Another One (A)lights the Bust

 Another exciting year of the SeegerOlympics is behind us with Reese winning the 2023 contest with a final score of 4 - 2 - 2 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 0 - 0!  It was a nailbiter, coming down to the final day of the year with Joel's hopes of tying (or going ahead, depending on rules interpretations that we can thankfully ignore) evaporating as he pulled even with Reese's Competitive Wordle score total with one puzzle yet unsolved.  Here is how it all went down (and a hint at what's to come in 2024):

1. Basketball One-Shot Challenge (Jen) - The competition got off to a start with the first of the 8-Person (all competitors playing simultaneously) to be played taking place during Davin's Graduation Weekend (I know nothing can match the satisfaction of winning the Dick Koch Trophy, Davin, but in case I forgot to mention, congratulations on overcoming that whole high school thing...) at the Black Elk Elementary playground.  After Joel & Andy exhausted themselves during warm-ups, Tim sunk a gimme (I think, correct me if I'm mis-remembering) from inside the paint, which Reese immediately bettered from a foot or so further, which Davin, Brooke and Joel failed to beat, before Jen stepped up and nailed a shot from inside the circle (is it called the circle? I forget basketball terms) just in front of the free-throw line.  Claire missed a free-throw length shot, before Andy stupendously failed his braggadocios three-pointer attempt. (Don't worry, they won't all be this long!)

Jen 1 - 0 All Others

2. 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup Pick-Em (Brooke) - An exciting upset with Brooke's strategy of "picking all 'S Countries'" paying off in the form of Spain winning the tournament, and Sweden finishing third place (no thanks to you, South Korea), and Brooke finishing just ahead of Reese, Tim and Jen in total points (the bonkers thing is that Tim would have shared the point {or also had a point, depending on that rules interpretation I mentioned earlier} had he not subbed out Sweden for Denmark after they got matched up vs. USA in the round of 16.  Reese also had a chance to win this event heading into the final had those Cheeky Lionesses pulled it out.

Jen & Brooke 1 - 0 All Others

3. Music League (Joel) - Trailblazing past our pace of the 2022 competition, we Seegers finished our 3rd event at the end of November, with Joel hitting the equivalent of Andy's last-ditch 3-Pointer in the form of "Peaches" by performed by Jack Black from the Super Mario Brother's movie in the "New Hotness" (songs that came out in that same year) final round edging past Jen, who had been in the lead for much of the year.

Jen, Brooke & Joel 1 - 0 All Others

4. Mini-Golf (Tim) - This event all but ended on December 15th with Tim rolled an 8 on a 20-sided die, selecting his 8th hole from the round on which he had scored a hole-in-one, but Joel held out hope of rolling a lucky 13 (the hole that he got a hole-in-one) when we were all together at the house in Clinton.  He failed to do so...

Jen, Brooke, Joel & Tim 1 - 0 All Others

5. Farkle (Brooke) - Mom & Papa nearly joined to make it a 10-Person Event (the precedent having been set in Music League with Dave T. & Mark C. joining, but they went to bed at the last minute, and Brooke took the point.

Brooke 2 - 1 Jen, Joel & Tim [0 All Others]

6. 8-Person War (Davin) - We immediately followed up Farkle with an 8-Person War event, thankfully lowering the amount of cards to 1/4 of a deck (rather than the half that was originally suggested), so the event came down to Davin & Reese battling out over 2 decks, and devising a speed version of the game (I think where they both showed and stacked winners into 2 piles).  Interestingly, because we played this in the New Room*, Brooke abandoned a small discard pile of some pretty powerful cards and eliminated herself from the event prematurely, accidentally.

Brooke 2 - 1 Most Others [0 Reese, Andy & Claire]

7. Sorry! Tournament (Reese) - Reese won her second point of the competition narrowly defeating Joel, Claire & Davin in the final round, after she and Claire cruised to victory in the first round over the summer beating Brooke & Tim.

