RecapSummer 2019House Stark vs. House Arryn

The final week.  It’s here.  Tournament is this Saturday.  Expected temperature is a high of 89 now, which is better than the 98 – 100 it usually is.  We might even move the tournament back an hour, if I can get an okay to do that.  I made it really early for fear of the usual heat, but that was weeks ago.  Now seeing 89, that’s almost dreamy in comparison, and I’m sure you’d appreciate the extra hour of sleep, so I’m gonna try and work on that.  Can’t promise, but I’ll let everyone know in an email to the entire tournament participants one way or the other.  And I’ll also mention other things the permit says you can’t have, like drones (that’s fine), dogs (that sucks), bikes (I can’t imagine anyone is biking there) or coolers (WTF????)

Who will come dressed in costume on Saturday?  That’s the real question.

And now we have our recap from Tahlia Arryn:

It was a dark and humid night in LA (71%). Arryn walked up to the field wearing blue. Stark sauntered in wearing grey. Neither team ready to play. Neither captain(s) prepared with cones. Luckily C-note has a few in her car, enough to create one sideline. We shared the other one with the kind souls across the field, Tully and Tyrell. I did remember my pink pads in preparation for the party on Saturday.

The game started and while Stark was very low on numbers (4 women, 5 men) they came out ready to crush. The game went like this: break, hold, hold, hold, break, break, hold, hold, break, break, etc…. meaning if they hold we held, if they broke we broke. We had some long points and we had some short points. At least until the 3rd quarter. There was one point with like 50 hand blocks from each team. Pretty impressive, I know! I can’t remember who actually scored that. Maybe us. Well Stark went something like: hold, break, break and were ahead! I think like 11-13. Then it was 12-14 then we nearly caught up!!! 13-14 but stipulation was win by 2… we didn’t have much time. Stark was down to 3 women after one of them battled so hard her knee couldn’t take it anymore.

They took a timeout!!!!! 3rd of the game. I was confused about the timeout rules, so I yelled something about them taking a timeout right after we scored with like 2 minutes on the clock left. But then I realized you are allowed 3 in a game! Plus. While to us it looked like their women weren’t even sweating a drop and looked fresh, I guess they wanted a break! Fine.

Well the game continued!! We scored to make it 14-14. They scored to make it 14-15. And in the very last point (we were GONNA score!) the lights went off. Fuse holstered her assist and the game ended.

I wanted to end the recap with another question, what if the lights go out while the disc is in the air? But then it was too well documented. The play stands. So no questions. Game ends 14-15. We lost. Stark prevailed just like their cheer said they would. See you at the tournament.

Yeah, that question of what happens when the disc is in the air and the lights go out did actually happen back at Balboa.  There were also times when the sprinklers went on right at the end of the game.  You name the crazy scenario, it has probably happened.

There is however no rule on what happens if an earthquake literally opens the ground up during a game while the throw is in the air to potentially tie or win a game.  I think maybe it depends on where the ground opens up.  Kind of like a pick.  Did the gaping hole in the earth affect the play?

I’m very happy the pink knee pads made it into the recap, by the way.  That is stylin’!

Also in the news, Stark’s win means Scott Bergen may indeed escape being the first captain ever to go from first to last place in consecutive seasons.  It will depend on the results of Martell’s game.

And we have a late addition.  Here is Scott Stark (nee Bergen) with the recap from their side:

I wasn’t there, but sources close to House Stark report that it was a very close game with the Starks quite short-handed again. We’re losing 4 of our top 5 men picks for the tourney and 2 of our top 4 women, many of whom have been out with extended injuries, so it’s par for the course at this point.

The Starks came ready to play on Monday and mostly traded points with the Arryns early on until a 3-point run took half for the Northmen. Or Northmxn? Northerners.

Erica was playing on a gimpy leg and shut it down in the second half, leaving just 3 women and 5 men to finish it off. Chain nearly threw up and fought it off to pull down her second goal in 2 weeks after being shut out through the first 7 games (maybe I was her problem since I’ve been gone?).

According to C-Note, the game was really close and “the points were long and hard. That’s what she said.” I’m happy to see that her and my relationship has not developed or grown more mature in any way whatsoever from our Slow Children days a decade ago. Then C-Note jumped up out of nowhere and stabbed the lighting controls with a dagger and the Starks claimed the unexpected win as the lights went out and the game was called.

Not to get all “Chick-Hearn-underselling-our-team-before-the-game” but 13 of the 15 Stark goals were scored or assisted by players who won’t be joining us at the tourney this weekend (mostly Alex Carey, Megan, and Ted). They, along with Lish, Ian, and Noah, have made huge contributions to the team this year and will be missed. Although the Starks were very excited about our replacement player reinforcements, mostly because no one really likes any of those people who will be missing.

In Game of Thrones, the Starks claimed a few small victories here and there but mostly took gut punch after gut punch the whole time. It wasn’t pretty all along, but at the end of the day, who was sitting on the Throne(s)? See you all Saturday!

House Stark got the most replacements in the draft.  We’ll see if the overhaul affects their tournament.