Olds' Mark Oxer is usually known as a master of barbells and bench presses.
But at a massive convention for gamers held in Indianapolis from August 15 to 18, he showed he's also an ace at playing the board game Settlers of Catan.
Oxer was the winner of the invitational Settlers of Catan masters tournament held at Gen Con 2013, one of the largest gaming conventions in the world that attracts roughly 40,000 people.
“It's an honor to be the best of the best,” he said in an email from Indianapolis.
Settlers of Catan is a four-player game using a hexagonal board and two dice where participants build settlements.
Points are earned from expanding settlements through the gaining and trading of resources.
Once a player receives 10 points from building settlements and cities, he or she wins the game.
Oxer's road to the masters' table, where he faced previous world, national and regional champions—Oxer won a national championship tournament for the game himself in 2005 in Winnipeg—began with a win and three second-place finishes in round robin play on Aug. 15.
At the end of round robin play, he was one of the top 16 players out of more than 50 competitors and advanced to win a semifinal game on Aug. 16.
His win in the masters event earned him a chance to play against more than 100 other competitors for the North American championship on Aug. 17.
Before the championship, however, Oxer helped set a Guinness World Record with 921 players for the largest game of Settlers of Catan played at one time on the night of Aug. 16.
After two second-place and two third-place finishes in the North American championship tournament, Oxer fell outside of the ranking of the top 16 competitors and failed to qualify for the semifinals.
An Edmonton man made it to the final table during the North American championship final on Aug. 18 and finished fourth.
Oxer started playing the game in the early 2000s when he was introduced to it by a friend while living in Winnipeg.
He has also competed at a world championship tournament in 2005 in Germany for the game where he came in 16th out of 32 players.
