The cat’s out of the bag and the winners have been announced! As mentioned before, this year was the first time the ceremony was held on a Saturday evening and I had the immense pleasure of attending it in person. In case you missed my very profesional live coverage on Twitter, here’s a summary of the event.
But without further ado, here are the winners of Spiel des Jahres and Kennerspiel des Jahres 2022!
Spiel des Jahres 2022
Cascadia
1–4 players, 30–45 minutes, 10+ years, medium light (1.9)
In the end, it was the favourite that won Spiel des Jahres 2022. It’s the first award I called wrong in three years – still not a bad quota I guess. 🤷 Somewhat ironically, Cascadia remains the only game of the six nominees I haven’t played yet, but after playing SCOUT and Top Ten, I do see how those games might not be for everyone. On the other hand, the positivity towards Cascadia was overwhelming – it’s rare to see the ‘geek crowd being so enthusiastic about the jury’s decision. All in all, it appears Cascadia will make a great ambassador for the hobby board gaming.
Kennerspiel des Jahres 2022
Living Forest
1–4 players, 40 minutes, 10+ years, medium light (2.2)
This award I got right, and as you could read from my previous post, I very much agree with this decision. Similar to the red award, I could see good reasons why the other Kennerspiel nominees Cryptid and Dune: Imperium have a bit narrower audiences, but I think Living Forest hits the sweetspot of a games that’s “one step up” from a Spiel whilst still remaining fairly accessible. I’m certain many many people will enjoy planting those trees and extinguishing those forest fires as much as I do.
Conclusion
I feel like I say this every year, but I think we’ve had another very strong year with six excellent nominees that also were very different from each other. I blame the uniform strength on my first wrong call since I started these predictions. 😉
Attending the award ceremony will make this a very special year for me, and I hope I’ll soon find the time to write a little article about my experience in Berlin.
As always, this has been great fun and I hope to be back with my predictions for Spiel des Jahres 2023!