Path of the Omegathon - Round One
Posted by DoverJenga. Who would have thought that such a simple game would become a complete nightmare? When we first met with Travis, the Chief Enforcer who runs the Omegathon, he broke us into four groups of five players each. I was chosen to be in group C and, much to our surprise, we were playing the first game with group D on the other side of the stage.
The rules were a little different than the normal Jenga fare. For one, we could only use one hand for a pull. There would be no strategies involving pushing a piece a little, and then grabbing it with the other hand. I quickly noticed that everyone in my group was pulling with their right hand and soon the tower was bowing that direction. I had to readjust my thinking to get pieces on the left side or the middle, which made turns a lot more interesting to say the least.
The other differing rules involved the pulling area and turn completion. We were told that we could not pull from the top four rows, as opposed to the top row only in a normal Jenga game. This was a definite change for which I hadn’t accounted during my practice runs. When we placed our piece on the top of the stack, our turn didn’t officially end until we walked to the rail at which everyone was waiting. It was a common site to watch everyone place a piece and slowly back away or tiptoe to the bar before finally exhaling.
I ended up pulling last for our group, but don’t think it put me at a disadvantage. I made three pulls from the stack before it was toppled. Another Omeganaut named Tristin pulled just before me and couldn’t keep the tower standing. It’s amazing how much your hands start shaking when your pulling pieces. On my third pull, I yanked the piece halfway out before noticing my hand shaking out of control. I let go and steadied myself, but it only shook again the moment I touched the tower. Even setting the piece on top was incredibly stressful.
I was sure that the Omeganaut before Tristin was going to topple the tower. He unsuccessfully attempted pulls on three different places before finally snagging a piece he wanted. I met with Tristin afterwards, and we talked for awhile in the Exhibition Hall. We both agreed that it sucked to be ousted in the first round, but at least he still had his MVP status throughout the rest of the show. The only upside for him was that our game only lasted about ten minutes as opposed to the ninety minute (!) game the followed.
All in all, the round was tense and a great start for the Omegathon. The only thing it really needed was a time limit for each player, maybe two minutes per player would be fair. For fun, I think that if you haven’t pulled the piece out by two minutes, one of the other four Omeganauts gets to jump on the stage on time. If the tower still stands, then the player gets 30 more seconds to complete his move or the next Omeganaut gets to jump. I think the crowd would really get into it, but it would be awfully evil and perhaps a little too mean-spirited.
-Dover
