Pale Fire: Illustrated Sports Illustrated Sports Pale Fire Journal | Page 17
The game of Ping-Pong is a lot of back and forth. The ball crossing the net
from one side to the other, the serve going from one player to the next, scores
going up and past the opponent and vice versa. Like most sports, a winner can
be determined but that doesn’t make them a champion. Winner can get beat,
and losers can win a different round so there is never a clear-cut victor. Much
like the game, this book seems to never really have a strong resolution, and just
when you think one interpretation looks solid, another pops up that challenges
that standing. Within this week’s bracket, four equally believable candidates
square off to see who is most believable. Are Hazel and Kinbote the same peo-
ple or are there more pairs than just that? Is this written from a madman in an
asylum or does it document a lifetime of a poet? Keep in mind that even though
this tournament’s results show a finalist, that means very little in respect to the
best team because with more practice and evidence, any of these teams could
beat the others given the chance.
As tournaments with four teams go, two games start off to narrow down to
the championship game and from there the finalist is chosen. The results from
the first two games (playing games up to 21 best of 3 sets) totaled with Team Ha-
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