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Pillager, MN - 12/7/13 - Minnesota Tecmo Super Bowl VI Tournament


Joshbrainerdmn

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"Controversy" is one way of putting it. "Complete BS" would be more accurate.


 


I (Eric G) beat Ed G to face Bill in the finals. I was disqualified in the 1st quarter of the game because I slapped the table in front of me in frustration after a missed FG, and the NES console (about 3 feet away from where I slapped) reset. It was an accident, and I was just as shocked as anyone that it reset. I offered to start over and spot him the 7 points he was up at the time and give him the ball, but Bill just said, "I'll take the money."


 


Ben, the tourney organizer who seemed to be in a hurry to wrap things up, ruled in Bill's favor. Seems wrong to me.


 


It's unfortunate, but I lost some respect for Ben and Bill that day. Could have been handled better IMO.


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The Minnesota Tecmo Super Bowl VI tournament was a huge success again this year. With that said, I am dissappointed with Eric G's comment. Eric is a great Tecmo player and he did make it to the finals to take on Bill K. It should be noted that Eric G. lost to Bill K. earlier in the tourney. Coming back and making it into the finals, He was behind in the 1st Qtr, and he did miss a field goal. He then slammed is hand down on the table inches from the NES loud enough for the entire bar to hear. This knocked the NES cartridge up inside the NES and it immediately stopped working.

In tournaments such as this there are written rules that are in place so there are no purposeful NES malfunctions. The rules state if you purposefully cause a malfunction, you forfeit. See tournament rules at; www.minnesotatecmosuperbowl.com

The days of throwing paddles and smashing equipment are left behind in the early 90s. Its about playing with others equipment and being respectful. Not one person who I spoke to after the event thought Eric G's slamming of the table was graceful after missing a field goal. His respect comment regarding myself and Bill K is reminiscent of school yard poor sportsmanship.

Eric G is certainly a great Tecmo player, much better than I ever will be. But his comments are also lacking the fact that he was laughing, drinking, enjoying himself, and playing in a kick ass tourney, up until he broke a written rule.

Sometimes, being a judge and referee is difficult. However, I know that everybody other than Eric G. agreed with following the rules. Thanks for reading.

Minnesota Tecmo Super Bowl VII coming soon in 2014

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It was a wonderful tourney, lots of fun and again thank you Ben and the sponsors (Ben you can tell D&D that Bill Kuether from Kuether Distributing says hi; they may remember me or may not, depends on who you dealt with there).


 


Thou the final game appears to have an cloud of controversy over it, I think really it's just the sour grapes of a misguided point of view on the conduct that is expected from players in the tourney.  A couple things needs to be pointed out here for those that read this and since, for once, I'm on solid ground here with respect to virtue allow me to pontificate the facts as I see them:


 


1) The score was 7-0 good guys


2) Eric was down a possession (fumble), I had the ball at midfield, it was start of 2cnd qtr & I got the ball at half coming.  Each a large factor in the momentum of the game play


3) Eric is crippled in his style of game play with the team choices I made.  Dropping the teams into the Indi/ Ne game effectively took away any speed Eric could have on offense, effectively eliminating his chances of scoring in a come from behind manner; I meanwhile continue to move methodically up and down the field 


4) Earlier in the tourney I believe Eric saw a game reset in the 1st qtr when there was an accidental (and non player induced) game reset.  I summarized that Eric concluded this desperation attempt to reset the game was his only chance to resuscitate his terminally ill game plan


5) Eric did in fact open hand slap, with full force, the table in a violent and assault enabled mode.  It was scary, I saw a couple kids at the table behind us begin to tear up and crowd by their mother in fear


6) The game didn't just reset, the sheer violence expressed by Eric jolted the cartridge out of the locked position- just in case there was any wondering about how blunt he struck the table and how furiously angry he was at the time


7) There is a clear expectation of voluntary versus involuntary game resets and given the facts above and the fact that, in this game, there was $200 on the line I really believe Ben made the proper call as there was no other call to be made


 


But, if that wasn't enough, it must be pointed out that on this particularly cold and icy day, my road to victory was paved with 3 wins versus Eric (more then I beat any other player in the tourney)


 


GG thou


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First of all, I also beat Bill later in the tourney (double elim) to make it to the final 4.

