Star Fleet Battles Rated Ace Tournament at Council of Five Nations XXXI (2008)

The Star Fleet Battles Patrol tournament was once again a big success last year at Council XXX.  We had 29 players of various skill levels, including a few trainees.  Kevin Block-Schwenk and Marcus Giegerich made it to the finals, and Mr Block-Schwenk came away with the overall tournament win.

Council of Five Nations XXXI is coming this October 10-12.  We expect this year's tournament to be at least as good, and hopefully better. 

We pamper our loyal SFB crowd with a nice private SFB room all weekend, the best in the facility.

As usual, we are compiling a list of the players we know will be coming, and the certainty of their attendance.  You will see below what we've heard so far.  You can also get in on the discussion about the convention at our special Council of Five Nations bulletin board section of the Star Fleet Games web site.

If you're thinking about attending, please email us at sfb@swa-gaming.org and tell us your (Committed / Probable / Maybe) status so we can add you to the list too.  If you're already on one of these lists, but your status is changing, please let us know that too.


Committed

1. Peter Bakija [Ithaca]
2. Courtenay Footman [Ithaca]
3. Steve Wampler [Ithaca]
4. Andrew Sackett [Ithaca]
5. Howard Sanders [Ithaca]
6. Ken Stuart [Ithaca via California]
7. Brian Evans [Syracuse]
8. Ken Kazinski [Syracuse]
9. Andrew Koch [Rochester]
10. Robert Bassett [Rochester]
11. Tos Crawford [Downstate NY]
12. Tim Sheehy [NYC]
13. Chris Dixon [New Jersey]
14. Marcus Giegerich [New Jersey]
15. Brook Villa [New Jersey]
16. Stephen McCann [New Jersey]
17. Patrick Duffy [Pennsylvania] - Welcome Council First Timer!
18. Jeremy Gray [Washington, DC] - Welcome Council First Timer!
19. Dale McKee [California] - Welcome Council First Timer!
20. John Rigley [SWA]
21. Anne Swartwout [SWA]
22. Nathan Whitchurch [SWA]
23. Robin Toll [SWA] - New Trainee: Battlefleet SWA is helping grow new SFB players!
24. Dage McNitt [SWA]
25. Nick Klercker [SWA]
26. Jason Murphy [SWA]
27. Ben Ossenfort [SWA]
28. Devin Fortman [SWA]

Probable

1. Brett Johnson [New Hampshire]
2. George Duffy [NYC]
3. Ed Slusarek [New Jersey] - Enticed out of retirement!

Maybe

1. Chris Proper [Ithaca]
2. John Pendt  [Oneonta NY]
3. Tom Compter [Vermont]
4. Patrick Duffy's Buddy [Pennsylvania]
   
5. Ameer Sulaiman [Massachusetts]
6. Aadil Sulaiman [Massachusetts]
7. John Malis [Massachusetts]
8. Mark Leonard [Maine]
9. Jeff Osborne [Connecticut]
10. Gary Brady [Downstate NY]
11. Charles Davis [Vermont]
12. Robert Rousse [Vermont]

Special Long-Distance Maybes

• Jason Gray  [Austrialia !!!]
• Paul Scott [California]
• Some of the other guys from SFBOL from around the country?

Guys who won't make it this year, but were seriously thinking about it, and we should rub it in and let them know how much fun they missed

• Kevin Block-Schwenk [Massachusetts] (Damn weddings...)
  
• Joe Kwiatkowski [New Hampshire]
• Ben Kalb [Ithaca]
• Tom Carroll [New Jersey]
• Paul Franz  [Pennsylvania]
• Barry Kirk [Pennsylvania]

Tournament Judge



Tournament Schedule

The tournament officially starts at 10am on Friday, October 10th. In fact, we're starting the con early just so SFB players can get in as many games as possible.  The rest of the events don't start until 2pm.

A bunch of us locals will be there when the doors open.  However, you do not need to be there that early to participate. We expect another wave of guys on Friday night after dinner, and yet another bunch on Saturday morning when the doors open at 8am.

See below for the details of the open Patrol round and finals bracket.

Experience Level

Most people on the three lists above have at least a solid knowledge of the rules and has played several games (a bunch of folks listed have Ace Cards). However, we know we'll have several players who are more at the novice level. We strongly encourage everyone to attend, whatever your experience level. We will try to pair you with players who can coach as you go along.

Sweeteners

• Students get roughly a 50% discount on their registration.
• Groups of 3+ who pre-register in the same envelope, or together online, get $5 off each one.
• We'll have over $200 of prizes, courtesy of ADB, waiting to be claimed by tournament gladiators like you.
• October 10-12 is Columbus Day Weekend.  All our local State workers have Columbus Day Monday off from work. Maybe you do too, making it even easier to justify going to a con?
  

To get more information on the convention - The 21st Century Way

• Click here for the main hub of Council web site pages

To get more information on the convention - The old fashioned way

• Email us with your postal mailing address, and we'll send you a pre-registration booklet in the mail.

Questions?  Comments?

Please send an email to sfb@swa-gaming.org and we'll get 'em answered. 
Or, you can call Dave Cheng at (518) 464-1977 before 11pm Eastern time, any given night, and get 'em answered even faster.

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Patrol Phase

• Starts at 10am on Friday, October 10th
• If we get 32+, the Patrol round will end at 4pm on Saturday
• Otherwise, Patrol round will end at 8pm on Saturday
• Play as many games as you want
• You must play at least two patrol games to qualify for the finals bracket.
  
• Tournament Judge will assign matches by availability and blind draw.

Judging

• The Judge’s knowledge of the rules is solid, but not legendary. Assistance from the field is welcome.
• Games will run no longer than 4 hours. If you end a turn with less than 20 minutes to go, end the game there. The Judge will adjudicate games as necessary.
  
• Excessive disagreement with the Judge is strongly discouraged.
• Non-Aggressive Play:  Please click here to see the guidelines on non-aggressive play that we will follow at this tournament.
  

Finals

Finals participants determined by a three-step process:

• Net wins
• Total number of games played
• Strength of record of opponents (if we have time to calculate this), OR a simple die roll (if we're short on time, like we were last year), as per the Tournament Judge's discretion.
  

 If we get 32+:

• Top 16 games begin at 5pm Saturday
• Quarterfinals at 9pm Saturday
• Semi-finals at 9am Sunday
• Finals at 2pm Sunday

Otherwise:

• Quarterfinals at 9pm Saturday
• Semi-finals at 9am Sunday
• Finals at 2pm Sunday

Special Prizes

• "Iron Man" = most Patrol round games played
  
• "Cosmic Hitchhiker" = the player who traveled the farthest to attend.
• "Nailbiter" = closest victory (fewest boxes left when opponent blows up).
  

Prizes

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Please click here to go to the main Council general info page.

Please click here to download the Council Pre-Registration packet in PDF format.

Please click here to Pre-Register via the online form (with immediate PayPal or Credit Card payment)

Please click here to read the pre-registration booklet informational text (the stuff besides the event listings... see below)

Please click here for Directions to Council of Five Nations.

Please click here to go to the Council Hotel page.

Please click here to go to the Council Parking page.


Pages highlighting our Game Events


If you have any questions, please email us at Council@swa-gaming.org