Holy cow, it’s Friday already?!? Am I the only one suffering from a #Mootover?
Throwing Weasels on the Barbie
Weasel Moot IX was an intimate but cosmopolitan affair, perhaps in anticipation of next year’s world championship. The field featured nationals from Australia, India and Iran, plus a Yank who’s spent most of the past four or five years living in Germany. And although Sunday was Flag Day, we permitted one of the foreigners to capture our flag. Congrats to the Australian Peter McNamara, our Alpha Weasel iota.
Moot was McNamara’s second Chicago title. He also won CODCon in 2013. He’s only the third player to capture both titles, joining Matt Sundstrom and John Gramila. This time around, he dominated the field, soloing in the second round as Austria (he also soloed with Austria in ’13) and topping his two other boards. In fact his #DropRound score alone would have placed him 11th in the tournament out of 29 players.
We fielded a total of nine boards, three per round. Most of us had fun, and none of the locals seemed to mind being tossed on McNamara’s barbie. A nice accent goes a long way.
Moot Is Moving on Up
We’re pleased to announce that the World Championship at Weasel Moot X will take place June 24-26, 2016, in Roosevelt University’s vertical campus at Wabash and Congress. We will play the games in a multi-purpose meeting space that opens onto a lounge with an iconic view of the city. And we are securing housing in the dorm.
But this ain’t your daddy’s dorm. The campus will be just four years old next summer. It’s a glass building that zig-zags up 31 stories. The dorm rooms are on the 15th through 31st floors. For just $75 per night (or $70 if for some reason you wan to share a room for a $5 discount), you’ll get a room with a floor-to-ceiling window that looks out on Lake Michigan, Grant Park, the skyline, or a combination of the three. The rooms are set up like private apartments. You’ll share a bathroom with one to three other rooms — no more — and many of the apartments have common seating areas. (Because of the building’s unique architecture, no floor has the same plan.)
For those of you who came out in 2012, the campus looks over the Congress Plaza Hotel. It’s less than a block from that spot. So, it’s a great location with a reasonably priced room rate for downtown Chicago, and we’ll be in one of the coolest looking buildings on the Chicago skyline. I can’t wait.
The website and Facebook event page will be up later this weekend. We’ll include the links in next week’s Weekly Weasel.
Upcoming Games
- July 8 at the Red Lion in Lincoln Square, beginning at 6:30 p.m. until no later than 11. Have five; need two more.
- August 15 at Eric Brown’s home in Wayne, beginning at 11 a.m. until no later than 10 p.m. Have nine; need five more for the second board.
Sign up for games here, on Meetup, or by emailing War Weasel Dan Burgess (danburgess67@gmail.com).
Important Dates
- Aug. 7-9: North American Diplomacy Championship at the Philadelphia Massacre.
- Aug. 15: Weasel Pyle Ten.
- June 24-26, 2016: World Diplomacy Championship at Weasel Moot X!
Up Next on the Tournament Circuit
- The North American Diplomacy Championship at the Philadelphia Massacre: August 7-9 in Philadelphia. (http://philadelphiamassacre.com/)
- The Boroughs: August 22-23 in Marlborough, Massachusetts. (https://sites.google.com/site/boroughsdiplomacy/home)
Help Needed!
The Sneak is looking for someone who can convert Matt Sundstrom’s rating system to a searchable, web-based database. Please email us at wcwsneak@gmail.com if you can help or have questions. And thanks again to John Gramila for tackling our Joomla project.
Dues Are Due
Dues for 2015 are now due. We’ve kept our rates the same. A regular membership will cost you $25; the student rate is just $10. Dues will get you eligibility for club awards and the Weasel Royale championship game, and–when we think of it–first crack at our house games. Dues pay for our club awards, the Meetup group, our website, and the Royale award and hosting subsidy. Please consider paying dues today. You may do so via PayPal here or by giving cash to a member of the Sneak. Thank you to the 26 Weasels who have paid up so far. We appreciate your support.
That’s all for this week.
Jim
