Lansing Pinball League

Tag: recap

  • Super-Ball X

    We’re hours away from the start of season 11, so naturally there’s no better time to give a recap of Super-Ball X, AKA the Zen Tournament, which took place on May 22.  Sadly, our turnout for the traditional split flipper tournament was very low.  We ended up doing a round robin with the idea that the top two teams would go on to finals.  Unfortunately, we ended up with a three way tie between three of the four teams (Derik and I were the unlucky fourth team), a tie which was played off on a randomly chosen game.  That game?  Game of Thrones.  Danny and Karen’s team got eliminated, leaving the Joseph and Tim team and the Mike S. and Bryan team to go to finals.

    Mike measures out his Addams Family skill shot while Bryan observes.
    Mike measures out his Addams Family skill shot while Bryan observes.

    Although Derik and I lost the war, we won some very good battles, including a game of The Addams Family in which crazy shots that shouldn’t have worked kept happening.  “That’s one way to do it,” Derik said after we somehow managed to shoot the vault with the upper flipper.  “That’s another way to do it,” he said after a ricochet from a lower flipper shot somehow hit the jackpot.  Crazy luck like that kept on happening until Derik eventually said, “Turns out there are many ways to do things.”

    Joseph and Tim won Super-Ball X, making Joseph the second-ever three-time Super-Ball champion (Mike S. is the other).

    Joseph and Tim
    Joseph and Tim display their classy, luxurious Zen trophies.

    Meanwhile, we did have our last Smackdown tournament of the season, on Attack from Mars, which was complicated by the fact that teams that played in the Super-Ball finals couldn’t participate.  We didn’t have a Rookie final this time because all the available Rookies were playing in A division.  Ultimately I gave the Rookie medal to the highest Rookie finisher, which was Karen.  Danny won the main Smackdown medal.

    Despite the low turnout, the mood was festive and I think everyone had a good time.  We will continue the tradition of the Super-Ball tournament after season 11.  It’s never too early to start practicing your split flipper game!

  • Plus ça change: Chris wins season 10

    Chris playing Iron Maiden.
    Chris playing Iron Maiden in the finals… and valiantly concentrating despite the person walking by in his peripheral vision.

    The league’s tenth season, and the first of the post-Matt era, ended Tuesday night with another victory for the undefeated defending champion.  Chris made his way through the winners’ bracket of the A division playoffs, ending with a 2-0 win against Danny on Iron Maiden (which had just arrived at the bar that day) and The Walking Dead.  Third place went to Tim.

    Danny playing Iron Maiden.
    Danny playing Iron Maiden in the finals while Joseph and Derik watch.

    In the B division, I defended my top seeded position and paralleled Chris by finishing in the winner’s bracket with a 2-0 final match.  I had to face league newcomer Lupe in the finals after knocking her into the second-chance bracket with a hard-fought 2-1 victory in the third round.  The third place finisher in B, Chad, was also new to the LPL this season.

    We did also have Smackdown and Rookie Challenge tournaments, though several of the would-be qualifiers were still playing in the main tournament and had to forgo finals.   Joseph was the Smackdown champion, while the Rookie champ was Caleb.

    A division winners Chris (1st), Tim (3rd), and Danny (2nd).
    B division winners me (1st), Lupe (2nd), and Chad (3rd). Lupe is also wearing her “most improved” ribbon.  Photo by Joseph.

    I attempted to start a new tradition this season by giving out a pair of recognition ribbons for specific accomplishments.  I asked Joseph to plot a graph of scores and use it to choose the person who had the best claim on being “most improved” over the course of the season.  His calculations pointed to Lupe, whom I bestowed the ribbon on as we began the evening.  She said she couldn’t wait to show it to her students, and wore it on her shirt for the rest of the evening.  I also had long been planning to give a ribbon for the most catastrophically bad single game score of the season, but late in the season, Chris unintentionally went and stole the award by slam tilting Indiana Jones for an official score of 0.  Fortunately he took the award in good humor (as did the rest of the crowd when I announced it).  Derik surprised us with six T-shirts donated by Pinball Pete’s, which I did a random drawing to give away.

    I was very nervous prior to running my first finals, but everything went very smoothly, helped considerably by the good sportsmanship of all the competitors.  The only confusing ruling I had to make was about a glitch on Game of Thrones that resulted in Player 1 not being able to choose a house, but that was solved by plunging off Player 1 and having the opponents play as Players 2 and 3.

