Chicago, Illinois June 20, 2002 -- It was two against one in the final round of the makeready shootout at the GATF/NAPL Sheetfed Pressroom Conference. Robert Romero, Production Manager at Paragon Printing in Austin, Texas, squared off against Buzz Lee, Pressroom Foreman at Colorcraft, in Sterling, Virginia who bought with him his head pressman, Glenn Little. Sponsored by MAN Roland in conjunction with GATF/NAPL, the competition was conducted on a pair of Sheetfed Offset Training Simulators (SHOTS) provided by Sinapse Graphic International. Lee, who has entered every SHOTS Press Skills Contest since the event’s inception three years ago, was lightening quick, aided by the hands-on experience of Little. The pair transformed a simulated press sheet from a production disaster into a work of printing craftsmanship. But Romero was faster, solving the simulated pressroom predicament ahead of his Virginia rivals. The Texan left town with the 2002 SHOTS competition trophy, free registration to the 2003 conference, a case of French wine from Sinapse, and a PowerPrinters sport watch from MAN Roland. Trouble-shooting prowess was the key to the competition. Assisted by a simulator operator who manned the controls, competitors from 15 printing companies faced a computer-screen image of a press sheet that had considerable flaws. They each had 30 minutes to make the job ready to run by adjusting dozens of factors including color, ink/water balance and register. Meanwhile, the projected cost of the simulated makeready was tracked in dollar amounts. The contestant who solved all the problems in the least amount of time for the lowest amount of money was declared the winner in each round-robin face-off. The head-to-head final round of Romero vs. Lee and Little took place before an assembly of all conference participants. The contestants’ press sheets were projected on two giant screens, providing a real time reflection of the action. Past winners of the sheetfed competition are John Johnson and Anthony Bonds of the Smyth Companies, Mark Lockary and Nader Mehdizadeh of California Lithographers, and Fran Yeager of Great Plains Packaging. MAN Roland also sponsored the Web Press Skills Contest that took place earlier this month at the Web Offset Association’s Annual Meeting in Las Vegas.