2006 ASL Team Tournament TD Report

Well, the fourteenth edition of the Austin ASL Team Tournament event is now in the books. The tournament was held in Austin, TX from June 22nd through June 25th, 2006. This year we had a good turnout of 33 players joining us from all over Texas and from points as far away as Ohio, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. They showed up to battle it out for the many honors we had available for the taking.

As has been the case over the last few years, the doors opened on Thursday morning to open gaming. Thursday gaming counted toward the Major Johnson award – given to the person who plays the most ASL over the course of the weekend; the Minor Johnson – given this year in celebration of the release of Armies of Oblivion to the person who played the greatest number of scenarios involving a minor power; the Audie Murphy and Col. Klink awards – given for the greatest number of snakes and boxcars respectively; and prizes to the person(s) who playtested the greatest number of Pete Shelling and Heat Of Battle scenarios over the weekend.

By coincidence, the beginning of the tourney also corresponded with the 65th anniversary of the start of Operation Barbarossa. In recognition of the event, Zeb Doyle conceived a great remembrance mini. He created two relevant scenarios and came up with a unique team/scenario scoring format that did a good job of taking out scenario imbalances as evidenced by the fact that the difference between the eventual first and second place teams was just one point. Zeb distributed German and Russian themed t-shirts to the participants (very cool!), and also created a booklet with well written articles covering the finer points of pillboxes, platoon movement, and naval OBA that we are going to make available as a Banzai!! Special Edition on the Central Texas ASL website (www.texas-asl.com) and was also made available to the participants. At the end of the day, the winners of the mini were Matt Shostak of Austin and John Van Marter of Capitan, NM.

Friday open play began counting towards the meat of the tournament: the team honors and the top individual awards. As a part of the weekend activities, the ASL Team Tournament also offered a Saturday only, one-day mini-tournament, punctuated by a full BBQ dinner provided by Pok-e-Jo's on 5th Street. We call it the “Texas Heat”. It is a unique format where players are pitted against each other not only across the playing board, but also compared against combined results of their fellow Axis or Allied commanders. A field of 12 played two scenarios: Abandon Ship (WCW5) and A Hotly Contested Crossroads (DB35). Glen Gray (Addison, TX) wound up as the top Allied Commander and Russell Mueller (Dallas) garnered the top Axis Commander accolades.

All the action concluded with the final big matches on Sunday that determined the team champions, and saw it pit the top undefeated players against each other to crown the “10-3” individual champion and “9-2” runner-up. When the dust settled the Team winners were Jack O’Quin (Austin) and Doyle Motes (Houston), the “9-2” runner up was Zeb Doyle (Austin), and the “10-3” superman was Jim Ferrell of Fort Worth. Congratulations, gentlemen!

We were able to get a lot of folks in on the winning action this year by being able to give out a number of door prizes thanks to the generous support of the folks at Bunker Hill Games and Against the Odds magazine!

We closed the books on the 14th Annual ASL Team Tournament, the last of the gear was packed, and most of the folks had headed back to the real world. It is really incredible to have all of these great players together for several days of competition, camaraderie and just plain ol’ fun. I hope that you can join us in Austin next year as we look to see who will be the champions of our 15th Annual ASL Team Tournament. To all, please mark your calendars for June 21st through June 24th, 2006 and plan on being here!

I want to thank the many folks who helped me pull all of this together: John Hyler for getting the trophies and setting up the tournament room; Mike Seningen for his sage advice, handling treasurer duties and running the Texas Heat; Matt Shostak for helping pick the Heat scenarios; Zeb Doyle for his Barbarossa mini; Glenn Schools for helping clean up the place the end of each day; Sam Tyson and Jeff Toreki for the use of their coolers; Kevin Kenneally for his vocal support on the Forum; and many others.

Of course I want to extend my sincere appreciation to the following sponsors for their generous support of the ASL Team Tournament:
The La Quinta Inn for providing us gaming space
Against the Odds Magazine
Boulder Games
Bunker Hill Games
Dispatches from the Bunker
Fanatic Enterprises
The Gamer’s Armory
Heat of Battle
Lone Canuck Publishing
Multi-Man Publishing
SoCal ASL Club

Here is the complete list of prize winners (and their booty):

• Team Champions: Jack O’Quin and Doyle Motes (engraved cups, SoCal Melee Packs and Lone Canuck Tournament Packs)
• 10-3 Champion: Jim Ferrell (engraved cup, MMPs Fire in the Sky)
• 9-2 Runner-up: Zeb Doyle (engraved cup, gift certificate from Boulder Games)
• Texas Heat: Glen Gray and Russell Mueller (gift certificates from The Gamer’s Armory)
• Major Johnson: Jerry Simmons [Denton, TX] (engraved cup, subscription to Dispatches from the Bunker)
• Minor Johnson: Matt Shostak (engraved cup)
• Audie Murphy: Bill Hayward [Cleveland, OH] (engraved cup)
• Col. Klink: John Garlic [Weslaco, TX] (engraved cup)
• HOB Playtest Prize: Mike Cadieux [Oklahoma City, OK] (a copy of Russia’s Heroes)
• Pete Shelling Playtest Prize: Glenn Schools [Fort Worth, TX] (Fanatic Enterprises Fanatic Pack #4) and Tom Gillis [Houston] (ASLOK XX Anniversary t-shirt)
• Barbarossa mini: Matt Shostak and John VanMarter (engraved plaques)

The complete list of participants and all their scores is available from this blog.

Thanks, as always, to the ASL players themselves, who choose to make the ASL Team Tournament one of their ASL tournament stops each year. Without you guys, there would be no ASL Team Tournament. Thanks again!

Rick