The 10th Spiel-a-thon at BGG Con was held in Dallas, Texas on November 16, 2018. We had our largest turnout to-date for a Spiel-a-thon in Dallas. AND.. we raised the most money ever at a Spiel-a-thon! $3,500 in less than 3 hours.

Each Spiel-a-thon is about more than asking people to pry open their wallets.

The driving force behind every Spiel-a-thon is to demonstrate how play can be a powerful force for good in the world.

Don’t get me wrong, we welcome your contributions any day, any time. But if you come to a Spiel-a-thon, you come to pay by playing!

You play. Then you pay. And the Foundation uses this money to assemble bundles of games.

Each bundle allows more kids and seniors to play. Each game bundle we send out delivers more fun into the world.

It’s a perfect circle of fun. And that is priceless.

Each Spiel-a-thon is a carnival of quick fun games set up on tables around a room.  A teacher at each table gets the games going.

Players earn stamps for each game played and pay $3 per stamp when they’re done.

Your hosts for the Spiel-a-thon were Stephen Conway and Doug Richardson.

Games played in this year’s event included:

Dude, more Dude – published by North Star Games

Tumble Tree, Chickyboom, Maki Stack, Doctor Eureka – published by Blue Orange

Strike – published by Ravensburger

Finger Twist, Clack! – published by Amigo

Cudaki – published by Mindware

Voila – Brain Games

Hooplastack – Educational Insights

Boom Blast Stix – published by Moose Toys

Flying Carpet – published by Adlung Spiele

Kaboom – HUCH & friends

Looping Louie  and Connect 4 Launchers – published by Hasbro

Here’s a gallery of amazing pictures of the event from Debbie Ohi, the official photographer for the Spiel-a-thon.  

At the end of the event, the top six scoring players compete against a panel of gaming celebrities to win prizes.

Here are all the finalists and gaming celebs, ready for the final round!

Celebrities competing in this year’s Spiel-a-thon:

Brittanie Boe (BeBold Games)

Smoox Chen (Taiwan Board Game Design)

Rob Daviau (Restoration Games)

Stephen Buonocore (Stronghold Games) 

Michael Fox (Hub Games)

Dan Yarrington (Starling Games)

The ultimate winner of this year’s Spiel-a-thon at BGG Con was Noel Strickling. Our first repeat champion!!

Congrats to Noel and all the finalists!

The highlight of this Spiel-a-thon was a three way tie for the celebrity champion for the Spiel-a-thon! Bebo, Smoox Chen and Rob Daviau each finished with a record of 5-1 versus the Spiel-a-thon finalists. We has to have a 3-way Loopin’ Louie tie-breaker to determine the winner and Rob emerged victorious. This year, the two champions (celebrity and overall) earned their own crown of meeples!!

We have a tireless, energetic group of volunteers that make each Spiel-a-thon happen. The people listed below donate time, resources and creativity to make the event a memorable experience for all involved. Our cast of volunteers this year included: Francie Broadie, Debbie Ohi, Rachel Lee, Patty Richardson, Stephen Conway, Erin Green, Doug Richardson, John Knoerzer, Beth Heile, Ezra Denney, Jeff Ridpath, Roni Worley, and Maggi Cottrell. I cannot thank them enough for their effort in making this Spiel-a-thon such a success.

Last but certainly not least, a massive thank you to our 32 prize sponsors!

We had an amazing array of 120+ games to give away during the Spiel-a-thon thanks to the generous donations from prize sponsors. There were dozens of random prize drawings, one big giveaway for all players, plus six juicy prize bundles for our finalists!

Here’s an alphabetical listing of sponsors with links to each one. Let them know you appreciate their support of The Spiel Foundation!

AEG

Bezier Games

Big Kid Games

Bin’Fa

Blue Cherry Faerie

Breaking Games

Common Ground Games

Czech Games Edition

Gamelyn Games

Hub Games

Indie Boards & Cards

Indie Game Alliance

Jellybean Games

Kolossal Games

MayDay Games

Mercury Games

Portal Games

R&R Games

Red Raven Games

Renegade Game Studios

Smirk & Dagger Games

Soaring Rhino

Solar Flare Games

Starling Games

Stronghold Games

Thames & Kosmos

Tiki Editions

Victory Point Games

Wattsalpoag

White Wizard Games

WizKids

Last but certainly not least a big THANK YOU to the entire BGG Con staff for allowing us to to host the Spiel-a-thon at the convention now for the past 9 years. We appreciate their support and willingness to work with us to make each year’s event better than the last. We’re already looking forward to next year!

Our first Spiel-a-thon in 2018 was at Geekway to the West.  Click here for a full report from the event!