Brooke 2 - 1 Most Others [0 Andy & Claire]

8. Random Arcade Console Game Tournament (Joel) - On the 28th of December, 7 Seegers headed to Vintage Vault Arcade in Mukwonago with 5 of them still eligible to win this point.  Davin defeated Claire in the first round at Q-Bert, and Joel moved on to the finals narrowly defeating Reese at Pole Position.  Davin joined him there with a win at Rampage: World Tour, and Joel narrowly won the point beating Davin at a terrible shooter called Target: Terror

Brooke & Joel 2 - 1 Most Others [0 Andy & Claire]

9. Strategy Board Game Tournament (Reese) - Reese wins in the final round, defeating Andy at Inside Moves (after Andy interestingly made the change from last year's same event that the same game could be randomly selected from the stack of 8...)

Brooke, Joel & Reese 2 - 1 Most Others [0 Andy & Claire]

10. Competitive Wordle (Reese) - Reese stormed into the lead surpassing Andy & Tim's combined score of 33 guesses at each of the other 7 competitor's Custom Wordles, landing at 32 total guesses!

Reese 3 - 2 Brooke & Joel [1/0 All Others] 

11. Throwing Cheeseballs in the air and catching the in your mouth (Reese) - That's what Tim named this event!  Reese went 10 for 10, securing the victory for the 2023 Competition!  

Reese 4
- 2 Brooke & Joel [1/0 All Others] 

Congratulations, Reese!, we'll need to get that etched in brass plating (I recommend Center Trophy)

... Tabled until next year were The Christmas Song Writing Competition (judges tbd), Tennis Tiebreakers (matchups tbd), Croquet, Casino Night, Trivial Pursuit Glory (8 of us being together tbd!), & Clinton Scotland Yard (exact mechanics and approval tbd), so the 2024 Competition is^ about to get under way!

*see "Anbau 1990" (a VHS Tape in the Seeger Collection)
^possibly

How about THAT ONE, folks!!??!!

 The 2022 SeegerOlympics have concluded, winding up on the final day of competition on Friday, December 30.  It was a down-to-the-wire photo finish (albeit with a quite rosy filter for Davin!) with a final score of 2 - 2 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 0 - 0 with Davin Seeger winning on the first tiebreaker (which was decided at the start of March 2022, and so hung over the rest of the competition) by being the only competitor to select the correct winners of Amazing Race 33.

And so, here is how the rest of the Olympic Year went down:

1. Champions League Pick-'Em (Joel) - This was the first event to have it's parameters established, with the draft order established on January 3rd.  Reese selected Real Madrid with the 6th pick to win it over all of the favorites (and others, including Tim's surprise Villareal selected at 13 who beat 1st overall pick, and betting favorite, Bayern Munich on their way to the semifinals!)

Reese 1 - 0 All Others

2. Bowling (Brooke) - Although the spirit of the competition was to have everyone select at some point throughout the year one game of bowling that they played as "the official event", in the end we all needed to head down to Cougar Lanes together on Wednesday, December 28th to play it out.  Unsurprisingly, Tim won the event with 15 - 20 pins to spare or so, but more intriguingly, this wasn't Tim's highest bowling score of the year.

Reese & Tim 1 - 0 All Others

3. Smash-Up Tournament (Andy!) - A bold choice for Andy (I was surprised to see going back in the text chain that it was indeed his event and format) where the top two finishers in each 4-player semi-final move on to the final. He failed to move on in a tough semi-final against Davin, Claire, & Brooke, and Joel, after narrowly winning his opening round against Reese and Tim, won a tough final with randomly selected decks against the three experts in the event...

Reese, Tim & Joel 1 - 0 All Others

4. Statue Football (Davin) - The final event played, on 30 December 2022, found Davin and Joel tied 2-2 in wins (spoiler alert!!) with Davin holding the tiebreaker, so all he needed was anyone except Joel to win the event.  After Joel & Davin hooked up for the first touchdown, a glitch in the rules (which Joel kind of invents on the fly when there are no clear precedents) caused Andy to be starting in or near the end zone after each score, so after a first dropped pass each possession, Andy quicky racked up the necessary 28 points for the victory.

Reese, Tim, Joel & Andy 1 - 0 All Others

5. Black-Jack w/ Papa as Dealer (Tim) - Tim, then Joel were the first two to compete in this event, which kept scores a secret to all but those who had played until Reese played the final round on December 27th.  Tim & Joel both crapped out on their attempts at $0.00, and so did each and every subsequent Seeger to take part until Brooke had a series of wins and got to $1.75 and subsequently stopped betting (like a reasonable gambler).  Jen then played her round, and topped Brooke's tally to take the point! (I think at around $2.25, but exact total has been lost...).  When Reese stepped up (to sit down) in front of Papa, she initially won several rounds, and looked to be set to take the point (not knowing the score she needed to hit).  After surpassing Jen's score, she fell back a bit, and on the last bet (as time ran out), she went all in... and lost.

