Site last updated: 31 October 2020

Welcome to the home of the 2020 Boardgame Players Association War at Sea tournament. This was the 13th BPA tournament to be conducted online, either on a play-by-email (PBEM) basis or - for the first time this year - in real time via VASSAL. This year's tournament was run by two GMs, Darren Kilfara and Jonathan Lockwood.

WE HAVE A CHAMPION! Many congratulations to Jonathan Lockwood, who defeated Jim Kramer in a closely contested Final that lasted all eight turns. Jim had been undefeated until the Final, but co-GM Jonathan proved himself once again to be a master gamer as well as a gamesmaster. With his victory, Jonathan has become the first three-time winner of the BPA email tournament, in addition to his two victories in the War at Sea tournament at the World Boardgame Championships.

TOURNAMENT FORMAT: As a reminder, this year's tournament consists of a double-elimination Preliminary Stage followed by a single-elimination Knockout Stage: the latter will begin at the end of the round of games in which either a) only one player remains undefeated and untied, or b) two players remain undefeated and untied and there are eight or fewer players with one loss. For more information about the tournament format and other rules and guidelines, click on the relevant links at the top of the page.

Each round in this year's tournament was expected to last no more than 16 days. Players entering the tournament must therefore complete each of their games in just over two weeks (spanning three full weekends). The default method is that all games should be played on VASSAL in real time, but asynchronous PBEM games will be allowed between players with proven track records of being able to move quickly and complete an average of one PBEM turn in less than 48 hours.

END-OF-GAME REPORTING: When you finish your game, please make sure either you or your opponent reports all of the following pieces of information to the GM(s):

• The game number of your game (as shown in the pairings for the current round)
• Which side each player was
• What the final bid was (and who made it)
• Who won the game
• How many turns the game lasted before it finished
• What the final POC margin was (after the bid) when the game finished, even if before the end of eight full turns
• Whether to the best of your knowledge you and your opponent had ever played each other in an AREA-rated game before this one