Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Uno Emerges As Champion!

And the winner of our Inaugural Niagara’s Watercooler Bracket Vote is:

Uno!

The second-seeded game in the Game Night Region took the title by garnering 58.3 percent of the vote in the championship round. Yahtzee, the third seed in the Classics, Cards, and Dice Region, just could not luck out in its throws of the dice.

The tournament champion defeated Boggle (15), Sorry (7), Cards Against Humanity (11), and The Game of Life (1) on its run to the Fun Four, at which point it knocked out Clue, which had emerged from the Nostalgia Region as a fifth seed.

Uno is a game that can be played by almost anyone, and it has spawned a number of different versions and offshoots. In fact, the game Uno Attack was deemed different enough from the original that it had a separate entry in our bracket and won its first round matchup. But the original is what won, and it can and has provided hours of fun for families and friends for years.

Our committee chairman, Howie, recalls learning how to play Uno when he was just five years old. “I remember being in kindergarten, and my parents put my baby brother to bed. They then took out a deck of colorful cards and taught me the game. I wound up winning several hands in a row, and have been a fan ever since,” he said.

We at NWC asked Howie if he thought his parents were letting him win. He had no comment on that, but he added, “I mean, when I play Uno with my own kids, I don’t let them win. In life you have to learn how to win and how to lose, right?”

Among the many versions of Uno that now exist at Howie’s house, he said, are the original version, Uno Attack, Uno Dare, Uno Reflex, Uno Dominos, a few Disneyfied versions of Uno, Uno Flip, and Dos, which he called “Uno’s sequel.” He said he and his daughters will probably play most of these versions in the coming days and weeks, along with the bracket’s runner-up, Yahtzee.

“What better way to teach a kindergartner math than with card games and dice?” Howie remarked. He noted that along with classic Yahtzee, there is a “World Series of Yahtzee” game in his house that he hasn’t had a chance to crack open yet, but likely will very soon.

The other semifinalists in the NWC Bracket Vote - Monopoly and the aforementioned Clue - have probably also seen an uptick in use in homes all over because of the sheer amount of time being spent at home because of the current state of the world. They, along with the rest of their gaming counterparts in our bracket, were selected and seeded in a completely unscientific manner, and we here at NWC appreciate all who took the time to vote via Twitter and by sending in absentee votes by email.

Ideas are in the works for next year’s bracket vote, as we will try to steer clear of movies and TV shows because we want to be a bit more unique. That was why we went with games this year, and why we will attempt to stick out again next year. 

We had fun with this, and we hope you did, too. Thanks again to all who participated!