Below is the AAR from our club President, Jim Aikens...
Greetings ASL Fans;
The dust has settled. The smoke has cleared. And West Coast Melee XXII is now in the books.
First, the winners:
West Coast Melee XXII Champion: Hank W.
Second Place: Sheldon Ryland
Third Place: Jim Svette
Fourth Place: David Myers
This was the first final 4 placement for Jim and David.
We ran a total of 5 mini-tournaments over the course of the weekend, and I'm pleased to say that all of them were wrapped up by Saturday evening:
"Bloody Burma": Hank W.
"Personal Best": Sheldon Ryland
"Eye of the Tiger": David Myers
"Deluxe ASL": Larry Rohlfing
"Flesh and Steel": Mark Pandori
Congratulations to all of our winners!
This was our first event at the Ontario Gateway Hotel. The game room was huge, and perfectly planned out, with 28 eight foot tables and 18" wide side tables running down both sides of the room. It was easily the best game room we've ever had, bar none. Overall, the hotel was fine, with only minor inadequacies that would be expected from a first-time experience at a new facility. But the entire hotel staff was polite, and very responsive when properly directed. The hotel bar was only steps away from the game room, and we were able to order food from there for both lunch and dinner. The food was reasonably good and not over-priced. The buffet breakfasts were good, if a little repetitive.
We had 47 attendees, which we are very pleased with. Almost as important, we booked over 70 room nights with the hotel. As many of you know, when negotiating hotel contracts, pricing is based on total room nights. That high number of booked room nights gives us leverage for negotiating contracts for next year with the hotel.
Five of our attendees launched a VotG CG and played it throughout the weekend. We all enjoyed checking in on their progress from time to time throughout the event.
Our final room sweep on Sunday afternoon produced a rather large number of 'lost and found' items. For most of them, we were able to figure out who they need to be returned to, and I have contacted the owners. But we still have three items looking for a home: 1) a pocket rule book 2) a laminated original QRDC card and 3) a blue retractable LOS string. Check your kit, and let me know if you wish to claim any of these items.
West Coast Melee is a lot of work. Thankfully, we are blessed with a great bunch of guys, who happily donate their time to make sure everything gets done. And throughout the weekend I asked various members to help out with this or that, and in every case they stepped in without hesitation to help out, and I want to thank all of you for your assistance and cooperation. Below are a few that really deserve a special thanks from me. In no particular order:
Dan Plachta & Scott Thompson: For policing the room on Sunday afternoon and rounding up 'lost and found' items.
Dave Nicholas: For making himself available to mentor the 7-0's again this year. Dave also handled our sweet looking plaques.
Eric Visnowski: For preparing all of the scenario choices for all of the mini-tournaments and all 3 rounds of The Melee. I'll tell you from experience, that's a big job. Once he selected the scenarios, Eric and I played all of the ones we were unfamiliar with to make sure they would work in a tournament format.
Sheldon Ryland: For serving as our greeter on Thursday afternoon, and also serving as our un-official "Director of Entertainment" throughout the weekend.
David Rosner & Dan Plachta: For serving as "Acting T.D." on Friday and Saturday evenings, respectively, when Matt and I were out to dinner.
Scott Thompson & Paul Simonsen: For assisting me early on Saturday morning, compiling Friday's results and computing everyone's win-loss record to determine who would be in the final 8. Also for filling in for Matt during Saturday morning check-in.
Matt Cicero: Our Vice President and Treasurer, as always, was in the thick of it from the start. He handled the pre-registrations and signed in the attendees, tracked the money, ran the Club store, and was our primary contact with the hotel.
Eric Morton: For once again bringing his entire game set to WCM and making it available to anyone who wanted to borrow items.
Again, thank you all.
I also want to take the opportunity to recognize our Club Officers. These guys work behind the scenes, providing their wisdom, vision and good advice, throughout the year:
Matt Cicero, VP & Treasurer; Eric Visnowski, Special Events Coordinator; Blair Bellamy, New Player Development; Sean Geraghty, Webmaster; and Rob Feinstein, Scott Thompson and Dave Nicholas our Regional Directors. Long-time Director Paul Simonsen, is now serving as 'Special Adviser to the President'.
Finally, I want to thank everyone who came and supported the event. By our best estimate, close to 200 games were played over the course of the weekend. We had a lot of laughs and a lot of fun. On a personal note, WCM is one of the highlights of my year, and I had a blast. It was great to see everyone and catch up with so many old friends.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jim Aikens
President, SoCalASL