Congratulations!!

[blueerica]

I don't know who won what (as a non-participant, I was kept out of the Ranch), but I do know that the Happy Haunts (Ghoulish Delight, Cadaverous Pallor) took 1st in the Invitational, with the UberFej, RalphWiggum, P.O.P/Babette, NirvanaMan group taking 2nd in the event...

So to them I say, "CONGRATULATIONS!" and to those I don't know about, "HOORAY!" And those able to move their fingers enough to get to this site within 2 days of the invitational, I say "WELL DONE!!"

Congrats to everyone who made it through the grueling day!

See you next Fall!!

Add any other winners, etc, from other events, such as the Open. My lack of knowledge astounds me, but I am not without enthusiasm!

[blueerica]

hahaha!!

Everyone must be REALLY exhausted.

[Ponine]

Originally Posted by blueerica

hahaha!!

Everyone must be REALLY exhausted.

My legs feel as if I were hit by a truck, and I played OPEN!
I know all the Invitational folks were beat. Congrats to everyone who attended! It was great fun.

We made two STUPID mistakes, and cost it for ourselves. NO MORE SMOKERS on the team!

[Mr. Fusion]

Originally Posted by blueerica

Everyone must be REALLY exhausted.

OMG. My team and I, as well as the rest of the people in the invitational, must have walked at least ten miles. Having to walk all the way from the Disneyland Hotel to the HoJo on Harbor and back to Critter Country during the final hour was cruel. On the other hand, it was nice meeting David Koenig for trivia at the HoJo. My legs are going to be sore for days however, especially since I forgot to stretch before we started.

I will say YAY! for the Happy Haunts though! I may have been a competitor (insert Brando 'contender' impression,) but I like to enjoy the whole atmosphere instead of bitching over not placing in the rankings. Congrats, guys!

(BTW, Spaceballs: The Team took an unconfirmed 4th place we heard. )

Originally Posted by Ponine

We made two STUPID mistakes, and cost it for ourselves.

So did we, so did we.

[SusieP.]

I for one, stayed home today. Had a great time and the invitational was so well done, but man, am I tired!

Congrats to all the winners!

[Cadaverous Pallor]

*sigh of exhaustion and contentment*

Man oh man, that was INSANE. I'm sorry if anyone actually went to the Grand Cal after the event and before the awards looking for us - there was no way in hell we were were going to walk that far and back.

I'm really, really happy we won. It was unbelievable. We were so ready to quit at one point. And I mean QUIT.

I gave props at the Pad to all the organizers but it bears repeating here. Honor those that work their butts off for this. They're crazier than us participants, I think. What an amazing event this was.

It was amazing playing side by side with everyone, gauging where you were in the ranks at all times. Spaceballs the Team was right there with us at one point. Ubergeek's team matched us for most of it. In fact, there was one right decision that we made that made the difference between first and second. I can't imagine racing them neck and neck back from HoJo's, that would have been intense. Big congratulations to them, especially to Babette for pushing through any limitations. to our best competitiors.

Thanks to all our friends that were there to give us a congrats and all of those that stayed afterwards for drinks at the Resort's Official AP Lounge of Tomorrow location. I love all of you and this would be much less fun without you.

Ok, I'll post this and then start writing a huge complete report on the game itself. Prepared to be bored to death.

[wendybeth]

Wow!!! Way to go and congrats to all the winners!

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Oh, and if you want to know exactly what the invitational was all about, read this.

[Disneyphile]

Yes, Congrats to Happy Haunts! Wanted to congratulate you personally, but we had to bail right after the awards ceremony to drive a fellow teammate to a prior engagement.

Anyway, way to go, you two! We're really happy you guys took the gold!

[Cadaverous Pallor]

If you didn't compete, I'd recommend reading the rundown I linked to above before reading this so you know what I'm talking about here.

They said "Go!" and the game was on. I didn't realize it was going to start then and there outside the park and hadn't taken a moment to stretch. But suddenly we rip open the envelope and we're off to Downtown Disney.

We scurried around to find answers to price questions and such around DTD. We had to use the store directory to know where to go as the locations were numbered on our papers. I swear, we went in and out of the Jamba Juice 4 or 5 times and could not find the candle. We figured it had to be a trick of some kind. I came up with the idea that the number store we needed was actually off the directory inside the Grand Cal - they have their own directory with their own set of numbers. "Assume Nothing!" we both cried and walked all the way into the Grand Cal. Number 16 on their directory? The pool. We walked around the pool like idiots just in case and went back to the evil Jamba Juice where we FINALLY saw the damn candle.

We did the required math, and it was not even a whole number. We walked around checking all our numbers AGAIN. We realized there was a math mistake, and still came out with a fraction. We thought we must be close and went to the directory near the Tram stop to check the number - of course our destination was on the OTHER SIDE of DTD. By this point we realized that most teams were out of sight already. We were behind and we knew it.

Luckily our number was close enough and we were sent to the Monorail station. We got in line and realized weren't too far behind - we could see Ubergeek's team, the Fellowship just a bit ahead of us. Catherall showed up after we did and got in the line next to us. Of course we had the SLOWEST guy working the turnstile and Catherall actually ended up getting in ahead of us. All of them made it onto the waiting Monorail, except us. There was one family between us and the gate when the Monorail pulled away.

Alex Stroup talked to us as we waited and let us know that there were about 8 teams on that Monorail alone, and that there were others on the one before that. We were way behind. I was really glad he was there, as he was in a good mood, and that was infectious. We probably would have been beating ourselves up a lot more if it weren't for that break talking to Alex and waiting for the next monorail. It luckily wasn't a long wait either.

Greg thought of the Toontown City Hall on the Monorail, so that was a piece of cake. They handed us the Pooh logic puzzle. GD is a logic puzzle fiend so we sat down to work on it. In about 3 minutes we were attacked by two Open teams to get our postcards, and that was done. I couldn't believe that the Open was starting already.

GD messed up the puzzle somehow, so I quickly redrew the logic chart on another paper. He started reworking it. Then he decided to check exactly what we were looking for - and realized that all that work was for nothing.

We were cursing ourselves big time as we walked to ride Pooh. "No more mistakes!" "Assume nothing!" "Read the whole thing first!" "We're acting like amateurs!" As we were walking to Pooh, we passed an Unintelligibles team member wearing a paper hat. She was one full leg ahead of us! We got in line for Pooh. mhrc4's team was just ahead of us in line.

Quick aside - every time I saw another team, I or O, I gave them a grin. At least for most of the game. GD liked to pretend he was going to prevent them from winning by playfully blocking their view for a second or something. We do our best to be in good spirits with everyone no matter how we're doing, but that was to be tested, as you'll see.

We rode Pooh and were doubly annoyed because we KNEW the answer but just had to check. The fact that Eeyore isn't attending Pooh's birthday party but there's a gift from him anyway had been caught by us before.

Ok, posting this before my computer eats it, back in a bit.