Weekly summaries of our group's Wednesday night Catan games

FINAL winter standings

(1) *Steve: 7 (1) *Pat: 7 (3) *Kristen: 6 (4) *Scott: 5 (5) Kim: 2** (6) *Fifth Player: 2 (7) Kevin: 0

Denotes status as a regular

**Two point win

Summer champion: Pat

Fall champion: Fifth Player

Winter Champion: Pat, Steve

Winter Points Champion: Kristen

In a game that always ends with one winner and the rest losers, maybe it wasn't so bad that the 2014 Winter Catan season (Long Island) finished as a tie between Steven and Pat. For a pathological score-keeper like myself, Wednesday night's end was at first impossible to accept. Then, I saw it as the perfect excuse to play a third game, a possibility usually squashed by one among us without the stomach for a late weekday night (for the record, however, it's never been turned down by me or Pat). When everyone seemed content to start the spring season without a clear winter winner, I saw the future.

Years from now, when a wandering internet browser or someone researching for a book on the "game of our generation" discovers our results, they'll notice the 2014 winter season tie and have to ask: why? They'll have to dig deeper -- maybe even contact a member of our group directly -- to discover that we couldn't stage a tie breaker because we hadn't established a format beforehand; that we didn't feel like any more rule changes/alterations after Pat took advantage of the six point game*** to force the 7-7 conclusion; and that maybe a tie was, as Ben Affleck's character put it in "Argo," the best in a series of bad decisions. Thus, our brief history now has a caveat, a parallel to the trick trivia question: who won the 1994 World Series?

To get there, we first had to approve a six-point game (brainchild of mine), which, because of previous time constraints, we hadn't done in months. Since player number five missed her/his (not to give away any identifying details) third straight week (forcing us into quicker four-man games), we suddenly had an extra 30-40 minutes, which we'd been previously using to pay 1-on-1-on-1 spades (minus Kristen). We took it to a vote. Three said yes. Steve, with his two-point lead, obviously said no. The three trailing players would not only have a chance to tie, but two (Kristen and me) would have a chance to win.

That vote was the first kick of sand into Steven's face, which didn't have above it his trademark flat brim to shield the blow. No player despises the six-pointer more than Steven. On an analytical level, he doesn't believe in starting position as much as the rest of us. On a personal level, he just doesn't like it.

You already know the rest, except the part about Pat and his off-colored robe, which he wore to offset his winless streak in Steve's basement (where the finale was played). Looking back, we should have known better than to give Pat hope. No player brings himself back from deeper holes. Three points down, his ditch had the equivalent of a yellow spotted lizard infestation or the rattle snakes at the bottom of the crevice in "True Grit" (Shia LaBeouf vs. Mr. La Boeuf). Wednesday was his finest work. The group's level of respect/disgust for his game has never been so high.

Everything went wrong for Steve in his apartment on Wednesday night (I don't think he broke five victory points in either game). Considering that he still tied for the championship, the body of his season grades even more impressively. No doubt, he'll be a hardened player going into next season. It's no longer about finishing games for him; it's about finishing seasons.

Also worth noting is Kristen's point title. For the first season ever, we tracked the number of victory points earned by each player for every game, with the leading player adding a point to his or her overall standings. Kristen's safer, development card-less, long road-worshipping game always kept her in the mix and her point totals near, at, or beyond 10 (the famed 11-point victory).

*** In a six-point game, the first player to reach six points can decide to keep playing, in which case he'll receive two points in the standings if he wins and minus one if he loses (all other players receive one point for the win and 0 points for a loss) or end the game (without receiving a win in the standings) and choose his starting position in the next game.

Next Week: Deeper analysis on starting position, as compiled by Pat.