LAKE PLACID – In her five years tending bar at the American Legion Post 326, Pat Daby had never pre-empted an autumn Monday night of football like this. Like at many bars across the country, 9 p.m. on a Monday night in September is meant to be tuned to ESPN.

But this Monday night, the Atlanta Falcons vs. New Orleans Saints National Football League game was relegated to a tiny television within the wooden paneling of the bar’s walls, the score barely visible. There was another matchup the 15 or so people sitting around the bar came to see, a highly anticipated spectacle plastered on the Legion’s kitty-cornered Vizio flat-screen televisions: Democrat Hillary Clinton vs. Republican Donald Trump.

“We all wanted to watch the debate,” Daby said. “I started off with two televisions on the football, and everybody that came wanted the debate. That hasn’t happened to my knowledge before. I can’t remember that it did. I’m actually for Trump, but I think Hillary did a good job – but I don’t like either one of them.

“I don’t know,” she added. “It was entertainment.”

This was the verbal tussle millions of Americans had waited months for. And from Legion halls to living rooms across the country, the first presidential debate of the 2016 election cycle dominated discourse, over drinks and on social media, where hashtags such as #debatenight rocketed to the top of Twitter’s trending tweets.

Back at the Legion, in the wake of the debate, almost everyone in attendance viewed it as a “feeling-out process” for each candidate. After 90 minutes of expected discourse, Trump supporters left satisfied with his performance, Clinton supporters left happy with her performance, and those in the middle didn’t feel swayed either way.

“There’s a lot of stuff that still needs to be discussed more,” said Jason Jones, a registered Republican and a Trump supporter from Lake Placid. “It’s going to be interesting this next debate. I think more movement will take place then. But I think the shock value of it tonight – it finally happened. So everybody tomorrow will be like, ‘Who won?’ And, of course, I’ve already heard the Democrats are like, ‘Oh, we won.’ And I’m sure Donald Trump is like, ‘Oh, we won.'”

Social media was a reflection of that, as hashtags such as #TrumpWon and #SheCantTellTheTruth were tweeted more than 26,000 times this morning in support of Trump. On the other side, “Clinton 51” was tweeted out by more than 8,000 people as of this morning, an allusion to how Trump was counted to have interrupted Clinton 51 times during last night’s 90-minute debate, compared to Clinton’s 17 interruptions.

Whatever your political persuasion, what Monday night definitely had was the big fight feel of a sporting event. This was true at the Legion, where at two minutes past the hour, famous boxing promoter Don King, a noted Trump supporter, and his iconic hair flashed across the screen.

“Is it going to be a boxing match?” one patron quipped just moments away from Trump and Clinton’s pre-debate handshake.

It took about 10 minutes for vocal reactions to bubble up at the Legion, patrons reacting to how Clinton seemed to have a buzz phrase, “Trumped-up trickle-down” ready to go as debate moderator Lester Holt of NBC News began with the debate’s first section. It was dubbed “Achieving Prosperity,” a discussion on job creation, income distribution and the economy.

“Here we go; here comes the name-calling,” one Legion patron said as Clinton turned the phrase.

About five minutes later, the excitement really started to pick up in the Legion hall as Trump seemed to get comfortable in the debate format, going on the offensive against Clinton.

“No wonder you’ve been fighting ISIS your entire adult life,” the Republican candidate said, eliciting the loudest cheers and claps yet from a portion of the patrons at the Legion hall.

But there was also that underlying element of humor that has gone hand in hand with this election cycle the entire way, such as when Trump suggested that maybe someone sitting on their bed weighing 400 pounds could be hacking the U.S. government instead of the Russians, as Clinton had said.

“That’s it,” a legion patron said, laughing, “he just lost the fat vote.”

At the end of the debate, the Legion hall did grow silent, though, when Clinton supporters felt she had one of her best stretches of the debate, during which the Democratic candidate criticized Trump for his treatment of women and what Clinton said was his lack of disclosing policy plans.

“Donald says his plan is secret,” Clinton remarked, “The only secret is he has no plans.”

Afterward, Legion patrons sipped their drafts of Yuengling and Molson and snacked on Slim Jims and pickled sausages while looking up at the post-debate analysis. Not one rushed to a smartphone to let the world know who he or she thought won the debate using the latest hashtag.

And in an election year where many Americans felt as if their first choice wasn’t there on the Hofstra University debate stage Monday night, the first clash of Clinton and Trump left them underwhelmed yet again.

“I think Trump was babbling on like an idiot, but I figured that’s what it would be,” said Matt DeCicco, a registered Republican from Lake Placid. “As far as it goes, though, I don’t trust Hillary Clinton, but voting for a third party would just be a waste of a vote.”