Our last league night was the fifth of the season and we began the Bank 5/Bank 6 rotation. Bank 5 is named for Socrates, who needs no introduction. Bank 6 takes its name from pre-Socratic philosopher Anaximander, who along with Bank 8’s Thales is a member of the Milesian School. Philosophers from this school were particularly concerned with finding the fundamental origin or principle of all reality, which they often identified with one particular “element.” Anaximander had a particularly abstract version of this, identifying the fundamental principle with something called the apeiron, which is translated “boundless” or “indefinite.” I promise that each bank has some reason I connected that philosopher with that bank. Unfortunately, I can’t swear that I remember what my reason was in each case and Anaximander might be one of those cases…
Speaking of banks, we had originally created the banks this season with the idea of maximally spreading out the groups, so they were entirely based on game location. Sadly, the best laid schemes of league directors go oft astray, and our nice, neat banks have been overturned by the plough of a new game. When Star Wars: Fall of the Empire came in, Derik also did a fair bit of rearranging. While I lament our banks being in disarray, I do like the way he has put a lot of our Bally/Williams games together in a murderer’s row.
Everyone was happy to see a familiar face at league night: Cyndi has returned, maybe just for a night and maybe for the rest of the season. I believe I speak for everyone in the league in hoping for the latter.
It’s our tradition to use any newly arrived game for our Tuesday Night Smackdown side tournament, so this time it was the new Star Wars: Fall of the Empire LE. Tim won the A division, and Peter won the B division on Scared Stiff (appropriate for Halloween season).
Speaking of spooky, our annual Fear and Trembling Charity Pingolf Tournament happened the following Tuesday. This year, Joseph and I drew the nine games for the course randomly, to stop us from falling back on the games we’ve used in the past. Some of the objectives we chose ended up feeling a lot harder at the tournament than they did when we tested them; it happens pretty much every time. I gave away several prizes including a Stern “High Score” embroidered hat. Derik was very enthusiastic about winning it (he declared it “sick”) and put it on right away, despite the fact that he is usually never seen wearing a hat. I tried pointing out that at a pingolf tournament he really shouldn’t be bragging about getting a high score. I’m not sure if he didn’t get the joke I was making or if he just didn’t find it funny, but either way it fell flat and my repeating it three times somehow did not improve it.
Tim went into the tournament as the returning champion, and they managed to pull it off again. Tim is now the four time consecutive champion of Fear and Trembling. Pingolf is evidently Tim’s format… though it doesn’t hurt that one of the games on the course was Getaway.
Tomorrow at our next league night, we will be reviving the dormant tradition of the LPL Halloween costume contest. Wear your costume to league night and you might win a trophy or the top prize of a translite! Christy is bringing Halloween cookies. See you there!