Tourney tomorrow...

[[AK]Squidly]

It was touch and go there for awhile, but it looks like I'm playing in a 5 man tourney tomorrow. I've only met one of my teammates before and we've never practiced together so this should be interesting. We are playing in the rookie division, and it will be filmed and broadcast on Comcast channel 76 (in the Delaware/PA area. DVDs of the tourney will also be available shortly after it finishes up.

Prize are pretty decent, although with 21 teams participating in our division I'll be shocked if we come within 15 spots of nabbing anything.

The league site describes the rules, teams participating, and the prize structure.

Captain Carl's is the location.

[[AK]Devil_Dog]

Good luck tomorrow!!!

Keep your head down!!!

[[AK]Hylander]

Does this mean no Chat for you tomorrow during the game? Two weeks in the row... just where are your priorities??

BTW.. you probably already have it, but I picked up the 2003 Seahawks Season DVD at Best Buy tonight.

[[AK]Squidly]

I made this commitment a long time ago without thinking and then was unable to get out of it (that's why I wrote the "touch and go" thing...) When there's 4 other folks involved it doesn't feel right to just bail on 'em. I've got a replacement coming at about 1-1:30 to take over for me, so I'll probably be in the chat for the second half.

I got the Hawk video a couple of weeks ago (also at Best Buy.) I was rather shocked to see it. It was nicely done...I always like how they present each team as an awesome football machine.

[[AK]Hylander]

I made this commitment a long time ago without thinking and then was unable to get out of it (that's why I wrote the "touch and go" thing...) When there's 4 other folks involved it doesn't feel right to just bail on 'em. I've got a replacement coming at about 1-1:30 to take over for me, so I'll probably be in the chat for the second half.

I got the Hawk video a couple of weeks ago (also at Best Buy.) I was rather shocked to see it. It was nicely done...I always like how they present each team as an awesome football machine.

I can understand not wanting to bail on them.

I was surprised they had the Seahawks DVD as well and it was actually my wife who found it.

Hope to see you for the 2nd half, if not.. shoot someone for me - especially if they do yoga.

[[AK]The Beast]

Good luck tomorrow! I've gotta get back out and playing again one of these weekends. It's harder for me, too, this time of year--Yankees playoffs and Giants storming out in front. Guess I can't complain, though.

[[AK]Squidly]

Ok, time for a quick rundown of the results. The Rookie portion had 24 teams of 5, broken down to 3 divisions of 8 teams. Basically each team plays all of the others once, and then the top 2 teams in points in each division are in to the semi-finals. That's 6 teams. 2 more teams get into the semis as wild cards (based on who has the most points among the 3 divisions.) Games are 5 minutes each.

I played in 6 games, and we won all 6. I got shot out once, shot 6 guys out, and grabbed the flag and hung it once. After that, I handed off to a "sub" and headed home (it's my wedding anniversary today, and I needed to get home to promote marital happiness.) After the handoff, my team won another game to go to 7-0 before I left.

There were 3 fields, a couple of which were very muddy. Still, that only made things more interesting. It was wild diving in mud and sliding around, and it was doubly nice delivering an ass kicking to all the teams we played against.

We lost 3 players in one game, 1 player in 5 games, and none in one game, so we were *putting it on* the competition today.

When I left, we were the only undefeated team among the 3 divisions, and we were the overall point leaders by over 100 points.

It was a *tremendous* time...the event was very well run. Lots of give-a-ways like posters, stickers, and magazines, some neat door prizes, and a highly energized group of players.

