WBC: An Overview

The World Boardgaming Championships is an annual week-long event held in Lancaster, Pennsylvania during the summer. I attended it last year with a few friends and I think a lot of other people I know would really enjoy it. As such in an attempt to interest more people into going down this year I'm going to make a few posts about the event in general and last year in particular to try to get people thinking about going,

The main event runs from 6pm on Tuesday August 5th, 2008 until sometime in the afternoon on Sunday August 10th, 2008. A full schedule has not been released for this coming year but last year there was a precon that started at 2pm on the previous Sunday and ran until the start of the main event. Two of the games I wanted to play took place during the precon, as did the games auction, so it's definitely possible to want to go for the precon.

When I say two of the games took place during the precon, what did I mean? Well, they hold tournaments for approximately 150ish games each year. Last year there were 104 main tournaments and 43 trial events. Main tournaments tend to have prizes extending beyond first place and have generally proven themselves to be popular enough games to have a good turn-out. The prizes themselves are generally 'just' plaques and bragging rights though a few game companies do give out coupons for discounts on their games to winners. Trial events just have one plaque for first and generally are trying to show that they're popular enough to deserve status as a main event. I suspect scheduling gives preference to main events but I have nothing to really back that up.

At any rate, with 147 games holding tournaments over the week there's a need for scheduling so things can proceed in a somewhat orderly fashion. (Not to mention that scheduling events ensures table space to play the games!) Many games are run in a swiss elimination style which basically means they have a number of heats and you can play in as many as you'd like, and then they cut to a top 16 or whatever for a semi-finals and a finals. You advance based on criteria set out for that event but generally winning heats is the most important thing. Other events run single elimination from the get-go, which is harder to plan ahead for. If you lose your first game of Carcassone, for example, you're done after an hour. Keep winning and you could be playing all day.

Of course, tournaments aren't the only way to play games at WBC. For most of the tournament games they hold a demo before the tournament so you can learn the game and see if you want to play it. Last year they also had some games set up in the main hall for 24/7 demos. Someone from the game company was there to teach those games, I think, though we learned them at 2 in the morning by reading the rules. As well there is an 'open gaming' room with a game library that anyone can use at any time of the day. Finally, you can always bring whatever games you may want to play and find a place to play them. Chances are pretty good that you can find someone interested in playing it at any time of day. (I was taught to play Notre Dame randomly at 4 in the morning.)

Lancaster itself is a convention town, so they have lots of other things to do if you want to take a day off of gaming for some bizarre reason. The resort the convention is held at has a pool and a golf course, for example. I'm sure there are other things to do too, though I for one just played games, slept, and ate.

One thing you could do as a day off is just not go to the event until later in the week. Saturday in particular was stacked with popular games so that people who only want to go for the weekend have a good shot at playing what they want to play. Settlers, Carcassone, Puerto Rico, Ticket to Ride, Diplomacy and Risk all had part or all of their tournaments on Saturday.

Booking a major resort for over a week isn't cheap, so the event does have an entry fee. $70 for the main event if you register by mid-July, $80 after that. $100 if you want to go to the precon. For a partial signup it's $10 + $10 per day by mid-July, $20 + $10 per day otherwise. Entry to the convention brings with it free entry to all tournaments. In addition you need to find a place to sleep. The resort itself is a hotel which sadly fills up way before the event. Last year we stayed across the street (and by street I mean highway) which wasn't awful but I highly recommend trying to get a room at the actual hotel if possible.

I think that's it for a 'brief' overview. If anyone has any questions at all feel free to email me or post a comment and I'll try to help. Also, you could check out the event website.