- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
Well, West Coast Melee XVIII has passed into the record books. And I think everyone who was there would tell you it might have been our best WCM to date! Certainly it was by the measure of games played and plaques awarded. Every game of every mini-tournament and The Melee itself was completed by Sunday afternoon. We’re talking 6 completed mini’s plus 1st through 4th place in The Melee. (By comparison, last year we had 2 mini’s, of which 1 was held over, and four Melee places of which 2 were determined by another held-over game.)
We had a record-breaking 6 attendees for our 7-0 Leaders program. So many, in fact that Matt Cicero and Casta had to jump in at various times to help out our “Commissar of the 7-0’sâ€, Dave Nicholas.
We had a special treat on Thursday evening. Fred McDowell brought in his awesome display of twelve W.W.II era rifles, one from each nationality, and gave a short talk about each of them. Fred's knowledge is impressive, and even us jaded W.W. II history buffs learned a few things.
As you probably know, we made some significant format changes this year. In each mini (and The Melee) we offered only one scenario choice per round. Plus we added the incentive that the winner of the first game of the first round would have his choice of sides in the second round. We also set a 30 minute time limit once the 3rd game of the first round was completed. The new format was very well received, and many guys remarked how smoothly it all worked. And I’m pleased to say that every game came in under the 30 minute time limit.
Eric Visnowski set up all the mini’s this year, earning him the new title “Mini Bossâ€. He did an outstanding job with the scenario selections; choosing ones that were fun, well balanced and quick playing. In fact, his choices were so well received that many players used the mini-tournament selections to play pick-up games. How’s that for an endorsement!
And the winners were:
WCM XVIII Champion: Robert Feinstein
2nd Place: Ish Molnar
3rd Place: Phil Seymour
4th Place: Dan Plachta
Action Pack Mini: Brandon Leisemeyer
ASL Classics Mini: Dan Plachta
Far East Mini: Dave Perham
Blitzkrieg Mini: Dave Deresinski
Big Boards Mini: Rob Feinstein
7-0 Leaders Mini: Erik Krommenhoek
Congratulations to Rob and all of this year’s winners!
As always, camaraderie was in abundance, with a continuous stream of inappropriate jokes, cascades of cursing, and gales of laughter throughout the weekend. One of the sources of much humor was the event going on across the hall. The “Titanium Experienceâ€, a self-improvement seminar evidently targeting disenchanted 30-somethings, drew 175 attendees for 3 days. The speaker mesmerized his audience was such pearls of wisdom (and I’m not making this up) as: “In order to have an intimate relationship, there must be intimacyâ€. This and many other inane adages were displayed on banners all around the hotel, prompting Dave Nicholas to remark “The only difference between this guy and a fortune cookie is the size of the font.†Many of us offered our own ASL-oriented adages, like Eric Visnowski’s “In order to complete a scenario, you have to start one.†The consensus among everyone in attendance was that this event set a new standard for comedy gold, eclipsing even the “Cougar Hookup†from a couple of years ago for comic material.
Unfortunately the hotel restaurant failed in their promise to offer an event-specific affordable lunch menu. However, many of us took advantage of the hotel restaurant this year through their event-specific 20% off coupons. That kept a lot more of our players in the hotel and served to significantly reduce meal break times.
I always say that West Coast Melee is a team effort, and it can't come together without a lot guys pitching in to help. This year was no exception, and I want to thank the following people (in no particular order):
Sean Geraghty and Paul Simonsen for taking care of our website and getting the pre-reg pack up on the site in short order; Eric Visnowski for putting together and helping to run the mini-tournaments; Phil Seymour for bringing us another case of that awesome craft beer; Fred McDowell for brining his tres cool rifle display; Dave Nicholas for doing his usual bang-up job running the 7-0 Leaders all weekend, and for handling all the plaques; Casta, for walking in on Saturday morning and immediately stepping in to help the new guys over at the 7-0 table; Eric Morton for bringing his entire ASL set and making it available to anyone who asked to borrow something; all of the Club Officers for providing me with feedback, support and good ideas through the year; and Matt Cicero for designing all the handouts and the pre-reg pack, running the Club store, handling all the money, pitching in with the 7-0 Leaders, bringing the beer and soda, iced down and ready to drink, and generally being my go-to guy in the run-up to the event and throughout the weekend. I also want to offer a special thanks to those members who participated in our many post-game day brain-storming sessions that resulted in our new format as well as to all those who pitched in in small ways like moving tables, kibbitzing at the 7-0 table and running various errands throughout the weekend. You know who you are. Finally, I want to thank everyone who came and supported the event. We can't have an event without guys who come and play. Thank you… Thank you all!
On a personal note, WCM is always one of the highlights of the year for me, and this year was no exception. I enjoyed every minute!
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.