CrokinoleCentre

For many years the World Crokinole Championship (WCC) has used a simple method for rotating players through the preliminary round:

Given that the WCC preliminary round involves three categories and around 300 players (and the possibility of any of those 300 players being a no-show without warning), it’s probably the only rotation methodology that can be used to get the preliminary round completed without encountering several instances of chaos, confusion, and time wasting.

The long-known downside of the WCC preliminary round is that the rotation methodology results in everyone playing a unique set of opponents, such as in the 2025 competitive singles event where everyone would have played a unique set of 10 out of a possible 127 opponents. This is of course in contrast to many other tournaments where the field is split into groups, and everyone within the same group plays the same set of the opponents. So the WCC methodology is a ripe opportunity for some players to get an advantage/disadvantage by playing a relatively weak/strong set of opponents.

Yes, my friends, not only is the hour yours, so is this 2024 (plus a bit) crokinole year in review blog.

Like any quote torn from its context it’s quite flexible in the meaning one can draw from it. Its application to a desired justification is as malleable as double-bubble gum. And its meaning, at this moment, is to inspire a look back at 2024.

Now you are probably thinking, "shouldn’t this have been posted months ago?" My answer to you: I am, bravely of course, unencumbered by the passage of time. I am pushing the boundaries of not only calendar recognition, but also the norms of timing year in review analysis. Why should I let a simple thing like the adoption of the Gregorian calendar a mere not even 500 years ago, or the orbiting of the earth stop me from executing a good idea I had months ago?

I used to check twitter at least weekly for some sort of crokinole content and engage with it in some way in an effort to building some more online activity. I did this for probably a decade, and like my recession from crokinole videos, I eventually came to stop. When reports came out months ago that twitter was removing old content I went spelunking trying to remember some of the humourous moments in the past.

Being at the ripe age to have been at the right age for social media’s introduction into everyday human life I observed with twitter the same life cycle you can find on any other platform that had its day in the sun. In the era before the social media platform gets algorithmically spliced into fragments that turns its user-experience into a jaded daily high school-reunion for anyone who doesn’t have anything better to do, there is a period where the platform is fun to be on. For a time the platform can be unpredictable in a good-natured way that encourages a sense of adventure and discovery.

Looking for crokinole occurrences on twitter back in the good days was like looking for bald eagles in Ontario today; quite rare, but usually amazing when it was spotted. I had a pretty fun time looking back through a treasure trove of unusual spottings, so now I shall share this pleasure with anyone still perusing this particular platform that is well past its best days.

Unmerited and Self-Indulgent Prelude

When I started to write this blog 12 years ago I made a resolute but unconscious decision to either exclude any first-person identifiers (I, me, my) from the entirety of a piece, or to make it clear to the reader I was putting myself front and centre into the argument presented. This was a behaviour, along with many others, I mimicked from the political journalists and sports reporters I enjoyed reading, each of whom share the same respect for the mutually exclusive worlds of stories in which their presence is either relied upon heavily, or completely unnecessary.

With good reason, there’s a compulsion to put that aside today.

The World Crokinole Championship (WCC) Committee has decided to revise the playoff format used at the WCC tournament, and has come up with two proposals for the singles competition. The WCC Committee is seeking player input to help make the decision on which of the two proposals should be implemented for the 2024 edition of the tournament.

The descriptions of the proposals are outlined below. Players wishing to share their opinions on the matter should do so by January 10th, by submitting an email to crokinolecentre@gmail.com.

Objective

2023 was crokinole’s first full year back from the covid-pause. I was thinking back on the year and being impressed by the breadth of it all. If you make a small-time hobby out of relaying crokinole stories, there was too much in the last 12 months to stay on top of it all. So in lieu of a professional job, here’s a non-definitive, non-comprehensive, (possibly non-good grammatical) recap of 2023.

There was lots of news regarding the National Crokinole Association early in the year. New tournaments started up in Elmira and Chatham, and the NCA went through a formalization process to enact a set of by-laws and elect an inaugural board of directors.

Elmira saw Ron Langill record his best-ever finish in a singles event, placing 2nd, but his break-through performance was overshadowed with a titanic clash in the other semifinal. Connor Reinman and Justin Slater squared off on the board, but also in the minds of all competitive crokinole players who were wondering which of the two was currently the best player in the game. Reinman won the semifinal match and the tournament, pushing such perceptions in his favour.