Post by T-Robosaurus Rex on Dec 5, 2015 17:00:46 GMT -5
I've been playing Yahtzee for as long as I can remember, it was my Granpa who taught me to play during the vacations he and my Grandmother used to take me on in their mobile home. The sound of five dice rattling inside the plastic cup as you shake it, hoping for that perfect combination, still brings back memories of those trips long past and the love they always showed me.
The game became an everyday part of my life as I grew up, I collected various limited edition sets, had various 'lucky' dice and would play almost every day with my classmates. It was during schoo ltime that I was first introduced to truly competitive Yahtzee-ing, we tracked results and statistics, we arranged an inter-grade league, we had tournaments, Yahtzee consumed the break times during school for many a year.
All these things are part of why Yahtzee will always be important to me, but on one occasion the game of Yahtzee was not a joyful experience, instead it was an experience that decades later still affects me. At 11 years old I lost the final of a tournament to Cain Moss and my first nemesis was instantly born.
It was defeat that created my enemy, I had lost tournaments countless times over the years, no matter how skilled with the dice you are everyone loses from time to time, there was more to my hostility than the stinging pain of loss.
Years before the historic date of this loss my prowess with the dice had made me a school celebrity, I was so revered for my skill everyone wanted to know me, I even dated the cutest girl in my grade for an entire year, taking her to the summer dance as my own, that was no doubt the peak of my junior years. Then the cutest girl in school had moved away during the summer and for the years after that no-one could replace her, and not even Yahtzee could fix the broken heart of a child.
But then, suddenly I noticed another girl, it had been a couple of years since I had lost the first and I was ready once again to find another girl to hold my hand. I decided I was going to pick up the dice again, that I was going to shake and roll my way into this girls heart and once again be the most popular boy in school.
It was then that Cain Moss moved to the school, and at that age the 'new guy' always had an air of mystery and excitement, when he walked into class I knew he had the eyes of every girl on him, including the current cutest girl in the school. Then, at lunch, he did something that made me realise that even when the 'exotic' charm of the newcomer wore off he wasn't to be taken lightly. At lunch, Cain Moss reached into his bag and pulled out his own Yathzee set.
The new kid was a Dice Fiend too, and the first thing I noticed was I was not the only boy in school with a customized set of shaker and dice, his neon pink and gold shakers made my green and black ones look mass produced in comparison. he formed an instant circle around him, and started to play with my classmates. I did not join in, I sat back ate my sandwich and watched.
As I watched it dawned on me that we didn't only share the same love of the dice, but he had also developed an elaborate and theatrical style to his game. The way he shook the dice was reminiscent of a Latin dancer with a pair of maraca's, he'd also speak to the dice and make the audience laugh as he dropped the odd quip or two, before a final flamboyant flick of his wrist as he released the dice onto the table.
At that moment my confidence drained from my body, had anyone been looking at me instead of Cain I would no doubt have looked as if I'd seen a ghost. I could no longer rely on winning a game of Yahtzee in style to win the heart of the cutest girl in school, it was going to take far more than that.
Prior to Cain's arrival I had been planning with another classmate, a huge child named Clive who I used to fight with during recess years earlier, to start an official Yahtzee club at lunchtimes. We had been discussing rules and ideas for many weeks, we'd encouraged my best friend Chip to join us and were ready to pull the trigger. But when Cain turned up things changed.
Clive explained to me he knew Cain, they had been on the same little league team for many years, and he suggested that with the buzz around Cain being the new kid him joining our club would increase interest in it. I had my worries about Cain and his threat to my ultimate aim of once again taking the cutest girl in school to the dance and decided it would likely be best to keep him in close proximity. Ultimately that was the biggest mistake of my pre-pubescent years.
The fact he had so quickly become part of our club, that he had been accepted by some of the most popular boys in the grade so soon after joining the school, lead to him quickly rising the social ladder. And then came the official first tournament of the Yahtzee club, and we met one another in the final, and he beat me, and beat me with style. it was humiliating at the time, but I did all I could to put a brave face on it, I raised his hand, I congratulated him as a brother, despite something not feeling quite right.
Weeks later I was kicked out of the Yahtzee club, they did it at lunch in front of the entire cafeteria, saying I was a liability to its credibility given I'd chosen not to attend a couple of events since the painful defeat. They called me names and laughed at me in front of the entire school, and as I walked out, past all the sniggering children I knew I had hit rock bottom, I hated those I had called friends and I hated myself.
For months after I kept myself to myself, and watched as the Yahtzee club fell apart not long after Cain decided to leave them to join the hipper Marble Team. And then, not long after, the unthinkable happened.
Cain Moss started to date the cutest girl in school.
Cain Moss took the cutest girl in school to the summer dance.
Cain Moss had everything I wanted.
Cain Moss was my nemesis.
Then, when I was at High School, long after those painful events, I met Cain's cousin, who told me all about the snazzy weighted dice Cain owned, and it all made sense.
Cain Moss was a Yahtzee Cheat.
Cain Moss cheated to get everything I deserved.