    Dan and Lupe grinning.
    Dan and Lupe take time out from their match to mug for the camera.

    Sadly, Matt was not able to attend finals, since he has already moved to the Kalamazoo area for his new job and didn’t want to make the drive.  I am hoping that with a little cajoling we may still be able to get him to come out for Super-Ball X, the Zen Tournament.  What’s that, you might ask?  It’s our traditional post-season, just-for-fun tournament!  We play as pairs, with each partner taking one flipper.  It’s a rare chance to enjoy the camaraderie of team play in pinball, and it’s invariably very entertaining.  There will be trophies for the top pair.  I still cherish my first Zen trophy because it was the first pinball trophy I ever won.

    Thank you to everyone in the league for a successful and fun season.  I will see you all (I hope) on May 22 for Super-Ball X.  All league members for this season, including those who did not meet the requirements to play in the finals, are welcome to play.

    P.S.: Don’t forget to check out all the photos I have taken Tuesday night and all season!  There are a lot more in the gallery than are posted in my recaps.

  • League Night Recap for 4/24/18

    Mike playing Attack from Mars.
    Mike plays the Attack from Mars remake for the Smackdown championship.

     

    Our league night for 4/24 was the last night of the regular season.  The total points for each player at the end of the night would be used to determine divisions and seeding for the playoffs.  Although the pressure was on with it being the last chance to climb up a position or two for finals, most people were less concerned with that and more interested in checking out the new games.  The latest  addition is a Game of Thrones LE.  I was quick to razz Derik about how Pete’s took out a relatively uncommon game (Revenge from Mars, my planned go-to for finals!) and put in “a weed that grows everywhere.”  Nevertheless, Game of Thrones was new to many of the league players since they aren’t all crazy people who drive an hour or two in every direction to play in other leagues.  This makes it especially funny that it ended up being randomly drawn for the Smackdown Rookie Challenge game.  Sorry for throwing you to the wolves, folks.

    Oscar playing Game of Thrones.
    Oscar playing Game of Thrones in the Rookie Challenge.

    The main Smackdown was on our other new addition, the Attack from Mars remake.  Being the crank that I am, I can’t stop complaining about how I want my “real” AfM back.  I think everyone else loves it.  I believe it was Immanuel Kant who said, “there’s no accounting for taste.”

    Mike won the Smackdown tournament and Derik won the Rookie Challenge, leading to jokes about how it was the Night of the Gingers.  They insisted I take a picture of them with their medals to use in their redhead propaganda campaigns.

    Derik and Mike giving a thumbs up with their medals.
    Ginger Twin powers, activate!

    The founder of the league, Matt, gave us the news that he has already landed a job on the strength of his recently-completed degree from MSU.  As a result, he has already moved to the Kalamazoo area so this is officially his farewell season.  A few of us stayed until the bar closed playing games with him and taking turns buying him celebratory beers.  Sadly, I got news from him yesterday that he will not be making it to finals and “probably” won’t be at the Super-Ball tournament (but we’ll see if we can work on him a bit before then).  I know that the league won’t feel the same without him (and the other founding member, his former roommate Aaron, who we already lost this season due to his work schedule).

    Speaking of founding league members, I ran into Russell yesterday.  He was playing his new favorite game AC/DC, which has evidently replaced Lord of the Rings in his heart.  He said that his absence this season was due to having a semester from hell but that he expects to be able to join again next season.

    I have to wrap up this report in order to go fetch the trophies for tonight’s finals.  I hope I’ll see you all there.  Remember, even if you don’t meet the requirements to qualify for playing in finals, you can still play in the side tournament.  Good luck everyone!

  • League Night Recap for 4/10/18

    We had our 7th and penultimate night of the regular season on April 10.  I should have been happy because we were going to play Indiana Jones, which is one of my strengths. Instead, I was filled with trepidation.  The previous day when Joseph and I went over to test the games, I had a single runaway game of Indy that finished just over a billion points.  I predicted this would doom me to a terrible league score since everyone knows a great score in practice presages a bad score in league.  Mike predicted I would have a great but not fantastic game of 300 million.  Who was right?

    Bryan and Joseph watch Karen play a game of Simpsons.
    Bryan and Joseph watch Karen play a game of Simpsons for the Rookie Challenge finals.

