Sunday 3 October

1000
Whew. Three scoring processors set up and ready to fire away. Judges are about to start practicing. Time to take some pictures...

...but first, some more on block 12. A reader suggestion:

"We came up with a block to replace the dreaded Block 12 at Lodi. It's a great block in that the requirements are simple, but the block will be murder for teams that have proximity problems. I may not be able to describe it properly here, but I'll be down there for 16-way, and I can explain it better.

"Basically, you have two cats facing opposite directions parallel to each other, sort of like Zirc-Zirc without the connecting grips. Everyone then does a 450 degree turn, and the people being catted are now catted by someone from the OTHER piece.

"i.e. Imagine Zirc-Zirc with no grips to keep the pieces together. Tail does a counter-clockwise 450 and cats O/C, who was in the other 2-way. O/C does a 450 clockwise turn to being catted. Mirrors do the same.

"It would be a tough block in that it's hard enough for people to maintain proximity to their piece partner during long turns, much less a new partner from the other piece. "

Bobby May - Armageddon

I *LIKE* it. UPDATE - Twins > Twins?

1230
4-way Open, round 10...DeLand Purplesox needs a 25 to tie and 26 to beat Elsinore Fiddlestix for the gold...here they go...rocky out the door, but picking up speed...on a good pace now...this is gonna be close...wow! 26 on the freeze frame! Are the judges going to give it? YES! PURPLESOX WINS! Purplesox wins by a frame!

I'm just dreaming of a finish like the Dodgers gave us last night. That would be nice, wouldn't it?

1400
Ducking out for a couple of hours to switch hotels -- lots of people outside, anticipating a possible record number of 4-ways. It's going to be a long night; 4-way draw and competition briefing is at sunset.

1700
I'm back. Oh, the auditorium is empty. HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO

2030
The 4-way draws are posted, HACKING on all those team pages, and I got some photos of the very cool opening ceremony coming up after dinner. BARKEEP!

NEXT TIDBITS PAGE

Ted "T1" Wagner, Chief Engineer | Tim "T2" Wagner, Webmaster