I take ownership for what I did. I shouldn't have done it, and I didn't protest loudly or disrespectfully after the decision was made. I feel I displayed excellent sportsmanship the entire tourney. I got frustrated and slapped the table. Dumb move, but my intent was to slap the table, not reset the game. Big difference. That's not my style. I came back from 10 points behind to beat Bill last year.

The problem I have is that the game was still in the 1st quarter and we could have easily started over. I spot 7 pts an the ball at the 50 and away we go. Have a legit champ. Bill said straight up that wanted the money. He took a cheap, illegitimate win. I never would have done that. That is what poor sportsmanship is.

Also, Ben, not everyone agreed with your decision. But when they brought it up, you told them to drop it. But whatever lets you sleep at night.

I admit what I did put you in a tough spot. Bill should have man'd up and make it legit instead of chickening out IMO. That's what I'm most frustrated with, because I would have done that for him if roles were reversed.

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This will be my final comment on this issue;

My NES still does not turn on. I have tried to get it to operate and it does not. The game cartridge works in another system.

I stand by my decision. I must enforce the rules. Rules are Rules.

Bill K. your description was accurate, I actually apologized to the people behind us for the actions they observed.

I received 14 emails and 6 phone calls emphasizing that the correct decision was made by following the rules.

Im done with this issue.

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Lol really you guys? Anybody who knows me at all knows there's no way I'd reset the game on purpose. It's actually hurtful that you actually think i'd stoop that low. I take responsibility for my action. I was mad at myself. I shouldn't have done it. But to suggest I did it to reset the game on purpose is just ridiculous.

I'll remind you, Bill, that when I beat you in the finals last year, the game started the same. I fumbled the opening kickoff and was down 10 points at half. I came back to beat you in dramatic fashion. Who's to say I wouldn't do it again? After the game reset, I offered to "sim" the first quarter by giving you 7 points and the ball at the 50 yard line. You said no. Actually, you said, "I'll just take the money". You knew I was the only one at that tournament with real chance to beat you, and you didn't want to risk it. If roles were reversed, I just couldn't do that. Speaks to character.

We easily could have restarted and got to the same point we were at, but Bill wouldn't have it.

Furthermore, Ben, if what I did was so terrible (it was stupid I admit), why did you come up to me afterwards and say "you're a good guy and I hope I see you back next year"? Not exactly something you say to someone who's allegedly a "poor sport".

I don't see how you can call a tournament a success when not even one quarter of the championship games gets played...

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A couple things needs to be pointed out here for those that read this and since, for once, I'm on solid ground here with respect to virtue allow me to pontificate the facts as I see them:

This has to be a first for you Sconnie. Being on the side of the angels is not your usual MO.

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I've froze the game before after losing my temper, and I've paid my bets without replaying as Sconnie can attest to.  You just can't lose it and expect someone to replay it to the point where you left off because you lost your temper, especially when 200 bucks is on the line.


 


I don't blame the crowd for wanting to see a game, we were there all day.  But heck man, don't blame the organizer and the opponent cause you lost it, and you sure shouldn't expect them to bend the rules cause you apparently would.  If it were my tourney I would have done the same thing.


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Hell, he can have the money. I wanted the championship. I've mentioned many times that I take responsibility for my action, which was dumb but not malicious. The fact remains that we could have easily restored the game to where it was. Bill opted for the cheap victory. Hope he enjoys it.

And for the record, Bill beat me twice (and I beat him once). They were all close hard-fought games. If Bill wants to count the one quarter of a championship game a victory, he can. I won't.

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Eric G.

I did talk to you after the game, You apologized and you said that you "screwed up." You also said you were sorry. I agree that I did say "I hope to see you back next year." I never had any ill feelings toward you. However, this morning at 6:22 am you posted that you lost respect for Bill and I because of the way it was handled. That statement in your post and your continuation of this issue is nothing short of being a poor sport, not yesterday in the tournament, not in the finals yesterday, but today starting since 6:22 am you have clearly been a poor sport with your pithy comments.

Putting things into perspective:

Go to Madison and Slam the table, interrupt game play and break equipment, you would have the same result, same consequence. Trash talk on the Madison thread the next day about the organizers, I would bet you wouldnt be asked back the following year.

Drop it and be respectful. If you can't rise to that level, next year just stay home. It is up to you.

To: Tecmobowl.org

Thank you for a great website.

Respectfully,

Ben R

Edited by benr47
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Great tourney Ben, it was funner than last year and I hope it keeps continuing.


