Season 15 of the league finished up on April 12 with our traditional post-season split flipper tournament, Super-Ball XV, also known as the Zen Tournament. We had an even number turn up this time, so no one got to (or had to) play on two teams. Tim, who missed most of the second half of Season 15, happily reappeared for the event, teaming up with Jason. Mike (who has been on the most winning teams in the history of the tournament) usually tries to defend his Zen wins with the same partner, but his partner from last year, Josh, was out sick. Instead he teamed up with Joe P. The other teams were Derik and Allen, Brian and Bryan (AKA “Team Bry/ian”), and of course me and Joseph.
I thought the Dream Team was going to be Tim and Jason, though their seeding undervalued them due to Tim’s being out for much of Season 15. Instead they took third and the finals were between Derik/Allen and Mike/Joe. Joseph and I managed to barely survive one round in the loser bracket, trading extremely close games with Team Bry/ian (they won by about 15,000 points on The Beatles and we won by about a million on The Addams Family; I forget what our third game was on).
Mike and Joe unfortunately failed to defend the title on behalf of Josh. Derik and Allen decided to take a sassy photo with the trophies, and then took a “real one.” Derik told me, “use whichever one you want.” I’ll use both.
Super-Ball XV was a bit low on attendance, but as usual it was big on fun. The tradition goes back to the first league season and was originated by the league’s original director, Matt. It will be back next season as always, and many seasons to come, I hope! Speaking of seasons, Season 16 will be starting tomorrow after a short delay due to the bar being closed for a few days during our intended starting week. This is a great time to join or rejoin the league. We have a new bank theme this season, “The Olympian Gods,” continuing the Greek mythology theme that I have used for several seasons.