On the occasion of the seventh Strat-O-Matic football tournament held at CincyCon this year, we talked with tournament director Meredith Adkins about the competition rules, as well how he runs his face-to-face league, the GMVFL. He also discusses two other SOM football tournaments: the Bushwhacker tournament in May and the MDOR in September; both have been running for more than 20 years, he noted.

Adkins shares insights into everything from home-brewed rules to how to keep a league running, as well as the custom roll-up mats they had created to expand on the basic SOM game board.

The 2023 CincyCon tourmament fielded 10 teams:

1983 WAS
1984 SF
1984 MIA
1985 CHI
1998 DEN

2004 NE
2004 IND
2010 PIT
2019 BAL
2020 KC

In a wild 20-19 finish, the 2004 Patriots snuck past the 1985 Bears.

Meredith limits participating teams to those from 1983 to the present to aid in recruiting efforts.

APBA Baseball and APBA Football figured into his early gaming career, when he saw a testimonial for the baseball game from a wargaming source.

10:08: The Lyman Bostock tournament.

GMVFL page on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1003156216549923

CincyCon announcement and rules on SOM's website:
https://www.strat-o-matic.com/announcements/som-football-and-baseball-tournaments-cincycon/

Reach Meredith by email at baoman2004@cs.com.

Strat-O-Matic football leagues listed on SOM registry:
https://bit.ly/41vEBlP

VIDEO VERSION: https://youtu.be/CTmZ2K3dH0E