Excerpt: From Damansara and PJ, the Qualifier for the Msian Catan Finals 2006 proceeded to Cheras where two more candidates were successful in getting selected for the Jul29 Finals.

Participants (in alphabetical order): Alan Woon, Foo Tun Ching, Jamie Chen, Kok Keong, Lai Wah, Wai Yan, Jeff Au

Location: Boardgamecafe.net, Cheras
Date/Time: 1 July 06 (Sat) 2.30 PM onwards

SETTLERS OF CATAN MALAYSIA QUALIFERS #3 REPORT @ BOARDGAMECAFE 1/7/06
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!

Two Qualifiers were held at Games Circle and ToyBox in which 6 players were chosen to play in the Msia Finals. Yesterday two more players were successfully selected for the Jul29 Finals. There'll only be 3 more qualifying rounds before the chosen 16 meet on July 29 for the Finals. Where are the other venues?

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

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 #3 AT BOARDGAMECAFE.NET - JULY 1, 2006
The Qualifier moved to Cheras where a smaller group of enthusiastic Catan players gathered to compete for the privilege of appearing in the July 29 Finals. We decided to do a 2-round Swiss format where the top 4 finishers from both rounds shall play in a final round to select the 2 qualifiers.

Standard SoC tournament rules apply and in this Swiss format, the points awarded for each round are 6, 4, 2, 0 with victory points used as tiebreaker. In the event of tie even on VPs, best of three roll of 2D6 shall determine the winner of the tiebreak.

The 1st All-Ladies SOC round in the Malaysia Qualifier!

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.

After a couple of hours fighting over 2 rounds, the top 4 finishers were Alan, Kok Keong, Foo Tun Ching and Lai Wah. They now compete over 1 round of SOC to determine the top two winners who shall play in the July 29 Finals.

The 4 finalists for this qualifier (L-R): Lai Wah, Alan Woon, Kok Keong and Foo Tun Ching

The Final Round was a very tense and closely-fought competition as Lai Wah quickly stormed to a 3 cities lead with 2 cities on Ore production and another 2 sitting on Wood. And they were very productive too.... Frequent throws of 5 and 8 produced ample ores and wood for her. Lai Wah was seen trading 3 ore for other resources when the other players were in short demand of ore! 

Alan decided to build the Longest Road while Foo settled on arming the Largest Army in Catan. Alan made full use of his Longest Road to maximize his resources to race ahead and win the game (10 pts) while Foo narrowly nicked the 2nd place (and join his elder brother who qualified last week at Toybox) by having one VP development card!

RESULTS OF QUALIFIER #3

Top 2 Winners: Alan Woon and Foo Tun Ching

Alan Woon Foo Tun Ching -------------------- Lai Wah Kok Keong   And a big THANK YOU to everyone who participated in this qualifier and helped to make this round a successful one!

NEXT QUALIFIER: STARBUCKS (BANGSAR) ON JULY 1 (SAT)
Those who did not qualify for the Finals yesterday can continue with your quest at the 4th Qualifier which will be held at Starbucks in Bangsar New Village.

To know more information and to register for this qualifier, click here. See you all next week at Starbucks!

Click here for more photos of this event.
To discuss this event, visit our forum in BoardgameCafe.net
If you wish to join our boardgames meetups, sign up now at KL Boardgames Meetup!

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