Note: Last time I declared my recap the Worst League Update Ever because I somehow forgot to take a single photo. This time I also forgot to take a single photo. In order to avoid having to call this the New Worst Ever, I am presenting it with dramatic recreations. The part of everyone is played by Joseph, the part of The Avenue is played by my breakfast nook, and the part of every game is played by Tri-Zone.
November 8 wasn’t just the midterm elections, it was also the third meeting of season 17. I wore my “I Voted” sticker which I had hoarded since delivering my absentee ballot three weeks prior, but otherwise not much election talk went on. Not that I noticed, anyway, but I was trying to organize a rather large crowd to play the second week of a two-bank rotation. We had started on it the previous league night because we had a crowd of over 16 people, the new threshold for splitting people up across two banks. It’s just as well, because there was actually a large crowd again this time. This included new league member Linda. Linda previously played in a Lightning Flippers women’s tournament, and had shown up a bit late so I had to start her with a strike. This time she showed up right at six, which is when Lightning Flippers meetings start, and said, “Am I on time?” I had to break the news that league meetings start at seven and she had an hour to warm up.
In the past we would expedite starting the second half of a rotation by just putting people in the same groups as much as possible, but people had requested that we redraw the groups each time this season and so that’s what we did. This required using two hats. In addition to the deer hat that we always use as the sorting hat, Joseph grabbed a black furry hat that I’ve had since high school. I bought it from some Russian schoolkids who were traveling around doing hockey exhibitions and were selling stuff in order to get some US currency. I believe it is a cheap imitation of a proper “Russian” hat that was made in Russia for the tourist market. I had to walk around remembering which hat each person should draw from for the A or B banks and I kept getting mixed up. Pat said “B is for black,” and that really helped at first, but then at one point Linda joked “B is for brown” and then I could never keep it straight again after that.
We had a new game in The Avenue this time – well, sort of. For some reason we now have a second Godzilla, so our original Godzilla LE is still in the alcove, and the new Godzilla Premium is upstairs. The gameplay is the same between the two models, so the only reason to have both is is that there is one free while Danny is in the building. The rule is that we always use a new game as our Tuesday Night Smackdown side tournament game, so I decided that extended to the Godzilla Premium, or as Joseph has dubbed it, “Mezzagodzilla.” (Godzilla on the mezzanine, get it?) We also were playing Godzilla in one of the two banks, so it was a Godzilla kind of night. Joseph wrote “You’re welcome, Danny” on the rules sheet for the Smackdown tournament.
Folks thought that we should have the B division for the Smackdown also be on Godzilla, so I departed from my usual practice of picking another game in the immediate vicinity of the A division game and went along with that. Joseph and I both played in the B division so we designated Mike as a backup TD to keep track of the A division game. Mike became the main Smackdown champion on the upstairs game, and Bryan J. won the Undercard bout on the downstairs game.
Tonight is our fourth meeting of the season so there is still time to join the league and qualify for finals if you’ve been on the fence about it. We will play a single bank if there are 16 or fewer people attending and will start a two-bank rotation if we get more than 16. I hope to see you soon! And please, remind me to take pictures.