Hello all!!!
First a little "housekeeping."
wicked wrote:Hellllooooo Steelhorse.

Hehehe, Hellllooooo wicked.
Hehehe, Hellllooooo Optimus.
happy2seeyou wrote:You forgot to mention my speech..

Note to self... don't give me a microphone after only 6 hours of sleep in 2 days and after a night of drinking that started at 2pm!
Truer words have never been spoken. The staff member who gave Happy a microphone was immediately reprimanded for making such an aggregious lack of judgement.
Now, on to business.
Wow...what can I say...it was an awesome weekend. Thanks to Sully for doing such a great job recapping the games, providing some great pictures, and summing up the whole weekend. I couldn't have recounted it any better myself.
I'll keep this short so as not to repeat Sully, but the best part of the weekend was meeting all the new faces of the friends I (we) have made on CC. It was great bringing both the RiskTOC and Conquer Club families together to share in one common passion---playing Risk.
Final numbers for the tourney were around 75 players (give or take a few). And, I believe we had about 10 CC'ers. The numbers were a bit down compared to previous years, but the CC'ers came through and made it very respectable.
A few shout-outs:
Carrot Khan- Carrot won her entry in the satellite tourney I ran a few months ago and flew in from Chicago just to play and hang out with us. I was really rooting for her, but she had a rough go of it, and ran in to some crummy luck early on. But, her dedication and sacrifice to be there did not go unnoticed or unappreciated. It was great to meet her and I look forward to seeing her again next year.
ourhero16 and chunk o meat- hero brought his 9 year old son to play. To me, this is what the game is all about...one generation sharing a great pasttime and passing it on to another. The love of the game was passed on to me by my dad, and chunk o meat is following in the same footsteps. Hero did great in the tournament, represented CC well, and his son is about 2 years away from kickin all our butts...trust me.
Happy2seeyou- Happy wasted no time in endearing herself to everyone(no surprise there

). She
drove 10 hours on Friday to play in the tourney, and then played in her first round game no less than a few hours after she arrived. Talk about love of the game!!!
Haucky- I have actually known Haucky for a few years. He is one of the tourney regulars (and past Champion) and has been coming for quite a few years now. As usual, it was great to see him again.
Sully800- Dude, it was great meeting you. I now have another friend in the area. We went out on the town (what little of it there is) Saturday night with Happy and her friend and had an absolute blast...closed the place down!!! Nuff said. And, Sully represented CC big time and did us all proud. Glad you enjoyed my "dodgeball" story...hehe...almost fell off his stool.
arkaxow- Here's the guy with the laptop. He, too, has been coming to the Risk tourney for a number of years. Talk about the ultimate gamer!! In between games, he was on his laptop playing more games, while the rest of us were catching our collective breaths from our previous games and mentally recooping to get ready for our next round. I had the chance to sit down and chat with ark for a while and he showed me the different gaming stuff he was in to. Very cool, bro...thanks for sharing and I'll see you next year.
wildstar- He was at my table in my first round game...and kicked my arse around the map...badly. Super nice guy, but I really don't like him very much.
Just kidding.
mbohn- Unfortunately, I didn't get to spend much time with mbohn. I think while he was playing, I was off, and vice versa. But, I know he did a great job and made it to the semi's. Way to represent and I hope to get to spend more time getting to know you next year.
She Wolf- you were truly missed.
Wow, I rambled on for longer than I expected. In closing, thanks again to all the CC'ers who participated. I know those numbers will grow and I look forward to meeting more of you.
I plan on holding 2 satellite tourney's this year for a seat in next year's tourney so stay tuned for the announcements (about 3 months and 6 months from now).
I may update this post if anything else pertinent comes to mind.
Till then, may the Dice Gods smile upon you.
Steelhorse