Argos 45, BC Lions 24 in a thrilling battle for first place between the league’s only unbeaten teams. But you can read about the action on the field anywhere. What was happening off the field? And why doesn’t the Free Slice of Pizza QR Code work?

Weather

Beautiful. Absolutely a great night for football, although if you were sitting on the east side staring into the sun, you probably enjoyed the 2nd half better after the sun set. I wish TV could show the west grandstand though. it was pretty full, but the east was, as usual, kind of sparse. BECAUSE YOU’RE STARING INTO THE SUN

Anthem

Anthem clocked in at 1:31, and we will concede once again that she is a lovely singer and we only wish she could pick up the pace a little bit.

Apart from the Argos, What Were Other People on the GO Train Coming to See?

Garbage was playing at the Budweiser Stage nearby, along with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, and I am not nearly hip enough to make any kind of a comment about either group.

Was There Live Music At the Game Itself?

Yes! For the first time in a while, the half time show - a dance number by the Argos A-Team and a few Caribbean dancers - was accompanied by a live steel pan band, Pan Fantasy, who performed on the northwest terrace. Well done. And if I can figure out the name of the dancers, I’ll be sure to update this post.

What Was This Musical Instrument?

I’m not sure about that either.

What About the Traditional BMO Field Half Time Show

Not to worry, we were entertained by the Divot Replacement Squad, the standard BMO Field half time show for the past several years, who you can see working alongside the dancers in the photo above.

Do Kickers Care About Half Time Shows?

No, they’re going to warm up anyway.

Signs

Sadly, there were no signs to equal the majesty of the “Days Since Last Grey Cup: Ticats 8,603” we saw last time. However I did notice that the “All Time Argos” list has been relocated from its previous position amongst the multitude of Grey Cup banners over the south stands, to a new spot in the middle of the west grandstand.

The new row of 18 Grey Cup Banners looks pretty good, though.

Other Signs

I still don’t quite get what this is for. And one of the two guys was holding his upside down for most of the game.

Update! Actual Information! From a comment on Facebook by Argos Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Usama Mujtaba (thank you!)

It’s for two reasons: 1) So that the playcallers are more visible. 2) So that when opposing teams get the film on the tablets (the sideline view will be from behind the bench), they can’t see the signals and as a result won’t know which signal related to which call. This unfortunately won’t work when you are in a stadium where the benches are on opposite sides of the field (why we didn’t use them in Edmonton). Hope that helps!

Speaking of All Time Argos

It was great to see both Damon Allen and Derrell “Mookie” Mitchell added to the All Time Argos list during a break in play! We were lucky to get a good view. BUT … Their announcements were rushed, and an official actually had to shoo Mookie and his entourage off the field so the game could restart. That would have all been better to do at halftime.

Speaking of Derrell "Mookie" Mitchell, What Song did Argonotes Play when He Retired in 2007?

M is for Mookie. That’s good enough for me.

M is for Mookie. That’s good enough for me.

M is for Mookie. That’s good enough for me.

Oh, Mookie Mookie Mookie starts with “M”.

did anybody apart from the band think that was as hilarious as the band did

No need to ask.

Speaking of Alumni

They introduced Matt Black, hero of the 2017 Grey Cup, to a resounding cheer. And once again I could see it all on the scoreboard, but had no idea where to look in the stadium. (Tip: It’s usually in the alumni suite in the southwest corner.) I wish the scoreboard could tell us where to look!

Infinitely Spinning Prize Wheel Update

You’ll recall that at the last game, the Prize Wheel spun and spun and spun and seemingly wouldn’t stop until the mascot and/or the game day host actually put their hand on the wheel to slow it down.

Well, last night, they must have said something to the contestant because he gave it a tremendously weak spin and I don’t think it even went all the way around once. Also there is some rock-paper-scissors thing that happens before the wheel is spun and honestly nobody understands this particular game.

Let me know if you understand how this one is supposed to work.

What about the Dangerous Inflatable Race

Went much better this time, the winning team clearly figured out how to make these things work. I’m still amazed nobody gets hurt bouncing around inside.

Did the QR Code for a Free Slice of Pizza Actually Work This Time?

No.

a forensic analysis of why the Pizza Pizza QR code does not work

I happen to know a little about how QR codes and other barcodes work. (Ask me about the PDF417 format some time - that’s the code on the back of your drivers license. It’s encoded as a base 929 number!)

QR Codes - and other formats - are usually just strings of text encoded in a way that your phone’s camera can decode and turn back into text.

Here’s how this promotion is SUPPOSED to work.

1. They show a QR code on the scoreboard, like this

Notice that it says “Scan this code and turn on push notifications to redeem your free slice tomorrow.”

2. You take a picture of the QR code. Your phone will - usually - automatically decode this image for you. In this case, the QR Code contains this string:

https://uqr.to/1jle9

3. Your phone recognizes that that string is a URL, and opens that URL in your web browser

4. Your phone’s browser goes to

https://uqr.to/1jle9

So far so good.

This is where it starts to fall apart. That web page contains some Javascript code, which your browser is supposed to interpret to redirect it to a different web site. Normally you would not be aware this is happening - the browser fetches code from uqr.to, and then quietly redirects to a different site.

