I winding up my long weekend today. This is the Great Unknown Holiday in Canada. Some call it the Civic holiday. I've heard it called Simcoe Day here in Toronto. Whatever. It's the August long weekend and that's all that really matters.
We drove up to a friend's property on Saturday to camp for the night. The place was up near Owen Sound, my old stomping grounds for quite some time. Getting on those Grey County dirt back roads brought back some good memories of when backroading was a regularly used verb in my vocabulary.
The Big Event was the Badminton Tournament. The WBBT. World's Best Badminton Tournament. This is a pretty hard core event and not for the faint of heart. It was actually hard to believe the event wasn't televised. Maybe I can get the word out.
Those were the team photos. The results of the tournament are below:
The matches were all best 2 of 3 sets. Sets went to 10 points and point could only be scored on the serve. We had linesmen, a score keeper, a coin flip and semi-permanent boundaries. Drinking and smoking, while not required, was never discouraged during play.
The first match of the day was AK-47 vs Team Slooooout. Slooooout came out lethargic and never really recovered. AK-47 was hitting serves and making nice returns that seemed to hit all the Slooooout's open holes. It was over quick & AK-47 moved on easily.
I believe the second match was Asian Panda vs AC Power & Assoc. This match-up featured an epic first set where points were hard to come by. No one could point on their serve. Eventually an overhand serve was tried and this would unfortunately continue throughout the tourney. We went from nice long and skilled rallies to overhand bashing where no one could return a serve and badminton stopped being played. It's like a poker tournament where everyone pushes all-in all the time. Yawn. Asian Panda pulled off the victory quickly after this slugfest and booked a spot in the semi-finals.
Golden Rod was up next vs Team Relations. Team Relations played the entire first set with beers in hand during play and had amazing success. This reporter mused more than once that having something in your other hand could only help with balance and staying within one's self. They made the fatal mistake of putting their beers down(?) for the remainder of the match and were unceremoniously beaten in two straight sets by Golden Rod. This was the first match of the day to go the full distance.
The 4th match-up was Shattered Dreams with your truly vs Kraft Dinner. The Dinner portion of the team was a last minute replacement and they came out and stunned Shattered Dreams in the first set. Shattered Dreams was able to bear down and were serving for location and not power. This approach worked well in the second set and their title hopes remained alive. It seemed like Kraft Dinner were a little stunned from the comeback Shattered Dreams made in the second set and they folded like a house of cards in the 3rd.
The semi-finals saw AK-47 vs Shattered Dreams and Asian Panda vs Golden Rod. AK-47's Dreams were Shattered. They had a long time off between matches and it showed in the first set after they were drubbed 10-0. The second set saw AK-47 jump out to a 5-0 lead only to hit a brick wall and burst into flames. Shattered Dreams booked a spot in the final. They just had to await the outcome of Asian Panda vs Golden Rod.
The Panda/Rod match-up was a see-saw affair between two teams at the top of their game. A chance to play for the WBBT title really elevated the focus of both teams. This is why these teams train the way they do, both mentally and physically. It's for moments like this. Asian Panda really got on a roll in this one and eventually booked the victory 10-3, 10-5 to set up an appearance in the final vs Shattered Dreams.
The final was a highly anticipated all-male match-up. The stands were full and extra referees were brought in. Substances of all types were starting to take effect on the players, the judges and the crowd. Luckily for everyone involved substance testing is banned in the WBBT. In fact the league is trying to push forward a policy in which substances will be REQUIRED.
Shattered Dreams took down the first set mainly by using the highly legal underhand serve vs their opponent's probably-illegal overhand smash serves. Bitch serves I like to call them. Asian Panda came back to win the next two sets and take down the title. There's not much to tell as most of the action was just Smash>Miss, Smash>Miss, Smash>Miss. The crowd were the ones who really got duped. It's a long drive up to Grey County and courtside seats are hard to come by. I'm sure they would have like to see more skill displayed.
Congratulations to the 2009 WBBT
The tournament was followed by what could loosely be called a banquet where the players gathered and consumed and laughed and laughed and laughed. Then it rained.
2 comments:
What a great recap Darren! I'm gonna practice up for next year, I'm hoping to make it past the first round!
Awesome review Darren, even though you were a little hard on the tourny champs. lol Overhand serves were claimed to be perfectly legal, although I am sure this rule will be reviewed before this years tournament. I have been training hard on my underhand serves and placement shots and hope to get a chance to reclaim the spot of tournament champs this year.
I am sure this years tournament will be even more exiting than the last!
J Blazingham
Team Asian Panda
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