Semis:
Chastain Charge vs. Cyclone Jones
September 23
Last week, 12 families entered the
Extreme Arena with one goal in mind... a family vacation with a glowing
piece of our Aggro-Crag in the back seat. Six teams have collected their
first piece. Now it's time to collect the second.
Our first semi...
CHASTAIN CHARGE
(Joy, Hunter, Diane, Cody) |
CYCLONE JONES
(Matt, Brock, Kevin, Callie) |
Semifinals will be a four-event affair
today, with three new events and the familiar charge up the Aggro-Crag.
Event 1: AIR SLALOM
It's all the intensity of snowboard
slalom minus the snow. Players will have to slalom past seven gates,
then back to the start, all without touching them. Each gate is worth 10
points.
Cyclone Jones won the toss in the locker
room, and they've elected to go first. Callie will be the launcher,
while Matt will be the surfer. Kevin and Brock will man the power lines
to swerve Matt round the poles. Green team cleared eight gates for 80.
Next up, the Chastains with Diane
launching, Cody shredding, and Hunter & Troy manning the power lines.
Cody may be the only one skysurfing, but the truth is that it's all
about the team, and the team controls the pace by controlling the
momentum. You can't do it on your own. Final total: six gates for 60. So
the Jones lead it, 80-60 after one.
Event 2: FORMULA GUTS
We've reinstalled the track F1 style as
the families race pod bikes around the Extreme Arena. They'll have to
make 2.5 laps and at the halfway mark, switch riders. Fastest time wins
100 points, second fastest, only 75.
Chastains will send Troy and Hunter to
race against the clock. The key here... simple... go as fast as humanly
possible without crashing out. Remember, these pods only have three
wheels. The Charge's final time... 1:05, setting the tone early.
In Pit Row for the Cyclone Jones is Matt
and Kevin, as they go part Lance Armstrong, part Dale Earnhardt Jr.
These things are light and quick, which means that this is going to be a
close race. Their final time... 57 seconds for the win and 100. Jones
keeps their lead after two, 180-135.
Event 3: VOLLEY BRAWL
Teams of two are going to make like Misty
May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh in Beijing as the Extreme Arena is
transformed into a beach volleyball configuration. Each team will have
two setters and two spikers, and each goal scored is worth 10.
Remember, teams can play defense... and
probably should.
This ain't no day at the beach for the
teams as 90 seconds pass with the Cyclone Jones taking an early
advantage that never lets up. The final tally is 33 for the Green side,
23 for the Red. Cyclone Jones out to a commanding lead, 510-365, going
into....
Final Event: AGGROCRAG
The road to the Aggro Bowl has one heck
of a molehill in the middle of it, as the Aggro-Crag seemingly grew
overnight to become even MORE aggressive. In addition to switchbacks,
skeleton stalagmites, and vertical faces to challenge our teams, we have
mad mesas, cavernous caves, and swirling vortexes to stymie them
further. One player will start at the Mad Mesas, lighting up the first
actuator to send player 2 to the Switchback side and up the Skeleton
Stalagmites to Avalanche Peak, where they will signal for player 3 to
slide down the vortex and make their way past the Crag Caverns. Activate
that actuator to send the final player up the vertical freeze toward
Crystal Peak and the win. And Asha puts it best: this crag isn't just
smoke and special effects made for TV, it's a living, breathing scary
organism. It's cold... it's steamy... it's treacherous... I'm scurred
and I'm just looking at it.
At the Mad Mesas, it'll be Diane vs.
Callie. At the Switchbacks, it's Cody vs. Matt. In the Crag Caverns,
it's Cody vs. Brock. And up the Vertical Freeze, it's Joy vs. Kevin.
In the semi-final stage, each point ahead
is 0.1 seconds worth of headstart, but the maximum is 10 seconds. The
Jones are leading by 145, giving them the maximum allowable time of 10
seconds.
One family is going to go to the Aggro
Bowl. The other is going home. And from the Mesas to the Switchbacks,
it's all the Jones, but they get lost in the Caverns, allowing this to
come to a dead heat going up the Vertical Freeze. And it's a race all
the way to the finish as the Cyclone Jones punches in a split-second
before the Chastain Charge. They get to add on to their Crag collection
with their second piece of our radical rock.
The Crag sleeps for now, but tomorrow,
Team Eichen-Splat and the Howlin' Howells will take on each other AND
the Crag for glory, pride, and the second spot in the Aggro-Bowl. Until
then, no ifs, ands, or buts... my family's got GUTS!
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