Our 24th season opened on January 13 and we had several new players join us. Gabe and Fred, already known to many of us for their great performance at Super-Ball XXIII (the split flipper tournament) and for playing at Silver Balls, officially started with the league. New players Charlee and David also made their debut. Karrah, who previously played in a Lightning Flippers tournament, happened to be around at the end of the night not knowing the league was on, and we invited her to join us and play her games late.
We reorganized the banks this season to account for the games’ new physical positions and also to change up the order a bit from last season. The banks also received new names. Last season they were ancient Greek philosophers, and this season the banks moved forward a couple millennia and took on the names of early modern philosophers. There is at least one game that is supposed to reflect something about each philosopher in the banks, except poor Berkeley who just ended up with the remaining bank after I assigned all the other names. Our first two nights we’re playing “Kant” and “Descartes,” the two philosophers who are considered to end and start the early modern period, respectively.
We had a big change to Tuesday Night Smackdown this season which is that I am requiring all scores to be put in on Matchplay rather than written down, to save time organizing things at the end of the night. There is also a new rule that you have to be present and ready to play when I hold the Smackdown finals. I will be calling your name three times with the megaphone and if you do not show up you’ll be disqualified. This is to save time on my running around the bar finding everyone as we get to the end of the night.
Right now the overall standings show everyone tied for 1st, which will be the case until after the third night, since everyone drops their two lowest. The current bank standings also don’t mean too much until everyone has finished playing both banks after tonight’s meeting. I felt like I had a great night on Bank 1, “Kant,” appropriate because I wrote my dissertation on Kant. I bragged about my night (especially my big John Wick game) to Joseph who was too polite to respond by telling me he had beaten my John Wick score and, as it turns out, my entire bank score. Joseph took first so far on Bank 1, and I got second, above third place Danny Clark (how did that happen?). On Bank 2, “Descartes,” the champ-so-far is Brian K., followed by Tim and Peter.
Some amusement (for others) and embarrassment (for me) happened when I could not seem to get my megaphone working, and then it turned out that I had somehow put it in a recording mode. After that, every time I tried to push the button to turn it on, I instead regaled the bar with me yelling “It’s on but nothing seems to be happening,” which caused some mirth in the bar.
Our Tuesday Night Smackdown was on The Addams Family, with the B division playing on Monster Bash, appropriately enough. Derik took the champion title for the night and Devon was the undercard winner.
Our next night is just in a couple of hours now, so come early if you’d like to start qualifying in the Smackdown tournament, but be careful because I’m hearing the roads are not great!
