Two Portland Trail Blazers fans learned the hard way on Thursday that even playing ordinary games is not easy in front of thousands of screaming fans.
On the surface, tic-tac-toe is a pretty simple game with little replay value. If you play it right, you can actually never lose. But that’s why the Portland Trail Blazers complicated things with its in-game contest on Thursday night, requiring their tic-tac-toe contestants to make layups in order to drop Xs and Os down on the board.
Morgan is wearing a Rip City Blazers jersey, while Grace is in the practical winter flannel. These two look ready to go, but it’s clear that both are struggling with their layups early.
“Oh boy,” the in-house announcer says as Grace missed her second layup chance badly. He goes on to give the special rules that would play out if no one makes any shots, as time is precious here, but finally Morgan gets on the board and smartly takes the center spot.
This is good game theory, and usually is rewarded. But more baskets must be made to see it happen.
This next move is totally fine, logically speaking. Grace finally gets on the board and puts it on a corner piece. That means whoever gets the next basket has a huge opportunity to set up their first three-in-a-row.
Could be the moment of the match right here. Grace and Morgan both make baskets and race for the board, but Morgan slides into the edge spot just before Grace can drop her X. What Grace should do, of course, is block Morgan’s chance to win. Instead, she puts it here.
“Oh, Grace,” the announcer says. “Oh Grace.”
Not only did she not block Morgan, she didn’t even set herself up for a potential win. Remember that in this version of tic-tac-toe, that’s an option! She could have trusted herself to make a basket first and steal the win. It would have been remarkable strategy. Instead, it’s all bunk. Bunk I tell you.
But she does get the next basket! She’s still alive! And then she tries to do this.
Perhaps she thought it were some stacking kind of tic-tac-toe game, like how for every Scrabble there is an Upwords. But that is not how the game is played. And so she goes here instead.
Oh, no.
Oh no no no.
It all happened so fast. Grace gives herself a chance to win but doesn’t block. Then Morgan gets caught up in it all and blocks, instead of winning. The best part is that Grace is watching to see if Morgan wins, then goes back to shoot another basket. There’s almost no chance she can win at this point anyway, but she’s going to play out the string.
It’s another race to the board, as both players get a basket and a card. Grace gets there first but can’t decide where to place her X. She almost puts it on a few Os already on the board.
Morgan comes over and, mercifully, puts the game to bed by winning straight across just as Morgan was going to block once more. A block could have sent the game into purgatory. Maybe they would have cancelled the Blazers game and let Morgan and Grace battle it out forever.
The best part is that the Blazers mascot hugs Grace, who definitely did not win. Everyone was so confused out there. It was contagious at that point. But no, Morgan wins. We all get to move on. Game theory is hard in front of a crowd of thousands, you guys.
