WBC Re-Cap

Well, we’re back in Denver after a fun few days in rural Pennsylvania. My previous blog post from the World Boardgaming Championships covered Thursday's activities, if you haven't read it yet, start there. Here's a recap of Friday and Saturday's activities at the WBC...

Let's start with Fury Football. I switched gears from the Fury expansion teams to playing a series of however-many games with the about-to-be-released pro season teams. (This served the double purpose of proofing and enjoying the set!) I decided to play a WBC double-header, with an encore of last year's Big Game, Seahawks and Patriots, and then the local favorite Steelers against...hmmm...how about the Rams? It turned into a triple-header when Jerome Weisen stopped by--turns out he's a Saints fan like me! So, we added Saints-Falcons as a "matinee" extra.

Seattle/New England was a classic. Seattle led 17-6 as the Patriots began their final possession, but Drew Maye got New England in the end zone and followed it up with conversions of 6, 3 and 3 for a 24-17 lead. But Sam Darnold led a final scoring drive for Seattle followed by a the-point winning conversion, 25-24!

In game two, the Rams laid waste to the Steelers, it was 34-0 before Aaron Rodgers led a final "garbage time" touchdown drive. They HAD to go for a big conversion--10 points--but failed.

Game three, defensive battle, the Saints held off the Falcons 12-9. Cam Jordan was the star for the Saints defense with a couple big sacks. Still, it wasn't over until Tua Tagovailoa was dropped at the New Orleans two on a game-ending (and potential game-winning) four-point conversion. I coached the Falcons--I found myself at one point, after getting excited about a big Atlanta gain, asking myself (out loud) "What am I doing, cheering for the Falcons!?!" (Fury Football will do that to you, I guess...)

While I was demo-ing football (just as the Rams/Steelers was starting), Tim Rogers came by for a look at Truckin' 76! I set aside football and, after a quick overview of how the game works, Tim was off! He took the northern route, hammer down, evaded a couple of smokeys along the way and made it to Atlanta with a load of lime green shag carpeting in a very respectable 12 hours. With the "express route" truckin' perk in his collection, combined with a couple of un-used vouchers, he scored almost 140 points, not bad for a rookie!!

Tim Rogers grins after delivering his load of shag carpeting safely to Atlanta.

Mixed in with everything else, I got a chance to work through some "in-development" games which I am not at liberty to discuss here, haha! But great progress was made!

I got to spend some time talking about and looking at the many different games being played at the WBC. I always find this exercise to be interesting. At a hard-core board game event like this, there's a certain complexity level that takes center stage. The game Lift-Off (see below) is a great example...wow. This is the kind of game folks at the WBC (and BGG con, and Dice Tower West) get excited about. A quick survey of the game tables, I'd estimate about 75% of the folks were playing games like these. Lots of cards, lots of game pieces, lots of RULES, multiple phases of play for each turn. Makes me think I should try designing one. I had this same sense after playing "Obsession" with Grant Fines at Dice Tower West in 2022, I labeled games like "Obsession" as "buffet games" and got to work on one of my own, a Downton Abbey-themed English Nobility game. Uh, it's still in development...maybe that says something about me as a game designer.

A table-full of board game fun: this is the set up for “LIft Off!” It’s a board game that lets you experience the space race of the ‘50s, ‘60s and beyond!

Starting at 7pm we had Fury Hardball action, complete with nachos! It was a small group, we were competing with some heavyweight game events like B-17. All good intentions aside, a person can only play in so many events. And the WBC-sanctioned events are typically 2-4 hours long (or more!). So it was Harry Flawd, Bruce Maxwell, Ted Drozd, Christiana Harley and Andy Lewis who was the official GM for the event. Several others bowed out last-minute due to the afore-mentioned schedule conflicts. I was invited to play in this tournament, I admit I was a little ambivalent about that--what if I won? How would that look? Andy assured me that the way it works at the WBC, having a designer win a tournament with his own game was perfectly routine, acceptable. OK then! Game ON!

Ted Drozd (managing Chicago B) faces Bruce Maxwell (Baltimore) in the “regular season” rounds of the Fury Hardball tournament.

We went with a round-robin tournament with the North American League (fictional) teams. Everyone chose a team and played three best-of-three series against different opponents. Bruce did pretty well with Baltimore, he stayed undefeated the longest (3 games), but was eventually ousted by Andy's Pittsburgh club. I took Dallas and swept Harry (managing Boston) in the first series, lost two-games-to one to Bruce, and then took two of three from Andy. In me and Andy's series, we had two CRAZY slugfests: game one, he beat me 14-2! Game two, I beat him 23-14!! Whaaaaa!? The deciding game three was a 2-1 score. Go figure!

The top four teams advanced. In the playoffs, I swept Christiana (who was managing New York) while Andy won two of three from Bruce.

That set up what was probably an inevitable final series between the two veteran hardball managers, me and Andy. Best of FIVE for the final series. Andy took the first two games, and all looked lost for me and the Dallas club. BUT I managed to string together three straight wins, all dramatic--including a home win where Tristan Kimzey smacked the game winning dinger with eight out!! Crazy. So. I am in the annals of WBC event champions, and I have the plaque to prove it!...

Andy Lewis presented me with the Fury Hardball 1st Place Plaque—now hanging proudly in the PLAAY Game Room!

As epic as the Friday night hardball tournament was, Saturday morning golf turned out to be even more memorable! We played Pebble Beach as a five-some: me, Andy, Jerome, Bob Wooster and Jordan Kehrer. Jordan served as our "announcer" as well as playing, he began each hole with a TV analyst style reading of the course card synopses! Very first shot, very first hole, Jordan rolled quad 5's! He'd hit it out of bounds from the tee and was "stormy" for the rest of the round! What a way to begin! (Memorable quip from Bob (pointing): "Hey Jordan, the course is THAT way!)

The Saturday Morning Golf Group: (from left) Jerome Weisen, Jordan Kehrer, Bob Wooster, Andy Lewis, Keith Avallone.

Front nine, I hit several clutch putts and made some shrewd chip-spends to ease into a comfortable lead, three stroke advantage after nine holes. After a rough start, Jerome got hot on the back nine and hit three birdies in a row, while Jordan and Bob struggled with putting. I was playing it cool and increased my lead to four-strokes as we began the fifteenth hole. In the bag, right? Wrong...

I made the ill-advised choice to spend a chip to control hole 17 (I should have saved it), and then with control proceeded to hit a couple of middling shots, followed by a three-putt to finish it out--all this after Bob had birdied--and suddenly my four-stroke lead was gone! We both got par on the 18th hole, forcing a playoff hole. Bob went first--we replayed the 18th with the intent to work backward--got on the green with a clutch putt for birdie, which he missed! A birdie would win it for me, a par would send us to 17. I choked! My third shot plunked into the ocean, and that was that--bogey for me, and a WBC championship for Bob! It was a very, VERY fun round of golf!

All Hail the Champion—Bob!

We sat around and visited for a bit--specifically, we talked about adding a golf tournament to the official WBC schedule, like we currently have with Fury Hardball. Anyone who's ever played in our convention tournaments knows how much fun it is to be playing together with a room full of gamers!

It was a thrill to see Fury Hardball in the “Hall of Games” display at the WBC!

And now? I’m already looking forward to coming back to Seven Springs! Many thanks to many folks at the WBC but especially to Andy Lewis for his hard work and influence in getting PLAAY Games plugged in!