After hours Blokus.

After the game of Scarab Lords described below, Eugene and Jake talked me into running back up to my office to get Blokus. When I returned, they convinced Don to join us for some 4-player Blokus (as I've said before: "The best way to play!").

We managed to get in four games before Jake had to head out for his Microbio final, and Eugene to his business class final.

In the first game, Jake got boxed in painfully quickly. He suggested that he threw the game so he could stop and study his Microbiology notes. But we all know better.

Here's how the game went down:
Chris: -8
Eugene: -13
Don: -18
Jake: -30

Don had a pretty good showing for his first game, really. Maybe we were going easy on him because of it.

No such luck in the second game! In fact, as soon as the inevitable melee in the middle of the board happened, Don blurted out "People are trying to kill me!" We really aren't that vicious, although the slashing of tires was threatened numerous times during the game. Seriously, it was. I mean it. I really do.

Here's how Game #2 turned out:
Eugene: -7
Chris: -9
Jake: -18
Don: -19

Jake decided to get a picture of the bunch of us. Eugene's on the left, expecting to win, Don is thinking hard in the middle, his face blocked as he was trying to figure out where to cram his piece, and Chris is holding up a couple of pieces he really wanted to get rid of. Jake is taking the picture, but you can see the large pile of his red pieces on the table.

Here's some scores from game #3:
Don: -10
Chris: -13
Eugene: -17
Jake: -24

After 3 games, Don is already sitting in the winner's circle. Not bad.

We managed to squeak in one more... just to give you another example of our aggressive gameplay, halfway through the game, as Jake was placing a large piece which would have blocked a couple of players, he decided against it saying, "Nah, that's not enough screwage."

[The chess club has t-shirts which say something to the effect of "Our only goal is to mate!" I'm sure we could come up with a similar slogan that includes the word 'screwage'.]

Results of Game #4:
Chris: -8
Don: -19
Eugene: -24
Jake: -28

---

What the heck, why don't we total up the scores for the four games...
Chris: -37
Eugene: -61
Don: -66
Jake: -100

And, for a little post-gaming analysis: The best score belongs to Eugene with a -7. Chris, though he only won 2 of the games, had THREE games with a score of -8. Also of note: Don, though it was his first set of Blokus games, always scored over -20. We'll just say that Jake was distracted by his impending Microbiology final...