By Tournament Director Dwayne Matheson

Thirteen stalwarts showed up (well eleven on Friday) to contest for the Canadian ASL Open title. The opening ceremonies kick off with a small speech from the TD and a toast with a fine scotch whiskey. After the toast, Bill Bird regaled us with a soliloquy, and a fine reading he did. Then it was down to the business of pairing up the combatants and starting Round One.

Round One saw Bill Bird play Grebbe End against Jim McLeod. Bill Bird emerged victorious. Darren Kovacs defeated Michael Rodgers in a playing of Le Herrison, as well Blake Ball defeated Ron Leverault in the same scenario. Jack Dionne faced Brad Knoll over The Abbeville Bridgehead and triumphed; myself, I was successful in the attack as the French playing Wrong Battle against Blair Bellamy. As the rounds are timed we all took a deserved break for supper and then headed back at it.

Round Two commenced with the 1-0 players facing each other and the 0-1 players paired up. All five matches went for the Flanking Flamethrowers. It was an odd situation as 5 scenarios are put up to choose from! With that said, Bill Bird defeated Jack Dionne, Michael Rodgers defeated Blair Bellamy, Blake Ball defeated Mike Bourgeault, Jim McLeod defeated Brad Knoll and I was beat down by that worthy Darren Kovacs.

Saturday morning saw the start of Round Three as well as the start of the Mini-Tourney. The rule is that you must have one loss to qualify for the mini. We had two locals join us that due to work commitments, could not join us Friday. Paul Suderman and Steffen Knippel were entered into the mini, as well as Brad Knoll, Jack Dionne, Mike Borgeault, Ron Levreault, Michael Rodgers and Blair Bellamy. They were all paired off to enter a three round single elimination event. The theme this year, at the nagging behest of the masses, was based on the Few Returned Action Pack release by MMP. It also happened that we were able to solicit a donation of said Action Pack to be the prize, as well as a mighty fine plaque. Our main tourney also continued with the pairings of the 2-0s as well. As we had an odd number one had to sit, and that task fell to me. Round Three saw Bill Bird’’s Japanese defeat the Allied minors of Darren Kovacs in Strongpoint 11. Blake Ball’’s Japanese defeated the Allied forces of Jim McLeod in Jungle Fighters. Banzi charges all around! The Mini saw Steffen Knippel’’s defenders hold on for a victory over Michael Rodger’s attacking Russians in Village of the Damned. Jack Dionne and Blair Bellamy played Winter of their Discontent and saw Jack Dionne as the victor. The scenario was also played by Mike Bourgeault and Brad Knoll; Brad was victorious. The final pairing had Paul Suderman playing Ron Levreault in the Valley of Death, and Paul gave poor Ron such a trouncing that Ron failed his PTC and decided to take the evening off!

After an early supper we had two players at 3-0 and a few at 2-1, and we had four battling in the mini. The pairing shook out like this: Blake Ball and Bill Bird at 3-0 had to play, and the winner would likely wind up the CASLO champion. Darren Kovacs faced Jim McLeod. I paired up against Michael Rodgers. All of the regular tourney scenarios happened to be Kempf at Melihkovo and the victors were Bill Bird, Darren Kovacs and Michael Rodgers. The mini tourney round two saw both match ups playing Red Don with Jack Dionne matched with Paul Suderman and Steffen Knippel with Brad Knoll. Paul Suderman held on as the defender in his scenario and Brad Knoll rolled on as the Russian to a victory, and that set our final day up.

The last round, for the regular tournament, was anti-climactic. No matter what happened today the victory was going to be Bill Bird. The only thing left to find out was if he could go 5-0! Yours truly had the distinct honour of having to find a way to defeat the undefeated Bill on Sunday. At least we still had an exciting game to watch as the mini-tournament was going down to the wire. Paul Suderman faced Brad Knoll across the boards of combat. They decided on Hunter becomes the Hunted, a German vs Italian shindig. In the end the game had to be adjudicated as they had one turn left and ran out of time. It was a near run thing, but the panel voted unanimously for Brad Knoll’’s Germans! Congratulations Brad on a find run to win the Mini-Tournament. As for the rest of us, well, we turned a blind eye to Blair Bellamy as he coerced Ron Levreault into a little Starter Pack 3 game. They faced off over Patton Marches West and Blair wins again! Darren Kovacs and Jack Dionne faced off over the Valley of Death and Darren held out for the win. Michael Rodgers and Mike Bourgeault played Under the Noel Trees and Michael’’s Germans were the victors. And as for me, well my dice were on fire! Bill waxed my two right flanking AFVs and then moved up on my main forces right flank. He found a hull down position and took a BFF shot at on of my PZKWg IVs for a miss. I had to turn the turret one spine over and shot, missed but had rate. I shot again and low and behold there was a turret hit! One tank destroyer down, one to go. The other TD revved up and started driving on my left flank, I panicked and spun my turret, two spines over. I could have waited one more hex moved to give me a better shot, but as I said, I panicked. I was extremely lucky though; my roll was the always welcome snake eyes! Without the tank destroyers against me, it was not too hard to keep my tanks out of range but cutting off the board, and then sealing off an exit area with my infantry. I ended my tournament with a win verses the winner of the whole thing.

1. Bill Bird 4-1 50 pts
2. Darren Kovacs 3-2 38 pts
3. Michael Rodgers 3-2 36 pts (tie break by deafeating me!)
4. Dwayne Matheson 3-2 36 pts
5. BLake Ball 3-2 34 pts
6. Jim McLeod 2-2 26 pts
7. Jack Dionne 2-3 25 pts
8. Paul Suderman 2-3 23 pts (mini 2nd place)
9. Blair Bellamy 2-3 22 pts
10. Steffen Knippel 2-3 21 pts
11. Ron Levreault 1-4 10 pts
12. Mike Bourgeault 1-4 10 pts

Mini Winner Brad Knoll 3-2 35 pts