RECAP: Six Days of PLAAY-Dot-CON 2023

What a week! As I mentioned before in the last blog post, PLAAY-Dot-CON 2023 was an incredible time of games, fun and fellowship. There's been lots posted already about the convention, including a great recap on James Cast's podcast, recommended listening! As I think back on the week (much of it is a blur!), I'm struck by how quickly and effortlessly the convention newcomers (there were 20 of them) blended in with the convention veterans. It's been mentioned often by convention-goers, but it bears repeating here: if you've ever hesitated to attend our convention because you don't know anyone, or you're afraid you might not fit it--just set those thoughts aside and JOIN us! I am so proud of the welcoming nature of our community, I guarantee you'll feel right at home--QUICKLY!

So, here's how everything went down…

Tuesday 07.25.23

Although the convention didn't "officially" begin until Friday, people started arriving in Denver pretty early in the week. Rob Gallamore and his wife Donna were, I think, the first to get here, arriving Sunday night from Canada. Mike Canestrari flew in from Connecticut on Tuesday, we had Rob, Donna and Mike over to the house for pizza Tuesday night. A great way to sort of ease in to the busy-ness that lay ahead!

Wednesday 07.26.23

Wednesday, I headed up to the airport to pick up Steve Tower and Travis Jansen. While waiting for Steve in the terminal, who should walk up but Bob Hansen, James Cast and Mark Russell! It was like a family reunion right there in the airport! The first of MANY people to arrive at Denver International Airport that day. From left: me (Keith Avallone), Bob Hansen, James Cast, Travis Jansen.

We headed back to PLAAY HQ to get ready for the "Super Early Bird" open house, which began at 2pm. Originally, I figured for this to be a simple, informal gathering for a handful of folks, but as the weeks drew closer to the con the list grew to nearly 30 people--almost as many as we had for entire first convention in 2018! So we organized tours of our print/production facility and turned it into a party! The Party Cam was fun--I started out trying to kill time with me and Bob and Travis, then suddenly the doorbell rang and probably 20 people rolled into the house. From then on the Party Cam pretty much ran itself! (You can check out the archived video on our YouTube channel…)

On a whim, I got out a copy of Demo Derby Smash-Down, along with the community-created "V-8 Vengeance" cards we used for our "Summer of Now" online event a few weeks ago. A good number of the contestants were there at the party, including the defending champion Lenny "The Commander" LaFrance. It was an amazingly GREAT time, very exciting and lots of fun! Like the golf game, Demo Derby Smash-Down really shines in a multi-player context. We will definitely do something with it at our next convention, either as a pre-con event or as one of the scheduled activities. BTW, James "Fast" Cast was our Super Early Bird DDSD champion. Pictured clockwise from top left: Blake Wilson, Jason Laumeyer, Kevin Sieg (seated), James Hart, Rob Gallamore,

Around 5pm we sent everyone to Torchy's Tacos, a convention favorite--GREAT way to get things rolling, food-wise. I got there about 6pm and most of the crowd was still there. Following that, everyone headed back to the hotel to hang out, play games and get ready for the activities to come.

One of the newcomers to the convention was Jesse Cheng, pictured below. Jesse’s custom-made PLAAY Games jacket was the hit of the convention, with logos from all if the games he owns. Pretty cool!

Thursday 07.27.23

Thursday was pretty much an open day, with much ad hoc gaming at the hotel until the annual pre-con picnic at Redstone Park. We decided to switch things up and grill burgers this year, not taking into account the extra time it takes (not to mention the extra charcoal and grill real-estate required). We'll go back to dogs and brats next year, I think. Many thanks to grill-meister Travis Jansen (below, left) who stepped in when we struggled to get the charcoal lit and Blake Wilson (below, right) who provided emergency burgers and buns when it looked like we might run out! You guys are the best!

Ethan Musulin organized a game of Wiffle Ball at the park--I lobbied hard for Fury Hardball, but was out-voted. (I still think that Fury hardball would make an awesome real-life sport). We were at the picnic area LONG after it got dark, I think we finally packed everything up around 9pm. (Ethan also created a game of PLAAY Jeopardy, which we, unfortunately, did not get an opportunity to play. BUT, we WILL, down the road!…) Below Silas Williams gets ready to take a swing at a pitch thrown by Andy McEvoy!

More “Poses from the picnic!” Below, from left: Grant Fines, Pete Adams, Keith Curtis, Mike Canestrari.

More pre-con picnic fun below with (from left, yellow shirt) Paul Salzgeber, Bob Hansen, Trevor Ferril, Mark Russell, Charles Helms. Hovering in the background, top left (shades, Michigan Wolverines hat) is Strat-O-Matic’s Glenn Guzzo.

First-time convention-goer Kevin Burghart (above left) chats with Sports Sim Magazine’s ST Patrick…

Friday 07.28.23

Friday morning, the fun began in earnest. Started with the flea market and PLAAY around demo session. We've found the "PLAAY around" to be a great way to start the convention, giving people the chance to brush up on games we'd be using for organized events that they maybe hadn't played in awhile (or ever), as well as a great way for newcomers to get to know some of the convention veterans. Especially busy was the tennis table, hosted by Chad McEvoy.

