Monday, October 14, 2024

The Age of Lepus

A new era of competition is upon us, with the Dawning of the Age of Lepus (just google it, it will make sense...) on Friday Night when Andy claimed his place as the First Holder of The Bunny Trophy!!

Tim came to town (and then so did Joel!), and we three competed first in a game of Inner Circles, which Tim won to move one step closer to the requisite 10 points to be the first to claim the prize.

Ultimately, Andy won Tsuro, as a 3-person event, to move to 11 points and claim the prize.

Subsequently, the rules of the ongoing competition were established by precedent over the following Saturday evening. 

Effectively, the Bunny Trophy functions like a loosely-regulated Championship Belt.  As in the classic 80s-era wrestling, the current holder is under constant threat to lose their hold of the title by being challenged by other competitors. 

First, Tim challenged Andy in a 3-Person event that consisted of each of us taking a turn at pouring small candies from a kind of giant Tic-Tac container, each aiming for a certain number.  Tim successfully poured 1, then Joel overshot his goal of 2, Andy missed 3, and then Tim again hit on 4, winning the Bunny Trophy!

Joel then immediately tried to claim the prize, calling another 3-Person event in the form of a game of I Should Have Known That... (an ACTUAL GAME, tyvm!), but it was Andy who pulled off the win thus earning back the trophy!

This brought us to the first of our bylaws - such that, now that Andy had regained the trophy, and he was the only one of the three of us current competitors who could still choose a 3-Person event that day (at least between Tim/Andy/Joel) because Tim and I had already used ours.  Of course, Andy could have braggadociosly selected such an event, but instead Joel challenged him to a 1-on-1 event of a random game selected on the giant multi-system video game emulator at the Seeger House.  He was fortunate enough to land on Mega Games 6: World Cup Italia '90, and his dominance in sports video games shone through, and he was crowned champion, which wrapped up gaming for the day.

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While visiting Brooke's parents at their airBnB in Rockford, IL, Brooke challenged Joel to a 'first-to-three' game of Foosball on the mini Foosball Table in the basement.  She scored a quick first point that Saturday evening, but then pizza arrived, and the game was put on hold until after brunch the following weekend.  Joel equalized, then lost 3 - 1, and Brooke has held the Bunny Trophy ever since...  

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At Blackbird Bar in Milwaukee, Joel challenged Brooke to a pinball game of her choice, and after sampling each of the three separate Elvira-themed pinball games, Brooke selected one.  After a couple of false starts caused by mechanical problems / (possibly Manhattan-fueled) player errors, we settled on Jurassic Park pinball (not pictured), because there were some other players taking up all of the Elvira machines.  Joel won in a lopsided scoring frenzy, and took back the Bunny Trophy.

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Andy, Joel, and Brooke met up at Louie's Tap House in Roscoe, and pinball was once again on order.  Joel became the first ever competitor to successfully defend the trophy, first defeating both Andy and Brooke at Deadpool pinball, and then at Stranger Things pinball.

Last night (5 December), Joel's ALPS route brought him through Clinton where he stopped off for a couple of slices of leftover Mamma Lilla's pizza, and another successful defense of the trophy when he overcame Andy in a single round of Roku TV Weekly Trivia - close game with a score of 8 of 10 to 9 of 10.

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After losing out on the Thursday nigh, Joel returned to Clinton on Sunday for a concert, and Andy challenged and won a game of Trivial Pursuit TV Edition (best score out of 4 cards) - a very dominant win, which Andy only needed a single answer right on the final card.

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Joel turned it around, and immediately challenged back for the trophy (before Andy was leaving for Omaha the following day), but Andy was able to hold out and win a 'penalty shoot-out style' match-up of World Travel Trivia.  It did go down to a sudden death questions after Andy had jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, but ultimately Andy held on for his first successful defense, and brings the trophy to Omaha this week.

Andy did successfully win a game of Rack-O! vs. Tim on his arrival, but the next evening (12/10/2024), Tim won a game of Ticket to Ride: London to take the trophy!
 
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Andy has won the trophy back as of the 12th of December, winning a game of Roll For It!, and then successfully defending it for a game of Trivial Pursuit 2000s and a second successful defense vs. Tim & Claire, winning a game of Trouble.

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Tim was able to win back the trophy to keep it in Omaha for at least a week, winning a game of Cribbage.  Tim won his first successful defense of the trophy winning a game of "Tigers & Goats" (playing as the goats!)