I just had a similar enough experience this sunday, playing boardgames with my gf and her friends (because my own friends were busy)

Before that, the highest high I got was around 2016, getting the gang back together for a lan party at my apartment. 5 dudes playing a couple of games and then finishing with Counter Strike 1.6. One of my friends was a hypercompetitive asshole and kept getting angrier the more he lost, which was fucking gold. Everyone else was simply laughing at how “serious” he was taking it