Great
Lakes Area Great
Lakes Area 
by John Lawitzke
On Saturday, Jan. 11, I ran a DBA event at Spartacon in Lansing, MI. Six people played in the event, which was 50% growth over last year's event. All the players had played previously. So, I did not need to run a DBA school for them. This was a first for me. It is good to see the DBA player community for a Michigan convention grow enough to have experienced players showing up. Five of the players also brought their own armies. Spartacon runs with fixed, four hour slots. As a result, the official event ran for three rounds.
Just as I was starting the third round, I had two people walk up to me and ask if I could teach them how to play. One of them had been to one of my previous schools and events. He wanted a refresher and also wanted his buddy to learn how to play. So, I did get a chance to do some teaching. Also, after the official event, I offered to stick around for a bit before heading home and let anyone who wanted to to play a quick pick-up game. Two players took me up on that offer.
Kudos to Ted Bender for his well painted green and white Spartans including hand painted MSU Spartan logo on the shields. Since I am a MSU alumnus, I was tempted to award Ted bonus points for his army choice and paint scheme. :-)
Here are the results. Congratulations to Dennis Schroder who ended up winning the event. Dennis was the defending champion from Spartacon 2007. Has he begun a dynasty? We'll find out at Spartacon 2009...
Thanks to all who participated in this event! The next DBA event which I am planning to run will be at Battlefields 2008 in Dearborn, MI (Detroit area) on March 1, 2008 starting at 2pm. More details to follow.