The (probable and not at all Cher-like) bittersweet retirement from organized quizbowl tournaments.

Last Sunday, Tim Young, Rick Terpstra, Phil Castagna and I went to TRASHionals to defend our national title against the 39 other teams that had received qualifying bids. TRASHionals, for those who may not know, is the national finals of a series of regional tournaments, with questions based on sports and pop culture. It was, as always, great fun playing with my esteemed teammates of more than four years. And, because we were starting to feel it was time, we decided that this would be our last tournament as a team.

This is chiefly because Phil and Rick (and to a lesser extent, Tim and I) are feeling like we’re too old for this stuff. We're not the oldest people there, by a long shot, and we've still got the skills, but as we are all passing our 3oth birthdays this year (me last, as per usual in almost any group of friends) or so, we feel that we're too old to play organized tournaments. Also, the tournament next year will probably require more travel than this years, which was held at College Park. A grand and wonderful journey of 10 minutes. Last year, we went to Austin, and it was awesome for a lot of reasons. The weather was great, we won the title, we had amazing barbecue at the Salt Lick, I had just gotten engaged, as had Rick, and I basically had a great time with three of my great friends. But that was really as far as we were willing to go, and only because we all flew. This year, we all went because it was so close to us. We're getting less patient with long, (relatively) expensive road trips, and that's sort of the deal. I'd like to think we're outgrowing it, but I don't know. The real reason for the Cher-like farewell tour is that without these three guys, playing in tournaments won't be that much fun.

So, we decided, especially after we finally won the tournament last year, earning the treasured Martini Glass Trophies, that we had achieved all that we really wanted to, but that since the 2007 TRASHionals was so close, that we would defend our title. That we could do that, and retire with no regrets. And that's what we did. We ended up losing two games in the playoffs, which put is in third place, one game out of the title game. And the two teams that managed to beat us (both only clinching a victory on the last question of a 20-question round) were the ones that finished first and second. I'm proud of how we did. In the last four years, our team finished fourth (2004), second (2005), won the damn thing in exciting, soul stirring fashion (2006), and third (2007). I'm pretty proud of that. The whole experience was, as per usual, a blast. A lot of our matches were excitingly close, which actually doesn't happen that often (We tend to blow out a lot of people).

Over the two days, we experienced all of the team-related activities that I have come to know and love, including: Bitching about the quality of the questions, everyone collectively having to explain "how the hell did you know that?", the thrumming tension of a match before it begins, the tension in a close match when the whole thing comes down to the last few questions, the thrill of beating an old rival, the satisfaction that comes from being the fastest guy in when everyone has a collective "oh!" moment and suddenly knows the answer, the fact that people know my name even if I don't know theirs, and the handshakes after every match. Makes you feel like a sportsman, and less of a geek, I guess. Mostly, it's just the fact that the team worked so well together, and complimented each other's strengths and weaknesses. I'll miss all of it. I suppose that it's time. (Unless, of course, we decide to keep playing. Cue the Blues brother's clip. "We're getting the band back together"). I guess people have to grow up, a little bit.

But, it has been an incredible run, and I have been fully privileged to play with my three friends, who can loosely be called "gentlemen", and who brought the TRASHionals belt to my wedding. Which, despite what the wife thinks, was AWESOME. Truly, the thing I would miss the most about playing would be hanging around with those three guys, so all isn't lost. I can still hang around with them, and have as much, if not more fun. This is the wonderful thing about all friends, including (or especially) my dear readers. They're always there, not just to relive the rare old times, but to create new and better memories. So the melancholy is fleeting. Which is good.

As a final note, in the spirit of bragging about my vast storehouse of shameful useless knowledge, here are a few of the toss-up answers that I personally got in last weekend's tourney. There were/are a lot more, I just can’t remember all of them.
The Brown Noise
Tragic Kingdom
Sabacc
Double Secret Probation
Unreal Engine
Kratos
Beauxbatons
Free Republic
Dazzler
Bunco
Suck.com
Rockstar Table Tennis
Easy Rawlins

And there were a lot of others Rick and Phil write them all down. I’m sure that they could help me out.