I would like to start out by saying I'm sorry to the participants of the arena, especially the winners. The reason is that in the confusion of cleaning up the area after the bloody event, some of the papers got thrown out. Hmmmm...., maybe one of the defeated foes wanted to erase their record . (Just kidding).

I'd like to say I was very pleased with the participation, over seventeen people played at least one game . Eleven of them qualified for the final results. This is because it requires three games to qualify for a gladiator position, but we welcome anyone who just sits down to play a game or two vs. one of the feared gladiators.

The rules are simple, sign your name, pick your opponent, sit down and play. If you bring your own armies, that's fine. We also brought four biblical and two triumph of cavalry armies all ready to play for those who just wanted to test drive a few games. The Arena format allows people to play without commitment, but once you've played three games and at least two different opponents, well then you've inadvertently just became a gladiator.

The real fun part about the arena is the lack of rules. To play someone, all you have to do is just meet that person's criteria. What I mean is, as long as both players agree to a game, its conditions, and its fairness. Then just tell the judge the results, and go find yourself another victim (or go play something else).

Well here's the technical part. The scoring is based on victories vs. your opponents win / loss ratio. So, if you play someone who hasn't won a game all day, he might improve your ego but not your score by much. So if you 're looking to win, you have to find and defeat an opponent who has been beating other players. "That's it."

Well the show was lots of laughs, and a few new faces. Some never played an Armati game before. One even finished in the top three gladiator positions. And at next year's show, we even got some promises for prizes. And Jeff Lista and I, will bring even more pick up armies for player to jump in and play a game or two.

In conclusion, I would like to say, that this format is much better for the players who don't want to spend an entire day committed to playing ancients. "thumbs down." For example; one player had a game in the morning. Then proceeded to play in a WWII game. Then came back at two o'clock and was done with two games by four! Now that's my kind of tournament. I hope you can see the fun in it. If so, I'll see you at next year's Hurricon.