    Sadly, my prediction came true as I had a game in which I started no modes, had no multiballs, and ended with 19 million points.  At least I can say that I finished ahead of Chris T. (and that’s all that counts, right?) since he managed to get a slam tilt – totally unjustly, by the accounts of all witnesses, but still I have to call it a zero.  Wait, a slam tilt at league night?  What is this, 2015?  That wasn’t the only “old school” moment, though, since for the first time (!) this season we had a catastrophic game failure.  Jack-Bot decided to reset on two different groups, resulting in it being removed from league play for the night.  Since only four people had yet to finish playing it when it got pulled, I subsequently decided to just have those four put a score on it sometime on or before next league night (tonight).  Derik thinks he may have discovered and fixed the culprit, so here’s hoping.

    This night also saw us crowning a new Smackdown champion, first-time winner Tim, who triumphed over Mike S., Derik, and Danny on Getaway.  The Rookie Challenge ended up being played by the only two certified rookies still on site, Karen and Bryan, and Karen took home the medal.  Unfortunately, most of our top rookie qualifiers had already gone home by the time qualifying ended.

    Derik and Mike attacking Tim with a chair!
    Derik and Mike attempt to get revenge on Tim for his Smackdown win, while Danny (mostly not pictured) stays out of the fray.

    Our next league night is in just a few short hours and it will be the final night of regular season play.  The scores as of the end of league tonight will determine seeding for the final tournament.  (Remember that people must have played at least 4 nights to qualify for finals.)  Note that the current scores in our league spreadsheet are not quite accurate since four people have to make up Jack-Bot.  We will also have a Smackdown game as usual: Attack from Mars.  Since a Game of Thrones LE has just been moved into the Avenue (replacing, sniff, Revenge from Mars) we will be playing that along with the four M games: Medieval Madness, Metallica, Monster Bash, and Mustang.  There are a few long playing games in there so you might want to bring some coffee.  See you soon!

    Who is that masked man?! It’s Bryan, fighting Karen for the coveted Rookie Medal!

  • League Night Recap for 3/13/18

    Our last league night was the first day of the rest of your life… sorry, I mean the first day of the second half of the season.  This also made it the last day for new players to join and still have a chance to fulfill the 4-night requirement to play in the final tournament.  (Any player with dues paid in full can play in the post-season Zen tournament.)  We did have a new player, too, in the form of Oscar, who was so confident about wanting to join us that he paid dues in full well in advance of his first meeting!  Who can blame him?  We are the best pinball league in town and I won’t apologize for saying so.

    Bryan, Derik, and Tim, playing their league games on ToM and TotAN.
    Bryan, Derik, and Tim, playing their league games on ToM and TotAN.

    We were scheduled to play Demolition Man to make up for not being able to play it during what would have been its turn, but it went down during the first group playing it.  I wasn’t told what was wrong with it, just a succinct “it’s broken” from Chris, but I later found out it was the claw having trouble once again.  I asked Derik if he can’t just turn the claw off during league play so we can at least play it once, and he has done so.  Tonight, then, expect to witness a historic moment as Demo Man (maybe) makes it through a whole league night for the first time in the League’s history.  Those who have not played it with the claw disabled before should be advised of how it deals with this: the claw can still be lit in the usual manner, but shooting the ramp will bypass the claw and just come back around, the way it does when the claw is not lit.  If the claw is lit, you will be given a claw award, but will not get to choose which one.  It will start with Lock Freeze, then ACMAG, and continue in order from there.  (I have played in tournaments in which the claw was disabled specifically to stop people from doing the Lock-Freeze-All-Day strategy.)

    Chris and Dan playing league games on ToM and TotAN.
    Chris and Dan playing league games on ToM and TotAN.

    We had our first Rookie Challenge, which is a playoff between the top 4 Smackdown qualifiers who are literal rookies (new to the league this season).  This did result in the ridiculous situation of seasoned pinballers Karen and Derik being called “Rookies.”  The main fight was between Derik and Tyler.  Tyler was already approaching 100 million at the end of his first ball on Monster Bash.  Derik rose to the challenge and ended up with about 120 million, but that wasn’t enough when Tyler finished with something more like 150.  Bryan and Karen were left in the dust to fight it out for third and fourth, respectively.  The Rookies ended up playing much longer than the supposed Pros.  Despite running up extremely high scores on Mustang in qualifying, including a long game by Danny at the end that had Chris threatening to pull the plug on him, the main Smackdown finalists were not able to repeat the performance in the finals.  The scores topped out at 50 million and some were quite a bit lower.  In fact, they refused to pose in front of the game lest the scores show.  The finalists were Chris, Tim, Danny (who said “hey, I’m not last this time!”), and Mike S, respectively.

