We had a fair showing for a holiday weekend/snow hazard/omicron variant final tournament of the year, with 11 players risking their lives to play backgammon.
Before I get into the tournament results, a reminder of how good the Lucky Lab is to our group – turns out they will be closed for the next week, and so we will have to find a new venue for the Martin Memorial tournament next week. The bartender came over to check with me, and apologized because they were also told to close early today. So we had a very brief window to get the tournament done today! The bartender said she was happy to keep the place open a little past when the owner had said to close, if we needed it to finish the tournament. We switched from 5 point matches to 3 point matches at that point (which I should probably have done from the get-go anyway), and wrapped up around 3:45. So look for a venue change announcement soon, and remember to tip the staff the next time we’re back at the Lab.
4 players wanted into the side pool, so I did that as a mini-bracket and put 7 into the main bracket. Main bracket results first: Kyle started off against his “+1”, Bob; Nathan took on Richard, Aaron (not that Aaron, the other one) took on Bodger, and late-comer Nick got the first round bye. Kyle, Richard, and Bodger advanced, Bodger took out Kyle in the second round, and Nick took out Richard. Then in the final, Bodger came out on top, for his third-in-a-row undefeated showing! As the clock was moving, I gave Nick a second place instead of having him stick around until the consolation bracket finished to determine second; Richard eventually came out on top of that bracket, defeating Kyle 3-0 in a flourish of a finish.
In the side-pool bracket, Paul took out Brad in the first round, and I squeaked past Jesse. Paul then proceeded to crush me for 1st place, and Jesse fought his way past Brad to take me on AGAIN for 2nd. I took the first game, then took a cube in the second game which I lost to get us to Crawford; I survived Crawford to get us to 2-all post-Crawford, and then I must have run out of steam because the last game is a blur. I think I spent most of it on the bar…
Thanks all for coming out, and now I can share the much anticipated year-in-review rankings! Here’s the list of everyone with at least 10 tournament matches for 2021, along with their total wins:
| Player | Played | Won | % |
| Mark | 21 | 11 | 52.38% |
| Max | 17 | 10 | 58.82% |
| Julie | 16 | 7 | 43.75% |
| Tim | 16 | 6 | 37.50% |
| Brad | 14 | 7 | 50.00% |
| Stephanie | 14 | 6 | 42.86% |
| Bodger | 13 | 11 | 84.62% |
| Kyle | 12 | 6 | 50.00% |
| Nathan | 11 | 5 | 45.45% |
| Leah | 10 | 6 | 60.00% |
| Aaron | 10 | 5 | 50.00% |
| Carlos | 10 | 5 | 50.00% |
Max gets the nod for highest participation level – I don’t count for that one since by dint of organizing the events I never ever miss one – with Julie and Tim close behind. But the clear player of the year award has to go to Bodger, with an incredible 11-2 record for the year! Congratulations, Bodger! I’ll bring your trophy to the next regular tournament.
See you all in 2022!
-Mark