Ages and ages ago, back in the mists of time, we had the final league night of the regular (qualifying) season. It was our closest league night to Halloween this year. In years past, we used to have a Halloween costume contest on the closest night to Halloween, but as the calendar has caused league night to drift further from Halloween we started having minimal participation (read: Joseph and I) so the costume contest was put on hiatus. There may be an explanation besides the calendar. At the first league night two different people (Jake – who should get his flippin’ fingers back to league – and Matt) both showed up dressed as former champion Chris. Matt won the contest by virtue of the fact that he was dedicated enough to shave his head, or at least the middle of it. Many people felt that the costume contest had peaked early and it could only be downhill from there.
Anyway, since this was the closest night to Halloween, I found it fitting that the random number generator chose bank Melpomene, the comic-horror bank. We also had to randomly choose a game for Elvira’s House of Horror to replace, and the bumped game was Monster Bash. Given the misbehavior of the scoop lately, most were not disappointed, though I thought it was a shame to break up the monsters theme. (I would have rather seen Ghostbusters go, for more than one reason.) I made a joke to someone that I thought Jason should wear his Jason mask, as he did on his first night in the league years ago. Little did I know that Jason actually did have his Jason mask ready, and showed up wearing it once things got underway. Later, I got confused when Jason walked up and went to play a ball on a game I was playing because he was not in my group. I went to stop him, and people laughed. “She really has no clue, does she?” said Jason. Except it wasn’t Jason. It was Derik wearing another Jason mask. To my surprise, when Derik saw Jason wearing a mask, he declared that he was going to do it too, and got one out of his car. “You have a Jason mask just sitting in your car?” I asked, incredulous. The answer was yes, because he was given one in an Andy tournament he played in. Giving weird prizes is kind of an Andy trademark (ask Mike sometime about the penis keychain) so I had to accept this.
I was in a desperate race to finish the season ahead of Biff in order to play in A division at finals. He was only 10 points behind me, and while he kept reassuring me that he had been playing like crap recently and certainly had no hope of catching me, I was not so sure. I had two really good games (notably a boffo Ghostbusters, of all things) and three bad, including a truly terrible Munsters. I think Biff had more good games, so I waited anxiously to see if he caught up. In the end he did not. I finished the season one lonely point ahead of Biff, guaranteed to play in A and face Mike first round. Hooray? And, uh, thanks Ghostbusters?
As has become common this season due to my work schedule, Joseph made the Smackdown medals. He always makes them relate to a current event or “this date in history.” This time he went with a Halloween theme, making one of them a jack o’lantern and one a piece of candy corn. I finally used up a black and orange ribbon I had randomly been gifted with at a furry con and had been saving specifically for a Halloween tournament. The Smackdown championship was on Indiana Jones and the undercard fight on Road Show. Derik won the Smackdown and Josh (not pictured) the undercard.
Assuming everyone shows up for our double elimination finals, Mike will face me in the first round of A as the top and bottom seed, respectively. The other matches will be Danny vs. Joseph, Tim vs. Pat, and Derik vs. Josh. The B division will be very dependent on who shows up (as will the A, for that matter) but nine people are qualified so if everyone shows up there will be a play-in for the eighth seed position. Mike, the reigning champion famous for having ended Chris’s 10-season run, has declared that this is “the season of Derik.” I am going to put my money on Tim, though I consider Danny also a strong contender.
See you all very soon! Go for glory!