    The Smackdown finalists: Tim (2nd), Chris (winner), Mike (4th), Danny (3rd).
    The Smackdown finalists: Tim (2nd), Chris (winner), Mike (4th), Danny (3rd).

    One side benefit of the Smackdown tournaments is that some of our newer players are getting close to being “rated” by the IFPA, which means that they are considered as part of the calculation of our league’s “value.”  Until people play 5 IFPA tournaments or league seasons, they are considered to not exist for purposes of IFPA calculations (you can see this by looking at past Smackdown tournaments and noticing how some of the names are grayed out).  Tim is now officially a “rated player” thanks to the Smackdown tournaments, and Tyler and Derik will be coming to it soon.

    We’re just about ready to start another league night shortly so I hope to see you all soon.  League officially starts at 7:30 but remember to come a bit early so you can have a chance on the Smackdown game (tonight, I’m sorry to say, it’s South Park).

  • League Night Recap for 2/27/18

    We’re now halfway through the regular season as 2/27 marked our fourth league night of Season 10.  Remember that we voted to allow people to play in the final tournament only if they were present for at least four nights, so this is the last chance to join and play the last four meetings of the season!  Night #4 was our highest attended this season and possibly our highest attended ever, with 19 people including two new players (Kyle and Jules) and the return of previous season player Mike B.  Chris won the night again and continues to lead the league standings.  You can always check our Google doc spreadsheet for the latest full standings.

    We had quite a few high scores this night including Chris, Karen, and me (if I say so myself) on Revenge from Mars, and Mike S. and Joseph on The Addams Family.  The latter provoked the Quote of the Night from Mike, who declared, “If this doesn’t win the night I’m quitting the league” after he scored nearly 400 million and got all the way through touring the mansion.  Later in the night, Chris came over to tell Mike he might be quitting the league: “Go look at Joseph’s score and what ball he’s on.”  Of course Mike and I went over to look, and Joseph turned out to be around 250 million on Ball 1 and had not yet toured the mansion.  Later on, when Joseph finished, we went to check his score.  It was 395 million.  Mike said, “What was mine?  392?”  I looked at our score card and said “No… 396!”  Poor Joseph!  But I guess we’ll be stuck with Mike S. for a while longer.

    Joseph and Chris watch the Smackdown in progress.
    Joseph and Chris watch the Smackdown in progress.

    The Smackdown game was Theatre of Magic.  (I hope everyone got plenty of practice in because it’s going to be an actual league game tonight.)  This time Chris managed to keep his eyes open long enough to play in finals and won the coveted plastic medallion, though I should have cut the ribbon longer as it barely fit over his head.  Or maybe that’s really a problem with his ego.  Mike S., in a moment of failed situational awareness, tilted away a bonus that would have gotten him 2nd place, leaving Joseph to take that position instead.  Mike had to console himself with 3rd and a whopping .08 WPPRs from the IFPA.  Derik took 4th.

    Chris laughing while Derik watches.
    I think the mirth was over Chris’s late realization that he would not be allowed to play an extra ball in the Smackdown finals.

    Since part of the point of the Smackdown tournament is to give newer players a chance to get tournament play experience, I have decided to open up a second division for the Smackdown to give more people a chance at the hardware.  The top four qualifiers who are new to the league this season and did not qualify for the main Smackdown tournament will play off on a second, randomly-chosen game, concurrent to the main Smackdown.  It’s going to be called the Rookie Challenge and comes with its own medal.

    The Smackdown winners punching each other.
    The Smackdown winners, Derik (4th), Chris (1st), Joseph (2nd), and Mike (3rd). Wait, Joseph, shouldn’t you be punching Chris? Why are you turning on Mike S.?

    Hope to see you all tonight!  League starts at 7:30, but come early if you want a chance to qualify for the Smackdown or the Rookie Challenge.

  • League Night Recap for 2/13/18

    Terry watches Joseph play in the Smackdown finals.
    Terry watches Joseph play in the Smackdown finals.

