Conestoga 2 was filled with Euroweenies and the world did not come to an end.	There is no joy in Mudville for mighty Sean has struck out, ending his three-year victory streak and giving the best-of-seven series to the Big Kahuna.

What a week it was for our esteemed convention director. He announced the new location for WBC going forward to generally positive, if cautious, reviews, we had very few issues for him to address and the Host held together for yet another year thanks to the temporary AC unit and hot water systems. In addition, I had lost my team event Football Strategy while my three teammates all won their events making me the dead weight of the team. I hadn't won even one event. Don was positively beaming. What does this have to do with Battle Line? We'll get to that...

So a near record crowd of 48 people showed up for this great event. You should consider joining us next year. What other event can you guarantee playing three competitive games, against friendly opponents and be done in less than two hours or win the entire event in under four? Plus next year we will be adding additional prizes above and beyond the WBC plaque!

12 pods of four were split up and play began. In Group #1 Travis Nesmith led the first group in by winning a head to head tiebreaker over Lisa Gutermuth, my personal nemesis in this event. I was sure glad to see her in a different group this year.

Yours truly won Group 2 without breaking a sweat over Lyman Moquin, Jeff Burdett and Lyle Wenger.

Brad Raszewski went 3-0 in Group 3 sending Andrew Long, Jean Younkin and Jim Ferdette to the sidelines for another year.

Aaron Fuegi took Group 4 by going undefeated vs Derek Landel, Richard Comfort and Aiden Powers.

In Group 5 William Austin won a head to head tiebreaker over perennial finalist Barrington Beavis to advance.

Young Ben Gardner went 3-0 over young Joe Yaure, young Adam Nesmith and old Mike Stanley to advance from Group 6.

Owen Kyrollos took Group 7 by storm by defeating Yoshiya Narita, James Miller and Bert "why did I pick this for my team game" Schoose.

In Group 8 Andy Latto needed the head to head tiebreaker over Chris Mattos to advance.

Over in Group 9 Stuart K Tucker celebrated his election to the Board by running roughshod over three of his constituents: Mike Power, Sharon Bryant and George Galuschak to keep his goal alive of trying to beat me.

In Group 10 Chris Greenfield ousted Israeli Yossi Dvora on a head to head tiebreaker.

In Group 11 defending champion Sean McCulloch lost his first game 5-4 to Derek Miller but won his last two to forge a three-way tie with Derek and Darren Kilfara. I added up the tie breaker three times and, sadly, Sean kept coming out on top. Sigh.....

Finally, in Group 12, Philly boy Rob Kilroy triumphed in a three way tiebreaker over Greg Staton and Chris Yaure.

So the 3-0 players were matched up with the 2-1 players to form six elim games. Your GM defeated Travis Nesmith, Aaron Fuegi and Andy Latto battled in the longest game of the round with Aaron sneaking past. Chris Greenfield sent Owen Kyrollos to the curb while Sean got back his mojo and handled Brad Raszewski. Todd Austin bested young Ben Gardner and Rob Kilroy denied Stuart Tucker his chance at fame and glory.

In the quarterfinals, I defeated Aaron in a tight game while Sean, feeling it, beat Chris and Rob tousted Todd.

Sean, being the defending champ, got the bye to the Final leaving Rob and I tas the lone semifinalists. In a game where Rob could draw nothing right and I could draw nothing wrong I had a comfortable victory. Since we both drove out together we agreed to postpone the Final until Sunday so we could play Liars Dice. We also had the additional side wager of loser drives home while the other naps!

Back to Don......so I walk into registration late Sunday morning and Don is absolutely beaming - for Don that is. I almost can't bring myself to do what I'm about to do, but I found the fortitude. I hand Don the Battle Line signup sheet with the results. His response? "You see, this is why I don't get my hopes up. You always find a way to ruin my week." I said, "come on, you're in such a good mood even I can't ruin your week". To which Don says "well, it could have been the cherry on top". Sorry, Don, no cherry this year, but it was still a pretty good year.

For next year the only change will be the additional prizes mentioned above and Sean will be the official GM. You won't really notice any changes other than you'll get a much better report next year!