Derik and Danny battled it out with Jason and Josh in a late-night final match to become the Super-Ball XVIII champions. The previous champions, Joseph and Heather (this writer), failed to defend their title, losing to Derik and Danny in the winner bracket and Jason and Josh in the second-chance bracket. The traditional post-season split flipper tournament ran nearly as long as the season finals, in part because the final match went to two rounds. Jason and Josh had come up out of the second-chance bracket and managed a first-round win against Danny and Derik, but were unable to prevail a second time.
The tournament had a surprise entry as Brian K., who had not played in league this season, asked to join and ended up paired with league member Mark C. Although they received the lowest seed due to Brian having no league points, they made a good showing and ultimately received third place. Brian’s appearance was welcomed not just because everyone likes having him around, but also because it meant that we had an even number of people for a change. It seems as though we have had a disproportionate number of Super-Balls with odd numbers of competitors, resulting in someone having to play on two teams, which gets awkward and can hold the tournament up.
This was one of the league’s best-attended Super-Balls, as often the turnout for them has been low in the past. Due to the unusually high number of teams – ten – Joseph realized he did not have the correct double-elimination bracket printed out and ran home in order to get one. Fortunately he made it back only a short time after Heather finished giving rules and announcements.
There was also a Tuesday Night Smackdown side tournament on Star Trek, which Brian won with a blowup game. The Undercard (B division) was originally going to be on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, simply because that is the game that was randomly drawn from those in the vicinity. Joseph had written on the rules sheet, “top 4 players don’t have to play the Ninja Turtles Undercard!” and showed this smugly when I announced the random selection. As things got organized, Danny started a game on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles so rather than kick him off or wait I just drew a new game. Ted was the winner on the substitute game, Rush.
And with that, Season 18 has truly been put to bed. Season 19 starts tonight at 7 pm with a new set of banks and some new rules, most notably dropping the two lowest nights instead of one. It remains to be seen whether the recent growth of the league will continue this season.
Results for Super-Ball XVIII
- Danny C. and Derik
- Jason and Josh
- Brian K. and Mark C.
- Donny and Shylia
- Heather and Joseph
- Dan N. and Bryan J.
- Pat and Tim
- Ethan and Ted
- Jimmy and Ro
- Linda and Cyndi
