We’re hours away from the start of season 11, so naturally there’s no better time to give a recap of Super-Ball X, AKA the Zen Tournament, which took place on May 22. Sadly, our turnout for the traditional split flipper tournament was very low. We ended up doing a round robin with the idea that the top two teams would go on to finals. Unfortunately, we ended up with a three way tie between three of the four teams (Derik and I were the unlucky fourth team), a tie which was played off on a randomly chosen game. That game? Game of Thrones. Danny and Karen’s team got eliminated, leaving the Joseph and Tim team and the Mike S. and Bryan team to go to finals.
Mike measures out his Addams Family skill shot while Bryan observes.
Although Derik and I lost the war, we won some very good battles, including a game of The Addams Family in which crazy shots that shouldn’t have worked kept happening. “That’s one way to do it,” Derik said after we somehow managed to shoot the vault with the upper flipper. “That’s another way to do it,” he said after a ricochet from a lower flipper shot somehow hit the jackpot. Crazy luck like that kept on happening until Derik eventually said, “Turns out there are many ways to do things.”
Joseph and Tim won Super-Ball X, making Joseph the second-ever three-time Super-Ball champion (Mike S. is the other).
Joseph and Tim display their classy, luxurious Zen trophies.
Meanwhile, we did have our last Smackdown tournament of the season, on Attack from Mars, which was complicated by the fact that teams that played in the Super-Ball finals couldn’t participate. We didn’t have a Rookie final this time because all the available Rookies were playing in A division. Ultimately I gave the Rookie medal to the highest Rookie finisher, which was Karen. Danny won the main Smackdown medal.
Despite the low turnout, the mood was festive and I think everyone had a good time. We will continue the tradition of the Super-Ball tournament after season 11. It’s never too early to start practicing your split flipper game!