Goodbye Phil, and an Impromptu 3rd Emmis Interactive Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament

May 5, 2012

It is with great sadness that I share this news: Phil, one of the oldest folks at Emmis Interactive, is leaving. Like Justin and Ben and Mike, he’s of the old school… and was one of the people I met, when I started on my first day.

Though his presence and energy will definitely be missed, he’s got a great opportunity ahead of him. While we’re sad to see him go, we’re also excited for where this next path will take him. Funny enough, we found out he’s going to be working near the Merchandise Mart – so this means we’ll all still be close enough to grab group lunches from time to time.

On his last day, we realized he was the current office Rock, Paper, Scissor Tournament Champ. Since we couldn’t simply let him walk away with the trophy, we held an impromptu tournament in the large conference room.

Here’s what happened:

The trophy, which is a symbol of RPS mastery… and also doubles as a lovely olive oil dispenser.

We normally get all fancy with our tournaments (and have charts, etc), but this was quickly thrown together. There was an announcement via email, and whoever was around… got to play.

Rick vs. Utopia.

Meagan vs. Chris C.

Phil (playing to retain his title) vs. Laurence.

Christine vs. AJ.

Nisha vs. Shailesh (who made his way to the Finals last year).

Jane vs. Alexandra.

A HUGE victory for Christine, who knocked Phil out of the tournament.

After going around the room, Mike (who organized the event and kind of served as MC) realized we had some uneven numbers. To ensure we wouldn’t have an odd number of winners after another round of gameplay… he determined the best thing to do was to add three more contestants back into the mix.

A few pieces of paper later, three x’s were marked down and people drew lots. Yours truly got one of the X’s (but was eliminated shortly thereafter). I think Sammy (who was playing remotely via webcam) and Chris were the other two who got a second life.

Sammy vs. Kashif.

Sammy vs. Christine.

James vs. Chris. These two had matched wits earlier in the game, with James winning. But after Chris got a second life… they went head to head again, with Chris emerging victorious.

// Edit: In hindsight, there probably should have been some double elimination thingy happening here, given how the final round shook out.

Chris vs. Christine, with special double elimination rules. At this point in time, Chris has been knocked out once and re-entered, whereas Christine remains undefeated.

For Chris to win, he needed to beat Christine twice; for Christine to win, she only had to defeat Chris once.

Christine, victorious!

Post-work, several of us gathered at the nearby B&B to raise a glass for Phil. We even had appearances by Jose and Al, who stopped in to bid Phil farewell. There were a good number of folks in attendance (but I didn’t take a ton of photos at the bar).

Alexandra, reading a lovely poem that Deb wrote in Phil’s honor.

Justin and Phil.

It’s sad to see him go, but there was nothing but love and well wishes in the house, after work. Phil’s got an infectious enthusiasm and energy about him, and I have no doubt he’s going to be bringing that with him to his next gig. Again – he’s going to be working closeby, so if we ever find ourselves in need of a karaoke master, he’s only a phone call away.