All Others 1 - 0 Davin, Claire, Brooke

6. Random Video Game Tournament (Joel) - The first point (I think) scored last year was Davin's victory in this tournament, which had a lot more games played at the Omaha Seeger house, than I had expected (6 out of 7).  The outlier was a massive upset in the first round with Tim defeating Joel on the Sega Master System in Hang On!  Davin eventually won the whole tournament, defeating Reese who had won the first round against Brooke in some weird kitchen cooking game...

All Others 1 - [0 Claire, Brooke]

7. Wikipedia Tournament (Davin) - Evidently, Davin had learned about this game on some youTube channel and chose the event as a clicking through the fastest (rather than the fewest clicks) from one random Wikipedia page to another. Joel secretly is a Wikipedia nerd, and worked his way to the final against Reese who was also dominant in the earlier rounds, but Joel won making his way to a congressional election in the Philippines in the 1960s.

Joel 2 - 1 Most Others [0 Claire & Brooke]

8. Two-Player Strategy Board Game Tournament (Andy) - 8 strategy games were initially laid out on the pool table, and were randomly selected for each match.  Davin won a shock (to Andy, anyway) first round win (over Andy - in case that wasn't clear) in Quits, and Reese defeated Joel to get to the finals against Davin, who won Outwit to win the final and the point. 

Joel & Davin 2 - 1 Most Others [0 Claire & Brooke]

And so, with the tiebreaker won early in the year, Davin is the 2022 Champion - the first year-long competition between 8 Seegers, and Davin becomes (I don't know for sure, not being able to check the actual trophy) only the second (?) person to win back to back SeegerOlympics.

Congratulations, and better luck next year to everyone!

Event #6: Random Video Game Tournament

Welcome to the Random Video Game Tournament for the 2022 SeegerOlympics!

The Bracket is shown here (selection process is shown here), and rules are as follows:

1. Single Elimination tournament, where competitors play a single game [see sub-rule 1a] of a randomly selected video game [see sub-rule 1b] located within the next home or domicile that the two competitors next enter together [see sub-rule 1c].

     1a. Depending on the game selected, competitors will agree upon the most appropriate mode for competition in that particular video game.  So, if the game includes a "Story Mode" and a "Battle Mode", it is likely that the battle mode will be preferable, because it allows for direct competition.  If a game contains several games in one (e.g. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games) the competitors will come to an agreement within the confines of the video game of what will determine the framework of the competition and what will signify victory (with any other SeegerOlympic competitors in the same house at the time of selection serving as tiebreakers / arbiters).  The game can include multiple events (e.g. if Olympics or mini-game style video game) to determine the winner or one randomly selected event, as decided by the two who will be playing the game.  If a game has 2 or more separate modes for direct competition (e.g. Mario Kart has both Vs. Racing Mode & Battle Mode) a random roll will determine which one is selected whenever possible.

     1b. Random selection will be determined by a dice roll or use of the random number generator found at https://www.random.org/ and will be selected thusly: 

          First, the game system is selected by the competitors determining the number of video game systems contained within the household they are in and rolling to see which one the game will be played upon.  [NOTE: iPhones / iPads / phones / tablets may be counted as a game system if the pairing decide they will, but in that case all of the phones/tablets in that household will count as a single game system, and if that system is selected, randomness will also decide which particular phone will have a random game selected on it.] Video game systems that are in a house that are not hooked up currently may be counted in the random selection, but don't need to be (e.g. if we're not sure that the ColecoVision @ the Clinton House works, we can try to hook it up to decide if it works, but don't absolutely need to).  Any video game system that is currently hooked up in a household must be part of the selection process.

          Second, a game will be randomly selected for the chosen system once the competitors determine all of the games that are in the house for that system.  No additional games may be downloaded onto a system once the selection process has started, however, any games that are currently on the system must be included in the selection process.

