Heya Blitzers,
Congrats are in order for this year’s winners!

Winning the overall tournament with back to back solos and a perfect 43.6 score is Garry Bledsoe! An old-timer in the club, active since dc96 – Garry swept this tournament with his first two solos ever, making it look easy along the way. No easy task, Garry pulled this off despite some fierce opposition from dc regulars in both games.

Taking the “Top Round 1” score is no surprise - Dan Dzikowicz won the 2008 DC Invitational, and this year he pulled off the Top Round 1 position with a solo in dc236.

Then we have in the “Top Round 2” spot, with none other than Nigel Phillips, champion of the WB08! Win it one year and placing high the next, there is no question this format suits Nigel just fine.

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Folks, this year has brought a lot of changes to dc - the WB started way back in January, and ran clear into August – longer than last year, due mainly to the marathon game dc247, GM’d flawlessly by Adam, a relatively new GM. Adam’s already run games like Seismic and Asian Diplomacy, so we can’t wait to see what he’ll grace our pages with next.

Joining Adam as a GM and fellow newbie is Sam Buck, with his own pair of outstanding games from a new GM. Currently offering a game of Wings – if you want to try something a little different, be sure to check out the open games page!

Along with Adam and Sam, we welcomed a third new GM Rachael, making her first game at dc a WB game – what other way to get your feet wet? Trust me folks you don’t know what it’s like to GM a blitz game until you try it, and you realize just how much effort it takes to pull off the 4 deadlines a week – a task worthy of the most seasoned GM’s, and these three pulled it off like pros. Thank you all!

Rounding out our GM team were the dc vets Christine, Cory, and Garry… no question if you get into one of their games it’s always a treat… All 3 provided a stable and reliable baseline upon which we could form a tournament – your efforts are appreciated!

This tournament could not succeed without the committed efforts of these 6 GM’s. My hat is off to all of them.

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There are a few matters of a couple prizes remaining – “Best Stab”, and “Best Press”!

What I’d like to do is open the lines for submissions on both. Note the top 3 winners above cannot win the smaller prizes! But if you’d like to submit ideas, send them to me. Max 1 submission for each prize from each player. Please include a REASON with your submission. Up to 50 words, which will be posted in a voting format for everyone to vote on. Let’s have any submissions by the end of August (about 10 days) and then we’ll vote in the first week of September for the final $25 gift certificates to thoughthammer.com. Anyone who loves board games will know this is one of the best spots on the web to get games so it’s definitely a prize to be coveted.

This player-voted prize concept is new this year so let’s make it successful - Send your ideas to me!

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On a more personal note, I’d like to thank my friend Former Trout for his efforts on this year’s Blitz. Trout carried most of this tournament squarely on his shoulders – training our new GMs, updating game pages, tracking the games, and making sure everything ran like clockwork – a full-time job in itself! Trout is also responsible for spearheading the WB concept, and making it all come together! It could not have happened without you, thank you.

Thanks are in order to our full team of volunteers – Christine, Cory, Garry, Rachael, Adam, Sam, Trout, and of course you, the players. Remember dc operates solely based on this volunteer support from our community. If you’d like to become a GM or take a more active role in some way, feel free to speak up and ask any questions. We’ll send out a tourney questionnaire with the polls for voting on the above two prizes, and your input will be appreciated on what we can improve for next year’s Blitz. Are you excited yet? If you’d like to become a part of next year’s ops team please inquire within.

Enjoy,
-mike
WB09 TD
Order of the Garter
www.diplomaticcorp.com