Excerpt: The 2nd Qualifier for the Msian Catan Finals 2006 continued at ToyBox the latest gaming centre in Paramount Garden, attracting even more participants than the previous qualifier! 24 players now vied to be selected for the July 29 Finals.

Participants (in alphabetical order): Adrian Foo, AndyPutra, Azlan, Azmin, Benjamin Lam, Chew Foon Ming, Chong Hsu-Yeung, Dawn Chin, Edwin Wong, Fahimi, Foo Tun Ching, Foo Tun Ziet, Hafyzan, Jared, Jason Chew, Jeffrey Au, Loco, Nicholas Booi, Ng Kok Keong, Ng Seow Teng, Pan Kok Sheng, Soon Keat, Vincent Chan, Wong Qi Shaun

Location: ToyBox, Paramount Garden
Date/Time: 24 June 06 (Sat) 2.30 PM onwards

SETTLERS OF CATAN MALAYSIA QUALIFERS #2 REPORT @ TOYBOX 24/6/06
by Jeffrey Au (jack208)

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ABOUT THE COMPETITION
For the 1st time this year, Malaysia has been given two seats for the Settlers of Catan World Championship in Spiel 06 (Essen, Germany). What's the prize for being given the chance to represent Malaysia in Essen?

• One return airfare (economy) to Essen, Germany
• Accommodation for two nights
• Entry to Spiel ‘06 (largest designer games convention in the world) for four days
• And of course, be one of the two gamers representing Malaysia for the Settlers of Catan World Championship! You get to compete with the best Catan players worldwide!

The 1st Qualifier was held at Games Circle (read event report here) two weeks ago in which 4 players were chosen to play in the Msia Finals. Yesterday even more players converged at Toybox to fight for the next 2 Finals places in this 2nd Qualifier. There'll be 4 more qualifying rounds before the chosen 16 meet on July 29 for the Finals. Where are the other venues?

• Boardgamecafe.net (Cheras) - 2 seats
• Starbucks (Bangsar) - 2 seats
• Starbucks (1 Utama Old Wing) - 2 seats
• Panglobal Club (Jalan Tandang) - 2 seats

Players hanging around the game table waiting for the qualifying rounds to start

OVERVIEW OF TOURNAMENT FORMAT FOR SoC MALAYSIA (recap)
Let me start by giving an overview picture of how this tournament will run. The Finals shall be held on July 29 (Sat) with a group of 16 qualifiers who shall compete over a few rounds to determine the 4 finalists. These 4 then compete in one final round to determine the 1st and 2nd position, who shall be nominated as Malaysia's representative for the Settlers of Catan World Championship in Spiel 06 (Oct 19-22, 2006).

We will be running six SoC Qualifier events between 10 June till 22 July to select 16 qualifiers to participate in the July 29 Finals where the top 2 winners shall be representing Malaysia in the Settlers of Catan World Championship in Germany.

The venues for the 6 Qualifiers are:

• 3/12/2005 GAMECON1 (last year) - 2 seats
• 10/6/2006 Games Circle - 4 seats
• 24/6/2006 Toybox - 2 seats
• 1/7/2006 Boardgamecafe.net - 2 seats
• 8/7/2006 Starbucks Bangsar - 2 seats
• 15/7/2006 Starbucks 1 Utama - 2 seats
• 22/7/2006 Panglobal Club - 2 seats

There is no entry fee for entering the qualifiers, they are completely FREE (and there's also no prize for winning the qualifier except for a seat in the July 29 Finals). And you can enter as many qualifiers as you wish - until you manage to get selected for the Finals! Therefore the earlier you join the qualifiers, the more chances you will get.

For a complete schedule of the Qualifier events and contact details for registration, please visit the Settlers of Catan Msia 2006 event page.

QUALIFIER #2 AT TOYBOX - JUNE 24, 2006
The Qualifier moved to Paramount Garden yesterday as a total of 24 participants registered to compete for the 2 Final places. Nicholas (Toybox) briefed the participants on the competition format and tournament rules. Toybox used the knock-out format as follow:

• Round 1: 24 players compete over 6 tables. The top 2 finishers from each table plus four best 3rd finishers shall proceed to Round 2.
• Round 2: 16 players compete over 4 tables. The top 2 finishers from each table shall proceed to Round 3.
• Round 3: 8 players compete over 2 tables. The top 2 finishers from each table shall proceed to the Final Round.
• Final Round: 4 players compete on one table to determine the top 2 finishers who shall qualify for the July 29 Finals.

Round 1 gets underway...

Specific rules or etiquettes mentioned:

• Setup is as per the standard setup in page 13-14 of the Almanac
• Player to count their game items before game commences - 5 settlements, 4 cities and 15 roads
• Highest of 2D6 starts the game, and next player in clockwise order.
• When a player decides to end his/her turn, say "Pass" and hand over the dice to the next player.
• The 2D6 dice must be rolled properly; not dropped or rolled from a low height
• If one or more dice is tipped more than half or drops to the floor, re-roll BOTH dice
• Players can only talk to the active player; offering and accepting trades
• No suggestions or table talk to be made when another player is taking his turn
• No transitive player trading is allowed; e.g. player 1 offering an item for player 2 to be passed to player 3 later
• Any resource production not collected in the active turn is deemed to be lost when the active player has passed his turn to the next player
• Game ends immediately when a player has reached 10 VPs.

• In the event of players tied on VPs, 2D6 is used to resolve ties.

The competition was hard and fast... in some tables, getting 9 VPs (winner on 10 VP) only gets you a tie-position for 2nd/3rd and you have to roll 2D6 to determine who's 2nd and who's 3rd. After 3 hard hours of settling and trading in Catan, the last 8 were ready to vie to be in the final round of this Qualifier....

The last 8 players fought over 2 tables

The competition was so intense, none of the participants wanted to stop for dinner and instead opted to continue with the Final Round at 7.30pm to determine the top 2 finishers who'll get to play in the July 29 Malaysia Finals.

Shaun, Foo Tun Ziet, Benjamin and Andy were the four fighting for the 2 qualifier seats.

The 4 finalists for this qualifier - Shaun, Foo, Benjamin and Andy

Shaun (pictured above) achieved the distinction of being the youngest SoC qualifying player at just 11 year-old! Well done Shaun!

RESULTS OF QUALIFIER #2

Top 2 Winners: Foo Tun Ziet and Andyputra

Andyputra Foo Tun Ziet -------------------- Benjamin Lam Wong Qi Shaun   And a big THANK YOU to everyone who participated in this qualifier and helped to make this round a successful one!

NEXT QUALIFIER: BOARDGAMECAFE.NET (CHERAS) ON JULY 1 (SAT)
Those who did not qualify for the Finals yesterday can continue with your quest at the 3rd Qualifier which will be held at Boardgamecafe.net in Cheras (Yulek).

For those who are not familiar with Cheras or need transportation, Jeffrey will be arranging to transfer some participants from Games Circle (DJ) at 1.00 pm. Please contact him (mobile: 012-2176828) to make arrangement or to register for the event.

To know more information and to register for this qualifier, click here.

A big KUDOS to Nic, Vincent and Fong (Toybox), Edwin (PGI), and everyone else who helped make this another great SoC Qualifier! See you all next week at Boardgamecafe.net Cheras!

Meantime, Brazil plays Ghana tonight. :)

Click here for more photos of this event.
To discuss this event, visit our forum in BoardgameCafe.net

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