     1c. Each match-up will be played in the house that the two players matched up next enter together.  This means that in a case like the only intra-household match-up for this first round (Jen v. Davin), they would both at some time need to both leave and re-enter the Seeger House on Madison Street before the locale is determined.  If for some reason they both left the house today or tomorrow, and then both went in to the next door neighbors house before they both came back home, the game would need to be played (and selected) at that alternative location.

2. Practice / Warm-Up games are permitted, so if you're unfamiliar with a game, you are allowed to play it a few times to get up to speed before the official competition, provided that the match-up be played before either party departs the home in which it is going to be played for more than 48 hours (so if Omaha Seegers are in Clinton for Spring Break, and Joel & Tim are matching up, we could each practice as much as we want as long as we get the game in before you guys depart back for Omaha).

2022 is Underway! (obviously...)

 Thanks to Tim, the SeegerOlympics 2022 are happening!!!

After Davin's SeegerOlympic victory in June 2021, the Dick Koch Trophy has been updated, and we have a slate of 2022 events selected, which may span the better part of 2022.  8 Events, and 2 Tie-Breakers to be played during calendar year 2022.  The Events are as follows:

1. Champions League Pick-Em
2. Bowling
3. Smash-Up Tournament
4. Statue Football
5. Black-Jack w/ Papa (as Dealer)
6. Random Video Game Tournament
7. Wikipedia Tournament (?)
8. Two-Player Strategy Board Game Tournament

Tie Breakers

1. Amazing Race Pick-Em
2. Scratch-Off Lottery Tickets ($5)

Weight for it...

The Dick Koch Trophy (awarded sorta-annually for the Seeger Olympics competition) is not unlike the House Cup of Hogwarts. 

Points can often come from anywhere - unexpectedly.  The guiding principle (there are few rules and no laws in the Seeger Olympics, methinks) is fair play.

The World Cup picks are in, with the champs being selected:

Andy took England, Brooke - Uruguay, Joel - Belgium, Claire - Switzerland, Davin - Portugal, Kylie - Brazil, Tim - Mexico, Jen - Iceland!

Jen's inspired pick led to a Lovable Loser's event, where each contestant picks a team with less than 1% chance to win the World Cup (according to FiveThirtyEight, the site that makes the improbable unlikely).  No one has yet selected their underdog yet, although they are up for grabs (excepting Iceland, who only Jen can pick until noon on Sunday, because of her bold selection in the first event).

This leads me to two questions for consideration... Unbalanced Justice & Weighting for Events:

The Scales of Justice are an interesting metaphor.  We think of it symbolizing that all are equal in the eyes of the law (although justice is also meant to be blind).  What's interesting about the old-timey scales that we generally associate with justice is that they have built-in weights.  One can 'tip the scale' as it were.  Just like Jen has additional time to choose Iceland because of her boldness, so too advantage should be given to the worthier case.

With a myriad of competitors in this year's SeegerOlympics, I am also curious about exploring the idea of weighted events.  If all 8 of us play Trivial Pursuit with 2 teams of 4, should 4 points be awarded (1 to each winning team member)?  If so, what about an event like the WC picks.  Assuming nobody has picked the winner (Germany, after all remains unselected), there will almost certainly be a tie.  Should all of those tied for the lead get a point or divide one point into fractions (i love the idea of fractional points).  Weighted events where we all compete (say worth 8 total points, or 4, or maybe 10) would allow for sub-group events (Joel & Brooke & Kylie & Andy & Tim) could be for just one point, and that would allow for many sub-group events, but still the big points at stake for the all-competitor events.

Not sure how it would work, but i'm sure we could figure it.

Look for an all-new, exciting-as-ever, reinvigorated Seeger Olympics, 2018 edition.

We will see exactly which Seegers want to be involved for this seven-month event, beginning in June and running until December 31, 2018. We do know that some (all) of the next generation -- Kylie, Davin, Claire -- are interested in being a part of it.

Details to follow...

Back at it?

Tim declared a 4-person event betwixt Andy, Tim, Kylie & Joel. A coaster toss, innocent enough, but enough, perhaps to re-start the whole thing again. 

Tim won his coaster game and then Joel called a derivation of Tumblin' Dice between the same four competitors. Andy won that event, and he and Tim took an early lead in the 2016 competition. 

Rules will be that any 3 Seeger Competitors from at least two different towns can compete in official events. There will need to be an appeals process at year end if some competitors aren't able to compete in enough events to be able to win the overall competition.