The end was anticlimatic but it was an excellent journey. Thanks everyone, especially Gilligan and Nate for their hard work.
I am sorry Croate decide to forfeit the final games, since I hadn't hit the magic # of 28 wins yet. I suppose 24 wins with an 8 game lead probably means I'd be the eventual winner, but if it were me, with as much time as we had invested in this, I'd have fought to the bitter end.
He did have a little streak of bad luck in our 2nd set of games. Not only did I go 1st in 8 of 13 games, he missed his 1st turn in 8 of those games. I don't think it was a dramatic turn of events, but it did help me seal the victory in 3 or 4 of the games. Since we probably split the rest, I think it gave me about an 8 game lead.
Thanks again everyone, this was my 1st tournament win. Being that "no spoils" is my least favorite, I'm a bit surprised to be here. I did get more confident as tourney went on, but many times I won my matches by only 1 game.
Joe B.