WCM XIII: President's AAR

[Jim Aikens]

West Coast Melee XIII: President’s AAR

All;

Well, another West Coast Melee has entered the record books, and I’m pleased to report it was a success in every way.

Thursday: We got underway with “Recon Thursday” at noon as scheduled. There were already several members present, and we soon had several of them paired up for the first round of the “Micro Mini”. At 3:00 PM we opened the Club’s Hospitality Suite and pretty much everyone made there way up to enjoy a little socializing and a sandwich and beer (or two). Rob Feinstein arrived with our new, tres cool dice cups to distribute. By the end of the evening we had about 25 in attendance, which is slightly higher than the 20 we usually see on Thursday.

Friday: We had about 40 ready to pair up for the “Close Combat” open-play portion of the The Melee at 9:00 AM, and games got started quickly. Two wins over the course of the day would guarantee a slot in the “sweet sixteen”; those who would move on to play in the single-elimination “Hand-to-Hand” phase of The Melee on Saturday. Shortly after making the initial pairings, we got our “Epic Event” fired up: a playtest of the 2nd CG date for MMP’s upcoming HASL module “Slaughter at Ponyri”. The Ponyri event continued into Saturday evening, and proved to be both highly enjoyable and very productive. Over the course of the day several more players filtered in, and we fed them into the carnage as best we could. In the evening, we made our traditional pilgrimage to El Torito Grill for some primo Mexican food. When the smoke cleared at Friday Midnight, we had our sixteen players with the best records paired up for Saturday.

Saturday: A short monsoon on Saturday morning disrupted our schedule a bit, as about half of the ‘sweet sixteen’ were delayed in traffic. But eventually we got everyone in and rolling through the first round. We also launched two minis; “For the Motherland” and “For the Glory of Rome”, on schedule shortly after 9:00 AM. In the late morning we held our annual Club meeting, which I’m pleased to report was concluded in record time. The Club voted to extend the sentences, ahh… I mean terms of the Officers for another year. As the day progressed and players were knocked out of the minis and The Melee we pooled enough manpower to launch our final mini “For the Fatherland” late in the afternoon.

Sunday: The eight survivors from Saturday’s Hand-to-Hand phase wrapped up their third round games and at noon paired for the finals. The final rounds of our two remaining minis “For the Glory of Rome” and “For the Fatherland” got underway as well. The remaining 20 or so players paired up for pick-up games.

And the winners were…

The Melee Champion: Dave Derizinsky
Runner up: Dave Perham
3rd Place: Rob Feinstein
4th Place: Dan Plachta

“Micro Mini” Champion: Larry Rohlfing
“For the Motherland” Champion: Eric Johnson
“For the Fatherland” Champion: Stephan Tourville
“For the Glory of Rome” Champion: Trevor Bender

On behalf of the membership, I want to extend my congratulations to all of our winners. And I also want to point out two things about the competition. First, as I always say, the surest way to make it to the winner’s circle is to be named ‘Dave’ or ‘Eric’, and that provided to be true again this year, seven of our ‘sweet sixteen’ were named, you guessed it, Eric or Dave. Second, two of the players who made the cut for the ‘sweet sixteen’, Bill Yuen and Mike Cirrincione, and mini-tournament champion Stephan Tourville were all playing Starter Kit only a year ago at WCM XII. They have come a long way in a short time, and should be an inspiration to those who are just now starting to learn the system. Fear not, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and these three have shown that it doesn’t take years and years to become a competitive player.

Final attendance was in the high 40’s, right around what it has been for the last few years. And I think we were hurt a little from the Saturday morning monsoon that probably kept some of the one-day attendees away. Treasurer Matt Cicero is still crunching the numbers, but we’re probably going to come out about the same as we usually do financially.

West Coast Melee doesn’t get done by itself. It takes a team effort to put together something of this scale, and recognitions are in order.

First and foremost, I want to thank our Club Officers, Matt Cicero, Paul Simonsen, Matt Romey, Rob Feinstein, Scott Thompson and Geoff Coward, collectively for their unswerving support and sensible advance, not just at WCM but throughout the year. We would not have the Club we have without their efforts.

Matt Cicero, for handling the money and registrations, designing and producing all of the promotional material, hand-outs and flyers, handling the coolers and soda, helping with the Hospitality Suite, and generally serving as my go-to guy throughout the weekend.

Paul Simonsen, for acting as deputy tournament director, setting up all of the web based promotions, on-line registrations, and inputting and tracking the win-loss record for each member to calculate the ‘sweet sixteen’, and for being a sounding board when I needed one.

Rob Feinstein, for stepping up to the plate and dazzling us yet again with his skills, handling the dice cup project in its entirety, including hunting down the glasses at a discount store.

Dave Nicolas, for handling the plaques again from start to finish (including design), and being ‘on call’ to assume his role as “Commissar of the 7-0’s”.

Blair Bellamy, for taking it upon himself to serve as our videographer for the entire weekend and documenting our event for posterity.

‘Casta’ Castalana for organizing the “For the Glory of Rome” mini.

Geoff Coward, for continuously being on hand when I needed someone to get things done.

Phil Seymour, for his generosity of showing up as he always does, with a case of beer under each arm to share.

All the members who throughout the weekend offered to pitch in and help, provided good advice and suggestions, or contributed in small ways to make things run smoothly: there are too many to list, but you know who you are, and so do I.

Finally, I want to thank everyone who came and played. We had a blast. A lot of games got played, a lot of beer got drank, and we had a lot of laughs and a lot of fun. On a personal note, WCM is one of the high points of my year because I get to spend four days with so many good friends. It was great to see you all.

Regards,

Jim

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