Tournament

EuropeMasters 2004

Saturday 23rd of October 2004

After moving around from one games fair to the other, last year the European Championships were back at the Spiel in Essen. As the tournament does not have to move around anymore, the focus is back on the tournament, the sponsors, the games and the teams.

This reflected in the participation of 25 teams from 9 different nationalities: United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Suisse, Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic.

Also this year is the 5th anniversary of the EuropeMasters organization. Already 5 years organizing a big international event, run by gaming enthusiasts and volunteers. To celebrate this not 4 but 5 tournament games will be played.

Hansa

All teams arrived on time and quickly a start was made with Hansa. A tough game to start with.

And a game which can have a very long playing time. Of the games to be played Hansa had the highest deviation of training times. Luckely all players were able to complete Hansa in regular playing time, meaning that the playing schedule did not had to be altered and was rather stable for the rest of the tournament.

Ticket to Ride

This year the tournament games contain some award winning titles.
Ticket to Ride is one of those games and has received the "Spiel des Jahres" award for 2004.
As expected Ticket to Ride a fast gameplay and many colourful

tracks were arising on the playing boards.

Media Mogul

The championships are also sponsored by small firms. This year JKLM Games from the UK was contributing with their game Media Mogul.
Though Media Mogul had generated the most rule clarifaction questions during the training sessions, during the tournament the

Juan

Regarding Sanjuan as the card game version of Puerto Rico is more than an understatement! The game has the same settings, character roles and buildings from the board game but the game mechanics are completely different and much faster!!!

Maharaja

Maharaja is the second award winning game this year. Maharaja is the winner of the Dutch Spellenprijs award. An award elected by gamers.
A very challenging game to close a tournament. And it turned out to be a very decisive game for the overall ranking. At the start of Maharaja several teams were in the position for the European championships title.
A great way to end a tournament!

The end

After an exhausting day the brain cells received finally some rest. At least for the players. For the organisation the challenge was calculate, check and present the ranking asap after the last results were handed in...

Results of the teams

Germany	Die Magier von Midgard	70
Czech Republic	KPP Mamutek	69
France	Lille Old Squad	68
Germany	ESCH-Treff	68
Germany	Kölner Spiele Klüngel	65
Germany	Paluba	64
Czech Republic	Rembrandt???	64
England	The Largest Army	61
England	The Uninspired	60
Netherlands	Ik speel met groen !	59
Belgium	Speelduivel Leuven	57
England	Fistful of Dobbers	53
Netherlands	No License To Drive	52
Germany	Eiswürfel I	51,5
England	To Win Just Once	51
England	Three men & a foxy lady	51
Netherlands	La Belle Alliance	50
Italy	4 tonni superabili	50
France	C'hoarierienn Breizh	50
Netherlands	Gamepack	48
Italy	Venice & Co.	48
Austria	Spieleboxer Wien	45
France	Ludo'Schön	44,5
Italy	Quintet Dragon Store	43
Suisse	Les Marmottes Rieuses	33

The team results show that it has been a challenging tournament where, until the last move played, it was undecided who would be the European Champions of 2004. Note that per each game a team can score between 4 to a maximum of 20 points.

Top 5 individual players

France	Antoine Eloy	Lille Old Squad	25
Czech Republic	Vladimír Chvátil	KPP Mamutek	23
Germany	Peter Hoffmann	Kölner Spiele Klüngel	21
England	Mike Fisher	The Largest Army	21
Germany	Matthias Müller	Die Magier von Midgard	20

An incredible result of Antoine Eloy. He scored the maximum score possible. Straight 5 wins in a row!!!

It has been an exciting day. Months of preparation is bundled to a climax of a single day. From the organisation we would like to thank the players for the sportmanship, it is for us very awarding to see this behaviour and the fun you have. Also we would like to thank our sponsors. It is great to see that game manufacturers are willing to contribute to this event where players from all over Europe are able to meet and play against eachother. And last but not least I would like to thank my tema for their support this year: Han and Jean-Luc for their time as referee and my wife Marie-José for the wonderful playing schedule (and reschedules) and administrative tasks.

Hope to see you all next year! Good luck with the qualification rounds.

Nice dice,

Ronald.