We’re about to come back after over a month off league, with a new theme for our banks (the Labors of Hercules) and a new game (Stranger Things). By the time of the Zen tournament we had an exciting development: The Beatles was back! And other games too, but mainly The Beatles, that’s the important thing. This was made possible by the fact that our pinballing was so awesome and powerful that it blew down a wall at The Avenue. Or maybe someone just knocked that wall down but it was definitely a consequence of the league wanting more room for pinball, so that’s close enough.
During the break we had the Zen Night, AKA Super-Ball XIII, with the traditional “give me the cheesiest thing you have” trophies, a tradition started by our former director Matt. I still just call them up and say “give me the same things again” and they give us a different winged victory/Olympian athlete/star/whatever they have lying around. I paired with Joseph again, which despite the fact that Matt once claimed it was unfair for me to pair with Joseph since we have intuitive couple communication, did not pay off once again. We won our first Zen tournament playing together and never since.
Despite the powerhouse pairing of Derik and Danny, Mike took home his fourth (I think?) Zen trophy (edited: he tells me it’s his fifth and that he really wants to make sure Chris knows it), this time with partner Josh. Mike is the most common Zen champion in the league.
We also had a Tuesday Night Smackdown on The Simpsons, though it had low participation due to some people still playing in the Zen tournament. I threw a last minute game on just because Joseph thought I should do that to lick my wounds after being tossed out of the Zen tournament, and surprisingly I ended up with a really good score. Tim, however, won the tournament (I got 2nd).
We also had the fifth annual Silver Balls in the City charity tournament, which was well attended and took in over $200 for the Capital Area Humane Society. It was my first Saturday tournament, and though the Avenue was not able to let us start early (unlike at Stewie’s Strikes tournament), it still worked out, despite the late news that an album release party would be playing that night. We ended with a win for Mike Stewart and a three-way tie for second place between Jared, Derik, and Caleb, who along with Lupe was in town for the holidays. I hadn’t thought of the fact that a tie would be possible in a strikes tournament so I gave them the option of playing it off or just deciding how to split up the trophies and they chose the latter, which had the side benefit of allowing us to get done before the bands started playing.
I hope to see you tonight at 7 for the league opener!