William Cavaretta crowned as new Catan world champion

This year’s Catan World Championship has come to a close, crowning a new global master of the strategy game.

CWC has been held bi-annually for more than a decade since 2002, with the European Catan Championship (ECC) filling the year gaps in-between.

This year’s event was held at the Strater Hotel in Durango, Colorado in the US from September 23rd to 26th, with the tournament also livestreamed online.

The 16 semi-finalists hailed from countries across Europe, Asia, the Americas and more, with the USA’s William Cavaretta, Spain’s Raúl Fernández, Japan’s Hisatake Do and Petr Frajvald from the Czech Republic.

The deciding match was taken by Cavaretta, who became the new Catan World Champion. 2014’s CWC throne was claimed by Estonia’s Sander Stroom, with 2015’s ECC taken by Poland’s Lech Olczak.

Up to two individuals from a nation can enter each championship, with points awarded to every competitor depending on their final ranking – 40 for first place.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Germany remains the all-time victor of the CWC with 295 points, followed by the Netherlands with 237 and the UK with 230. The US is fifth overall, with 209, behind fourth-placed Italy with 210.

Italy is the champion of the ECC, however, with 129 points since the tournament began in 2009. Germany places second with just one fewer point, at 128. The UK sits all the way down in ninth, 79 points to its name.

You can watch the CWC 2016 final below: