RECAP: PLAAY-Dot-CON 2021 Wrap-Up

It was great to be back together again, rolling dice and sharing smiles at PLAAY-Dot-CON 2021! (Above) First-round action in the HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL Time Machine Tournament!

This past weekend's PLAAY-DOT-CON '21 was our third in-person convention gathering, and was necessarily somewhat different than the previous two because of the "pandemic effect." The focus was less on packing in as many game activities as possible and more on just being together and enjoying each other's company. In that light, this year's gathering was perhaps the best-ever! Fewer scheduled events made for more open spaces in the schedule, which resulted in more impromptu, spontaneous games and conversation. Similarly, I took a somewhat different approach in chronicling our get-together. In years past, I've tried to meticulously record the results of each event, with scores and highlights. (Here's an example of the 2019 convention wrap-up!) This year, though, I put a premium on interacting with people instead of compiling results. So the 2021 convention recap that follows is noticeably (and intentionally) lacking in statistics and game details.

As always, we started with our annual pre-con "picnic," held again this year at Redstone Park. I put the word "picnic" in quotation marks because this year, everyone brought their own eats--usually we grill burgers and brats and make a true picnic out of it. Experience has proven the merit of this event, as it allows convention veterans to get reacquainted with each other and first-time convention goers to be introduced and get the pre-con jitters out of the way, all before the actual gaming begins. It's amazing how quickly people warm up to each other when they begin to share our common bond of sports board gaming.

For me, the highlight of the picnic was the LIVE Fury Football game, set up by Ethan Musulin (photo above). I'm giving Ethan this year's MVP (Most Valuable PLAAYer) award, for his efforts--more on that shortly! Ethan brought along cones marked 1 through 10 for the Fury Football "yard" markers, and set up the playing area prior to everyone arriving. The live Fury Football game was Adults vs. kids, played under official Fury Football rules: each team got four possessions, four downs to score. If they scored, they were allowed to convert from whatever yard line they chose, for that many points. After each successful conversion, another conversion attempt was allowed. I was the official referee, and Ethan provided me with a bean-bag penalty marker and--per Fury Football rules--a foam die to award the penalty points. (For the record, it was used twice, once against each team!) In the end, Jay Williams knocked down the kids' last-gasp long pass to preserve a hard-fought 19-9 win for the adults.

Before and after the game, there was plenty of happy conversation going on, and was still going strong at 9pm when, by our agreement with the home owner's association, we had to close down the fun.

Friday morning at 9 o'clock sharp, however, the fun resumed. We had an informal registration session, everyone got a program, a lanyard, and a packet of random teams in their convention pack. In all, we had 31 PLAAY gamers in attendance, and our group once again included a solid contingent of "kids," between the ages of 12 and 18: Judah and Silas Williams, Luke and Andy McEvoy, and Bob Surprenant. The rest of us were (ahem) adults, at least chronologically.

The first event was the 2021 PLAAY Gamer Open Golf Tournament with HISTORY MAKER GOLF, which began at 9:30am. Silas Williams won his second straight open championship, with an 8 under par 136. At one point in the second round, Silas was 10 under par and seemingly uncatchable. But a couple late bogeys and a string of birdies from Luke McEvoy set up a dramatic finish. Luke had a moderate putt for birdie on 18--sank it, and we went to sudden death playoff. On the first playoff hole, Silas birdied for the win. Good stuff, and a great way to start the convention.

After lunch, the action resumed with our Fury Tournaments...

In the Fury Hardball division, Silas again won, dominating with the St. Louis team. He finished 3-0 in group stage play, stayed undefeated through the playoff rounds and made it to the championship series against Joseph Dowell (Kansas City) with a perfect 5-0 record. Silas won game one 1-0, then suffered his first loss, 2-0. That set up a winner-take-all game three, in which St. Louis squeaked out a 3-2 win. I played in the hardball tournament (Milwaukee) and had a great time. I won the first game vs. Al Wilson (Montreal), and was cruising toward a second win vs. Dale Buckingham (New York Orange) when the wheels suddenly fell off. I'd held Dale scoreless through eight outs but I couldn't make a good pitch selection to get that final out, allowing Dale to score--wait for it--SIXTEEN runs! With EIGHT OUT! So instead of coming to my half of the inning needing only a run to get the win (and make the playoffs), I was down 16-0. Obviously, pretty hard to dig out of THAT hole (although I did get 7 runs in my half, normally enough to win!)

In the football side of the Fury Tournament, Harvey Couch (Vegas Bada Bings, at left in Saints gear!) was the champion. Harvey edged Keith Curtis (Denver Wild Blue, at right in jersey) in a championship game nail-biter 27-26. Harvey scored a walk-off touchdown on his final possession to overcome a 26-21 deficit and earn the title!

After dinner, we had our “Let's PLAAY Jeopardy!” Live stream, which was really fun! We'll leave it active on the site for a couple weeks in case you haven't watched it yet!

Friday evening was our Guest Designer Game Lab segment. It featured Mike Fitzgerald (basketball), Chad McEvoy (tennis), Al Wilson’s Fast-Drive Football, and Sam's new in-development multi-player (non-sports) card game. I held an impromptu session with the full-play version of History Maker Hoops. A very active, energized evening—any time there’s something new, people get excited and that certainly was the case here!

Saturday was the ninth annual HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL Time Machine Tournament. Usually, we provide an in-depth summary of the bracket results--as I mentioned earlier, this year I spent less time keeping records and more time enjoying people's company. I also played in the tournament, first time ever! Another first: Baseball America teams were allowed in the tournament. I chose 2018 Team 11 for my team, and three other PLAAY gamers (Jim Surprenant, Travis Jansen, and Laurence Davis) also opted for Baseball America teams. Only one BA team made it into the "Sweet Sixteen," that was Jim's 2016 team 3 led by Steve Show. We had a number of previous tournament champion teams entered into this year’s tournament, including the ‘46 Red Sox managed by Lenny LaFrance. Lenny piloted them to the TMT championship six years ago, in San Francisco! (Alas, it didn’t work out as well in 2021.) The Sweet Sixteen featured a number of extra innings games, including an all-Indians sixteen inning affair between Mark Zigler ('54 Indians) and Dale Buckingham ('97 Indians). The championship game was an all-McEvoy meet-up, with dad Chad (2019 Astros) facing son Andy (2016 Cubs), each decked out in official club gear (see below!). The Cubs entered the PLAAY annals as the ninth TMT champion, defeating the 'Stros 5-2. There was constant trash can banging throughout the playoffs, BTW.

For many, the focal point of the convention was our HISTORY MAKER HOOPS Express tournament. I really felt it lived up to (or even exceeded) everyone's expectations. Part of the reason was that we held a special 45-minute Hoops Express tutorial just before dinner, where I explained the game in detail, everyone with game materials in front of them, and a followed up with a Q&A session. Then we broke for dinner, where people could talk about the rules and share thoughts. After dinner, we re-grouped around the game tables and had an ad-hoc tournament. After a "group stage" qualifier, we ended up with five unbeaten teams and then chose three "wild cards" from those who finished 1-1. Our championship match-up saw Al Wilson (2020-21 Philadelphia) defeat Andy McEvoy (2020-21 LA Lakers) 124-115.

As an aside, Al was the only adult to win a tournament--kids won everything else. (We might not invite them next year, haha!) I don’t remember who put the heart around Al’s name in the photo above, but I’m sure it was an adult, not a kid!

Following hoops, we closed out the convention with a "Rock N Bowl" session featuring the participant mode of BOWL-O-RAMA and our new BOWL-O-RAMA game mats. We set out eight mats, gave everyone their own unique d20 (we'd ordered an assortment of various color combinations and styles for this), and had at it. Everyone used the 205 average generic card, so the scores were really indicative of a players ability to control the d20. I bowled with Judah Williams, Joseph Dowell, Ethan Musulin and Dale Buckingham, and had (I think) the night's high score, with a 256. At one point, I rolled seven strikes in a row. I ended with seven strike frames, 2 spare frames and one open frame. If anyone doubts the fun and competitive spirit of this mode of bowling, I'm here to tell you, it's almost as exhilarating as REAL bowling when you string together a bunch of strikes.

The bowling session ended exactly at 10pm--too soon for all of us, but we had to close things down per our agreement with the hotel. A number of us--about 20--hung around and visited until 11 or so, it was hard to say goodbye. Everything ended too quickly!

Thinking back on the weekend, I want to name Ethan Musulin as the convention's "Most Valuable PLAAYer." This was Ethan's first time to attend a live PLAAY Games event, and he dove right in. I already mentioned the live Fury Football game, which he organized and orchestrated on his own initiative. He also made an appearance on PLAAY Jeopardy, making it to the Final Jeopardy round. Ethan was a great sport all weekend, made everyone feel welcome, and displayed all the qualities that make this community special.

Thanks to everyone who was part of a fantastic, fun weekend, including those who joined us online. In the online edition of the convention, John McGuiness (All-Around Solid) won the online PLAAY Gamer Open Golf Tournament with a two-round score of 136, eight under par, five strokes ahead of John Thompson (Iron Sharpshooter). In the online baseball Time Machine Tournament, the PLAAY-gamer "Bring Your Own" teams finished with a 15-16 record against the '27 Yankees, so I guess we have to crown the Yankees as champions! Babe Ruth hit nine home runs in the first ten games, and then only ONE more in the next 21.

Special thanks to those who made the trip to Denver--I realize that these weren't optimal traveling conditions!

See you next year for PLAAY-Dot-CON 2022!