Our team is now a well-oiled machine, designed with only one purpose: to translate wood and cardboard into the pure thrill of victory.

How did we assemble this team of Gauntletes, though? I'm glad you asked.

Other than myself, we had five Monolithers interested in competing, so I had to come up with a fair way to select the best. I created an in-house mini-tournament featuring five secretly-selected, five-player games, the Pentathalon.  All the participants arrived after work on Friday, March 4th, and no one was leaving until our team was complete.

Everyone brought their game faces, ready for anything. The brave competitors were:

Aaron Cooper
Eric Gross
Devin Kaas
Matt Kinzelman
Mohan Rajagopalan

First up, the classic tile-laying game, Carcassonne:



Second, the recently reprinted Knizia push-your-luck flea circus game, Circus Flohcati:



Third, the pepper-planting and cross-breeding game, Scoville:



Fourth, the quick dice-roller, Las Vegas:



Finally, to end the Pentathalon at the finish line, racing game Camel Up:



In the end, it was really tight. Anyone could have won, but here were the final scores:



I want to thank all these folks for throwing their hat into the ring. Any one of these guys would have been great to have on the team. Win or lose, I really appreciate all they are bringing to the table to help YouthCare.

---Matt