    February 13 was our third league night of the season and my first after returning from my trip.  The main news of the night is that we started our new Tuesday Night Smackdown side tournament series.  Every league night for the rest of the season we will be having a side tournament on one game randomly selected that day.  Players can put in as many qualifying attempts as they want before league starts and after league if their group finishes early.  Once all league members are finished with league play, we have a finals game among the top 4 qualifiers.  The original idea of the Smackdown series comes from Mike S., and I worked out the details.  In addition to being some extra fun for players on league night, it is a way for our newer players to get some tournament experience under their belts.  The winner each night gets an amazing plastic medal and the burden of defending their title as the Smackdown Champion.

    Karen tries out a qualifying game for the Smackdown tournament.
    Karen tries out a qualifying game for the Smackdown tournament while Dan waits his turn.

    Our first Smackdown game was Iron Man, and our first Champion was, uh, Joseph.  (I didn’t know I’d have to take that medal back home… I would have made it nicer!)  Mike came in 2nd, Terry 3rd, and Danny 4th.  It is worth noting that Chris was the top qualifier by a good margin, but he has an early bedtime and had to leave prior to finals, so he had to forfeit his position.  Mike ended up wishing he hadn’t had his second Long Island Iced Tea and I had to turn the timer on someone for the first time in my tournament directing career as he debated whether standing up to play his next ball was a good idea.  He eventually jumped up to play with 30 seconds left on his countdown, and had a solid 2nd place finish.

    The Smackdown finalists.
    The Smackdown finalists.

    Chris continues to be at the top of the league after night 3, though Danny won the night.  (You can check the current standings on our spreadsheet here.)  Tonight is night 4, the halfway mark of the season, and we will be playing games starting with R and S, finishing in the early T’s.  We will also be having another Smackdown tournament, this time on Theatre of Magic.  Yes, yes, I know.  “Left loop all day.”  See you soon!

  • League Night Recap for 1/9/18 and 1/23/18

    In preparation for League Night #3 tonight, I present to you… the belated recap of 1/9 (and apologies for 1/23)!

    Opening night of the 10th season of Lansing Pinball League.
    Opening night of the 10th season of Lansing Pinball League.

    Season 10 started on 1/9 with my first night as the new league director, and what a start it was.  I expected a few new players; I didn’t expect half the participants to be new players.  In the chaos of getting all the new players checked in and explaining the rules, I got a bit overwhelmed and league started a little late.  Plus, when it was time for me to put people into groups, I didn’t have a good method ready and I just started pulling names off my list, putting four per game and trying to make sure at least one league regular was in each group to help out.  I then got to the end of the list and discovered I had only one person left, Dan.  Since other groups had already dispersed, score sheets in hand, I just removed myself from another group and joined Dan as a two player group.  This was not optimal since it meant that Dan and I had to wait all night for other, slower groups to finish, and worse, neither of us really got to meet any of the new players properly.  Oops.  I’m still learning.

    It was great to see so many new players in the league.  We got some extra publicity from the Avenue and Pinball Pete’s this season, and I also made a poster for both venues to hang up, and I think that accounts for some of this.  In any case we’re all happy to have the league growing again.

    Dan battles those ugly Martians on our league game, Attack from Mars.
    Dan battles those ugly Martians on our league game, Attack from Mars.

    This season we are going to be working through all the games alphabetically, but that’s “alphabetically according to how Match Play has them in its game list” since originally I was going to use Match Play to run the league.  (That didn’t end up working out since the way it deals with absent scores isn’t as we had planned.  Instead we’ll be using a spreadsheet on Google docs.  Not as pretty, but it works.)  Match Play doesn’t skip “The” in the titles of games, hence “The Addams Family” was not part of League Night #1.  We’ll continue with that alphabetical method the rest of the season but I might switch back to a sane method in future.

    Mike S. ended up winning the first league night.  My own night was… not so great.  I think I’m going to find that my tendency to play badly in league after rushing home from work and getting no warmup time is only going to be exacerbated by also being in charge of running things.  That’s OK.  I love this league best of all the ones I play in because of the fun factor, not because of my scores!  I wasn’t alone in my agony, anyway; Fish Tales and AC/DC especially beat up a lot of players.

    I rarely miss a league night, so of course I went and missed the second night of the first season I’m captaining.  I had a very good reason; I was giving a presentation at an international animal studies conference in Mexico City.  Joseph came with me (missing his shot at the state championship!) and so that left league stalwart Mike S. in charge of things for Night #2.  The threat of an ice storm almost caused a problem since Mike has to drive from Grand Blanc, but fortunately it didn’t materialize and Mike made sure everything was fine while I acted like a professional philosopher way down south.  I heard that we got even more new players, and that things ran smoothly without me.  In the words of Chris, “Mikey done good.”

