Kickball Ramblings: Flip Cup!

Flip cup has long been referred to as “the real sport of NAKID,” but I’m not so sure that really applies anymore.  As I’ve mentioned before, NAKID is home to some of the best flip cup players in the world. But in some ways, the high quality of NAKID’s top players has detracted from the quality of the flip cup action on a weekly basis.

But for at least one day of the NAKID calendar, flip cup does indeed reign supreme in NAKID. A day when all of the top players come out, competition is fierce, and champions are crowned. 

I'm talking about the day of the flip cup championship tournament. For the Sunday teams, that day was yesterday, and I got to witness some of the excitement.

All three Sunday divisions were scheduled to have their championships yesterday. By nature, this was a bit of an inconvenience for the 2 o’clock teams. Since the tournaments couldn’t begin until all of the day’s kickball games were completed, players on the early teams had to wait around almost three hours before they started.

Then again, I suppose extra time hanging out at the bar with your teammates isn’t the worst fate that a kickballer has ever suffered. 

Finally, the 2pm teams were summoned to the upstairs of My Brother’s Place so that the tournament could begin. The upstairs of MBP is not the largest area in the world, and when about ten teams are crammed inside, it seems even smaller. 

Considering that most of the people in the room had been running around in 90 degree weather earlier, it was not the best smelling room either.

Unfortunately for the teams not playing in the first round, waiting downstairs wasn’t a great option. The bar staff apparently thought it would be a good idea to crank up the music to a deafening level, despite nobody dancing, or even showing any inclination to dance at that point in time.

Despite the large number of teams involved, the tournament ran smoothly. With four tables set up, multiple matches could run simultaneously, and the resulting action was fast and furious. When a team won a round, they had almost no time to recover before they had to face their next opponent.

Plus, it is almost shocking to see how quickly and efficiently a flip cup game can go when the competitors concentrate on the game at hand. Flip your cup, refill, and repeat!

I’ve said that in NAKID, you can usually pick the flip cup winner ahead of time. Vegas sports books would likely go broke if they had allowed wagering on NAKID championships. So did we get any surprises this time around? 

Not in the 3 o’clock division, in which the Xtacles (they’ve won a few times before) defeated the MMofos (also no strangers to flip cup success). For the 4 o’clock teams, the Vinegar Strokes emerged as champions, which just means that Jim, Alena, and Dana added another medal to their already large collections.

However, for the 2 o’clock teams, the result was a slight surprise. WAD has been in the league for many seasons, and while they’ve been a contender in the past, they’ve never been able to capture a flip cup championship. Yesterday, their day finally came as they outlasted the competition and hoisted the trophy!

Perhaps this will inspire other teams to improve and break through, and we might get some more surprising results in the future.

Trivia Question:

Last week’s answer: NAKID has offered six different sports: Kickball, softball, football, ultimate Frisbee, bocce, dodgeball.  I also would have accepted seven if you included volleyball since the first season of that will take place this Summer.

Alena was once again the only correct responder and she earns herself another 20 cents.

This week’s question: This picture is a close up of a famous cartoon character.  What character is it?

Please answer either in a blog comment or by emailing TreachX@yahoo.com.  Correct answers earn 20 cents.

We will conclude with yet another Link that may (or may not be) an embarrassing picture of Dan Boger:
http://tinyurl.com/3rdhxke