Apparently the universe is not without a sense of humour as I heard that for Doug's final game it was against his longtime practice buddy Commander Scrappy. What a way to go out.
It was a pleasure to meet you Doug at Worlds this year and I hoped to play across from you in at least one round but it was not to be. Good luck on your lego startup and enjoy your retirement and family time.
This is absolutely true. CommanderScrappy and I started playing this game together back in Fall of 2012. He only lives a mile from me, so he would come over and we would play against each other a lot. It was against him that I developed my opening moves for Worlds 2012. He often joked about getting a t-shirt made up that said "Doug's playtester" on it.
And it was a pleasure to meet you as well. I have seen your posts on here for a long time, and it was good to put a face to the name and get to talk with you a bit.