Jump to content

1st Annual Chicago Tecmo Super Bowl Tournament


bob sacamano

Recommended Posts

That a-hole that I had to play in the round of 32 is going sour grapes on the Facebook page! That guy was so angry... I wish I would have beaten him by more. That could be my only regret of the tournament. He had a pretty sweet offense of throwing up bombs (not too effective with the Saints, though... he should have selected GB if he was going that route).

Shame there has to be one of these guys at every tournament. Not sure what he's complaining about. He got his wish. He wanted to be in the field of 32 (a mathematical point differential error inadvertently kept him out) and he wanted to play the 3 seed (toolie) as opposed to the 1 seed (sonofpatbeach). Both requests were accommodated and, as expected, he lost immediately to Toolie. He's just sore because he discovered he is bad at Tecmo.

Major props to Tecmopsycho who, upon learning that he was actually out of the tournament, handled it with total class. Thanks for making it easy Tecmopsycho. The Tecmo Gods will undoubtedly reward such behavior.

As for Earnest, he wrestled with quite a hangover this morning. Can't believe Knobbe captured that on film.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Group Play: 2-1 (+47)

28 Tampa Bay vs. 14 Phoenix (Todd Daniels)

Going into this one, I knew that Todd Daniels was a solid player based upon his 4-1 performance in the Madison tournament. With this match-up, I fully expected a turnover or mis-throw to play big role. On my first drive of the tournament, I decided to try to pick up a first on fourth and short when I could easily have taken the field goal. Todd stepped up big and forced me into a group of drones. He then drove down the field and scored to take an early lead. I'm pretty sure I scored on every possession in this game after that first drive. There were two key plays I remember from this game where Rosenbach failed to come through in the clutch. On one of Phoenix's fourth downs, Rosenbach threw it directly out of bounds. On another fourth down, an open receiver doinked the catch. It was a fairly even game, but Phoenix did what they do best and threw away the game.

37 PItt vs. 0 Dallas (Richard Cuddy)

I won the toss and deferred to let Cuddy call the match-up. He tried to call the same match-up that he called earlier against Bailey. Someone pointed out that he wasn't allowed to call a Dolphins vs. Bengals match-up for a second time, and it seemed to catch him off guard. He called Pitt vs. Dallas and I promptly decided to take the fecal curtain. It was prove to be a good choice as I held Cuddy to 40 rushing and 0 pass completions (and RodGod picked off two passes, too).

10 Indianapolis vs. 14 Seattle (Jonathan Bailey)

Bailey calls a garbage match-up to match his garbage skills. Bailey and I have played enough times to know it was a coin toss game no matter the match-up. Indianapolis looked to be in a good position to win this one late, but Trudeau was trying his best to lose it, and he managed to pull it off.

Single-Elimination Portion

27 Houston vs. 21 Kansas City (Rick Reyes)

This was definitely a game that was going to put someone on tilt. In the first half, I intercept a pass with Johnson. I also recovered a fumble by Okoye. Alex wasn't able to stop my offense as I took a 21-0 lead into the half. Alex gets the ball to start the second half. He takes a lot of time off the clock and scores a touchdown to make it 7-21. In what would be my only possession of the second half, I take two short completions before he calls my third play. Moon throws it to Jeffries/Jeffires in coverage and the Kansas City secondary is able to nab the interception. Another time-consuming drive later and Alex made it 14-21. He then tries the onside kick and recovers it. He proceed to march the ball down the field and tie it up at 21. After being tied after regulation, we go to overtime and Alex wins the toss. He then proceeds to run with Okoye against me. I see four Oilers drones in the area and decide to engage in a juicing battle (Alex was outjuicing me all game). The drones inexplicably want nothing to do with making a tackle. I'm getting double-teamed by Kansas City blockers. Alex looks to be on his way to a game-ending touchdown. However, his drone-juking fails him and a diving Oilers drone catches Okoye and gets him to do what he does best: fumble. Oilers recover it (It was the fourth fumble by the Kansas City offense in the game, two were lost fumbles and two were recovered by De Berg). The Kansas City defense then gets burned by a Moon-to- combination in the back of the endzone. 27-21. Alex was pissed. I was pissed. No matter who wins or loses this game, the loser of the game was not going to be happy about it.