    Danny, Derik, and Matt.
    Typical LPL frivolity with Danny, Derik, and Matt.

    Tonight is League Night #3, and the first of our Tuesday Night Smackdown series!  Anyone (not just league members) can put in qualifying games on our randomly-chosen Smackdown game (which for tonight will be Iron Man), with the top four going on to play off for the Smackdown Champion title.  Smackdown attempts can start as soon as Joseph arrives, which will be around 5:15.  I will probably be a little late tonight due to an exam in my class, but should be there by 7:40 at the latest to get everyone going.  See you soon.

  • Unbelievable – Undefeated!

    Season 9 of the Lansing Pinball League came to a close on November 7 with the final playoffs in which Chris retained his undefeated status.  He has won every season in the league’s existence.

    Third, first, and second place: Joseph, Chris, Mike. I try to tell Joseph not to bug his eyes like that in photos but he insists he’ll look asleep if he doesn’t.

    Due to low attendance, this time we had a single division playoff with a ten person bracket.  The semifinals were between Joseph and Mike, culminating in a low-scoring game of Monster Bash in which Mike edged Joseph out by about 20K in bonus.

    Mike walks away happy from a ToM game in which he put two billion plus on ball 1. (EDITED: my mistake, this appears to be from a different game.)

    Mike went on to play Chris in the finals once again, winning the first round and knocking Chris into the loser second chance bracket.  Chris thrives on pressure and I sometimes think he doesn’t really start playing until he’s got his back to the wall.  So, once again, he came back with a vengeance and won the second round and the season championship.  It should be noted, though, that at one point during their matches, Mike had a ball 1 of Theatre of Magic that was so high – over two billion – that Chris decided to walk away and concede the game.

    Also worth noting was my third game against Matt in the loser lower bracket.  Matt was player 1 and his first ball of Indiana Jones went on for what felt like forever and finished at about 1.3 billion.  He didn’t do much after that but it hardly mattered.  I can say I never gave up (even when Matt, not realizing I had an extra ball to play, mistakenly went to shake my hand after I drained ball 3 I defiantly said, “it ain’t over yet!”) so I got myself 200-300M for the sake of my pride and walked away at least not humiliated.

    I got quite a few good photos of the night, so make sure you check out the photo gallery as well as the final standings.

    Matt, Mike, and Joseph, after the end of the playoffs.

    The ever-popular Super-Ball IX split-flipper tournament, AKA the Zen Tournament, is tonight at 7:30.  I always think it’s the most fun night of the season because everyone gets really into it but no one gets in bad spirits when it doesn’t go well.  Pinball so rarely allows for cooperative play that it’s a rare treat when it happens.  I hope you will come!

  • League Night Recap for 10/24/17 (Costume Night)

    Winners Mike S. (3rd), me (1st), and Joseph (2nd). Plus a photobomb by the bartender. Photo by Dan.

    Alas!  Due to a couple of very busy weeks (and overall a very busy month) I was not able to get you a proper league update for 10/24.  I beg your forgiveness.

    So I am not entirely remiss in providing news of the league, I will just mention that 10/24 was the league’s third annual Costume Night, conducted by this humble author.  Unfortunately, we had the least participation yet, possibly due to the last league night of October falling an entire week behind Halloween.  I don’t intend to give up on Costume Night yet, and next year I have a plan for improving participation on that.

    Joseph as scare”crow”. Or possibly the Indiana Beach mascot.

    So as it happened, only Joseph and I dressed up, I in a dragon costume that I sustained a hot glue injury cobbling together at the last moment (like how I write this blog, but with more blistering), and Joseph in his typically high-concept entry, the Scarecrow Crow.  Joseph still provided a voting box, since we had three trophies to give away.  I won narrowly over Joseph, and third place went to… Mike S.?!  Yes, Mike declared that he was The Duke of Bourbon, and on the strength of his impression received three third-favorite votes for three points total and a third place overall.  (Up next was Chris, who received two votes due to league tradition.)

    League finals is in a very short time, though it will be delayed until 7:30 to accommodate certain habitual latecomers whom I will not name.  I hope to see you there!