OBJECTIVE:
May's GASP Open will feature a game of "It" tag. The event will be held at the Cowtown Arena. Each participant will have $15,000 to design a vehicle, plus $1,000 to equip his/her driver and/or gunner. The game will start with a random person being chosen as "It". Only the person who is "It" may fire direct fire weapons (Dropped weapons by other combatants are not limited). The car that is "It" has 5 turns to tag someone else with a direct fire weapon. After that, they lose 3 points. Each person will start with +6 points. 2 points will be lost for being tagged "It" (the car chosen to be "It" randomly at the start of a game is not penalized). 1 point is gained for tagging someone else. Normal points are applied for kills and losses (5 points for full kill, -2 for having car killed). If a participant goes to 0 points or less, they are disqualified. Tag backs are not allowed for 5 full phases after a person is tagged. The game will last until there is only one vehicle left or 25 turns have passed.

RE-CAP:

I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't remember ever having to dodge bullets while playing "it" tag as a kid. Of course, I didn't grow up in Homestead either, so maybe that has something to do with it. Our 4 participants started off in randomly determined entrances around the arena. Steve, Don, and Jim were in close proximity to each other on the southern part of the board while Dave sat alone at one of the northern entrances (don't worry, it didn't help him). Don "The Champ" McCalmon was randomly chosen as the first duellist to be "it". At first it seemed as though the combatants would be hard pressed to target anyone between the numerous walls of the arena. These thoughts were soon to proven wrong as Don swung in behind Jim's line of spikes and tagged him easily with a quick shotgun blast. Taking the situation in stride, Jim did some hard manuevering to place himself on Steve "Nitro" Caldwell's tail... successfully tagging him with his twin turret mounted machine guns.

Steve's front mounted recoiless rifle proved difficult to bring to bear against his opponents, however, and after several turns playing cat and mouse (and -3 points for going over the time limit), Steve had had enough. Doing his best imitation of the Kool-Aid Man, Steve charged headlong into an inside wall, easily breaching it and arriving on the other side with a juicy target in his sites. Unfortunately for Jim "Thread the Needle" Robertson, Steve wasn't handing out sugar sweetened water...

By this time, targets were scarce, and Jim faced disqualification if he went over the 5 turn limit. Things looked bleak until Jim spotted a tiny piece of Don's car through the gaps in the wall. It was an impossible shot, but Jim had nothing to lose... Unloading all he had from both guns, he was able to squeeze a bullet through the gap and tag Don. The crowd went wild at the impossible shot, but their exultation soon turned to disappointment. Jim, apparently too occupied with looking in the rear view mirror and admiring his great shot, didn't see Steve coming at him head on. He tried to turn away at the last second, but Steve's ram plate dug into his side armor and killed his driver.

As Steve was taking care of Jim, Don still had to tag someone else before time ran out. Dave was the only one within his grasp. With Don on his tail, Dave "Kamikaze" Hartman thought it better to kill himself than give Don the points for his kill (and who can blame him?) Dave was able to throw Don off his trail, but sent himself into a deadly spin in the process. By the time he came out of the spin, all four of his tires had been ripped from their rims and Don had tagged him "It".

Thus was the situation when time ran out on the event. Steve was awarded for his agressive play and achieved his first win in SCAR's short history. Don came in second and solidified his first place position overall.

POINT BREAKDOWN:

• Steve Caldwell: +6 starting points, -2 for being tagged once, -3 for not tagging someone within 5 turns, +1 for tagging someone else once, +5 for killing Jim, +8 for first place = +15 points total. Driver Allesandro D'Amante lived, +1 skill for winning event, +1 skill for kill, +2 skill for combats, +1 for living.
• Don McCalmon: +6 starting points, -2 for being tagged once, -3 for not tagging someone within 5 turns, +2 for tagging others twice, +6 for second place = +9 points total. Driver Smack D. Ho lived, +2 skill for combats, +1 for surviving an event.
• Dave Hartman: +6 starting points, -2 for being tagged once, -2 for having vehicle killed, +3 for 3rd/4th place tie = +5 points total. Driver Unknown lived, +1 skill for surviving.
• Jim Robertson: +6 starting points, -4 for being tagged twice, +2 for tagging others twice, -2 for having vehicle killed, +3 for 3rd/4th place tie = +5 points total. Driver Fritz Von Liebowitz died.

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