Buffalo vs. Houston (Kyle Miller - regulator088)

Kyle wins the toss and forces me to call the match-up. I have a feeling the guy is good with running teams and can probably outjuice me. So, I decide to call a Bills/Oilers match-up. The Bills secondary steps up big on Kyle's first drive and gets the interception. On the first play of the drive for the Bills, QB Bills finds Andre Reed who streaked by the Oilers secondary. I think I forced him to punt on his next drive (things started getting pretty fuzzy from here on out). Eventually, I go up by 14. At that point, Kyle tried to rely on using that Oilers passing game to throw a bunch of deep balls. Moon was in Bad for at least the third quarter, and it was key. Moon was only able to connect on a couple deep balls during the game. I think getting down early put Kyle out of his rhythm, and I don't think he expected to have this match-up called against him. He's definitely a nice guy, and I hope he makes it up to Madison in the spring.

Miami vs. Kansas City (Rico - ryanrfulcher33)

Knowing Rico, I fully expected the man to be doing some Run 3s and QB sneaks. I was put in the position to call the match-up, and decided to break out some slow quarterbacks to slow down the Milwuakee-style of Tecmo offense. The first quarter had a fair amount of joking around with one another (probably more of me just being an ass). I remember it being a jovial environment. Then, I don't think either of us said a word for the next three quarters. It went from jovial to focused as soon as that gun sounded for the end of the first quarter. I don't remember too many of the details of this one, but I'm guessing Jensen was involved. Rico and I are both pretty even and I remember the game being pretty close.

Seattle vs. Phoenix (Josh Holzy - sonofpatbeach)

At this point, I was drunk. J-Bone was drunk. The winner of this was going to play against Chet. I've played these two brothers enough times to know that I struggle very much to score and I struggle very much to stop them from scoring. I picked Seattle vs. Phoenix (with some advice from Bailey) with the hope that Holzbauer's hatred of Phoenix would give me the Cards. J-Bone picks the Cardinals and puts up 285 on the ground against me. The man normally carves me apart with his passing skills, but instead decides to just make a mockery of me on the ground. My only points came on a last play JJ bomb to Williams from Krieg. It was not a game I remember very well and not one that I want to remember.

I made it to the final four and was pretty satisfied with that performance. O'Toole and I decided to split the 3rd place winnings since I don't think either of us felt like playing a 3rd place match after the championship around 11:30 or midnight (or whatever time it was at that point). Realistically, O'Toole probably would have destroyed me at that point. I was in no condition to play Tecmo (or drive, which ultimately led to my car being towed after some non-sense by the parking lot employee...)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had a great time at the tournament, what little I can remember. I do have some disjointed memories of walking around talking/being loud sorry if I offended anyone (though I doubt I did).

A huge amount of credit needs to go to Tecmopsycho who took the news of our little mix up with class, something sorely lacking in the guy we had to let in.

Thanks to O'Dell for putting this on, I always love these tournaments. Thanks to avgtsbplayer for yet another in a long series of garbage. Thanks to Stratis for the good first round game, and rikfenney for the horrible, garbage-fest that was our second round game.

I look forward to seeing all of you in Wisconsin, I'm usually the most sober during that tournament (the need to be objective in case someone causes a nintendo glitch against a Holzbauer in a key game helps).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great tournament guys! It was an absolute pleasure meeting those who I hadn't before. Big thanks to the Holzbauer brothers, Bailey, O'Toole, Flo, Mort, Orenga, and everyone else who helped out, and also pitched in some equipment to help the cause. This wouldn't have been what it was without you! And to tecmopsycho, who was placed into the round of 32 on a mathematical error, and then took it was absolute, total class when being told that we couldn't allow him to play. He was playing Josh Holzbauer in the 1 v.s. 32 matchup, and was down just 3-0 in the 3rd quarter, and receiving a punt when the news came down. Most people who come to these tournaments are great people, but tecmopsycho stands out, and takes the top prize for being the best of them all. It was a true pleasure to meet you face to face Derek, and please accept my deepest apologies for what you went through. The Tecmo Gods, or as I believe Rick Reyes put it, "The Jealousy" will surely be on your side the next time around! Tournament recap to come very soon!

