With RED's withdrawal from the March Hare Madness tournament I ended up top seed. And ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger got in as fourth seed for the finals, which among other things implies there was no one who could make rulings in case a dispute came up during the three-game finals. Unless everyone trusted that bunnyhugger would rule as impartially as possible, which, c'mon, everyone knows that about her.
It meant also that I had choice of games. Not from all the 37 tables in the barcade. bunnyhugger had adopted a practice that's growing in popularity for finals matches, organizing a set of banks of three games, with my choice being which bank we play. It's a pretty good system, as I see it. Guarantees that being top seed carries some benefit, without the further bias of making it all about the games the top player knows best. I went with the bank that had Willy Wonka, the lone Jersey Jack pinball game, because I am a predictable person. I'll pick a Jersey Jack game if I can, even if I'm not actually good on them.
Although I'd been using my Critical Hit cards over the night pretty aggressively --- it's part of why I was in finals --- I had a nice hand of three or so as finals began. Partly because of my great game of James Bond, a game that hands out extra balls (which earn cards, by our rules) like peanuts. I would use none of them: BMK played his lone card, one that swapped hands with, oh, he chose me, leaving me bereft. I'd have to win on skill and hopefully getting past any card-induced mischief.
The bank's first game was Medieval Madness; despite playing BMK and FAE --- two quite better players --- and bunnyhugger --- about as good as me --- I felt confident. I'd put in time practicing Medieval Madness for regular league recently, and felt confident about the game in a way that was 75% justified. I got second place; BMK carried on to a win and, I think, getting another card. I may be wrong about this detail; it doesn't matter.
Second game was Metallica, a table that's becoming one of the games in my back pocket. We all had a lousy first ball, so at least we were on an even base for the last two balls. And here I finally pulled together a multiball and blah blah competitive stuff; the important thing is that I got first place, BMK got last, and bunnyhugger got second place. This was a key success. It meant that everyone still had a chance at taking first place; had BMK taken first, he'd have almost a lock on winning the tournament. On to Willy Wonka.
But not before some last mischief. bunnyhugger, I think it was, played the card to cover the scoring screen. On the most modern tables, including every Jersey Jack game, this is major. The screen has become an almost overstuffed table of information about the many things you can make progress on during the game. (Also, Jersey Jack games have players play extra balls in a weird order compared to every other pinball manufacturer ever, which could in theory lead to someone plunging someone else's ball, a disqualifying offence. This wasn't likely to happen, but it was possible if we didn't pay attention.)
We all had a lousy first ball, maybe fatigue or maybe the lack of screen information messing us up. FAE did well the second ball, though, based on ball time and how many lights came on. My last ball I did tolerably well, although I thought pretty close to what bunnyhugger had done. Which annoyed her, as she thought she might use the card to require me to stop playing but wasn't sure it could possibly make a difference. When the game ended it transpired that while FAE was running away with the score, I had a solid second place, about double bunnyhugger's and BMK's scores.
Which all meant that ... I had won. Two second-place and one first-place finishes beat out FAE with one first- and two third-place finishes, or BMK with one first, one third, and one last, or bunnyhugger with one second place and two last-place finishes. Our household would be taking home the first- and the fourth-place trophies.
I mentioned that this winning came at a terrible cost. Likely you've spotted it. The Critical Hit card decks were printed for only a short while, years ago, and used decks can't be had for love or money. We'd been fortunate to run this format tournament several years going without losing one of the 54 cards. This time, when I counted them up, we had 49 cards.
One was accounted for. One of the players had forgotten it was in his pocket and he promised (and did) to bring it to next league. But the remaining four cards? One of the players --- a rando pressed into playing by the infectious charms of ERR --- said he couldn't swear he remembered what happened to the cards played after one round. It's possible they were lost to some bar patron who picked up the curious-seeming things off a table. Or that some player forgot they were in their pocket or jacket or whatnot. bunnyhugger would put out calls for people to check their pockets on Facebook and at the next league meeting, and I would ask the bar staff if anyone might have turned them in to lost-and-found but, the thing about lost-and-found, is nobody has ever found.
Thanks to an old inventory sheet we know exactly what was disappeared. Luckily none of them were the only example of that card in the deck, although one of them --- Insanity --- is a rare card, only two of the 54 its kind. Shard of Chaos should have three representatives; Darkness (the one bunnyhugger played to knock out Willy Wonka's screen) should have four, and Confusion five. If need absolutely be we could scan the cards we have and print out our own copies of these, but that's a poor second-best.
Despite our wins, it was an inconsolable night.
On a happier thought let's attempt a couple more pictures from the Jackson County Fair of last August, shall we?
More miscellaneous souvenirs of things, such as the Jackson County Bank and Trust Company (the thermometer) or a telephone directory (up top) or what seems to be Vess Cola?
Here's just a gorgeously funny collection, one of a baker's dozen of Jackson County Fair second-place ribbons. Note that the collection received a second-place ribbon that's noticeably smaller than all the rest.
Models on display, including a couple of Lego constructions and a cutaway starship Enterprise that I know I'd never have been able to build however hard I tried.
I'm curious about the wooden fence used 'to protect fairy gardens'. You'd think they would have used wrought iron.
Oh, here's a printing press independent of the ones that I couldn't photograph.
Photograph of the waterfall that feeds that little decorative river, taken from inside the building that the water falls from. This is about as arty as I get this stretch of pictures.
Trivia: On the 26th of March, 1847, the Michigan legislature approved an act constructing the state's first capitol in Lansing, and signed into law by Lieutenant Governor William L Greenly. (Governor Felch had been elected United States Senator.) The building would be a frame building on Block #115 that would be two stories in height, about 60 by 100 feet large, mounted by a plain belfry. In 1865 a 16-foot addition was made to the south end. Source: The Bicentennial History of Ingham County, Michigan, Ford Stevens Ceasar. The old capitol burned down in December 1882. By then it had been bought by the Piatt Brothers, who converted it to a factory for manufacturing handles. That's what the book says, I swear.
Currently Reading: The Sum of the People: How the Census Has Shaped Nations, From the Ancient World to the Modern Age, Andrew Whitby.
