Season 18 came to a close on July 25 with a hot, sweaty night of playoffs at The Avenue Cafe. Danny C. ultimately retained his title as league champion after a battle with Jason. Returning B division champion Dan N. also repeated his victory, this time in a final battle against league newcomer Devon. Receiving third place trophies were Pat in A division and Bryan J. in B division.
This was our largest ever final tournament because the league reached the largest ever membership. We had 28 qualified players, which according to the league rules we were using at the time meant that A division would be a 14-person double-elimination tournament. This beat our previous record of a 12-person finals. That one was a very long tournament that barely finished before last call, so I arrived at the Avenue full of trepidation that the tournament would outlast the bar’s open hours and that we would have to have the two finalists meet on an additional day. Fortunately, that did not happen, but it was a real fear that loomed over me throughout the night.
It didn’t help that I held up my own A division matches by having to make an unusual number of rulings and also sort things out when players entered themselves into the wrong branch of the second-chance bracket.
We did have a Tuesday Night Smackdown tournament, for which we used The Simpsons Pinball Party, chosen because it was excluded from the main tournament due to wonkiness. Since people could not play in Smackdown finals if they were still playing in the main tournament, we had few people available to play when it was time. As a result, Ethan received the B division win by default, which he was very excited about. Mark C. won the A division, which he said was his first pinball tournament win. As it happens, my first ever tournament win was also a Smackdown tournament during a finals night a few seasons ago.
It was a night of upsets. In A division, #12 seed Ethan defeated #5 seed Derik in the first round of the tournament; #7 Pat defeated #2 Tim in the winner bracket and then #4 Josh in the second-chance bracket; and #9 Heather (that’s me) defeated #2 Tim and #6 Mike (who was undervalued due to missing a couple of league nights) both in the second-chance bracket. Meanwhile in B division, second place went to dark horse Devon over league stalwart Bryan J.
During the finals in B division, I asked Devon which match he was on with Dan. I meant whether they were in their first or second of the two matches, since if the person in the second-chance bracket wins, they have to then win a second match against the person who had been in the winner bracket. Devon said “this is it, this is for the tournament” but I wasn’t sure he had understood me correctly so I asked Dan who clarified that they were only in the first match. Devon, who was in the second-chance bracket, was heading toward winning his game which would win him the match, and I said to Dan, “I think Devon doesn’t realize he is going to have to beat you a second time.” Indeed I was right. When the game finished I explained that they would now have another round and Devon exclaimed, “We have to play again?”
The final match in A division started around midnight and pitted Danny against Jason, with Danny having the better seed. Danny chose Willy Wonka, which he won. Choice then went to Jason, who chose The Munsters and won. Choice went back to Danny and he chose Stranger Things. I have to admit that at this stage I had very mixed emotions. I always find it more exciting when finals goes into a second match, and I also kind of wanted to see a new league champion (Jason has never won the season), but part of me also really wanted Danny to win so that the tournament would be over before they started kicking people out. Danny did win that final game on Stranger Things and it was a few minutes before 1 am when I had him and Jason line up for photos. A single bar patron, who had gotten out of the way for the photo and was standing nearby, clapped. I then packed up my stuff and took Joseph’s car home, as he had long since walked home to go to bed in order to be rested for work the next day.
That wraps up Season 18, except for our traditional post-season split flipper or “Zen” tournament tonight, Super-Ball XVIII. Season 19 will begin on August 22.
The final results for Season 18 are as follows:
- Danny C.
- Jason
- Pat
- Josh
- Joseph
- Heather
- Mike
- Jimmy R.
- Tim
- Derik
- Biff
- Ethan
- Donny
- Ted
- Dan N.
- Devon
- Bryan
- Shylia
- Mark
- Jim J.
- Grant
- Adam
- Travis
- Ro
- Linda
- Ann-Marie
- Cyndi
- Mark H.