O'Dell

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you Josh and Eric for the kind remarks, but that is the way anyone should have handled the situation. The Tecmo gods pissed on me in my first game of pool play and that is where it ended. If I didn't deserve to make it to the 32 man tournament then it is what it is. No reasons to apologize. I do want to play good players like Josh and Mort who do not play online. Maybe something can be arranged at these tournaments to play scrimmages or get more games in? I know it is an all day event as it is. Maybe a pre-tournament round robin or smaller tournaments the night before? Just a thought; especially for those who travel greater distances. I thought the tournament was put together well. Thanks to Odell and all of those who make these live tournaments happen for, as the bartender put it, " biggest dorks in the country". I look forward to Madison and getting to see you all again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do want to play good players like Josh and Mort who do not play online. Maybe something can be arranged at these tournaments to play scrimmages or get more games in? I know it is an all day event as it is. Maybe a pre-tournament round robin or smaller tournaments the night before?

Derek, if you can, when the Madison tournament comes around, show up early on either Thursday or Friday. We have a tradition of playing as many games as possible at the Holzbauer's apartment Thursday night and most of Friday day. Before heading out to the bars to get sufficiently "prepared" for the next day's tournament. You will definitely get a huge amount of quality games in before the tournament. And in fact, we change up things and go nuts with simulated playoffs, mini-round robin tournaments, the whole thing.

And thanks for again being a class act. We need more of those in Tecmo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

O’Dell wished me to provide a Tournament Summary for the board. Herewith, my synopsis of the insanely fun and drunken Chicago Tournament.

Pre-Tournament Festivities

To adequately prepare Earnest Byner for Saturday’s tournament, I carried Earnest along with us as we scoped out the local Chicago watering holes on Friday night. I don’t have to tell anyone how impressed the ladies were when I casually pulled Earnest from my pocket and set him on an adjacent bar stool. Clearly interested in Earnest, more than one lady commented “who is this guy?” At breakfast the next morning, Earnest ate half of my Einstein Bagel banana to prep for tournament action. His substandard table manners seemed to confuse nearby patrons.

Tournament Overview

We had about 50 guys turn out for the tournament. We divided everyone into groups of four for a round-robin. Two guys played in both sessions to ensure thirteen full groups of four. Seven groups played in the early session, six in the latter session. The top two guys from each group, along with six wildcards, advanced to the 32-man single elimination portion of the tournament.

Several persons went 3-0 in group play: Toolie (2010 Madison runner-up), holzy11 (2010 Champ in Ohio & Louisiana, Ohio runner-up in 2009), sonofpatbeach (former Madison champ, Ohio & Louisiana runner-up), ryan33fulcher, the Rickster, O’Dell, Kevin Miller (2008 Madison champ), regulator088, and Robert Cuddy. Mort dropped a game, as did Flo, Knobbe, moonwalk, and Buck.

Notable group play games included the Child of Destiny (Browns) v. skunkerofbestinworld (Packers). Just before kickoff, Child of Destiny unveiled a Jeff Hostetler-like headband, much to the large crowd’s delight. Skunkerofbestinworld promptly shit himself and lost consciousness. A Nintendo malfunction reset a 14-14 game early in the 2nd quarter. They agreed to replay the entire game and skunkerofbestinworld prevailed by 7 with Green Bay in the second contest. Slaughter’s line, however, was quite impressive: 9 catches, 356 yards. No other Brown contributed to the box score. Hilarious.

Knobbe and Fulcher were in the same group. Matchup was KC-Mia. With Knobbe leading late in the game and fulcher facing a 3rd and 8, Fulcher calls right+A and guys yell out “oh, the Bontempo!” Knobbe calls the play, at which point I jokingly say “if he really is Bontempo, he will run it again on 4th & 12.” Amazingly, he did … and got a 1st down! Having already seen too much Right+A for my liking, I walked away to view other games. This game may have gone into OT if memory serves, but Fulcher prevailed (perhaps after receiving opening kickoff?). Qb_browns (3rd place Ohio) and avgtsbplayer were also in the same group. Having already lost a game with the Bears, Qb_browns’ tournament life was at stake against avgtsbplayer. Qb_browns called Indy-Seattle and prevailed with a late TD. Turns out 8-bit Jeff George is just as terrible as real life Jeff George.