One notable game featured us against the "Hawaiian Twisters". We took to our bunkers and basically played to a stalemate for 3 minutes. Several of my teammates carried stopwatches that beeped at various time increments so we were aware of how much time we had left. At this point we realized we need to make a move to score some points, but we didn't want to do anything foolish. Finally our back guy shot out one of their right side guys and that allowed us to move up. We quickly got an advantage, but now it was down to about 1 minute left. I found myself up at the 50, so I made a lateral run for the flag - grabbed it, and slid backwards into a 2 1/2 foot tall tube-like bunker extending perpendicular towards the middle of the field from the right side snake. Unfortunately this position was also 2 inches of mud and water. The flag grab alone was worth 20 points, so I just laid there in the muck and waited for my teammates to go to work. They finished off all but the last player, and shouted for me to hang the flag. I jumped up and lurched towards the enemy base while my team kept the last guy in by laying paint on his bunker. I hung the flag with less than 5 seconds left in the game, giving us another 50 points. Talk about adrenaline...! The field was so muddy I almost slipped on my ass 10 feet from the flag station.

The funny part about today is that we had never played together before as a team, and we were doing so well. We all had mismatched jerseys and pants, and we really stood out amongst all the other teams with matching colors and names on their backs. Standing in line for air you could hear folks saying "who are the Knockaround Guys"? (our teamname) "I think they're that team over there in the yellow. THey're awesome! They are winning everything!" Hehe. Sorry guys, we're the ones over here covered in so much mud we look like we're wearing ghili suits.

I don't yet know what happened after I left - I haven't heard back from the guys. I know we qualified for the semis, and that we'd beaten at least 2 of the teams that were also going to qualify. Keeping my fingers crossed, because some of the prizes (guns) are pretty darn good.

A teammate and I got interviewed (on camera) by the folks filming for RASPN.
We may very well make it to the broadcast on Comcast and/or the dvd.

I am so tired right now I'm about to pass out...

[[AK]Squidly]

Ok, I just got the scoop from my teammates. They won the last division game, so we were 8-0 and the points leaders from all the 3 divisions. We also were the only undefeated team in the prelims.

On to the semis...they split the 8 playoff teams into 2 groups of 4 and had the teams play each other once each. The two top teams of each group of 4 would then playoff in the finals.

Our team was put in with the 3 field sponsored teams, and that's where the "hinky" stuff began. Get this - the REFS wiped hits off of our opponent's hoppers, packs, and once - a mask. WTF?!? My team lost each of the 3 games, and in every case multiple players on the opposing team were clearly hit, but were "excused" by the refs. In the final game it was down to 1 player on our side vs 1 player on their side. Twice our player thought he had a hit on their guy, but the ref said "play on". Eventually our player was tagged out, and as the "winner" went to retrieve the flag you could clearly see hits to the arm and thigh. The only way to eliminate one of these guys was to hit him multiple times in one burst, and even then you had to cross your fingers.

It got so bad that the spectators lining the nets BOOED LOUDLY for an extended period.

They're saying that the games were so ridiculously slanted towards the home team that they don't see how any of the footage will be able to be used in the video broadcast - and ALL of this stuff was filmed.

The field sponsored teams took the top 3 places in the tourney.

In retrospect I'm happy that I bailed when I did...I got out before the nonsense started - otherwise I would've had a severely bad taste in my mouth from that experience.

[[AK]The Beast]

Wow...that's BS. I think I'll stick to pickup speedball for now.

[[AK]Squidly]

I don't get the impression that this is a usual occurance. I think the presence of cameras had a lot to do with it. They wanted their teams to win.

Overall I still had a GREAT time although I'm sore in places that I didn't know I had...

[[AK]Squidly]

BTW - If your located in the Delaware County Pa you can watch the tourney footage every Saturday in November on Comcast Leased
Access Channel 76 @ noon.

Any of you guys live in that area?

[[AK]Squidly]

Pictures here.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are none of us there.

[[AK]The Beast]

I live just south of Delaware County, but I've got DirecTV, so the only Comcast channel I get is (oddly enough) Comcast SportsNet out of Baltimore. The Philly area Comcast refuses to let DTV have the feeds for any of their channels.

[[AK]Devil_Dog]

I am in Chester County, which is close by, not sure if I can watch it, but I will check it out and see if I have access to that channel tonight.

[[AK]Hylander]

I am in Chester County, which is close by, not sure if I can watch it, but I will check it out and see if I have access to that channel tonight.

That's if he's not watching animal planet and their review of the most effective flea collars.