 


Eric, Bill was beating you with the worst team on the rom, and because of your actions (and not being aware of your surroundings) you reset the game.  If it wasn't intentional, it was highly negligible.  I honestly wouldn't even ask someone to replay it, let alone expect them to.  I think that is asking for way too much given the situation.


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I agree with you Eddy. It was quite moronic of me. I still can't believe I did it. I was shocked that it reset, though I really shouldn't have been. It's my fault. Not Bill's. Not Ben's. My fault.

I guess I thought that Bill knew me well enough to know I wouldn't try to reset the game on purpose. He's under no obligation to restart, but I just believe it would have been the right thing to do. If Bill did what I did, I would have offered to restart because I know we wouldn't have tried to reset on purpose.

I also feel like I didn't break the rule since it wasn't purposeful. It was so stupid, however, I can't expect anyone to believe my intent.

BTW, The only reason I was losing was because I fumbled the opening kickoff and he went 8 yards in 3 plays to get the TD. There was still 3 quarters left to play.

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Minnesota Tecmo Super Bowl VII coming in 2014

Thanks Ed. I wanted to say the Rockville guys had the greatest jerseys. It was nice to see Bo Jackson, Steve Atwater and even Deion Sanders!

Thanks Rockville and to everyone else who made the tourney a huge success!

Merry Christmas

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Eric- the good news is that I heard you are not from Cass Lake, but rather New Brighton.  Truth is that Ed & I play Tecmo for money regularly so by all means, if you'd like to come out for a few cash games I'm up by Forest Lake & Eddie is in Blaine.  I'll even buy the beer.  There is no reason to let my Championship be the end all of this budding Tecmo rivalry, we can play all the time man- for whatever odds we'd like!


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The end of this tournament was handled atrociously (big word, I know - but it means really, really badly). Eric G made a mistake by hitting the table, but Ben made an even bigger mistake handling it the way that he did.


 


Ben claimed that his rules stated that any intentional reset of the game would be a DQ. Makes perfect sense and I agree, but it was vividly clear to anyone watching that there was NO intentional reset of the game. It was still the first quarter when Eric missed the field goal and was only down by 7 against someone he has beat before. Why on earth would he reset the game??? It makes no sense, especially if he knows the rules say an "intentional" reset would DQ him. Think about it. It was clearly an instant emotional reaction, there was no time for there to have been an intentional game reset in the 3 seconds this happened in.


 


So the problem, and where the mistake was made, was with the discretion which was used to determine if it was in fact an intentional reset. This responsibility lies solely with Ben, since he made the rule this way. Eric hit the table and within about 10 seconds of the game resetting Ben had already made up his mind that Eric intentionally reset the game. Here we are at the most important game of the day, we all waited 8 hours to see it, and Ben just ends it after taking a whole 10 seconds to think about it. And when I tried to interject an unbiased opinion and viewpoint to Ben, he quickly and sternly told me to drop it, and reminded me that he was in law enforcement and clearly what he says goes around here. If anything was schoolyard immature, I think that takes the cake since it had no bearing on anything...


 


So that was it, over just like that. Ben was judge, jury, and executioner without even taking any amount of time to think about this important decision. As a tournament director at such a crucial juncture, you should take time to consider all of the facts and the scenario and the impact of your decision. That clearly failed to happen in this insta-DQ. And it's clear by his posts here that he is looking for support from his 14 emails and 6 phone calls to try and justify that he made the right decision. Usually, obviously correct decisions don't need this kind of moral reinforcement...


 


As for Bill's game play and the way he handled the situation, it sounds like scared grapes to me. If you're that good, and the matchup is an even one, why were you so scared of resetting the game with where it was at and playing an actual game for your win? Instead you tucked tail and ran with the money. Where is the sportsmanship and class with that?


 


In an attempt to bring some constructiveness to this mess, why don't you invest a few bucks in some pieces of foam to put the systems on, or better yet don't keep them on the table? It's perfectly reasonable and understandable for someone in a competition to get frustrated and lose their cool and slam their fist or kick the wall or whatever. You see it in sports all the time. If you're going to write the rules to put yourself in this situation, maybe you can employ some techniques and strategies that will keep these things from happening, and maybe the next time you are faced with a crucial decision you can make the right one.


 


Good luck with your tournament Ben and your asterisk, Bill.


 


Ryan


Edited by davefmurray
removed personal info
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