Originally posted by Harrier88
Troll Trivia of the WeekHow Harrier will do in the "Trollympics" this summer remains to be seen... but eleven years ago, he already placed first in one team event on his university's "Sport-Dies" (pronounced 'dee-ehs', it's Latin for "day"). Which one was it?
(I participated in all three)1) Rowing
2) Beach volleyball
3) Team handball
Solution:
Spoiler
3) Team handball
Also sometimes known as "European handball", to distinguish it from an unrelated American game also called "handball", which I believe is more like squash. It was somewhat popular in the town where I went to school in my teens, but I never really properly played it before - which didn't stop me. 
Let's deal with the other options first. I signed up for the beach volleyball event on the Sport-Dies 2011, also for basketball, and made the same mistake in both: I was supposed to sign up with a full team at my disposal, but I only signed up as myself. As a result, the expected "Team Harrier88" showed up with only me... 
We found a solution in both sports. In beach volleyball, I was paired up with an experienced young woman who was supposed to be part of the organizers' staff, and in basketball, there just happened to be a full team's worth of players who wanted to join, but didn't have an official registration - a perfect fit for someone like me who had an official registration, but no team. My performance in both events was relatively forgettable, though. Most students who signed up simply were a lot more experienced than me.
Speaking of which, I signed up for the rowing event at the 2012 Sport-Dies with no prior experience whatsoever. The tournament info said that anyone who can tell port from starboard can join (I think I googled it back then)... well, I was cheerfully greeted by my teammates, who all told me that they are new to this sport as well, so it's all good. What they meant, of course, was that they joined their club just a few months ago, not that they never rowed a day before in their life, like in my case. They were not too happy when they found during our first race, which was also the opening race of the event.
"What do you mean, you never rowed before?!" 
"Yeah, well, I come from a region where there is not a whole lot of water..." That's what I told them... and immediately needed help getting into the boat, because the way I attempted it was all wrong. I had my back to my team mates when the coxswain (the person who leads the boat) helped me get into my seat, but I could tell that they would have loved to keelhaul me. 
The races went like you would expect, but I was still having a lot of fun actually.
Team handball was held later that day, and honestly... I didn't even know the rules, but I used to be a soccer goalie, so I could just play goalie again, and it would pretty much be the same, right? I felt hopeful enough, but that feeling started to leave me when I saw all those players in their club jackets confidently hanging out at the gym's entrance...
This time, each player was signing up via a sheet asking about their name, position and skill level (Beginner, Advanced, or Club Player). The point was to get teams of relatively even skills, and considering that I was unfamiliar with the rules, "Beginner" seemed to suit me well. As a result, I got assigned to a team with mostly club level and advanced players, who got their rookie goalie to compensate.
Indeed, I found out the hard way that handball goalkeeping was not quite the same as the soccer equivalent and I was struggling quite a bit, but my teammates' skills carried us out of the group stage into the semi-finals. The mixed skill level system seemed to work, but didn't take one thing into account: I am a quick learner. Therefore, I quickly picked up what worked and what didn't and managed to do a lot better in the semi-finals already. My experienced teammates did the rest, and in the finals, we all played a good game to bring home the trophy. 
We were the Sport-Dies 2012 handball champions.
They really did have a trophy, which remained in the university's possession, but with a tag added with our team's name: "Team Watercolor". Our team's captain came up with the name on short notice when he was asked after our win, based on a bad German pun. ("What's up?" can also mean something like "What rubs off?" Watercolor rubs off, and rhymes with the question in certain dialects: "Was geht ab? - Wasserfarb'!")
Long live Team Watercolor, with their awkward name, their skilled attackers who could pick up the slack early on... and of course their trolling rookie goalie, who turned out to be a bit of a hustler in the later stages. We stayed to celebrate our victory for a while, but I didn't meet my teammates again after that. I wonder if the trophy with our tag is still in use, or if it got stashed away in a cupboard somewhere in the university. There was plenty of room for more tags, but it has been eleven years by now. Either way, the story of Team Watercolor will remain in our hearts. In mine, at least.
No winners this time, but like in the case of the Sport-Dies, it's all about participating.
We're off to Russia, probably one of the most controversial stops on our World Tour, but not one that should be missing. The Trolls make an effort to keep this blog politics-free anyway... though we couldn't resist preparing this burger in time for July 4th. 
The first one had a little too much sauce, but it's easy to correct that. Primrose loves her caviar, btw. And she fully approved of this burger.
