Only two weeks before the Second Annual World Boardgame Championships get underway in Marriott's Hunt Valley Inn in Hunt Valley, MD on August 1st-6th. There is still time to register for the biggest gaming event of the year ... you do not have to be a member to attend, play, and walk off with all the BPA Awards. Come one, come all to the biggest pure boardgaming showdown on the planet.

Longtime ASL GM Russ Gifford has been forced to withdraw due to the press of work obligations, but Multi-Man Publications has come rushing to the rescue in a big way. Not only will they host the ASL event, but they have offered over $1,000 worth of merchandise credits as supplementary prizes for all events in their games. The ASL scenario list is now posted on the ASL event page at http://www.boardgamers.org/yearbook/aslpge.htm

The six winners in MMP Prize Level 6 events (ASL, Breakout Normandy, Britannia) will receive MMP merchandise certificates for $100, $50, $30, $20, $10 and $10 respectively.

The three winners in MMP Prize Level 3 events (GCA 1862 & 1863, Bitter Woods, Up Front) will receive MMP merchandise certificates for $50, $30, $20 respectively. The Great Campaigns Newcomers tournament will also receive $30, $20 and $10 credits.

The two winners in MMP Prize Level 2 events (Wrasslin', Wrasslin' Battle Royal) will receive MMP merchandise certificates for $40 or $20 respectively.

The winners of MMP Prize Level 1 events (Wrasslin' Junior, Wrasslin' Tag Team, and Maharaja) will each receive $20 merchandise credits.

Programs were mailed to all domestic pre-registrants of record on July 1st. All others must pick up their copy on site.

TEAM TOURNAMENT: If you think you are registered for the WBC Team Tournament, better check your status on our website at http://www.boardgamers.org/teams00.htm. Teams must have four pre-registered players to be valid. If even one of your players hasn't done his duty, your team will be disqualified. Check your team's status and read about the new Self-Scoring system designed to speed the posting of the results during the convention. You only have until July 25th to make substitutions or corrections.

PRE-REGISTRATION: All members, past and present, are reminded that you must pre-register by July 25th in order to claim any free admissions to which you are entitled. You may NOT claim free admissions at the door. Those registering online at http://www.boardgamers.org/forms/prereg.htm are reminded that AOL and certain other ISPs are NOT compatible with our submission software. If you have not received a confirming email within 48 hours of attempting to register online, you are NOT pre-registered. If you owe no payment, you may pre-register instead by sending your name, address, and events played by ordinary email to doncon99@toad.net.

BEWARE: Those of you who refuse to pre-register and just enter whatever the spirit moves you are doing so at your own risk. If you arrive too late to pick up your badge, you are out of luck that night - but had you pre-registered for that event you could play without the badge. Likewise, if you lose your badge either temporarily or permanently, you're out of luck. Replacement badges will have to be purchased. But if you had pre-registered for your event, you could play without it. A few minutes invested now can save anguish later. You've been forewarned!

SOUVENIRS: Last year's hit souvenir WBC t-shirts will be even better this year. The surprise full-color logo will be printed on a pebble background (the same color adorning last year's Centurion shirts). This year the Century winners will be toting metallic-gray laurels. If you want a souvenir shirt or hat, be sure to pre-order them. We can make only as many as we have orders for by July 25th.

NEED A ROOM?: Every year about this time I get inquiries like this one: "I made a reservation with the HVI, and they had rooms, but said they were "sold out of the convention rate", so they'll only rent me a room for a much higher rate. Can they do that? Do they really only give you a limited number of rooms at con rate?"

