Hello TGA Members,
The 2025 TGA Major Tournament season is underway! A record-breaking Origins is in the books, with Gen Con coming up fast!
Origins 2025 Report: Two years ago, we set an all-time record for the number of individual players in our area at Origins. Last year we set a record for most games played. This year we shattered both of those records, for our largest Origins ever! We ran 477 games with 572 unique players! It was great to see everyone.
And, oh yeah, Chris Meyer won the PBT. Blew us all away in fact – that happens when you win five finals! But we’ve figured out his secret – he tells everyone he’s not trying to be competitive…until he wins his third final. We won’t let him get away with that line again, right? The Challenger competition was more interesting, with three contenders finishing in the PBT Top Ten. First-timer Mike O’Farrell used some insider strategy advice to stay competitive for most of the weekend and end up third in the Challenger. Robin Cottrell was happy to finish second in the Challenger but even happier to finish far ahead of her husband. The Challenger winner and second-place finisher overall, was Alex McConnell. And yes, if the name sounds familiar – he is related to last year’s Challenger winner.
Thirteen people posted wins in four categories, so we’ll report the Top Thirteen here: Chris Meyer, Alex McConnell, Shiv Chopra, Alan Borowski, Jeff Jackson, Robin Cottrell, Phil Cottrell, Mark Liberman, Mike O’Farrell, David Hooton, Ken Bachman, David Belew, and Devin McCullen.
The Iron Man competition came down to a two-person race. Dave Hooton took home the plaque, with nothing worse than a second-place across his eight category scores. Mark Liberman finished a close second, with seven strong scores in his eight categories… let’s just say Mark should brush up on his Empire Builder skills for next time. Others posting eight category scores were Mike O’Farrell and Boris Baidacoff. The Iron Man top ten were: Dave Hooton, Mark Liberman, Phil Cottrell, Jeff Jackson, Tricia Hermon, David Thomen, Chris Meyer, Mike O’Farrell, Robin Cottrell and Boris Baidacoff.
Congratulations to Chris, Alex, Dave, and everyone else, and a huge “thank you!” to our volunteers who gave up their time to make things run for the TGA.
Gen Con. July 31 – August 3. Indianapolis Indiana. With Gen Con just a few weeks away, we have breaking news on several fronts:
- In case you missed the last email, we’ll be in a much better location this year – in the Westin hotel, in Grand Ballroom IV. That’s a much larger and nicer space than we had last year.
- We’re going to dedicate some of that extra space to be a teaching area for the very popular Brass: Birmingham and Great Western Trail games. If you’ve been meaning to learn those games, this is your big chance!
- Plus, our long-time sponsors at Days of Wonder will be providing special prizes for our Ticket to Ride tournaments – brand new copies of their soon-to-be-released game, Northern Lights – before they are available to the public!
- Finally, our friends at Darwin’s Toys tell us they *hope* to have an early production copy of the new Empire Builder: Europe game. And they will definitely have some of their newest prototype games.
- And, of course, we’ll run the usual schedule of games and tournaments.
Megan Harper will be our Head Conductor (with Jeff Jackson assisting), along with Amy Beery running HQ. We could still use a few more volunteers. If you’re willing, please send a note to David Belew at volunteer@traingamers.com). Our (near-final) playing schedule is posted on the TGA website. Puffing Billy ribbons (unlimited play in our area) are now available for purchase ($30). Generics or paper event tickets also work.
Railcon. October 15-19. Courtyard Hotel, Schaumburg Illinois. Our Train Gamers Train Gaming convention = All train games, all the time. And this one determines the winner of our biggest yearly prize: the Darwin and Peter Bromley Memorial National Championship! Jeff will be Head Conductor, Amy will again manage registration and scoring, and half the attendees will help run things. We’ll have warm-up events on Wednesday evening, with the main event running Thursday through Sunday. Badges are on sale at the Early Bird price until August 15, then it’s full price. Hotel rooms are available for booking now. There are two room blocks this year, which both include free breakfast. You can book 1-5 nights for $156/night, or you can extend your vacation and book for six or more nights for $129/night. You can book through the appropriate link on the TGA website store, or from here:
Regular Block (1-5 nights) – Book your group rate for Train Gamers
Extended Stay (6+ nights) – Book your group rate for Train Gamers Extended Stay
Regionals and other Tournaments of note:
- MidSumCon XXVI – July 9-13, 2025, Chicago IL, Conductor Anthony Carver
- WBC – July 26 – August 3, 2025, Champion PAindividual game tournaments
- EuroQuest – November 5-9, 2025, Annapolis MD, Conductor Pierre LeBoeuf
- Pax Unplugged, November 21-23, 2025, Philadelphia PA, Conductor David Belew
It was great to see all of you folks who attended Origins. I hope to see even more of you at Gen Con. And Railcon! Start making your plans if you haven’t already done so!
Ken Bachman
TGA Secretary