Tonight was the #
skeeball individual tournament. As the #11 player in the regular season, I was surprised to discover I was the #6 seed. I guess a lot of people didn't show. The #1 player opted not to participate. He had already won half of the awards. Speaking of awards, DragginBallz won Rookie of the Skeeson. He was ranked #18 in the regular season, but was the #10 seed tonight. Mr. Wick did not attend.
Quick summary of how the individual tournament goes... The 2 players play three 1-frame games. The best 2 out of 3 win. The higher ranked player rolls second on games 1 and 3 and first on game 2. Rolling 2nd is an advantage, because you know the target you are trying to reach to win. Once you get to the final Four, it becomes 3 out of 5.
We had a lot of time to practice and I was rolling like crap. I started rolling bounce shots and was doing OK with them, so I had that as a backup plan. In my first game against #11, I had something like 4 points after 3 normal rolls, so I swapped to bank shots and won. In the 2nd game, I kept with the bounce shots and won the match 2-0.
In my 2nd match, I faced the #3 player. I rolled a mediocre 25, I think, and lost the first game. In the 2nd came, #3 came out and casually rolled a full circle (9x4 for 36). So, it was hundo time for me. I missed the first 7 so it was all over for me. A 0-2 loss.
But, hey, I made past the 1st round for the 2nd season in a row. The next round was the final four, so I can't feel so bad that I didn't make it into that group.
DragginBallz, #10, lost to #7 in the first round. My wife, #16, beat #17, then lost to #1. In the end, the top 4 seeds were in the semi-finals. #2 and #4 went to the finals and #4 won.
Will I become a bounce-shot roller next season? We shall see. A lot of players, including two of the final four, have started doing it with good results. Next season is likely to start the last week of May or the first week of June.
