Last night, lightning didn’t struck the same place twice. But we were struck by a different lightning…
Upon arriving at the gym we noticed that aside from the opposing team in our supposed championship game, last year’s defending champions were also there (in playing attire) and we were all wondering why. Wait. The tournament host informed us yesterday afternoon that the defending champs, who were no. 2 in the standings, were disqualified from the chamionship game because they haven’t paid the registration fee (yesterday was their deadline) and that gave our team the right to play in the finals. But then the defending champs protested saying that they were not informed about the payment deadline and so on and blah, blah, blah. Come on, it was the last game of the tournament and you haven’t even paid the registration fee? Shame on you.
Our team also wanted to raise an issue earlier this week. Although it was stated in the tournament rules that the top four teams will play crossover games that will determine who will play in the finals, it didn’t happen. The host said that there won’t be any semi-final games and the top two teams will automatically play for the championship. Their reason: holding semi-final games will extend the tournament but the last day for holding student activities is today. We were the no. 3 team and we never protested even though we had a chance of making it to the finals.
To settle last night’s issue, the host (who told us that they were really pissed off by the other team’s protest) decided to arrange a game between our team and the protesting team wherein the winner will meet the no. 1 team in the championship game afterwards.
We lost by three heartbreaking points and failed to enter the finals. It was a well-fought game but a loss is a loss.
My shoes were almost torn open last night. A few more runs up and down the court would have revealed my black-socked left toes.
I need a new pair of basketball shoes and I’m damn sure there are no championships sold at eBay.
