Evening Füsters!
Yet another Winterfüste has come to an end after 9 weeks of extraordinary game play in the most radical weather GG has seen in over a decade. You all must be commended for your fortitude of spirit and dedication to the the Füste because this was one soggy, cold and sometimes miserable experience! That being said, the Füsters outperformed GG’s expectations and provided the best possible game manager experience imaginable. So thank you for that!
Let’s talk about the top of the Bestenliste. Once again we found ourselves with a five way tie for first place (GG’s only recourse at this point is to make the game even harder . . . I mean, what the heck else is he supposed to do here??). All five players have been bestowed the title of Bestenfüste and officially entered into the Pantheon of the Gottähnfüste (go HERE), a collection of the most revered (and feared) Füsters to ever play the game! And as a new addition this year a plank-off was performed to determine the actual ranking of the top five with Shoebill outlasting all with his incredible 6:34 minute plank! But this is not to take away from the overall accomplishments of the other winners (cause you don’t win the title of Bestenfüste with a plank, no matter how long you hold it) and these five players really did something special this year. The make-up of this year’s Bestenfi was incredilby varied: two Neo-Füstes (Shoebill and Mountain Lion), two return players (Serow and the Kakapo Parrot) and one repeat Bestenfüste champion in the Arctic Sea Jelly. The Sea Jelly’s win is extraordinary in and of itself as there are only two other repeat champions in recent memory and only one who has won back to back competitions before! As for the rest, what a wonderfully mixed bag! Shoebill, quiet, intense and a hell of costume maker. Mountain Lion, invited to the game by friends from the north and a completely unknown surprise out of the beach communities of SoCal. Serow, always ready with a big smile and a laugh. The Parrot, a financial wiz who dreams of being a singer/songwriter (and who could definitely be one). GG couldn’t ask for a better group to be added to the Pantheon! And honorable mention goes to both Kit Fox and Antarctic Krill, who effectively took second and third place respectfully. Kit Fox, yet another Neo-Füste, exploded onto this year’s Spielbrett with enough personality (and his own fox mask) for 10 Füsters. And the Krill, a septuagenarian who’s played for several years now and continues to edge closer to her first victory! Congratulations to all our winners here!
Now time for some stats:
146 players started the game on January 2 and 96 finished out on March 4th.
We ran 3632 miles.
We hiked 9162 miles.
We biked outside 480 miles.
We spun indoors 1652 hours (yeah, that’s 69 days on the Peleton folks).
We swam 112 miles.
Total distance covered this Winterfüste: 13,384 miles, mostly by foot, enough to go more than halfway round the planet! Basically, that’s all the way across the Pacific, across China, to Kathmandu. Let that sink in.
And together we lost half a ton of flank meat (roughly 1000 pounds).
All in all, that’s a pretty good haul, Füsters. But now it’s time for GG (and his alter ego the Grolarbär) to get some rest and maybe hibernate for a while. There’s apparently no end to Winter this year so wake him up when Spring gets here and it’s a warm and sunny day. Thank you all for playing this ridiculous game and for putting so much energy into the last nine weeks. It means the world to GG that you spend this time with him and all your fellow Füsters. Whether you came in 1st, last, or somewhere in the middle, congratulations for finishing out another challenging Füste event. We’ll hopefully see each other on the Spielbrett again, somewhere down the road. Until that time, may the Füste be ever with you!
Griswalde Grolar
