Just Between Old You and Me and That Kid With His Year to Grow
So, as said Monday, bunny_hugger lost in the first round of playoffs. Of course, half of all the competitors did. The most surprising loss was MEW, who'd gone into the tournament top-seeded --- and who was the first woman since bunny_hugger to make it to the open state championship series --- and whom bunny_hugger had spent much of the drive into Bay City telling me was the unstoppable force who would rule Michigan Women's Pinball until she decided to stop competing. She was knocked out of the open tournament in the first round, which wasn't too surprising, since there were literally three people among the world's top 100-ranked players competing against her. But the women's scene in Michigan is a smaller scene, and she wasn't just playing the sixteenth seed, but the seventeenth, someone who moved into the tournament when YAO had to bow out. That's not to say MEW was beaten by a poor player; often people are undervalued if they play only at one or two venues. But this was a big upset, and MEW was.
Well, I can't really say she was upset. But she did say she was not going to play out the ties to figure out who finished 9th versus who finished 16th, and just wanted her payout and to go home. The prize pool for the 9th through 16th players is divided equally --- the International Flipper Pinball Association takes no interest in whether the eight-way tie is broken or not, and issues payout accordingly --- and so bunny_hugger would have had to dig out the twenty six dollars forty cents or whatever it was (it was somewhere around $25 and how close doesn't matter). Except she didn't actually do that. The IFPA had sent her a check with the year's bounty from women's tournaments, and a couple of sponsors had raised the payout, and bunny_hugger did not want to be walking around with all that in cash. Instead she wrote out sixteen checks, for the appropriate amounts, and figured to fill out the name and sign the check on the scene.
Also taking their winnings and leaving: the Traverse City crew, all of whom lost first round. Given it's like a three hour drive over I was surprised they didn't hang around longer, but the story was they had some event in the evening to get back for. Which sounds reasonable until you wonder what their plan was in case someone had a hot hand and made it to the second round, or third, or even to finals. (This would be improbable, but not unthinkable.) Well, hazards of carpooling.
A hazard of a bunch of people all leaving, in a seeded backet tournament: what happens if, in the tie-breaking bracket, two of these forfeiting players play each other? As did in fact happen. Lacking direction I went with the tiebreaker that the higher seed 'won' and went on to the next round of tie-breaking play. This did mean that MEW 'won' a match that neither she nor her opponent were there for, and that left her finishing in twelfth place, ahead of KT who actually did play all her rounds. Several people asked if that made sense and it ... eh. You can follow the logic but it feels wrong. Had I internalized that four people of the eight doing playoffs were leaving early, and that two of them were playing each other, I'd probably have asked bunny_hugger for permission to rearrange that, so the four still-playing people played each other and settled 9th through 12th that way.
This is of almost no practical consequence. The difference in women's competition rating points between 12th and 13th place is barely there and it almost certainly won't be the divide between someone making playoffs and someone staying home next year. It would've been easier on everyone if they'd just played it out. But I guess there are people who don't want to stick around after they've lost. It's just different from how I default to thinking, is all.
Sure, given my choice, I'll stick around a pinball tournament until they shut the place on me. You know what else I'll stick around until they close it on me? An amusement park. For example, Dollywood:
The station for the railroad. Also look at how great the shading and light is there.
The Country Fair section is a little loop down one of the many hills of the park.
Part of the Country Fair space is these picnic tables atop astroturf. There's a lot to eat there although we didn't end up having dinner at this spot. (I think we actually failed to eat anything substantial and just got Burger King on the way back to the hotel.)
Some of the Country Fair area here. They have a Scrambler like you'd hope for from a fair. The biplane prop is spraying a cold-water mist that's a rather good idea for hot days like that.
And here's another of the Roadside Attractions, the Bubble Foam Zone. Most of the bubble machines had been turned off but you could see how it had been ... well, like it says there, a couple foam pits to go make a clean mess in.
And a flying elephants ride! It's wild that parks just have these, isn't it?
Trivia: The average height and weight of Japanese elementary school children decreased from World War II until 1948. Source: A Modern History of Japan, Andrew Gordon.
Currently Reading: Unconventional, Contrary, and Ugly: The Lunar Landing Research Vessel, Gene J Matranga, C Wayne Ottinger, Calvin R Jarvis, with D Christian Gelzer.