By Tournament Director Jim McLeod

From Canada, they came from sea to sea and from many points in between and to that company was joined five players from the United States (four from Minnesota and one from Ohio). All told we were 29 players and over three days and five rounds of ASL action we had a most enjoyable weekend of great gaming, gamesmanship and camaraderie.

At this time, I will now cut to the chase and announce, with all the humility as can be scraped together of course, that yours truly ended the tournament with a 5-0 record and won the 2004 CASLO.

But hey, I didn’t mean to. In round One we had an odd number of players and me being the TD, I was willing to sit the round out and let the lowest seeded player play instead of taking a Bye. However, he did not wish to take a Bye and so I played.

The round by round action:

First, we enjoyed a toast to the CASLO with a fine scotch, a 10 year old Glen Morangie aged in Port casks.

Round one saw the top half of the field prevail over the lower half although the eventual tournament winner should have handily lost his first match. That did not happen as the guy who should very well have won elected to meet the CVP VC by trying to eliminate a broken squad instead of exiting units off map for an easy win. But it gets worse. We played “HANA SAKU”, my own design … ahem, but listen, it was my third selection and I gave him choice of sides. I can’t say fairer than that now, can I. 🙂

Round Two saw two upsets as last year’s CASLO champ, Darren Kovacs, went down to Robert Steele and Bill Bird was knocked into the 1-1 column by fellow Winnipeg ASL Club member Dwayne Matheson.

Round Three had another upset of sorts when Calgary’s Tom Weniger went to 3-0 by defeating fellow Albertan Gerry Proudfoot in “J9 A STIFF FIGHT”. The Mini-Tournament began in round Three and Kevin Seime, Dion Loach, Michael Rodgers and Jeff Papas all advanced to the second round of the Mini. In other Round three action, Weniger, Kelln, McLeod and Matheson won.

Round Four was a real kicker of a round and featured six playings of that WCW Classic, “EYE OF THE TIGER” (results of 3 German wins to 3 Russian wins). In this round, Proudfoot re-grouped to defeat Robert Steele, a win that put M. Proudfoot back in contention for an upper rank finish for the tournament. George Kelln ended Dwayne Matheson’s march to glory in a tough playing of another WCW Classic, “ABANDON SHIP!”. Completing the pairing for the championship round was McLeod whose dice were hot and Weniger’s were not, in a very fun playing of “EotT”. Tom began the game well, potting a MKIV with a shot in the AFPh from a T-34 as well as nailing a Puma with an MG shot. But in the end, a fired up Tiger and a pumped up group of stormtroopers were the deciding factors. Back in the Mini, Dion Loach’s Soviets stopped the Germans in “BREAD FACTORY #2” and Jeff Papas led the French to victory over Michael Rodgers in “L’HERRISON”.

The Round Five Championship matches were as follows: Main CASLO Tournament, McLeod v. Kelln in “AP12 CREAM OF THE CROP” and in the Mini it was Loach v. Papas in “A25 COLD CROCODILES”. When the dice had settled, Dion’s Croc’s dodged Jeff’s non-existent PF’s and McLeod’s Russian’s stopped the hobnail booted Germans on the edge of a village somewhere in Russia. Gerry Proudfoot put a lock on third Place as his Gerbil-Jaegers were able to keep the Legion at bay in “75 STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND”. Dwayne Matheson capped a very strong weekend of gaming with a win in the fjords of Norway over Tom Weniger, a win which secured Fourth place for Dwayne.

Here are the final rankings of the 2004 Canadian ASL Open. The record is from memory so there could be some errors. My apologies if there are any incorrect.

# NAME RECORD
1 JIM MCLEOD 5-0
2 GEORGE KELLN 4-1
3 GERRY PROUDFOOT 4-1
4 DWAYNE MATHESON 4-1
5 DION LOACH 3-2
6 TOM WENIGER 3-2
7 ROBERT STEELE 3-2
8 PAUL SUDERMAN 3-2
9 KURT KURTZ 3-2
10 JACK DIONNE 3-2
11 MIKE RODGERS 3-2
12 GARY LEHNER 3-2
13 DARREN KOVACS 2-3
14 JEFF PAPAS 2-3
15 DAVID LETZ 2-3
16 STEFFEN KNIPPLE 2-3
17 TIM THOMAS 2-3
18 BILL BIRD 2-3
19 DAN MCGEE 2-3
20 BRAD KNOLL 2-3
21 CRAIG HOULISTON 2-3
22 MIKE BOURGEAULT 1-4
23 BLAIR BELLAMY 1-4
24 TONY MESSNER 1-4
25 KEVIN SEIME 1-4
26 ANDRE ESCOBEDO 1-4
27 BRENT FEDAK 1-4
28 RON LEVERAULT 1-4
29 BLAKE BALL 1-4