Round of 32

In a cruel twist of Tecmo fate, Flo ends up facing J. OBriecht in the Round of 32. For those of you who do not know, Flo won a Chicago Tournament run in conjunction with a local radio station just 2 days earlier. Apparently, his Championship Game opponent was J. OBriecht. In what would emerge as a theme at this tournament, O’Briecht avenged his title loss to Flo and advanced to play holzy11. Flo may have been a bit distracted. He was riding a high from Thursday night and, oh yeah, he was piss drunk. Unknown O’Briecht, however, was a pretty solid player, as I ended up defeating him in the Sweet 16. Both of the Miller brothers (regulator088, Ones11fahzu) advanced as well. The biggest upset was M. Devine defeating O’Dell. Suddenly, both of Chicago’s hometown boys were eliminated.

The headline matchup was Mort-Buck, but unfortunately, I cannot report upon anything other than the outcome. Mort won and moved on. Mort may also have knocked Buck out of the Madison tournament if I recall correctly.

Sweet 16

This is generally the Round where the competition intensifies. Lots of good games in the Sweet 16.

Qb_browns v. Rickster: Those familiar with the Rickster (also from Madison) know two things: (1) the man’s rage is unparalleled and often unwarranted and (2) he can beat anyone at anytime. Rickster may be the best Tecmoer not to have won one of these tournaments. Matchup was S.D. (Qb_browns) v. Pitt (Rickster). All Rickster in this one, largely because Qb_browns refused to run Butts (2 carries, 4 yards). Gotta question the coaching in this one. Qb_browns, what exactly was Bobby Ross thinking?

Moonwalk v. ryan33fulcher: This was a Bills-Oilers game, Fulcher taking the Bills. It looked like Fulcher pretty much led by 10 points or so from the outset. I’m guessing there was a turnover early in the game and Fulcher capitalized, but it could have been a big defensive stop.

Regulator088 v. Avgtsbplayer: Another Bills-Oilers matchup, Avg taking the Bills. Somehow, the Bills terrible secondary intercepts Moon on the Oilers first possession. Regulator fell behind immediately and never caught up. That is generally how these Bills-Oilers games go. Stops are few and far between, so turnovers are magnified.

Elite 8

Editor’s note: I’m pretty drunk at this point in the tournament. It’s approximately 8:00 p.m., the Badgers won a close game versus Iowa, I’ve been drinking all day on the heels of a 3:00 am bender with Ernesto the night before, and Rickster and I just did a shot of Jim Beam to prepare for our matchup.

The matchups: Sonofpatbeach v. Kevin Miller, Avgtsbplayer v. Fulcher, Holzy11 v. Rickster, and Toolie v. Mort.

Sonofpatbeach v. Kevin Miller: This was a rematch of the Tecmo V championship in Madison won by Kevin Miller. Matchup was Broncos (Beach) v. Steelers (Miller). Miller, a Milwaukee native and notorious arrow tricker, never really got the offense going in this one. Beach avenges his previous defeat and advances to Final 4.

Avgtsbplayer v. Fulcher: I think this was Chiefs-Dolphins. Avg won. I have no other details.

Holzy11 v. Rickster: Rickster wins the toss and calls Lions-Broncos. I take the Lions but am concerned with the Rickster, as I know what he’s capable of, especially with Humphrey. William White had a big JJ Int early in this game and Andre Ware worked himself into good. Once Ware was in good, the Lions offense got nasty. I end up scoring a late TD to win by 10. Tough out for the Rickster.

Toolie v. Mort: A rematch of this year’s Madison Championship. Mort has the Broncos and Toolie has the Chargers. Hard fought and well played game, but Toolie exacts revenge, winning by 10 after a late TD.

Final 4

Holzy11 v. Toolie: I won the toss and call Wash-S.D. Toolie takes S.D. and I pull out my secret weapon, Ernesto! Ohhhh!! Don’t remember a whole lot about this game other than S.D. didn’t get a lot going on the ground, and consequently, struggled a bit on offense. I won 24-6. Also vaguely recall that I scored an Ernest Byner touchdown and served him half my beer, much to the crowd’s delight. Probably the loudest moment of the tournament. Even Toolie’s cute gal pals appreciated the humor. Knobbe apparently has this on film, although I haven’t yet seen it. Kudos to Toolie for putting up with my drunk ass.

