Saipan Tribune

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Monday, October 08, 2012

Aardvarks tops Mad Hatter's tourney

The Aardvarks pulled off a sweep to rule last Saturday's Mad Hatter's Ultimate Hat Tournament held at the old baseball field in Marpi.

About 50 players and spectators, 12 of which from Guam, turned out to witness, not a smashing, but a mud splashing day of flying disc battles in the rain.

The make-shift group of Aardvarks was composed of Guam's Mathew Kane, Steffran Neff, and Alex Versackas, and Saipan's Adam Dekker, Rachel Epperson, Jordan Grant, and Travis Spaeth.

Based on the total number of players, organizers Amanda Allen and Trey Dunn decided to form five teams, which had seven players each. All participants fittingly drew random teams out of a hat. As a part of the event theme, and to help assure a fair draw, the more experienced players were split up and issued hats that, as a common rule, were supposed to be worn at all times.

The event started out with a single-round robin with the last place team, Little Boys (0-4), being eliminated from the bunch. Matches were played under one 30-minute period with game point set at seven with a sudden death rule in effect in case of a tie. Notably, organizers set up two playing fields for double the action.

Though the Aardvarks ran the table four times in a row at Field 1, accomplishing the feat was a truly a hard fought effort. It downed the short-straw Little Boys, 6-4, in the first toss, survived Easy E (3-1), 7-5, and then edged the Dirt Bags (2-2), 7-6, before clinching the top seed with a strong 7-2 finish over the Care Bears (1-3).

The Aardvarks then went on to bump off the fourth-ranked Care Bears again, 7-2, in the single-elimination semifinals and set its sights on its nemesis, Easy E.

Game point for the main event face-off was set at nine with the cap at 11 and a “must win by two rule” was added into the mix.

The final duel was a barnburner, as the rival teams went back and forth, point by point, all the way to the end. Both teams became gassed around the 7-up mark, but trudged on valiantly until eventually the Aardvarks hit pay dirt, 11-10, to seize the day.

The winners received bragging rights and bag of various small prizes from IT&E, Godfather's Bar & Grill, Coca-Cola/Foremost, and Zerox.

In addition, Aardvarks' Neff and Easy E's “Sunshine” Matthew Hiebel, also from Guam, were selected as the tournament's most valuable players.

Also during the awards ceremony, Guam's Sarah Versacaes took the Most Spirited Player honors, David Steinberg was deemed the Most Fun Player; and Little Boys was hailed as the Most Spirited Team.