Excerpt: The last 2 qualifiers were held at the local Starbucks for a change. A total of 4 players were selected for the July29 Finals; two from each location. Find out who they are.

Location/Date: Starbucks - Bangsar New Village (July 8) and 1 Utama Old Wing (July 15)
Time: 2.00 PM onwards

SETTLERS OF CATAN MALAYSIA QUALIFERS #4 & #5 REPORT @ STARBUCKS 8/7/06 * 15/7/06
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!

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 #4 AT STARBUCKS BANGSAR VILLAGE - JULY 8, 2006
The Qualifier moved to Starbucks for the 1st time in the week of July 8th. We now have great designer games served in a designer cafe environment! Two Starbucks locations were chosen: Bangsar New Village and 1 Utama (Old Wing). Starbucks Bangsar have the honor of hosting the 1st of two Qualifiers at Starbucks.

The participants who registered were split into two groups of 8; one group competing in Bangsar on July 8th and the other group competing in 1 Utama the following week. From each location, two qualifiers would be selected for the July 29 Finals.

In both locations, they played two initial rounds of 4-player game to decide the top 4 finishers based on accumulative VPs from both games. The top 4 finishers then compete in one final round to decide the two qualifiers for the Finals.

The Bangsar group battled it out over the intial rounds till 6pm before they could decide the top 4 finishers, who then played one more decisive round to decide the two qualifiers. The two seats were won by two young men: Justin and Andrew whom we shall see more of them when they arrive for the July 29 Finals. Congrats!

Since Starbucks have smaller cafe-style round tables, the organizers used the Settlers of Catan Travel Set for these two qualifiers. The Travel Set plays by the same rules except that the Desert tile is fixed in the middle of the board, while the numbers distribution is also fixed in a permanent place on the board (see picture below). The resource tiles are shuffled and then randomly distributed across the board.

It's quite a handy design that you can easily pack into your travel bag and take it along with you on your travels. Me? I still prefer the full-board version as I think the larger tiles simply look visually more attractive.

So congrats to Justin and Andrew!

QUALIFIER #5 AT STARBUCKS 1 UTAMA (OLD WING) - JULY 15, 2006
The following week, the Qualifier switched from Bangsar to 1 Utama (Old Wing) where another group of 8 (different group from the July 8th) gathered to battle for the other two qualifying seats from Starbucks.

This group seems to play much faster as the top 4 finishers were ready to do the final round around 4pm. We have Trionaleo, Bryan, Hafyzan and Daniel for the final round. It looks like this line-up is arguably the strongest final round in the Qualifiers so far!

The final round players from 1Utama

After an hour or two of tense settling and dice-rolling, Trionaleo and Hafyzan were pretty much leading the pack with Trio having upgraded to 3 cities and Hafyzan having the Longest Road. Trionaleo finally ended the game by playing a Monopoly card (for ore), building 4 roads (snatching the Longest Road card from Hafyzan) and upgrading one of her settlements to a city for the final VP! Hafyzan in spite of having his Longest Road card snatched by Trionaleo still came second.

Congrats to Trionaleo and Hafyzan who shall join the other 12 qualifiers for the July 29 Finals. Another 2 more qualifying seats shall be contested next week at Panglobal Club.

RESULTS OF QUALIFIER #4 AND #5

	Justin Andrew
2 Winners: Trionaleo and Hafyzan	Trionaleo Hafyzan -------------------- Bryan Daniel   And a big THANK YOU to everyone who participated in this qualifier and helped to make these 2 rounds another success!

NEXT & LAST QUALIFIER: PANGLOBAL CLUB ON JULY 22 (SAT)
The next qualifier is also the last qualifying round before the Grand Finals the following week (Jul29). Therefore if you still have not qualify, then next week shall be your last chance to do so. Please REGISTER ASAP with the event organizer (refer to our site for organizer's contact number) as seats may be limited. There will be a total of 2 qualifying seats coming from this last round.

From the roster of the 14 qualifiers, it does look like the July 29 Grand Finals will boast a very strong Catan line-up! I bet it'll be a tense and exciting finale to these 2 months of qualifying rounds.

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

Click here for more photos of this event:
- Qualifier #4 at Starbucks Bangsar
- Qualifier #5 at Starbucks 1 Utama

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!

 > Settlers of Catan Malaysia 2006 event page <