Yes and No. There are indeed a limited number of rooms in our block ... 325 out of 396. They will not give us more than 325. They are well within their rights to hold those last 71 rooms for their going rate for their regular business. However, as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, they will receive dozens of cancellations between now and August. Your fellow convention attendees are your worst enemy. They reserve rooms early and cancel them at the last minute when they make other arrangements - leaving vacancies to be filled by people who have inquired after you. Our contract with HVI requires them to keep a waiting list and notify you if a room becomes available. Also, their computer can show a sellout for Tuesday night, but hide the fact that rooms are available for Wednesday, or other such combinations. Inquire about following nights also. Call again and request to be put on that waiting list. But I do know that as of my 6/29 meeting at HVI, they were not yet sold out. In the meantime, there are many other hotels in the area listed on our webpage ... some of which compare favorably rate wise ... especially if you are driving. But you need to act now ... the Hampton Inn cutoff for our convention rate is July 1st, the HVI and Day's Inn is July 11th, and the Courtyard by Marriott is July 19th. If you have absolutely exhausted all other sources, you can contact me at doncon99@toad.net and I'll see what I can do.

PBeM NEWS: The third and final preliminary round of the BPA Gangsters PBEM tournament has come to a close. Congratulations to Bob "Strings" Hamel, Pitt "Sluggo" Crandlemire, and Eddie "The Hat" Campisano on their victories this round! A special congratulations to Michael "The Nose" Anchors for his third consecutive victory and finishing the preliminaries with a perfect record! Maybe we'll have to start believing him when he says that the Bus Station Strategy is the best!

After taking into account all tournament points scored in all three rounds plus tie-breakers, the final point tally is as follows:

Criminal Mastermind	This Round	Round Points	Total Points	Start Rating	Tie Break
Mike "The Nose" Anchors	1st	10	30	1640	-
Mark "Ladykiller" Love	2nd	5	25	1482	-
John "The Viper" Pack	2nd	5	20	1689	-
Pitt "Sluggo" Crandlemire	1st	10	17	1633	14,009
Kaarin "The Enforcer" Engelmann	2nd	5	17	1514	13,819
Bob "Strings" Hamel	1st	10	17	1676	13,810
Mark "The Machine" Boone	N/A	0	15	1481	-
Eugene "Easy Z" Zehner	2nd	5	12	1469	13,457
Forrest "Hatchet Man" Speck	N/A	0	12	1513	9,350
Damon "The Fisherman" Hogan	4th	0	10	1480	2nd
Jason "Sticky Fingers" Wagner	N/A	0	10	1590	1st
Peter "The Wolf" Martin	3rd	2	9	1480	-
Walt "Brooklyn Boy" Somerville	N/A	0	5	1500	-
Jim "Mr. Nice Guy" Rochford	3rd	2	4	1615	14,064
Kevin "Ice Pick" LeRow	3rd	2	4	1493	13,769
"Greedy" Glenn Vogt	3rd	2	2	1500	14,165
Paul "Da Spider" Bolduc	4th	0	2	1489	13,711
Bob "Bobby Two Fingers" Jamelli	4th	0	0	1460	-
Wayne "The Sandman" Morrison	4th	0	0	1500	-
Jeremy "The Menace" Henrichon	N/A	0	0	1457	-
John Ellsworth	N/A	0	0	1445	-
Frank Sinigaglio	N/A	0	0	1463	-
Larry "Skumbag" Lingle	N/A	0	0	1500	-
Tery "The Terminator" Gaudet	N/A	0	0	1523	-
Stephanie "Stephmeister" Mayes	N/A	0	0	1716	-

Per the format, the tie-breakers applied are: 1st) Head-to-head competition 2nd) Total AREA Rating of all opponents.

Sadly, the first tie-breaker didn't affect the critical 4th place position (the last spot qualifying for the finals). Instead, the total AREA ratings (as of the start of the tournament) were used. Check the website (http://www.gameaholics.com/gangsters_status.htm). There will be extensive coverage of the final posted -- every turn will feature a map and summary of moves plus any player commentary/banter going on. The "Series Replay" lives on on the net.

As usual, if you no longer wish to receive BPA email newsletters, simply reply with the word "REMOVE". Be sure to list the actual name and email address to which the newsletter was sent. On the other hand, if you do want to be kept up to date on the World Boardgame Championships, advise us of any change in address - either snail mail or email.

Check out the BPA website at http://www.boardgamers.org/ We've added several new event pages.