By Tournament Director Michael Rodgers

We had another successful Canadian ASL Open. Attendance was up over last year, with a high of 18 players on Saturday. We had some new faces mixed in with the familiar ones, which is always a good thing. As usual, we had players from across Canada.

Bill Bird was the first to arrive on Thursday afternoon. I had pre-arranged to meet him to show him some of the sights of Montreal. Luckily, his heart held up when we climbed Mount Royal for the spectacular view of the city. Ray Woloszyn (whose last name I can now spell) and Marcus Leja met us in the hotel lobby around 7:30. Local player Bruno L’Archeveque also joined us. We went out for food and drink and a lot of ASL and non-ASL conversation. I enjoyed myself a lot. It is always nice to have some time to be sociable at a tournament.

I knew that no one would have an easy time winning the tournament because we had three excellent players: Ray Woloszyn, John McDiarmid and Adrian Earle. Our tournament is based on points, so every round counts, even if you become the last undefeated player before the final round.

Adrian beat John in the third round, which lead to a match between Adrian and Ray as the last two undefeated players in the fourth round. Ray won the match as the Poles in a playing of FrF2, Maczek Fire Brigade.

One of the things I like best about the Canadian ASL Open, is that the points system we use means that there are no useless rounds. Ray needed to play the fifth round; winning would guarantee top spot. Losing would open the door to any 4 and 1 player taking the championship based on how many points they picked up from the opponents that they had defeated.

In round 5, the best 3 and 1 player, against which Ray had not yet played, was John McDiarmid. John won as the Russians in AP23, Agony At Arnautovo, but Ray still ended up as the top point getter to win the tournament.

The mini-tournament, which featured VotG scenarios and RB scenarios, was a single elimination tournament won by Jean-Pierre Raymond. We intended the mini to be three rounds, but the other undefeated player, Ken Young, was unable to stay for the third round.

Multi-man Publishing supplied two prizes to us: Action Pack 3 “Few Returned” and Action Pack 4 “Normandy 1944”.

The Canadian ASL Association supplied plaques for the mini winner and the top three finishers of the main tournament. All plaque winners had their choice of an MMP prize or a CASLO souvenir.

FINAL RANKINGS

Player Record Points Final Rank Seed From
Ray Woloszyn 4-1 54 1 2 North Carolina
John McDiarmid 4-1 52 2 1 Ontario
Adrian Earle 4-1 50 3 3 Ontario
Jean-Pierre Raymond 4-1 46 4 9 Quebec
Wai Wong 3-2 36 5 6 Ontario
Chris Doary 3-2 34 6 7 Ontario
Bill Bird 3-2 33 7 4 Manitoba
Bruno L’Archeveque 3-2 33 8 5 Quebec
Ken Young 2-0 23 9 17 Ontario
Erik Lindblad 2-3 22 10 14 Quebec
Marcus Leja 2-3 21 11 8 Alberta
Michael Rodgers 2-2 21 12 10 Quebec
Blair Bellamy 1-3 13 13 15 Ontario
Russell Williams 1-4 12 14 13 Ontario
Eric Laimer 1-4 11 15 12 Ontario
Jeff Wasserman 1-2 11 16 11.5 Ontario
Andre Escobedo 1-4 11 17 11 Quebec
Keith Hill 0-2 0 18 16 Maine