Season 13 kicked off on June 11 with the largest league night I can remember happening in a long while. Nineteen people were in attendance, including two new members: Bryan’s father Jim, and Lexi’s fiancé Nick. Given that we were missing a few regulars (Jason, Chad, Tyler, Dan, and Russell), it’s possible we will cross the magic 20-person threshold that will force us to alter our league format sometime this season. We have a plan for when that happens.
Chris has returned after a season away, perhaps hoping to regain his title as the league champion. Chris was the sole league champion for the first 10 seasons before having the title taken from him by Mike in Season 11. Mike defended his title in Season 12, but the competition is expected to be fiercer than ever this season.
Sadly, this was the last league night for Lupe and Caleb, who will be moving to Seattle soon. They are unable to attend the June 25 league night but will be attending Rocket Robin, so we didn’t have to say farewell quite yet, but it was still sad to realize it was their last regular night with the league. I am sure I speak for everyone when I say that they really brought energy to the league and it won’t be the same without them.
Joseph and I revised the banks for the season, partly to try different thematic arrangements that work with the new games that have been brought to the Avenue, and partly to account for new data from last season that guides our designation of games as short, medium, or long-playing. We try to put one short game, two short-to-medium games, and two long games in every bank. I decided to keep the “Muse” names for the banks this season, though we lost Thalia (the Muse of comedy) and gained Melpomene (the Muse of tragedy), and others had their specific games changed up.
SummerSlam continues apace, with Lansing competitors still well-represented on Stern’s Deadpool Boom! tournament leader board. SummerSlam has turned out to be far more popular and taken more seriously than I anticipated, which is amusing but a little overwhelming. We are also still having Tuesday Night Smackdown every league night. On our first league night it was Game of Thrones, which certainly delighted Lupe (though it ended up not treating her very well). Bryan qualified for the A division Smackdown finals for the first time, which I think was his first time playing in the finals of any tournament. Josh ended up as the winner, and I won the Undercard division. I think that is my third or fourth Undercard win, though I have still never won the Smackdown champion medal.
The next league night is tonight, June 25, of course. We will be taking July off due to the organizers being very busy with other pinball tournaments, and will resume our normal league schedule in August. There will also be a charity tournament on July 9, the fourth annual Rocket Robin round-robin tournament, supporting the Capital Area Humane Society.