Our league night of 4/25 was the third of the season, so we were starting a new two-bank rotation, this time between banks 3 (Poseidon) and 4 (Hermes). Almost all of the new players we’ve had an influx of this season have continued coming back, and we got another new player, Devon. Devon has been playing a long time, but has never played in a competitive format before and decided to try it out. I made everyone promise to be nice to the new guy but as luck would have it, he got sorted into my group so I could explain everything to him. He seemed to have a good time and we’re happy to have him in the league. He also debuted by taking fifth in the night’s standings for his bank, not bad for a first outing. (Of course, only half of everyone has played the bank so far, but still, not bad at all.) And did I get some amazing pictures of him and the other new players to share with you? Did I hell. Once again I suddenly realized around the time the Smackdown was going on that I hadn’t taken any pictures all night.
The league has gotten so big that the process of drawing bank assignments from the hat has gotten quite protracted. It’s a long league tradition, going back to a knit hat that Matt used to use, but I have started wondering if we should switch to just assigning the groups electronically. I mentioned this out loud when we were drawing banks and added, “but it will make Joseph sad.” I had predicted that correctly since Joseph gave a heartfelt “aww” of disappointment. So, we’ll see what will win, expedience or tradition.
There had been speculation that we might have our Foo Fighters in by this time and could use it as the Smackdown game, but as it happened it arrived the day after league. Instead, we’ll be using it tonight. Last time the random number generator decreed we would play Cactus Canyon instead. I always draw the B division game at random for the games in the vicinity of the A division game. Joseph likes to kid with me that the random draw if the game is in the area at the top of the stairs is always Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. To his amusement he was right this time. (It isn’t always TMNT, but it does seem to happen disproportionately.) Tim won the main Smackdown tournament and I somehow won the B division on TMNT, a game I actively dislike.
I had made buttons using the button press that I’m so proud of, and I stuck the champ’s button on Tim using the tape that Joseph had stuck it to the game backglass with, and declared that Tim was now the Sheriff. It was maybe ten minutes later that they suddenly ran back up to me and said “I just noticed, it says 4/11 on it!” I had forgotten to change the date on my template from the previous league night. And I had made such a cute cactus drawing on it too. I promised to remake it for next time which I still plan to make good on, right after I’m done writing this league report.
The standings aren’t very meaningful with the banks only half-completed, but right now the early returns have Danny C. at the top of the league (surprise?) with Mike in second and Tim in third. Tonight will finish out the first half of the qualifying season. I hope to see you all there!