RECAP: PLAAY-Fest 2026 Eau Claire, WI

“PLAAY ON!” We’ve learned from past experience to take the group photo BEFORE the activities begin!

Three words: "So much fun!!" PLAAY-Fest 2026 is in the books, and we had a great mix of young and old, locals and visitors, PLAAY veterans and "newbies," sports fans and game fans. It might be the best balance we've ever had at a PLAAY event. I always have a tough time hashing out a recap, but here goes...

Friday's meet-up at the L.E. Phillips Library in downtown Eau Claire was amazing in every aspect. Huge props to EC resident Jason Laumeyer, the point man for setting this all up. The facility was incredibly comfortable, spacious and welcoming. We had general ice-breaker type stuff as people arrived, and then started out with the theme of the day, old-time base ball. Specifically, the in-progress "dead ball" variant for History Maker Baseball.

First, we talked about the backstory for old-time baseball with History Maker Baseball, which dates back to shortly after the game was released in 2013. I talked about the challenges of recreating baseball of that era, a span of baseball history that stretches from the 1860s to the 1910s. Our special guest was Dustyn "Mad Dog" Dubuque, who manages a local antique base ball club called the Menomonie Blue Caps. Dustyn mapped out many of the differences--some of them rather subtle--of old time baseball and we had an open Q&A time with questions from me and the group.

(left) Dustyn “Mad Dog” Dubuque holds an 1860s-style “base ball,” (right, foreground) Charles Helms and Tim Lucas give the first draft of HMB “Old Time Base Ball” a spin!

Then we played old-time baseball! Everyone paired up and I passed out the first draft of the HMB Old Time Baseball charts along with teams from the first draft of the special card set that Kurt Bergland is creating for the game. I'll do a dedicated blog post and/or YouTube stream to talk about the ground covered and progress made, which I feel was substantial and significant. We wrapped up our play-test session around 3:30 and then had a brief session exchanging thoughts on what we'd just experienced.

That left about an hour of "free time," where everyone could do what they wanted--play games, visit, or head back to their hotel or to dinner. I got in a game of Draft Duel with Nolan Wysocki and Dan Verdun—had a chance to pull out the win but Brock Purdy came up empty on the Monday Night game so Nolan was our fantasy football winner! We then set up an impromptu golf tournament, using the Yellowstone National Golf Course cards (one of my favorites, and a TOUGH course to play!). Bob Hansen was our tournament winner with a three under-par 69. Everyone else finished OVER par, including yours truly who finished in last place at 7 over par 79. I did manage to avoid the wild moose grazing on the green on the fifth hole and hit the ball over the waterfall hazard on six! Moral victory.

(left) Brad Fowler and Brian Hoxsey play “Old Time Base Ball" with HMB; (center) Kurt Bergland gives the “thumbs up” sign as he and Danny Saukkola put the game through its paces; (right) Nolan Wysocki, Dan Verdun and me (Keith Avallone) wrap up our game of Draft Duel.

We had intended to attend the Eau Claire Express Northwoods League baseball game at Carson Park Friday night, but the weather did not cooperate. It was sunny and warm when we wrapped up at the library, but the radar showed rain likely by 8pm. Sure enough, right around 6pm dark clouds rolled in, a severe thunderstorm warning was issued and tornado sirens started going off. As it turned out, the game WAS played, but with a 45 minute weather delay. Kevin Sieg (season ticket holder!) was there to represent the PLAAY crowd!

Saturday morning at 9 we regrouped at The Bridge Church for general fun and games! Many thanks to local guy Kevin Sieg who arranged for us to use the church's community space, which was absolutely wonderful. After an hour of introductions, greetings and catching up, our organized activities got underway...

Reel-Time Fishin' Tournament: I created a RTF version of Eau Claire's Half Moon Lake, where the better fish are further out. It made for an interesting dynamic--do you try to rack up the easier, smaller catches OR "go long" for the lunkers? Generally speaking, the "go long" folks had less success, although there were some big ones caught! We had seven groups of four fishing the lake, with the biggest catch from each earning a spot in the championship "Fish-Off!"

In the championship round, Jeff Cadwell emerged as the champion, with a final round catch of 41 pounds. Congrats!

Fury Football Arena Playoffs: I created a "draft night" Arena League card set for this event, similar to the one we used at last year's PLAAY-Dot-CON. Each coach was given an identical assortment of 24 players and eight strategy cards and a "Salary Cap" of 50 points from which to build their team. We had enough coaches to do two complete playoff series with the eight different Arena League teams. As it turned out, BOTH series were won by the Surprenants! Bob coached the Ozarks Lunkers to the championship of his table, while Will coached the Memphis Hound Dogs to the second table title.