It was at that moment I had a realisation that would guide my decisions and my life for many years to come. Playing by the rules was a fools game, the only way to be a success was to break them at every available opportunity, and that's what I did for many, many years.
Until history repeated itself.
The game became an everyday part of my life as I grew up, I collected various limited edition sets, had various 'lucky' dice and would play almost every day with my classmates. It was during schoo ltime that I was first introduced to truly competitive Yahtzee-ing, we tracked results and statistics, we arranged an inter-grade league, we had tournaments, Yahtzee consumed the break times during school for many a year.
All these things are part of why Yahtzee will always be important to me, but on one occasion the game of Yahtzee was not a joyful experience, instead it was an experience that decades later still affects me. At 11 years old I lost the final of a tournament to Cain Moss and my first nemesis was instantly born.
It was defeat that created my enemy, I had lost tournaments countless times over the years, no matter how skilled with the dice you are everyone loses from time to time, there was more to my hostility than the stinging pain of loss.
Years before the historic date of this loss my prowess with the dice had made me a school celebrity, I was so revered for my skill everyone wanted to know me, I even dated the cutest girl in my grade for an entire year, taking her to the summer dance as my own, that was no doubt the peak of my junior years. Then the cutest girl in school had moved away during the summer and for the years after that no-one could replace her, and not even Yahtzee could fix the broken heart of a child.
But then, suddenly I noticed another girl, it had been a couple of years since I had lost the first and I was ready once again to find another girl to hold my hand. I decided I was going to pick up the dice again, that I was going to shake and roll my way into this girls heart and once again be the most popular boy in school.
It was then that Cain Moss moved to the school, and at that age the 'new guy' always had an air of mystery and excitement, when he walked into class I knew he had the eyes of every girl on him, including the current cutest girl in the school. Then, at lunch, he did something that made me realise that even when the 'exotic' charm of the newcomer wore off he wasn't to be taken lightly. At lunch, Cain Moss reached into his bag and pulled out his own Yathzee set.
The new kid was a Dice Fiend too, and the first thing I noticed was I was not the only boy in school with a customized set of shaker and dice, his neon pink and gold shakers made my green and black ones look mass produced in comparison. he formed an instant circle around him, and started to play with my classmates. I did not join in, I sat back ate my sandwich and watched.
As I watched it dawned on me that we didn't only share the same love of the dice, but he had also developed an elaborate and theatrical style to his game. The way he shook the dice was reminiscent of a Latin dancer with a pair of maraca's, he'd also speak to the dice and make the audience laugh as he dropped the odd quip or two, before a final flamboyant flick of his wrist as he released the dice onto the table.
At that moment my confidence drained from my body, had anyone been looking at me instead of Cain I would no doubt have looked as if I'd seen a ghost. I could no longer rely on winning a game of Yahtzee in style to win the heart of the cutest girl in school, it was going to take far more than that.
Prior to Cain's arrival I had been planning with another classmate, a huge child named Clive who I used to fight with during recess years earlier, to start an official Yahtzee club at lunchtimes. We had been discussing rules and ideas for many weeks, we'd encouraged my best friend Chip to join us and were ready to pull the trigger. But when Cain turned up things changed.
Clive explained to me he knew Cain, they had been on the same little league team for many years, and he suggested that with the buzz around Cain being the new kid him joining our club would increase interest in it. I had my worries about Cain and his threat to my ultimate aim of once again taking the cutest girl in school to the dance and decided it would likely be best to keep him in close proximity. Ultimately that was the biggest mistake of my pre-pubescent years.
The fact he had so quickly become part of our club, that he had been accepted by some of the most popular boys in the grade so soon after joining the school, lead to him quickly rising the social ladder. And then came the official first tournament of the Yahtzee club, and we met one another in the final, and he beat me, and beat me with style. it was humiliating at the time, but I did all I could to put a brave face on it, I raised his hand, I congratulated him as a brother, despite something not feeling quite right.
Weeks later I was kicked out of the Yahtzee club, they did it at lunch in front of the entire cafeteria, saying I was a liability to its credibility given I'd chosen not to attend a couple of events since the painful defeat. They called me names and laughed at me in front of the entire school, and as I walked out, past all the sniggering children I knew I had hit rock bottom, I hated those I had called friends and I hated myself.
For months after I kept myself to myself, and watched as the Yahtzee club fell apart not long after Cain decided to leave them to join the hipper Marble Team. And then, not long after, the unthinkable happened.
Cain Moss started to date the cutest girl in school.
Cain Moss took the cutest girl in school to the summer dance.
Cain Moss had everything I wanted.
Cain Moss was my nemesis.
Then, when I was at High School, long after those painful events, I met Cain's cousin, who told me all about the snazzy weighted dice Cain owned, and it all made sense.
Cain Moss was a Yahtzee Cheat.
Cain Moss cheated to get everything I deserved.
It was at that moment I had a realisation that would guide my decisions and my life for many years to come. Playing by the rules was a fools game, the only way to be a success was to break them at every available opportunity, and that's what I did for many, many years.
Until history repeated itself.
