NOVI, MICHIGAN – Week 3 of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (“LEG” for those who have not read the bylaws) was the strongest turnout of the season with 7 guys showing up, including 2 new faces in Brad and Lucio. The night started off with a dandy match up that saw Lucio register his first win of the season in a 21-19 win for Lucio & JG over Josh & Joe. The game also had serious foot snag action with Josh snagging 3 and Lucio snagging 1…Lucio still never drank all the required beer from Josh’s snags on his errant throws.

The night ended with a JG & Brad win over Lucio & KP, 21-18. JG & Brad jumped out to a commanding double-digit lead early, only to see Lucio & KP storm back and take a 17-14 lead. That’s when JG took over. In the final frame JG positioned his team with a 22-18 lead (final scores are capped at 21, however), and I had one final throw left to extend the game. One on the board did nothing, so I needed a cornhole. It was dark except a sliver of hope coming from the small garage light. Joe and Nick stood anxiously in the background talking about nekked men in an attempt to distract me (or maybe that was all in my head), and JG stood confidently still holding his pose from his previous cornhole. I confidently tossed the final bag, online, tracking toward the hole, but ultimately landed a inches beyond the hole as it bounced and fell long off the board. I choked on an extra-large bag of tiny penis whistles. We lost.

That game had yuuuuuge implications because the win kept JG in second place overall ahead of Nick (a JG loss would have vaulted Nick to second place by fractions of a winning percentage). It also was the deciding game in the standings between Lucio and Brad, kept my overall record at .500 on the season, and cost me a shot at having the best winning percentage in week 3. It’s fun when there is that much at stake, and every week we seem to be building more of these situations.

Josh remains on top of the power rankings after a respectable 3-2 record in week 3 and a 7-3 record overall. He also has a commanding lead in foot snags with 9 in just two weeks of action. JG is right behind in winning percentage at 13-6 overall after his 4-2 week. Nick is 9-5 overall after a 4-2 week 3, and also led the league in scoring and scoring differential this week. Nick also received a, “Nick is a good player” comment from Josh, which is saying something because Josh never compliments anyone. Nick is a good player. In fact, an argument can be made for any of the top 3 guys as the early league MVP.

Brad and Lucio had very good debuts. Brad finished 3-2 overall, while Lucio was third overall in points per game, second in scoring differential and also registered 3 foot snags this week.

Joe struggled to an 0-7 record, including a few blowout losses. However, every week Joe gets better. This week his throws had more arch on them, he scored with more consistency and 3 of his 7 games were very winnable.

NOVI, MICHIGAN – After nearly 3 weeks off since week 1, we finally regrouped to play the week 2 slate. While week 1 was competitive with 3 of 6 games decided by 2 points or less, week 2 was completely opposite. We played 8 games, the closest match was 21-15, and 5 of the 8 games were decided by 13 or more points.

The highlight of the night was JG’s unconsciousness. The guy barely missed the board, regularly scored ringers, and easily led the week in individual and team scoring (note – individual scoring is not tracked). He was dominant in a 21-14 loss to Nick and Joe (reading between the lines, I was his shitty partner) by scoring 13 of the 14 team points. JG had a ridiculous +7.3 scoring differential on his way to a 6-2 record last night, improving his overall record to 9-4, good for second place on the season.

Nick finished the night 5-3, and also turned in an impressive individual performance. Unofficially, Nick had the most rounds where all 4 bags were on the board or in the hole. He was very consistent attacking the board, and although he didn’t hit the hole as much as JG (but who does?) he now holds third place overall after his solid week 2 performance.

Joe finished the night 2-6, improving upon his 0-4 record from week 1. Joe is finding his rhythm and had some dominant rounds throughout the night. He was a key part of a 17-4 run in Game 3 where he and JG curb-stomped Nick and me 21-7. Joe also rivaled JG for most clutch performer on the night. Any time Joe had to score to extend the game, he answered the bell and often did so with a ringer. It seems once Joe finds the hole, he hits it…often.

Then there’s me. About the only positive thing to say is I had the only foot snag of the evening, but I attribute that more to the other guys not trying than me having good foot snag skills. I finished a mediocre 3-5, and my wins were mostly because of my partners carrying me. I was very inconsistent, and probably had the top 5 worst throws of the night. I’ll blame most of my performance on being distracting by Joe talking about banana hammocks (you had to be there). My 13.4 points per game and -3 scoring differential in week 2 may look better than Joe’s numbers, but I was easily the worst player last night. I’ll be repping all weekend to get better for next week.