Yesterday, my wife and I hosted TSBSBSGD8. (What? The acronym? Ah... The Saturday Before Super Bowl Sunday Game Day 8.) The highlight -- as it is every year -- was an annual BattleBall tournament. A record 17 people took part in the tournament this year, with Mike Holmquist taking home the top honors by defeating his daughter Heather Spangenberg in the finals. (He defeated his other daughter in the second round. And, yes, the seedings are completely random.)

Sadly, I was once again eliminated in the first round -- this year, by the eventual champion. Something about an ill-advised long pass attempt to a wide receiver when my heavy tackle had the ball and could probably have marched in for the game-winning touchdown. (I won the tournament once, back in 2007, but I've fallen on hard times ever since.)

Of course, that early elimination gave me plenty of time to play other games, including Fauna, 7 Wonders, The Resistance (3x), Witch's Brew, Black Friday, Kung Fu Fighting, and Ice Flow. Fauna (designed by Friedemann Friese, published by FoxMind) was a standout. It's for 2 to 6 players, ages 8 and up, and it's a trivia game (sort of) about animals. In each round, an animal is randomly revealed and players bet (sort of) on where the animal lives, how much it weighs, and how long or tall it is.

I'll post a complete review of Fauna soon. For now, I'll just say that it's a remarkably fun game that I highly recommend for anyone fascinated by wildlife around the world.

Image courtesy of Hasbro

A painting of two men playing cards was purchased by the nation of Qatar for $250 million -- which, according to an article in Vanity Fair, is "the highest price ever paid for a work of art" and "more than doubles the current auction record for a work of art."

The painting, by post-impressionist Paul Cézanne, is known as The Card Players, and it is one of five Card Players known to exist. (Here's another, with three men playing cards.) I was not able to find any source indicating what card game is being played in the paintings. But for $250 million, Qatar could have bought 6,946,374 copies of Dominion from Funagain Games.

Nominations for the 2012 About.com Readers' Choice Awards -- where you get to pick the best games, the best game stores, and more -- have been pouring in. Thank you to everyone who has made nominations already!

The 2012 Board/Card Game Readers' Choice Awards feature 11 categories to recognize the best of the best from 2011. You can help choose the best strategy game, the best party game, and the best iOS or Android game, in addition to the best local game store, the best Twitter account, and the best Facebook page.

If you haven't already, go ahead and make your nominations now!

Image © About.com

The Wiggles, a wildly popular Australian children's music group, sued a small game distributor last year to prevent the board game Yikerz! from being sold in their home country. Do the Wiggles hate all board games, or just Yikerz!, a magnetic game in which players try to place their pieces on the board without attracting other pieces?

Neither, as it turns out. What got the Wiggles' attention was the pouch inside the box which held the magnetic pieces. On that pouch, the word "Wiggles" appears as part of a logo -- because the game's publisher is Wiggles 3D. According to an article in The Telegraph, the lawsuit was recently settled with the game distributor agreeing to repackage the game pieces.

Apparently, Yikerz! was sold in Australia without incident for three years -- about 7,500 copies per year -- before the Wiggles got worked up about it.

Image courtesy of Wiggles 3D