Fur Flies, as Emperor Seeks His Champions
Once again, the Fursuit Gameshow proved to be a contest of agility, skill and - most of all – endurance, as the finals stretched on until close to midnight on Friday evening.
Hosted by Aetobatus, the show pitted eight pairs of fursuiters, the finalists of Thursday's preliminaries, against each other in a series of challenges to find the pair most worthy of serving as the Emperor’s new architects.
Your correspondent found that at times the focus of the audience drifted as games were set up or needed further explanation for the participants. The two breaks that were built into the schedule helped with this, but given the time taken by the event (almost two and a half hours), perhaps the feasibility of moving the finals back to a daytime or early evening slot instead of late at night could be investigated.
Frustrated by gravity
This year’s show featured a mix of games, some old favourites and some new intricacies for the participants to engage with. Team Dragon (DaTi and Ariadne) faced off against Team Rat (FreesTyler and DaxCyro) to see which team could balance the most blocks on one team member’s muzzle. Both teams were equally frustrated by gravity, and the game ended in a tie. Later on, Team Goat (Thistle and Nightwind) took on Team Rabbit (Ravell and Cueball) in a memory game, turning over cards from a board and having to find two that matched. The symbols were the Chinese characters for the animals of the zodiac. In a closely fought game, Thistle and Nightwind won the round with the well-timed discovery of a pair of Tiger cards in the final seconds.
As the show neared its climax, all but Team Dog (Cake and Minstrel) and Team Dragon had been eliminated. The final game was for each team to construct a Great Wall from building block. Some inspired reinterpretation of fair play gave Team Dog a head start, as Minstrel cleverly shoved most of the bricks to his team’s side of the stage. With their walls built, each team then had to knock down as much of their opponent’s construction as possible by throwing balls at them. After twelve shots each, Team Dog took the honours with a comprehensive destruction of Team Dragon’s wall. They were awarded their trophies along with delicious chocolate.
Winners: Cake & Minstrel
Runners Up: DaTi & Ariadne
Author: Bariki