Our fourth league night of the season, taking us to the halfway point of the regular season and qualifying for finals, was on the bank titled “Girdle of Hippolyta”: Tales of the Arabian Nights, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Addams Family, Lord of the Rings, and Terminator 3. It was an action-packed night because we also had a Tuesday Night Smackdown on Star Trek: The Next Generation and the conclusion of our launch party for Stranger Things.
I had an awful night. I don’t know if it’s because of coming right from school without warming up or what, but I have had a pretty weak season and this was more of the same. The less said about my Terminator 3 game the better, especially since the time it would take to say something about it would be longer than my game. But it was an up night for the league in general, specifically for attendance. We were just about to break into groups when a new player, Morgan, timidly stepped forward and asked if it was too late to play. Morgan’s last minute entry put us up to 20 people. I yelled, “Oh no! The dangerous number!” If we ever get more than 20, we will have to make an ad hoc change to our league format. We do have plans for how to deal with it if it happens, but it will be a landmark for the league. We also had a new player named Trevor, who has played a bit in Grand Rapids before. Trevor dropped a score in our just-about-to-close Stranger Things tournament when he arrived, and it got him into the top eight for the ladder tournament!
It wasn’t as long or congested a night as I expected for having our maximum capacity, which is a good thing because afterward we had to run the Stranger Things launch party. We did a ladder of the top eight, eliminating two per round and playing one game with the top four. Josh won the launch party, the first one he’s won. He was very excited to win it and said if he could choose any launch party to win, he would want it to be this one. He took home the plaque and the translite.
The following Sunday we had playoffs for Destrier of Death, the Black Knight tournament. Only Joseph and I showed up for what was supposed to be a four-player finals. We played one game and after my ball 3, I was losing 4 million to 6 million. Joseph decided to play his ball 3 anyway, so I stood there teasing him and posting updates to Facebook about how he was doing victory laps on me. He ended up with about 140 million and was on the verge of starting the Black Knight 2000 mode when he drained.
We also had the Tuesday Night Smackdown on Star Trek: The Next Generation at the same time as the Stranger Things launch. The A division ended up having to restart their game because TNG went haywire (so, you know, normal for TNG) and I randomly drew Junk Yard. So this was the first time the Smackdown champion won on something other than the Smackdown game itself. Pat won the medal; I drew a bunny on it to signify “leap day.” To my surprise, I won the B division tournament on Theatre of Magic. It hadn’t treated me well of late, but this time the left loop strategy came through for me.
Then on the off-week Tuesday we had the finals for the Super Tournament season known as Royal Rumble. It was another ladder tournament, but open to all comers, and I managed to climb up through two games to turn my fifth seed into a third place finish. I felt very good about that, especially a big rally on Kiss which ended when someone pointed out that I was already safe. Mike won the final game against Danny by choosing Star Trek: The Next Generation, which Danny was less than thrilled about. He had a few choice words to say about TNG, but I’ll spare Joseph by not writing them here.
Tonight we will be fighting the Stymphalian Birds and playing a Tuesday Night Smackdown on The Simpsons Pinball Party. See you soon!