Competitors from across the country descended on Denver last weekend to trade sheep, ore, wood, wheat and bricks at the highest level. Yes, the national championships for The Settlers of Catan had come to town.
The German board game is about harvesting resources and, crucially, trading them with opponents to build settlements and roads to win. Players must be tactful, even trustworthy, to work with other players — in order to defeat them.
We went to the downtown Sheraton Hotel to watch America’s best barterers cook. The skills Catan has taught them, they said, might be valuable lessons for a world that’s forgotten how to work together.
‘You can't do it by yourself.’
Thornton resident Nathan Dorn played for years with family and friends, and he figured he was pretty good. Then, in 2019, he joined his first real Catan tournament, at Denver’s legendary Wizard’s Chest game store. He discovered he still had more to learn about this game, which has sold more than 45 million copies since launching in 1995.
“It was kind of eye-opening. Like, there's more to this game than what we play at the table at home,” he remembered.
One of those lessons was about working together. On the tournament floor, it was clear players started their games in a collaborative spirit, sometimes divvying up the board and resources before they even rolled the dice.
“It's a social game. You’ve got to interact with people to help accomplish your goals. You can't do it by yourself,” he said. “If you don't work at the table, you're not going to win.”
That dualism — working together for individual gain — was reflected elsewhere in the room. Catan clubs from New York and Seattle arrived in matching shirts. They’d been training together to make it this far, even though they would be competing as individuals.
“A lot of people have built little clubs or practice groups,” Kevin Hovdestad, who directed the tournament for Catan Studio, told us. “They all get to know each other, they spend time together, they socialize together.”
A cohesive Catan scene hasn’t gelled yet in Denver, Dorn said. Maybe holding the tournament downtown would help change that — especially if a local took home the national title.
“I would love to build that here for Catan,” he said. “It'd be so cool to win, or even show well, and prove that Denver belongs on the national scene.”
The world could learn something from this game.
National politics and global conflict were present here, even if it wasn’t explicitly stated.
Hovdestad said Catan Studio, which holds the rights to distribute all English-language versions of the game, was thinking about the United States’ current political turmoil when it chose a city for this tournament.
“We had a list of criteria: major airport hub, states that we feel comfortable bringing our players into for — reasons. And that was not a long list,” he said.
Denver had the infrastructure, and it felt safe.
“We are in Denver,” Hovdestad added. “We're not in Louisiana. We didn't host this event in Alabama.”
Players we met, like Los Angeles resident Angela Relucio, said the negotiation skills they’ve honed for this game are universal. It’s not all about building the longest road, or hoarding the most sheep.
“There's tears. There's sweat. There's all that stuff. But at the end of the day, a trade has to be made. A road has to be built. There are deals, discussions, and you help each other out,” Relucio said. “Just play the best you can and be cool. You wouldn't believe it's just such a simple rule: Be cool to each other. Be kind, be courteous.”
Burak Ozgur of Irvine, California, emerged as the weekend’s champion, rising above 160 opponents for the national title. He said flexibility was his superpower in the end, but so was tact.
He’d secured a good position on the board as the final game began, so his three opponents were wary of trading with him from the start. He needed to be extra charming, persuasive and deliberate if he wanted to exercise his advantage. He managed to pull it off.
“Everybody has their objectives, everyone wants to achieve something, and you can’t do it on your own,” he said on his way out the door to accept his new trophy. “It’s always a compromise, and I think that's an example for the world, just politically — yeah, we need to do that better as a planet, to be able to achieve things.”
Ozgur will now go on to the Settlers of Catan world finals, which will be held in 2027. Hovdestad said the biennial event will be held in an English-speaking country this time — part of a regular rotation. He doesn’t expect today’s tensions will have subsided by then.
Though organizers have yet to pick a host country, he said it definitely won’t be in the U.S.
