I have returned home from vacation, specifically, from the World Boardgaming Championships in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania. This is an event that my family looks forward to all year, from my husband who is super competitive and wants to play everything, to my daughter who isn’t much into gaming but loves hanging out at the ski resort. It’s always a good time and this year was no exception.
Tournament-wise, it was probably my most successful year. Although I never made it to a final table, I qualified for three different semifinals – Small World, Five Tribes, and Alhambra – a huge surprise for me since those are not games that I play all that much. I also go to play other games that I love, like Azul, Sagrada, Cascadia, Ticket to Ride, Lords of Waterdeep, Las Vegas, Liar’s Dice, Space Base, and Can’t Stop.
While I had a pretty good year, my husband had an awesome one. He made it to two final tables, taking 2nd place overall in RA: The Dice Game and 4th place overall in Lords of Waterdeep. Needless to say, he was pretty excited about it.
It’s always nice to catch up with some of the friends we’ve made over the years and also meet lots of new people who are just as nerdy as we are (if not more). It’s a great atmosphere and, while there is an air of competitiveness, there is also a lot of effort made into making people feel welcome, especially if they are new to the hobby.
Some pictures:
Small World
Cascadia
Sagrada
Alhambra
Las Vegas (also called Vegas Dice)
Five Tribes
The view from our balcony, showing the chair lift and alpine slide.
Another view from the balcony looking towards the rest of the resort.
It’s not all staying inside for boardgames – we spent nearly a whole day at the pool, too!
Blog schedule will go back to normal this week – I tried to have a bunch of stuff prewritten, but didn’t have as much time as I needed to finish up everything before heading up north.
Thanks for the memories, WBC! Can’t wait for next year!
Categories: Drabbles
Life With No Plot 
This sounds like an excellent vacation, I’ve never heard of this event but If I ever get the chance I’d love to go. So many fun games and congrats to you and your husband for making it to so many semifinals and finals! There’s a bunch of games from your list that I want to try but I like Small World and Sagrada 😀 Plus spending time by the pool sounds lovely right about now, It’s been boiling outside lol
That was the nice thing about being in the mountains – it was about 10 degrees cooler up there and a lot less humid!
WBC is so much fun. It’s a great atmosphere and there are so many fun people there who just love to play games. Some get a bit competitive, but it’s all in the spirit of having a good time.
That sounds like a wonderful vacation all the way around then 🙂
haha yes I would imagine it could get quite intense at times but as long as everyone is having fun and not being sore losers/winners then that sounds amazing! I adore playing board games but a lot of the time I need reminders of rules so I don’t know how I would be in a tournament setting hahah!
They are very welcoming. Nearly all of the GMs run a demo session to teach folks how to play the games and then encourage them to try to play in a heat. I’ve been a newbie at a table and I’ve also been an experienced player who was glad to answer questions. It’s a good atmosphere all around.
Oh that’s nice 🙂 That sounds like such a great environment of like-minded board game lovin’ geeks 😍🥰 (aka the best)
That sounds like the coolest vacation ever!!!! And I want to go on that alpine slide!!!!
I’ll admit, I did not go on the alpine slide. I’ve been on it before, but thrill rides are just not my thing. I rode up the chairlift with my daughter and her friend and then just rode the chair lift back down. It’s a really nice ride though, with really nice views of the mountains.
And yes, it is an awesome vacation. We look forward to it every year.