So it turns out that I only took two (2) pictures during our league night of 10/23 (actually both of the Smackdown winners), which was also the final night of regular play for season 11. I think my mind was really elsewhere because I was a bit worn out from preparing for the Fear and Trembling Charity Pingolf Tournament, which would be held the next day. This year the previously annual league Halloween costume contest went on hiatus, due to the low participation last year. This didn’t stop me from working on a costume and, for the second year in a row, burning myself with hot glue to the point of screaming. I just waited to unveil my costume until the Fear and Trembling tournament, where I thought the theme would make it more appropriate.
The league voted again to have Iron Maiden be the Tuesday Night Smackdown game so that people could try to get a score for Stern’s Up the Irons leader board. Danny didn’t manage to best his previous score, but Chris got a score that put him in 9th place. Last I saw he had moved down to 10th as a certain well known Michigan pinball player managed a score over 4 billion (!). I’m not sure if that is going to tamp down the league’s enthusiasm for Iron Maiden Smackdowns, although the vote did shift to “play a random game” for tonight’s league meeting, perhaps coincidentally.
Derik (the Smackdown Champion) insisted that the four finalists should pose like Egyptians, to match some of the theming in Iron Maiden.
When it was time for Smackdown playoffs, the only B division player left around was Bryan, so he won the medal for the Undercard by default. Derik insisted I draw a random game anyway so we could say what game Bryan “won” on. The dice said it was “Star Wars.” Congrats on your Star Wars win, Bryan!
Bryan celebrates his Star Wars “win.”
After the dust had settled and Joseph had gotten the scores entered, and despite Tim showing good moral fiber as he corrected a score of his that Joseph had accidentally added an additional digit to, we had something happen that has only happened once before: Chris did not finish the regular season on top. Instead, Tim passed him to finish in first place. (Granted, this is almost certainly due to Chris having missed more than one league meeting.) The only other time this happened, former league member Alex H. beat him by a very small margin and went on to lose by an equally slender margin in playoffs.
The next day was, as previously mentioned, the Fear and Trembling Charity Pingolf Tournament. The twist of this tournament is that it is an objective based pingolf tournament with a choice of two objectives on each hole. The turnout wasn’t as high as I had hoped for, but those who did attend seemed to be enthusiastic about the format and have a lot of fun. We also had a rare appearance by Russell and Aaron H. And I finally got to publicly show my basilisk (cockatrice, if you make that distinction) costume. That’s a monster from European folklore that has a rooster’s head and legs and a dragon’s wings and tail. I bought the rooster head but modified the wings and feet from previous costumes I’d used and reused the dragon tail that I sewed by myself last year for my dragon costume. I showed Aaron H. the sheet I printed from Mythology Wiki to explain my costume. “You know that’s not a real thing, right?” he replied, with a tone of concern.
Me (the basilisk) posing with the finalists of Fear and Trembling: Danny (1st), Dustin (4th), Mike (3rd), and Derik (2nd).
Tonight (in about an hour and a half… shut up, Mike) we’ll be having our final playoffs, with the top eight going to A division and everyone else going to B, to battle it out for the privilege of earning beautiful crystal plaques inscribed with the league logo. Will Chris finally cede his throne? Will it be to Tim or to Danny? Or will Mike S. finally get his long coveted Lansing win? Soon we’ll find out! See you at 7:30.