This past weekend was the Shanghai Open Ultimate Frisbee tournament. In past years, we've seen Beijing dominate the Saturday night party as Doozers and Monopoly. This year, after Hulk Hogan suffered a disappointing party award loss at Jeju, I was determined to take the party at Shanghai. But my goal was not just to win it, but smother the competition so convincingly, they would henceforth rename it "The Big Brother Party Award" for future years. The theme was Once Upon a Time. Other teams would come as Alice In Wonderland or Shrek... obvious fairy tale options. We would need to step it up to another level.
Our idea originally came from Doc, who wasn't able to make the tournament, but the execution and organization was to be my greatest achievement yet. Yes, even better than that time i landed a chuar in Tao's beer from across the room. Even better than Cleatus. This would be my Opus.
Preparations started four weeks in advance. Tao, Chad, Rob, and myself all got suits tailored. Ladies bought new dresses. Mike Shyu finished designing and making the amazing banners. Joe put together the Mixtape. Barbie taught us all the dance. And thirty Big Brother players got decked out in their finest attire. We even considered Limo's and a balloon arch.
I went to Shanghai a few days early to start some preparations. Staying with the always delightful Geoff Ng, and hanging out with Kathryn and Zoey, i began my work. I made invitations. I located a punchbowl. I bought flowers. I made a ballot box. I scouted the party venue to make sure the plan would work.
On the fields Saturday, we passed out invitations to select members of other teams, often in very extravagant fashion. Baby Girl sang to one lucky girl, backed by a chorus of Big Brother players.
Then, Saturday night, after a day of incredible play from Big Brother, a day where we went undefeated, outscoring opponents in four games 43-17, we brought the party to Shanghai.
After arriving at the venue and surveying Shanghai's feeble attempt at party-making, the first order of business was to make corsages and boutonnières with the fresh flowers i bought on the way.
Next,we set up the massive 4m x 1.5m banner at the dance floor, signaling the beginning of the party.
Thirdly, we prepared the photo booth, using a 2.5m x 1.5m banner of the invitation above. Tao was our photographer for the evening, documenting the party and photo booth all night. In fact, it should be noted that ALL the photos in this post are Tao's except one. People went nuts at the photo booth. Tao has hundreds of photos... here are seventeen of the best:
Then we put on our Ultimate Prom mixtape, spiked some punch, danced, and made merry. We led the whole dance floor in Barbie's choreographed dance routine.
Of course, we also needed to have a prom King and Queen, and we allowed anyone to vote for their favorite. We tallied the votes, and it appeared we had some clear winners. For the ladies, Ingrid, YJ, and Nina were the three finalists. I took the microphone and announced the queen: Ingrid!
Next: the guys. Again there was a clear winner, Baby Girl, with 16 votes, while Zahlen and I both tied with 5. But then, after some detective work, we learned Baby Girl had stuffed the ballot box! Scandalous! So when i announced the three finalists, i decided to give the mic to Joe for the final judgement. He declared a three-way-tie! The tie-breaker? DANCE OFF! The Judge? Prom Queen Ingrid! Spoiler alert: i win.
I'm not sure what's happening in that last picture, but i am sure it was a good idea at the time.
Presenting King and Queen of the 2011 Big Brother's The Ultimate Prom:
The next morning i woke up in a tent. On the fields. Still wearing my suit. I had used the jacket as a pillow. I was surprisingly well rested, and since i hadn't really drank the night before, i was full of energy. First order of business: coffee.
(This is also the only photo from my camera. Thanks to Tao for all the rest. I'll link to his blog when he posts it.)
Second: warm up my throws a little. These Gucci loafers had surprisingly excellent gription and support, for only $20.
Third: win the tournament.
We had three more games that day and won them all in fairly commanding fashion, beating Hong Kong, Korea (last years winner) and Team Pilipinas, who is always strong. The final score was 15-10, and our O line was never scored on, a perfect offensive performance. I actually teared up a bit in the group huddle after our win. awwww.
Tao was also named finals MVP, and Barbie was named mythical seven. Congrats to all!
...And that, kids, is how Beijing owned Shanghai in 2011.
~Kev