At 11am we gathered in the conference area and I talked over a few things--explained the "Find A Seat" method we'd be using for the tournament events, talked about the color-coding of the game tables, etc.--before dismissing everyone for lunch.

At 130pm we reconvened at the gaming tables for the annual History Maker Baseball Time Machine Tournament. This was our biggest tournament ever, 52 teams. We introduced a new format this year, going with a six-game "mini-season" where everyone at each four-person table played the other teams home-and-away. I was a little stressed that maybe we wouldn't be able to finish the tournament in a timely manner, but that proved to be wasted worry as everything moved right along, as-planned, on-schedule. As a group, we played 156 games of baseball in the space of two-hours, amazing.

After the “mini season” was over, each of the 13 table champions advanced in the tournament, and we drew three "wild card" teams at random to fill out our "sweet sixteen" bracket. From there it was "win to stay in," single elimination. Chad McEvoy's 2019 Houston Astros prevailed in the championship game over Bruce Berkowicz and the 2023 Milwaukee Barrel Men from our Baseball America League. It was cool seeing a BA team go so far into the playoffs. Six of the 52 teams were from our fictional universe (one Century League team, two Continental League teams and three Baseball America teams), and four of them advanced to the second round.

I love this photo (below) of James Hart, coordinating his table’s baseball activities with (clockwise) Mary Surprenant, Judah Williams and Will Surprenant! James, you are AWESOME!! Judah won the table championship with the 2019 Twins, going 6-0.

Another view of the HMB Express Time Machine Tournament…

Al Wilson and Steve Tower were table-mates for the mini-season, Al with the ‘98 Padres and Steve managing the ‘74 Boston Minutemen from our new Continental League set. Al’s Padres won the table championship with a 5-1 record.

When the dust had settled, Chad McEvoy (below, at left) was the 2023 Time Machine Tournament Champion with the 2019 Astros. Chad managed the Astros to the title game in both the 2021 and 2022 conventions, losing both times. So this was sweet recompense for Chad, who will now have to look for a different Astros team to compete in next year’s tournament (we say that when a team wins the TMT, it is retired from competition). Bruce Berkowicz (below, at right) was the runner-up this year with the 2023 Milwaukee Barrel Men from our Baseball America League. Well done, Bruce—that’s the highest a fictional team has ever placed in our tournament!

Here are the official Time Machine Tournament Mini-Season Standings, by table, note that the scoresheets for table Red 7 didn’t indicate who each team’s manager was, although I was able to identify Caleb Wilson from the playoff participants. I made my best guess on the others…

And the official Time Machine Tournament PLAAY-off results…

We then broke for dinner, with gamers heading in all directions to grab some food before the evening's activities. We had about a half-dozen wives accompany their husbands to the event, so we hosted a "wives night" outing that evening, with my wife Cara taking everyone to the Lazy Dog Brewery, not far from the hotel.

After dinner, we returned for the first of the weekend's two presentations on sports board games. The Friday evening session featured Glenn Guzzo, of Strat-O-Matic fame, who gave a fascinating look-back at the history of the hobby, which spans over 100 years. He had many anecdotes about some of the founding fathers of the hobby, including Hal Richman, Dick Seitz, Cliff Van Been, Jim Mickey, James Barnes and more. Here’s a photo, taken by Al Wilson…

After Glenn's presentation, we dispersed to various corners of the meeting hall for our annual "guest designer showcase," featuring designers and spokespersons for other games besides our own. We feel that the hobby is stronger when we work together, rather than divide along partisan lines. For that reason, we had Glenn playing Strat-O-Matic and Geoff Giordano from the APBA Football Club, along with Grant Fines, Mike Fitzgerald and ST Patrick. Geoff hosted a session with APBA football, but beforehand he and I got in a game of football with the 1969 Steelers (his favorite team) and Saints (my favorite team), we played the first half with APBA football and the second half with Second Season. The ‘69 Saints won 37-24, Bill Kilmer with three first-half touchdown passes.

During the guest designer segment, I demoed a new fantasy football card game I'm tinkering around with and got some great feedback (thanks Cooper Gilbert!). Mike's presentation included a new music-themed game tentatively called "Battle of the Bands," which got a lot of positive buzz. Grant showcased his hockey and football games, as well as a new foot race game he's developing. ST showed off his wrestling game and a new football game he has in the works.The blue tables were open for any game you wanted to play. Sam hosted a session with the Pokemon trading card game that got a good turnout (and some curious looks, haha!)

Saturday 07.29.23

Saturday morning began with the second sports game presentation, from Geoff Giordano, sort of a "look-around" at what's going on right now in the hobby, and where it might be headed. Again, fascinating stuff. While Glenn's presentation focused on history, Geoff's was more centered on marketing and hobby trends. He discussed a number of emerging trends for today's sports games, such as NBA FLEX, "Bottom of the Ninth" and other non-simulation sports-themed games. Good stuff.

