Yesterday’s game of SPUD took place in a grassy, mosquito-infested knoll in Humboldt Park on one of the hottest days of the year. If you’re following us on Twitter, you already know that the Venus Zine Office Team schooled everyone at SPUD, setting the bar high at the start of this summer tournament.

As the VZ team sized up the other teams from MyOpenBar.com, Mr. Design/Pitchfork, and WXRT, we realized we kinda had it in the bag. The other teams each had between four and six players, which paled in comparison to our team, which consisted of 11 all-star players, including our EIC, K. Tighe, publisher Anne Brindle, art director Denise Gibson, and a whole slew of staff and interns — all of us reluctantly anxious to get down and dirty.

In the end, we’re not quite sure if it was because our team was the biggest, or if it was because we kick serious ass at SPUD, (or maybe it was all the Miller High Life we downed) but Venus Zine won the first game of the season, and that’s all that matters.

Game on, guys — show us what you got!