Kristen watches Chris play Iron Maiden. Yes, I use this photo angle a lot. I don’t have that many options!
Our third night of the season, on August 7, began ominously. Our new scheme for rotating through the games had ended up putting us in an unfortunate cluster: Attack from Mars, Ghostbusters, Lord of the Rings, The Simpsons Pinball Party, and Theatre of Magic. While Ghostbusters and Simpsons aren’t known for being very long-playing at the Avenue, the other three are. Before league started, Theatre of Magic reset on Joseph as he was testing it, and so I made the decision to pull it. Everyone was relieved until they heard what the alternate was: Monster Bash, only a slight improvement in the matter of play time. Worse, several top players got put into the same group by the Sorting Hat. (It was, of course, the group in front of mine, so we got to wait for them all night long.)
Mike wonders when the hell it’s going to be his turn as Chris plays The Simpsons Pinball Party.
The night ran as long as expected, especially thanks to Lord of the Rings. Several players, including Joseph (I know he wants me to be sure to put that in) started Destroy the Ring, though I don’t know how many succeeded. Even Simpsons, which can be very fickle for players, gave up epic games for some. I don’t know how some people put huge games on Monster Bash, though, because the scoop kept spitting down the middle; I lost two balls that way. The last group did not finish until after 10:30, our longest night yet. At least one player (Ed) gave up and went home without finishing. And then I still had to run the Smackdown tournament!
Speaking of the Smackdown tournament, it was on Game of Thrones this time. I played in the B (“Undercard”) division, as did Mike S. For the B division, I always roll a die to choose a game from among those in the same “area” as the main tournament game so I can easily supervise both. When it was time for me to draw a random game from among the ones in the alcove, the die came up with Monster Bash. Mike S. strenuously objected, pointing out that we just had to play it, that the scoop was going SDTM, and other complaints. I held fast; I didn’t like it either, but I was following my own rules. Mike then tried to take a vote of the rest of the Undercard players, but I told him, “This isn’t a democracy!” We played Monster Bash and to my surprise, I won on a big third ball rally. My league game had been awful, so I yelled, “Why can’t this be my league game?” This was my first time getting a Smackdown medal of any kind. Meanwhile, Derik won the championship on Game of Thrones, a game I know he loves.
The Smackdown and Undercard winners, Derik and I, respectively. But not respectfully.
This was Kristen’s last night with the league, so we sang “Goodbye to you” to her at the start of the night. She is off to start an exciting new life in Boston, where there will be more than enough pinball, though not the certain Lansing je ne sais quois.
Tonight is our fourth night of the season. There are rumors we may be rejoined by former player Jason Magnuson, one of the old-time Lansing greats. I will also be taking final T-shirt orders, so don’t forget to let me know your color and size choice at league night, send me a Facebook message, or email me (heather@lansingpinleague.com). Also, keep in mind that Stern has a drawing once a month for a translite, and all you need to do to win it is take a photo of yourself at league night holding your Stern Army dogtag in front of the Stern Army banner or a Stern game, and then email it to Zach.Sharpe@sternpinball.com. You can do it every month. Here’s the one I took of myself at the August 7 meeting.
Yes, I was messing with them a bit by posing with Elvis.