Capture the Flag Recap

There was a Diplo performance, a performance down in Portland, and a house party for one of Seattle's kickball leagues that had just finished their playoffs, but Saturday night found spanning_time instead rushing to the silver sculpture at Seattle Central for the renegade game of Capture the Flag. Despite a slow start, it was ultimately a good time, although it left enough room for improvement that spanning_time is thinking of organizing its own game to show these kids how random gatherings are meant to operate.

Saturday's game was organized by a couple of SCCC students, who just wanted to see what would happen if they advertised a game (we fully support that idea). The primary flaw in their plan: scheduling for a Saturday night. Saturday night is going out night, and while that doesn't matter as much for someone underage, it very obviously impacted the turnout. Only ten people showed up initially, which required a change of venue from the SCCC campus to Cal Anderson Park, where the group picked up a few more players (by the end of the game, there were close to twenty people).

Organization for the game was a bit on the slow side, which we attribute to general youngster wishy-washiness. There was a lot of "Well we could..." and "What do you think about..." statements, which caused a bit of enthusiasm to fade. spanning_time eventually had to speak up and get things moving so we could move past the boundary setting and get to playing an actual game.

The game went pretty smoothly. We were on Team Washington against Team Brazil. Tasked with the larger end of the park with the fountain and hill, we decided to put the flag on a tree all the way in the rear. With only sidewalks and an open field as approach areas, it would have been impossible for a real sneak attack. Well, that is except for the fact that our partner in defense decided to go wander off instead of guarding the flag, giving the other team a clear shot to the flag. Luckily they were a smoker and were easy to run down. After that the game slowed tremendously, with Team Washington keeping the game centered on the other half of the field. After 45 minutes, a teammate returned wanting a rest and took over defense. We moved up to enter enemy territory, but eventually had to stop an opponent form encroaching. We ended up stalemated at the neutral zone, during which time someone from Team Brazil managed to get my team's flag. These young kids apparently know nothing of the value of defense.

As mentioned above, the game was a fun time. A bit disorganized but fun nonetheless. We think with a more clear direction and a larger crowd, this could be an incredible way to kill a weekday evening. Let us know in the comments if you'd be interested. If it seems like a plausible idea, you may see flyers for a spanning_time sponsored game in the coming weeks.