Morden’s Nastasha Kroeker-Ortiz made it all the way to the semi-finals at the Catan National Championships earlier this month.
Kroeker-Ortiz earned her spot at the event, held at the Snakes & Lattes College in Toronto May 4-5, by winning Sixteen13 Ministry’s inaugural Manitoba Catan Tournament in Winkler back in February. Her prize was having her airfare and accommodations in Toronto covered by event sponsors.
The national competition pitted her against 28 other Catan players from across Canada.
“It was the same setup [as the local tournament],” Kroeker-Ortiz explained. “It was three games on the qualifier day and then semi-finals and finals on the second day.”
She came through her first day undefeated.
“Catan is always a game of calculated risks and a lot of luck of the die,” Kroeker-Ortiz reflected. “There’s a lot more dealing going on than there was playing the table, if that makes sense.”
In the Settlers of Catan board game, players acquire and trade for the resources they need to build and develop their settlements. Players earn victory points for doing so—the first to reach 10 points wins the game.
While the deals in her semi-final game didn’t go her way and knocked her out of the running for the championship title, it was still a fun experience overall, Kroeker-Ortiz said.
“The people there were pretty great. There’s a few friends that I made that invited me to play online with them,” she shared.
The trip also gave her the chance to take in some of the sights of Toronto and visit family nearby.
Kroeker-Ortiz intends to defend her title at the local Catan qualifier next year.
“The thing is, I’ll probably get blocked hard [on the deals],” she said with a laugh.
