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 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.
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!