New Year's Day Tourney 1-1-13

The first tourney of the new year was played at the Southgate stadium of Babe-B & Bud-D.  A big game.  In attendance were Elmo, Babe-B, Melkor, ToeJamm, Bugz, Decoy, Candy Cane, Bud-D, and, playing his first Triominos tournament game, Level-9 Wizard (aka The Wizard).  Also in attendance were Future Draft Pick #1 & #2.  Depicted in the first picture below are those players and Draft Picks with whom you are already familiar:



L-to-R: Decoy, FDP#1, ToeJamm, Elmo, Melkor, Babe-B, Bud-D, BugZ, Candy Cane, FDP#2

In the picture below, we see MiT Level-9 Wizard along with players with whom you are already familiar:



Decoy waves to indicate he is sitting next to MiT Level-9 Wizard

We had a lively game full of the balls-to-the-wall action Triominauts are familiar with.  The Southgate has adopted a Leader's Chapeaux which Bud-D models below:



Bud-D modelling the Leader's Chapeaux a la Lapin

Unfortunately, Bud-D was only able to model the chapeaux, not actually wear it during tournament play.  Melkor was kind enough to be the note taker for the game.  Below is a transcription of his handwritten notes:

6:04  Melkor is notekeeper/scribe.  Things happened because I said they did

6:05  Quite possibly the largest Triominos game of all time: 9 players

6:06  ToeJamm did something, but no one remembers

6:07  Grand Master Bud-D is official rule maker due to unique circumstance of game (ed-the large number of players)

6:09  Lvl 9 Wizard lays Triple 3

6:14  Master ToeJamm provides strategy advice to Lvl 9 Wizard that is strangely similar to "do well if you can": Prophetic.

6:19  ToeJamm: "Well I'm sitting here trying to 'strategy'".  Prophetic.

6:27  ToeJamm observes that it's awesome to have a new player; the wise masters have a chance to recite the metaphysics of the game.  Lvl 9 Wizard humbily listens, soaks in the new dimensions opening before him, and then lays out.

6:30  Master Bud-D forgets it's his turn because he's too busy meditating about what it would have been like to have gone to a Donovan concert.

6:33  Master ToeJamm explains to Lvl 9 Wizard the ascending clockwise value principle to avoid possible hexagramb lays. He sagely adds at the end of his lecture, "I'll be dropping knowledge bombs all day".

6:37  ToeJamm commits a boner, Babe-B remarks on the flatteringly exaggerated gestures some made on the boner.

6:40  Elmo lays a bridge to show the Lvl 9 Wizard how to set up power-lays.  ToeJamm patiently watches, pleased others show the genius of his wisdom.

6:43  ToeJamm lays a bridge, audience still exhausted from teh glorious (more so?) lay by Elmo.

6:45  Candy-Cane lays ANOTHER BRIDGE!  SO MUCH HAPPENING!!!

6:45  Future Draft Pick #2 has a gastro-intestinal excretion, he's so moved.

6:47  Melkor, brooding in his secret lair for an age of man, lays out.

7:00  Decoy is a little confused by numbers and what represents a higher score when reading them from highest to lowest.

7:03  Lvl 9 Wizard lays a Triominos Triangle.

7:09  Candy-Cane lays Triple 0; always a good lay.

7:13  Lvl 9 Wizard likes Cream.  No context provided or required.

7:15  Bud-D explains how the Master have learned that strategy goes out the window the more players, why sometimes a Master can be in last place.  Melkor responds that it's important for Masters to infrequently experience what the Juniors live...like Jesus?

7:21  Babe-B: "Whose turn is it?"

7:22  Decoy lays a Bridge

7:24  Melkor with a flour-de-lay-da-Bridge.  There is much discussion on the eloquent flick of the bridging tile from Melkor's hand

7:26  BugZ flour-de-last-tile.

7:39  Lvl 9 Wizard believes it's the exact time to draw.  Never late.

7:46  ToeJamm forgets how to play the game and reprocesses memories of being physically and mentally dominated by Melkor in his youth.

7:52  ToeJamm ask a question of the participants: "Who says a Master can't be cocky?"  The grim & accusatory stares of the senior masters provides the only answer that matters.

7:55  Decoy enables Melkor to bridge worlds.

7:56  Lvl 9 Wizard corrects ToeJamm's nomenclature about tiles.

7:59  An intellectual, mind-expanding discussion about Monty Python's contributions to the metaphysics of the game culminates with ToeJamm's controversial observation, "Who cares what Master Dick thinks."

8:00  Candy-Cane flour-de-lays out.

8:12  4th Triomino Triangle.  Record. (Ed-debatable)

8:19  BugZ with a polyhedron of 6 sides.

8:20  Elmo with a polyhedron of 6 sides.

8:21  I'm so excited.

8:22  ToeJamm "I've never listened to a Tool song during Triominos".

8:23  Bud-D informs the younger generation they can choose their own music.  Transfer of musical authority complete.

8:25  ToeJamm: "Ethics isn't relative."  KNOWLEDGE BOMB

8:26  Candy-Cane bridges worlds east & west.

8:33  Children are crying.  Our Muse is silent to the voluminous decibals vibrating from ToeJamm's energetic, possibly what some Mosh Pit patrons would say "uncomfortably loud" defense of a boner-bridge-rule altercation.  (Ultimately ruled a Boner)

8:39  Candy-Cane Lays-A-Bridge.

8:42  Decoy lays out while quietly pointing out a previously laid boner of his.  From the mouths of babes.

8:57  Our 5th Triomino Triangle.

9:17  Whose turn is it?  ToeJamm spends a significant amount of time contemplating how numbers relate to each other, how they can be the exact same, how they can be different.  How he has 1 point.  It's a strategy.

9:23  Words were said; Elmo laid a tile.

9:24  ToeJamm: "You're old and it has an 'affection' on you." (about something forgotten)

9:26  Babe-B flour-de-lays a bridge amidst even more voluminous aplaum from ToeJamm.

9:29  More words of prophecy from Master ToeJamm, "Music doesn't even matter anymore.  What do numbers even mean???"  The depth and breadth of his speech are an argument; he's winning in his mind.

9:33  Babe-B flour-de-lays a hexagramb and gut-check.

9:37  ToeJamm seriously is unclear how many points he gains from a bridge with a 1-4-0 tile.

9:39  Lvl 9 Wizard casts a 'finis' spell and goes out.

9:40  Lvl 9 Wizard, as is tradition, wins.  Newbie Tradition fulfilled

Lvl 9 Wizard - 481, BugZ - 419, Candy-Cane - 394, Melkor - 343, Elmo - 341, Decoy - 340, Bud-D - 333, ToeJamm - 326, Babe-B - 250.

More action shots from Game: