Let's Capture the Flag!

Saturday was the annual Capture the Flag game sponsored by the Company.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love games? I really do! I'm not very competitive, but I like to think about games and rules and strategies and plans. If we lived in some sort of comic book universe, I'd probably be a (mostly) harmless villain similar to the Prankster or Trickster or Riddler or even Arcade (who is pretty dangerous, actually), because I'm so obsessed with games. What this says about my personality, I don't wanna know.


On the other hand, another thing I'm obsessed with is fairness (I probably belong in, yes, HUFFLEPUFF). Games require rules, and the rules must be followed for the game to work. If you break the rules, you're destroying the game, and that's killing fun.

So boy did my dander get up when I started to perceive some unfairness in the setting up of Capture the Flag, in that the two organizers were also the heads of the Blue team. It's like running a race in Murderworld against Arcade, when he already knows the complete map, where the traps are hidden, what the goal is and the best way to get there. One of the sacrifices of planning a game is that you can't really then play it, you know? Or at least, in my unasked-for opinion, each organizer should head a different team.

With the Red Team's collective underdog hackles raised, I cooked up some strategies (a few of which got thrown out the window immediately, while a few were, I like to believe, somewhat effective), bought some supplies at the Bargain Stop (whistles: great idea; clothesline: not so much), and somehow ended up captain of the Red Team.

The pre-game talk hyped up splitting teams fairly in terms of athletic abilities and a li'l factor called "crazy." I never thought I'd be considered one of THOSE types, but I realize now showing up wearing work gloves, a Japanese kerchief on my head, shouldering a backpack full of tripwire, and inexplicably carrying a broom (which bothered more people than I ever would've expected), maybe I am a li'l crazy.


In a game that primarily consists of running around on a hot day, tempers will naturally flare, as both sides accused the other of cheating. I don't like to think of it as cheating so much as twisting the confines of the rules, and when there's a rule that says, "Unless specifically stated otherwise, if we didn't mention it, it's legal," that gives a lot of leeway. Like the Rebellion, I was prepared to take whatever advantage I could to defeat the Empire. Yeah, maybe a li'l crazy... when it comes to games.

What I learned during the course of the day is that everyone has a different idea of what crosses the line between fair and unfair. Duct tape with suntan lotion on it? I don't see a problem. It's more a mental barrier than a physical barrier, but others think differently. The use of water guns I thought would be expected and widespread, but only one person brought one and it seemed to upset everybody. Some folks on the Blue team had discussed bringing water balloons but nixed it because people weren't signing up to get wet, while I think it'd be a lot of fun to have a water balloon fight on a hot July afternoon. On the other hand, I think a squadron of bikes goes against the spirit of what is traditionally a game on foot.

But all bickering aside, the day ended on a 1-1 draw, which is an honorable way to finish with everyone on mostly good terms. And even when I got drawn into a post-game sniping match about the rules, Shannon wisely interrupted us with, "Yeah, but did you have fun?"


We had to admit we did.