Here’s the problem. This is a piece of the Javascript code on that initial uqr.to web site - you would normally not see this but your web browser would read and interpret it as an instruction to go to a different web site

<title>PizzaPizzaSAS_Argos_G2_Jul3</title>
 <script> 
function redirectToContent(){ 
    /* window.location='https://pizzapizza.lnk.click/toronto-argonauts-score-a-slice-xkr325-july-3'; */ 

    window.location='https\u003A\/\/pizzapizza.lnk.click\/toronto\u002Dargonauts\u002Dscore\u002Da\u002Dslice\u002Dxkr325\u002Djuly\u002D3'; 
} <
/script>

But this is coded incorrectly. The real URL they want you to go to is this one

https://pizzapizza.lnk.click/toronto-argonauts-score-a-slice-xkr325-july-3

but somehow that real URL is inside a javascript comment, and the window.location line below it is really redirecting you to this url, which doesn’t make sense, it’s encoded all wrong.

https\u003A//pizzapizza.lnk.click/toronto\u002Dargonauts\u002Dscore\u002Da\u002Dslice\u002Dxkr325\u002Djuly\u002D3

Your web browser will not know what to do with that URL, and as a result you’ll never wind up on the right site to redeem your free slice. You’re probably staring at a blank screen after snapping the photo of the QR code. I know I was.

Now if you’ve read this far, you could of course just click here but you shouldn’t, if you didn’t go to the game.

I wonder if Pizza Pizza ever notices that nobody redeems their slice and asks themselves how much they’re paying for this ad.

did you catch a T-shirt thrown into the crowd for the first time in 30 years?

Yes!

what size is it

medium

what size are you

Well in college I was a medium but I’m really now more of an extra-medium.

can we see a photo of you wearing the shirt because that would be quite humourous

no.

Hey There's a Siren

I think this was new, an attempt to get some grassroots supporter to crank a siren to make a glorious sound. This is a great idea

is the siren loud enough

not nearly.

ARGOS SOGRA

Game day off field highlight for me is that the runners with the flags that spell “A” “R” “G” “O” “S” have finally realized that they should run back in the OTHER order, so that the word ARGOS is spelled out properly first for the west grandstand and then the east. In other years, the east side only ever saw SOGRA. Congrats to the team for figuring this out at last!

Singing of 'Go Argos Go'

The team played the touchdown song 4 out of 5 times and I am pleased that the crowd started to react to the big clumsy guy in 123 trying to conduct the Section 123 choir.

amount of fun that was had

Plenty. You should come. Argo games are a great value. Not ridiculously overpriced, a great stadium, a beautiful night, easy to get to - AND WE BEAT THE LIONS. come on down.

Argos 32, Ticats 14 in the home opener. But more importantly, what was going on OTHER than the football game? Here’s a report.

Anthem

The usual. Could have been faster. Nothing deflates an excited crowd faster than a slow performance of the anthem. She is a nice singer, though.

Game Day Plus

• Overall the pregame Grey Cup Banner Raising was pretty good, the banner attached to the balloon was a nice idea - I wondered how they were going to "raise" it. I'm happy they let some long time season ticket holders have the honours.

• Jason - the mascot - has been equipped with a proper T-shirt gun to reach the higher seats. (I don't know who actually wants these free shirts, though, and I bet they're all "Extra Medium." A reminder, if you catch something like this thrown into the audience, give it to a kid.)

• Despite all the Ticat fans in attendance, I don't think I heard a single "Oskee-wee-wee". But I bet they were happy with the promotional giveaway - it's the closest a Ticat fan will get to a Grey Cup ring.

Game Day Minus

A lot of the stunts and promotions didn't click, or were rushed to completion before the game resumed.

• Spin a wheel to win a prize - and the wheel wouldn't stop spinning, until the host put her hand on it to slow it down. That really looks bad.

• the Rolling across the end zone in an inflatable tube thing race probably sounded like fun in a meeting but honestly looked a little dangerous (and didn't come close to finishing in time.)

• Father-and-son match answers on a whiteboard, well, come on, we can't see what the wrote on the whiteboard and it looked like they spent most of their time furiously erasing the previous answer.

I hear there's a new game day coordinator this year so it may take a game or two to work out the details.

• A north end zone full of brand new empty seats looks bad. I hear the stadium capacity needed to be expanded as part of the World Cup bid but they should find a way to put people there.

• The usual issues of inequitable distribution of "free to the first 10,000 people" handouts. We entered through Gate 1, and it was a bit of a madhouse as they were being distributed, but many who came in other gates missed out. Surely there is a better way.

I got my ring, but I gave it to a kid sitting behind me. Gotta pay it forward.

I have already seen some of these for sale on eBay. Reminder, you can just buy a new one. you don’t need to pay some ridiculous markup.

• It's 9:30 AM the next morning and there is nothing on argonauts.ca about last night's game.

game day travel

We took the GO Train, which was evenly split between people who wanted to see the Ticats, the Argos, and Ed Sheeran.

The Opposition

I hadn’t seen one of these before, a pop-up tent of sorts that shielded players from view of the fans. Here’s Hamilton quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell entering the Tent of Concealment.

Performances of "Go Argos Go"

I led our section in singing Go Argos Go three times - after each touchdown - and people are beginning to get the hang of it, even if the audio they play cuts off before the 2nd verse. Next time I’m bringing a baton.

Total Argonotes Alumni in Attendance

At least 6.

did anybody ask about Argonotes

One guy said to me “I loved you guys, I heard you at the Skydome 45 years ago.” Um, I’ll have to check the math on that one

was there an actual band?

No. Lots of empty seats in the North End Zone where the Burlington Teen Tour Band, a.k.a. the At One Point Argos Band, used to sit.

Signs:

Major props to whoever brought the sign that said “DAYS SINCE LAST GREY CUP WIN - ARGOS 210, TICATS 8603”. That was awesome.