Danny concentrating on Iron Maiden. Guest photo by Edward Hopper.
Way back at the end of June (July was a busy month, OK?) we had the second league night of Season 11. The new Stern Army banner had been moved to its permanent location, so as we came in, we were greeted by Uncle Gary guarding the alcove.
We had our first game switch-out of the season, as Tales of the Arabian Nights went down after the first group played, so we had to switch to World Cup Soccer. Joseph had put up 21 million on TotAN so he cried out in agony when I told his group they would need to replay their game on WCS. He ended up having a perfectly respectable 438 million on WCS, but I don’t think that did much to console him.
The final Smackdown scores. Player 4 won with a very lucky extra ball plunge.
I used the random number generator to choose a Smackdown game as usual, and it chose Star Trek for the second night in a row. I had previously been doing completely random drawings, so I decided I had to go with what the gods of randomness decreed. Since several people expressed a preference for this not to happen again, I changed the rules so that from now on, we will randomly draw only from games that have not yet been played this season. As it happens, that would have deprived us of one of the craziest tournament finishes I have ever seen. Player 4, Derik, finished the game about 6 million points behind Player 3, Danny. Derik had an extra ball to plunge off, which he did. That extra ball proceeded to bounce into the lock and start multiball. Balls kept hitting the kickback and going back into play, so that his hands-free multiball lasted a good while. Combine that with a good bonus multiplier and he managed to make up the difference and a bit more. When the scores came up showing Derik’s narrow victory, everyone watching cried out (so loudly that Mike S., who had retired downstairs to grumble after a bad last ball, heard the commotion).
The Smackdown finalists, minus Mike S. who was too busy having an epic game downstairs: Danny, Derik, and Lupe.
The Undercard competitors, in front of the game they played off on, World Cup Soccer: Joseph, Karen, Terry, and me.
Mike and Karen, playing in the Smackdown and Undercard tournaments, respectively.
This was to be our last league meeting for over a month. The league took July off due to Pinburgh scheduling complications, although we had two tournaments instead, keeping things as busy as always. Reports on those tournaments (the Rocket Robin charity tournament, and the Battle of the Bands/Iron Maiden Launch Party) will be forthcoming when I get another free moment. In just a few hours we will be having our third league night (yes, it’s tonight, not next week) so come on over after you vote and put a score on the Smackdown game, Game of Thrones. Don’t forget to say goodbye to league member Kristen, who will be having her farewell night with the league. She is moving out of state in just a couple of weeks. Thanks for being a part of the LPL, Kristen!