathy Stroh contemplates colonizing worlds.	Triple digit attendance gave RFG an impressive WBC debut.

Robert Renaud attended WBC on Saturday only and he only came to play Race for the Galaxy. There were only two heats that day and he pretty much needed to win both. His first game had to be decided by a tie-breaker, but he did not lose a game all day from Heat #3 through the Final that night.

Race for the Galaxy was certainly one of the hottest games coming into WBC 2008. Its quick and relatively simple play make it very accessible to many players. This had some people predicting an attendance in excess of 200 for the event. 103 actually competed, much closer to my prediction of 120.

Many players played in all four heats, but two preliminary wins was the most any one player would manage. 13 managed the double win mark, counter to another GM's radical prediction that some two-game winners would not even advance. The highest single score was 71 by the reigning Caesar, Raphael Lehrer.

All of the top16 qualifiers appeared for the semi-finals so no alternates could advance. Lyman Moquin took 6th place in the first semi finished, advancing Aaron Fuegi. Rob Kircher and Renaud advanced from their tables, and in the most hotly contested semi, Ben Stephenson edged Raphael Lehrer who had to settle for 5th place laurels. Fittingly it was Ben who lost a tie-breaker to Robert earlier that day.

In the Final there was rarely a turn that the experienced players missed a chance to develop or settle. But by the third and fouth turns the other players were declaring 'game over' due to Robert's great card combos. The GM took detailed notes on cards played and kept stats showing which home worlds performed best overall. Should be most enlightening. If he ever locates those notes he would be happy to share them. Aaron, Rob, and Ben finished with scores of 44, 43, and 42 but Robert was over 50.

Various changes to tournament format were discussed. Expect to see only two sessions on the schedule next year, but with each session including two back-to-back heats. Most players rejected a proposal to include two-player games in the mix.