1944 All American Girls Professional Baseball League Mini-Season: Inspired by the 1990 movie "A League of Their Own," I created this card set for History Maker Baseball many years ago and have always wanted to have an organized event that featured it. Well, this was that event! We distributed the teams to everyone who wanted to play, and set up an informal mini-season format: each manager would play two games, two different opponents. We would then compile the wins and losses and the team with the best record would be our champion, with honors to the PLAAY Gamers who'd managed them. The South Bend Blue Sox earned the title with a 3-1 record, managed by John Heckel and Amy Bryan.

In between the organized events there was plenty of "pick up" game play, sports games and otherwise. I brought the Pop Tarts game featured on our "Thrift Store Finds" YouTube stream (along with some of the other games) and me, Sam, Bob Hansen and Charles Helms had a spirited game. Mary Surprenant brought the home-brewed horse racing game she's been working on. Bob Hansen brought Al Wilson's Fast Inning Baseball and showed it to several folks. Kevin Sieg brought Flamme Rouge (a bicycle racing game) that's been a staple at the last few PLAAY-Dot-CON's--the tradition continues!

“We are the Champions!” Yes, we brought trophies for the winners: Jeff Cadwell (fishing), Bob and Will Surprenant (Fury Football), Amy Bryan and John Heckel (1944 AAGPBL baseball).

We wrapped up the games at 5pm and arranged a 6pm rendezvous-vous at the Sonnentag Center for the weekend's big finale: The Eau Claire Axemen vs. the Iowa Woo, Arena League football!

We had about a dozen PLAAY Gamers there when the doors opened at 6pm. Many of us (myself included) made a bee-line for the merchandise table. While we were standing there, Joe Pritchard motioned me over, standing next to a broadly smiling man in an Axemen polo shirt. The way they were looking at me, I was mildly unsettled, like the feeling you get when someone is about to tell you that your fly is open. The smiling man was Rich Mayne, the general manager of the Axemen, who was inviting me to be the fan participant at halftime for "The Price is Right." Joe had just bought a jersey himself and Rich was standing there getting all the intermission entertainment set up. He asked Joe to be a participant but Joe says "I happened to see you standing there getting your jersey at the same time and the next thing I knew I was telling him it'd be a better story if they asked you instead!"

So I got to be part of the halftime entertainment at the game! I got to hang out pretty much standing in the end zone as the first wound down (I wanted to give a high five to the Axemen players as they headed to the dressing room, but chickened out at the end), and then we went out. Rich introduced me as "Kent" from Denver, and gave a nice shout-out to our group of PLAAY Gamers seated in Section 101! Woo hoo! Then the game began. I had seen other people play this game at sporting events, so I knew what to do to "ham it up," asking the crowd for help. Plus I knew that it's usually best to go with the crowd's suggestion if you want to win. And--I did! I got four of the five items correct (only one I missed was a dozen eggs, which are obviously much cheaper in Wisconsin than in Denver!). As it turned out, I was the only fan who won in the four intermission fan-games: dice rolling, bowling, and football-in-a-barrel.

That’s me, on the field at the Sonnentag Center with Eau Claire Axemen GM Rich Mayne, playing “The Price is Right”—and winning!

The game was great, too! The Axemen fell behind 30-12 at halftime, surrendering a late touchdown and then fumbling while trying to score on the "throw-off" return (no kicking in the Arena League) as time expired, which was scooped up by Iowa and returned for ANOTHER touchdown! Ugh! As we were headed back to our seats after halftime, I heard someone say "well, let's finish watching this blowout." BUT--the Axemen came back! They tied the game at 30-30, then again at 38-38. But Iowa scored on a short touchdown pass with two seconds left to play to win 45-38.

Early action at the Sonnentag Center, Iowa Woo and Eau Claire Axemen. That’s PLAAY Gamer Ethan Musulin in the green shirt next to the first down marker (taking photo)—later on, Ethan got a “high five” from one of the Eau Claire players after the Axemen had come back from a 30-12 deficit to tie the game!

Here’s the link for the full game, the Arena League streams every league game, every week, for free! Cool!

After the game we said our goodbyes--another great weekend in the books! Many thanks to EVERYONE who attended! "So much fun!" We’ll have to do this again…