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 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 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!