At my workshop we like to spin tops. Every session we do a quick "long spin" contest where everybody throws a top at the same time on the open gym floor, and we declare various champions like "longest spin of the people shorter than 4' tall" or "longest spin of the wood battle tops" or "longest spin of your very own division we just made up." We usually have 12 to 16 tops spinning for this. We sometimes play casual "chump" with no real scoring or organization and no hard throws so the gym floor doesn't get damaged. The kids really like the long spin arena games, and I've been looking for a way to score where A) we don't have to write down points so the kids can manage the contest themselves, and B) the battle is not too long or too short, with wait time kept to a minimum. So here is what we came up with:
A single group can play, or multiple groups play alternating turns (Group A throws while Group B winds up). Players are throwing into an arena (like a snow sled), all at the same time. The player whose top spins the longest wins one point. If you miss the arena or are the first one to stop spinning, you loose a point. If everybody starts at zero points, you leave the game if you have less than zero points. If you want a longer game give each player 3 points, or even handicap the better players giving them fewer points to start off with. If you have two groups of 4, combine the two groups when they have each lost two players, and the remaining players keep the points they earned in a new and final group.
If you start everybody at zero the weaker spinners will go out fast, but the game won't take to long to finish. I'm liking the handicap idea, we haven't tried that yet.
Anyways, I think this system has potential and may evolve into something even better if other people experiment with it. It is meant as sort of a casual battle format. This is not intended as a way to change the "Battletop Champion of the Universe" contests that Mark and Alan put on, I think the format for those events are well developed.
