The Weekly Weasel — Week of Aug. 13

Doc Binder Wins World Championship
Our 22nd world champion is a urologist from Florida and a relative newcomer to the face-to-face hobby. He picked a great time to win his first championship!

We fielded 46 boards over the weekend, with 80 unique players participating. It was the largest North American tournament in terms of players since the Tempest WDC in 2005, and the largest in boards since the Denver WDC in 2003. Check out the recap here. You’ll find a link to the complete standings in that article, but the list at Laurent Joly’s World Diplomacy Database may be easier to read. You’ll find it here.

I still need to get Laurent the supply center charts for each game (20 logged, 26 to go), the list of awards, and all the info on the team tournament. I’ll get back to that just as soon as I finish this. Sigh.

WDC in Pictures
Thanks to Laurent, we have a bunch of great pictures from the weekend. Check them out on our website or at our Meetup page.

What I Might Have Said
During the awards ceremony on Sunday, Tournament Director Dan Burgess presented me with a beautiful "lifetime achievement" award for my contributions to the Chicago hobby. I’d like to thank him again, as well as everyone who chipped in for the award. If I hadn’t been completely caught off guard by the award and mindful of the early departures from O’Hare and Midway, I might have said something like this:

For the past year and a half, I’ve been targeting WDC as my swan song from the hobby. At least at my current level of participation and at least for the time being. When I finally won the Weasel of the Year last month, I started thinking about how great it would be to ride off into the sunset with three more elusive titles in my belt: a World Championship, a North American Championship and a Weasel Moot Championship. All in one fell swoop, and all in my backyard.

Unfortunately, I stunk it up all weekend. And now I have to dial it back for a while with just the one laurel to rest on.

One of my goals on the Sneak this year will be to transition someone else into the War Weasel role. I’ll focus on communications: the website, the Weekly Weasel, the record keeping, that stuff. I’ll still play as often as I can, and I’ll attend both CODCon and Weasel Moot VII if my schedule cooperates, but someone else will organize those events.

As for traveling to tournaments, that may be my favorite thing about the hobby, and I’d love to get to at least one a year, but just like in a game of Diplomacy, I’m reluctant to make any promises. My son Kevin was 3 when I started my journey to last weekend by meeting up with some friends from the postal hobby at the 2003 DipCon in D.C. I have another son now, and a new family. I may have to wait a few years to get back out there. And who knows, when I do, maybe I’ll bring Kevin along. Someone has to watch my back, and not to look for weak spots, the way you guys do.

I’d like to close with a few acknowledgments. I’d like to thank Greg Duenow and Thom Comstock for helping me organize our first two tournaments back in 2007, and Jeremiah Peterson for getting people used to the idea that someone besides me could serve as Tournament Director. Similarly, thanks to Chris Davis for demonstrating that someone else could run the club. Thank you Kevin O’Kelly for siding with me in the debate on whether to bid for WDC. Thank you Peter Yeargin for delivering our bid at the Hague, and thank you Christian MacDonald for insisting that we hold the event at the Congress Plaza Hotel, not in the suburbs. You were right.

Thank you Peter Lokken for creating that beautiful handmade board for the championship game. Thank you Mike Whitty, Pete McNamara and Mike Morrison for making airport runs. Thank you Nate Cockerill and John Gramila for putting up travelers. And thank you to the 28 local players who showed up for the event. Most of us finished far, far from the top, but you all helped make the weekend a success. And finally, thank you Dan Burgess for starting the weekend off with a really fun social event and ensuring that everything just got better from there.

Guys, we did good.

One day, I hope to get back to winning awards for good play, but today, I’m happy and incredibly grateful to be recognized for good work. Thank you.

Fourth Annual Undercard Game at the Weasel Royale
In each of the first three Undercard games, the player who topped the board went on to qualify for the Weasel Royale club championship game. You could be next. The Royale and Undercard will be Oct. 27 at Dan Burgess’ home. Sign up at the website, or at Meetup or by emailing me (until we appoint a new War Weasel…).

Important Dates

• Oct. 27. The Weasel Royale club championship game at Dan Burgess’ home in Downers Grove.

That’s all for this week. See you next week!

Jim