Sonofpatbeach v. Avg: Avg struggles against the Holzbauers, but his fatal mistake was listening to Qb_browns. Qb_browns tells Avg to call Sea-Phx because Beach’s Phx hatred will force him into selecting Seattle. Ahh, no. Beach selects Phx and then runs all game with Johnny, the exact opposite of Beach’s general playing style (heavy pass). A stunned and drunken Avg had little chance. To add insult to injury, Avg’s car was towed, probably because Kelly Stouffer didn’t see enough reps in the semifinal.

Championship

Beach and I end up playing for the Championship in the 3rd consecutive tournament. I suggest splitting it or doing coach mode, but the crowd wants an actual game. We decide to give the now drunken and hysterical people what they want. I must have won the matchup because we did a Rams(holzy11)-Redskins(beach) matchup. If Beach had won the toss, he would have, per usual, selected Giants-Bills against me. I remember only 3 plays from this game: (1) Me fumbling early in the game, (2) Beach stopping me on a 4th and 2 with a wicked dive tackle, and (3) Me burning Beach on a play action pass to make it more than a 1 score game in the 2nd half. I end up winning but don’t know the final score. It is possible Knobbe has this on film as well.

Closing Remarks

Very fun tournament. Thanks to O’Dell for organizing this even after moving back to Detroit. Well done. These tournaments are incredibly enjoyable and it pleases me to see other tournaments sprouting up. If you really love Tecmo, you need to find a way to attend. It is that much fun, and with the exception of a few guys at each tournament, the Tecmo clientele is comprised of some very classy gentlemen.

Hope to see you all in late February/early March for the 7th Annual Madison Tecmo Tournament. Within the next 2 months, the date will be finalized and an announcement made. We are expecting 100+ guys this year (88 last year), so it should be quite a scene. Long live Tecmo!

Final Results

1st: Holzy11

2nd: Sonofpatbeach

T-3d: Toolie

T-3d: Avgtsbplayer

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Herewith, my synopsis of the insanely fun and drunken Chicago Tournament.

What kind of loser writes "herewith"?

Qb_browns (3rd place Ohio) and avgtsbplayer were also in the same group. Having already lost a game with the Bears, Qb_browns’ tournament life was at stake against avgtsbplayer. Qb_browns called Indy-Seattle and prevailed with a late TD. Turns out 8-bit Jeff George is just as terrible as real life Jeff George.

I lost with the Dolphins to excellent Boomer zipping passes into coverage with no reprecussions. Which was awesome. I then decided to switch from the free beer to doubles of my preferred beverage, great decision since I don't remember much of the tournament action after this point, only talking to everyone. If I was drunk and/or belligerent to those people, sorry. Just be happy you were not in Ohio in 2009, I was way worse.

Qb_browns v. Rickster: Those familiar with the Rickster (also from Madison) know two things: (1) the man’s rage is unparalleled and often unwarranted and (2) he can beat anyone at anytime. Rickster may be the best Tecmoer not to have won one of these tournaments. Matchup was S.D. (Qb_browns) v. Pitt (Rickster). All Rickster in this one, largely because Qb_browns refused to run Butts (2 carries, 4 yards). Gotta question the coaching in this one. Qb_browns, what exactly was Bobby Ross thinking?

After punting on third down from my 1 yard line, I decided that nothing good was happening with the running game. Of course between bubby and bj/vlasic 6 total picks were thrown, turning the game in to absolute garbage. And I don't like running when I'm tipsy--its boring.

I had a blast at the tournament. I encourage everyone as well to show up to Madison, it is a great time. And bring as many friends as you can too, confused people staring at a bunch of guys screaming and playing with action figures while engaged in a 19+ year old video game tournament really adds to the ambiance of the tournament.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unbelievable write up Chet. Very humorous and very appreciated!

Chicago's 1st Annual Tournament was a great success! Moving back to the D just weeks prior created a little bit of difficulty with the planning, but all in all, I feel it worked out as best as possible, given the circumstances. All you can drink Miller Lights may or may not have elevated the level of difficulty.

Thanks inpart to the passion of the Holzbauer brothers, and their great level of success in the annual Madison Tournament, tournaments seem to be popping up all throughout the country several times a year. I hope to see this trend continue, and cannot wait until the next one!

Great job everyone, and hope to see you all again very soon for some Tecmo action!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 years later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...