Buehler Wins First Ra! Title!

RA enjoyed an increase in attendance this year up to a nice even 150 players. Still not close to the 175-200 players we use to get in Ra!’s heyday.

Heat 1 had 75 players in 15 games. Heat 2 had 83 players in 17 games. Heat 3 had 65 players in 13 games. Heat 4 makes its return after a year off and had 54 players in 11 games. I can’t justify not having 4 Heats as Heat 4 had more participants than some entire tournaments being held at WBC!

Only 5 multiple Heat winners this year with Kevin Wojtaszczyk as the only 3 heat winner. So, they all got a bye into the Semifinal.

The Quarterfinal had 34 players in 7 games. The Semifinal had 20 players in 4 games hich led to a 4-player Final. I like the flexibility with 20 players. You can either have 5 games of 4 and thus a 5-player Final or 4 games of 5 and have a 4-player Final. I chose the later because RA had a 4 prize level this year.

In Semifinal #1 Anni Foasberg enjoyed a 7-point victory over Casey Moquin. In Semifinal #2 David Wolfe was victorious over Chad Martin by 8 points. In Semifinal #3 Randy Buehler defeated our 3-Heat winner Kevin Wojtaszczyk 47-40. In Semifinal #4 Andrew Freeman defeated 4-time Ra!A Champion Alex Bove 53-44.

The Final was rather anti-climatic as Randy Buehler beat David Wolfe in convincing style by 16 points with the tournament high score of 66 points.

Congratulations to Randy Buehler for winning his 1st Ra! Championship.

I would like to thank Alex Bove and Winton Lemoine for being my assistant GM’s throughout my 20 years of being the GM for Ra!. It was a great 20 years and the time has come to pass the torch to the next generation.

And last but not least I would especially like to thank John Jacoby for all the fabulous prizes he has donated over the last 20 years!