RecapSummer 2019House Mormont vs. House Tarth

The last game of the season was actually very interesting from a “Story of Summer League” perspective because the two teams Mormont and Tarth were both replacement Houses.  I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ve only ever watched parts of the first season of Game of Thrones.  It wasn’t really my thing.  But I picked the show for the theme cause I know how many people loved it, and it would regularly get mentions on my Facebook feed.  So since this was the last year of the show, and my last year running Summer League, it was cosmic fate.  Not knowing much about the show, I relied on someone else to come up with the House names for me, and they had included Frey and Bolton.  And it wasn’t long after mentioning all the names to everyone I got requests to remove those two because I guess they’re pretty nasty, and not the kind of representation you want in the league.  No problem.  They were replaced with Mormont and Tarth.  And what a way to end the season, with those two facing each other.

It’s gonna be sad to no longer be doing this league that I’ve poured my heart into for 14 seasons.  My first league that I TD’d was Winter League in 2005, but after two seasons of that, I was more than happy to move over to Summer League in 2006 (Snakes on a Disc, who those who remember).  Summer League was definitely more my speed.  I could experiment with things like the Powers, add rules like the oft forgotten rule that you can sub up to 2 people during a time-out, and it was more the party league, so doing Party Friday was a natural choice.  Running lap dance and make-out contests at the party in Pomona are some of my favorite memories.  Some things worked great (Karaoke Night last year) and some things failed miserably (the Booze Cruise in San Pedro with those terribly weak, practically virgin maragaritas) but it was always enjoyable trying it out even when it didn’t work.  Coming up with team names for the decades themes, reading all the recaps, adding new records to the records page, seeing the powers play out, running the draft, there’s so many great memories that for sure I’m going to miss it.

A big thanks to everyone who’s played in Summer League over the last 14 years.  For all the help, the recaps you wrote, the polls you responded to, the good spirits you had, the post game bar talk, the debates, the stories, the fun times, the moments that were never caught on camera and only live on in the memories of those who experienced them firsthand, and for always making it a joy to run the league.  I’ll miss all of it.

But it’s time to move on.  Time to get some new blood in here and inject from fresh ideas.  I’m anxious to see who ultimately takes the reigns.

And with that, let’s get to the final recap of the year.  Could it be from anyone else but Mr. Reedcap himself, David Reed-Tarth:

Wooo doggie!

This week was hotter than my Scandinavian cousin and House Tarth has not played a game since a Monday in July. We got some hot rust to shake off and hurry.

The pull was decided when Tarth and Mormont joined together to play the inaugural game of Dizzy Button. Dizzy Button was invented at the tournament replacement draft by Mormont captain Chris Walthers and myself. I predict it will soon sweep the nation.

Tarth won Dizzy Button and picked D, figuring we should practice zone before the tourney. A zone against Toph with no wind made Mormont look like adults casually playing in a child’s game in the backyard. One very exciting moment when Brandon threw an errant hammer to the endzone, then immediately redeemed himself with a Callahan. Points were traded till 5-5, Mormont capitalized on some drops to take half 8-6.

The 2nd half featured LOOOOONG points, dIsCuSsIoNs about the correct score, A TIME OUT!!! And a surprise late arrival that had little to no IMPACT on the game.

Lankey showed up with like 3 points left, cleated up, got a D and a score. He had been at a work dinner eating Sea Bass.

I don’t know the final tally, but Mormont scored 15, winning with spirit and honor.

Postscript:

House Tarth,

Thank you for the phenomenal regular season! Nay and I are wonderful people for drafting such wonderful people. We hope those Tarthans (Tarthlodytes?) playing their first LAOUT Summer league had at least a fraction of the fun I had and tried to forced you to have.

~Epilogue~

Am I writing the final recap of Andy Bandit’s tenure as Summer League director? Is this a historic moment? Should I say something profound or witty to memorialize? Am I just adding this superfluous paragraph in a vain attempt to draw the coveted Bandit commentary at the end of a recap? Did I make any spelling errors? This is a big moment, I better not blow it.

Wow, no explanation of the rules of Dizzy Button.  Is it like the Matrix?  Nobody can be told about Dizzy Button, you have to see it for yourself?

There was only one spelling error I fixed.  For a Reedcap that’s downright Shakespearean.

Let’s be honest, you were trying to draw commentary from your very first sentence about your hot Scandanavian cousin, but it’s a trap!

And that’s all she wrote folks.  Looking forward to seeing everybody tomorrow, where we’ll see if the result of this week’s poll claiming 10th seed House Stark is going to win the whole thing comes true.  Either you all really enjoy messing with me (which I totally support) or you believe THAT MUCH in replacements Chris Mazur and Avatar.