Following Geoff's presentation, we moved into a "Celebration of Full PLAAY" session. With all the emphasis on fast-playing "express" games, we set aside this two-hour convention block to sit back, relax, and enjoy the hobby the way it was originally designed! Sort of like an expanded version of the PLAAY-around. We had dedicated tables for full-play Second Season Football, History Maker Baseball, Hockey Blast, Soccer Blast, FACE TO THE MAT, and Red White & Blue Racin’.

One of the new wrinkles we incorporated here was a multi-player variant of Red White & Blue Racin', created by Pete Adams. Players managed a group of drivers rather than calling the shots for a single driver--I didn't get a chance to watch much of it, but everyone said it worked really well. We'll do a separate blog post on it later. Below is a shot of the action, with Pete directing the table…

We had some interesting match-ups in this session! Of particular note was the Second Season Football matchups. James Hart and Ethan Musulin got together for a cross-era matchup between the 2017 Pittsburgh Steelers and the 1974 Memphis Southmen of the World Football League (James won handily, 43-9!). Below left, Dave Jackson and Laurence Davis play a 1969 battle of titans, Rams and Cowboys, Dallas won 10-9.

Steve Tower hosted a "Three-for-All Throwdown" session with the wrestling game, which was super fun…

After lunch, it was time for the "crown jewel" of the convention activities, the 2023 PLAAY Gamer Open Golf Tournament. This year, we created a special course whose cards are compatible with Course Collection TWENTY, Rocky Mountain National Golf Course. It was our best-ever golf tournament. The golf tournament never disappoints, but this year's finish was amazingly memorable. Andy McEvoy had a late two-stroke lead, only to see it evaporate when both John Wise and Jeff Tomlinson sank DB DIFFICULT putts. You may have seen the video posted on the community Facebook page (thanks, Kevin Burghardt!). That forced a three-way sudden-death playoff, first time we've ever had that happen! Jeff sank a birdie putt on the first sudden-death hole, and neither Andy nor John was able to match it. Incredibly exciting. Pretty much the entire convention group gathered round the table to see how it would end…

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2023 PLAAY Gamer Open Golf Tournament Champion, Jeff Tomlinson! Accepting congratulations from runner-up John Wise…

Here are the official tournament results and round-by-round scores…

After dinner, we returned for the final segment of the convention, a double-dipper tennis and hoops session. We started with tennis--a doubles tournament, with special rules and short two-game sets. If a team won both games, it advanced. If the teams split, we went immediately to a tie-breaker. Lots of great action, with the father-son team of Jay and Judah Williams (below) outlasting James Hart and Kent Gray for the championship.

As people were eliminated from the tennis tournament, we offered them the opportunity for redemption in an encore of last year's PLAAY-Dot-CON College Hoops PLAAY-Down. In the end, it was an all-Surprenant championship game, with Bob's Old Michigan Black Bears taking down Mary's Georgia Northern Fighting' Roosters 72-61…

Here’s the official tournament bracket results…

After that, the "long goodbye." It's always hard to close out a convention. We had our group photo earlier, just before we drew the raffle prize winners…

As 10pm rolled around there were hugs and handshakes (and maybe a few tears), as people hung around not really wanting things to end. Eventually, most retreated to their hotel rooms to grab a few hours of sleep before the trip back to the airport.

Sunday 07.30.23

Some stayed up and visited until the wee hours Sunday morning, see photo below from 130a (taken by Travis Jansen--I was sawin’ logs at home in my bed at this time). Clockwise from bottom right, Mark Russell (in blue convention shirt, waving), Paul Salzgeber, Bruce Berkowicz, Mike Canestrari (red convention shirt), Dave Jackson (Phillies cap), Keith Curtis, ST Patrick, James Hart, Lenny LaFrance, Steve Heller, Rob Gallamore. (Charles Helms is also there, wearing a yellow 2022 convention shirt, just off-camera!)

Around 9a Sunday morning, we had an impromptu get-together in the hotel lobby, maybe a dozen of us, sharing favorite moments of the convention. Steve Tower had return flight early early Monday morning, so I got to spend some "bonus time" with him Sunday afternoon. We played Bat Flip (a cool strategy card game in the line of Magic the Gathering), a game of full-PLAAY hoops (Steve's 2021-22 Boston Celtics obliterated my New Orleans Pelicans 145-110), and a game of Thunder Road Vendetta (well, it's KIND of sports like...), see photo below. (Unlike most of the games I play with Steve, I actually won this one.)

A fantastic finish to an awesome weekend!

A HUGE thank you to everyone who helped make PLAAY-Dot-CON 2023 such a wonderful, memorable event. Every year, seems like we raise the bar. It's a testament to the vibrancy and love that our awesome community shares with each other. I'm particularly gratified that our community seems to be getting younger rather than older. Nine of our 60 guests were 20 years old or younger, with another healthy segmentin their twenties or thirties. We have always said that we are about BOTH "preserving" AND "advancing" the grand pastime of tabletop sports games, and I feel like the attendance at this convention really validated that. Our goal is to continue that trend.

We're already talking about next year's convention--stay tuned!