Madison, WI - 03/08/14 - Tecmo X: The Gannonball Run

[vogtcd11]

Wow. Just wow.

 

There's such an immense change in mood making the trek to Tecmo Madison, compared to making the trek home from Tecmo Madison. What can I say? Tecmo Madison continues to blow my mind. An event that truly represents a culture and group of guys who grew up playing a 1991 video game with the exact same appreciation.

 

Camaraderie. Competitiveness. Joy. Fun. Dejection. Professionalism. Drunkeness. Tecmo. Super. Bowl. Without any of this, you won't enjoy it.

 

Continual thanks goes out to Josh, Chet, Tony, Bailey, the girls and everyone else proudly wearing a Tecmo Madison shirt. I couldn't help but thank the manager of Badger Bowl every time I saw him. As I know what he goes through to make the bar/restaurant atmosphere work for their patrons. Dave Murray, my family watching at home from start to finish, do not know you. But they thank you sincerely.

 

From behind the scenes to being able to watch my brother overcome two horrible fumbles in the fourth place game against Skunker, I thank each and every single one of you. To the great group of friends that have been established because of this great tournament and great game we call TECMO, thank you.

 

To my brothers Matt and Joey: It's so cool to see you guys play with passion and love for this game. Joey (21) was born the year after the game came out. Congrats on such a great, inaugural showing at your first-ever Madison tourney. Matt, you're you, dude. What this tourney and this game does for our relationship, it's second to none. Being considered as one of the best Tecmoers to ever play the game -- that doesn't just make this a hobby for you anymore. It's your persona, and it amazes me how much you live up it.

 

The Vogts needed this weekend. Too much has happened personally on the negative end for us Vogts in 2014, and it's only the start of month No. 3. This tourney helped ease a little bit of that pain. Of course, I got emotional after beating Louis, clinching a spot in the Elite 8. But this is what Tecmo, and Madison Tecmo, does for the Vogt family. It brings us closer together in words that really can't be described.

 

Thanks again, you all.

 

#LongLiveTecmo

[red98sethuthut]

First I'd like to thank josh, chet, tony orenga, j. bailey ( t.y. for being patience with mort's recording), dan d. (c.o.d.), and the scorekeepers, the women of tecmo who helped a lot, and the the bowling alley.

 

I arrived in madison around 4pm after picking and meeting "joeygats" for the first time in cleveland. Mort had to fly in because he had to work that friday. The 8 hours from cleveland to madison drive was grueling. A 62 mile construction zone on the i90 in illnois coupled with countless tolls and traffic in chicagy slowed us down. But we finally got to the super 8 tecmo pre-game party if you will. In hindsight i probably should tooken a nap before playing picking games but i got to meet coco., manyo., kamp., woodshed. later the 513 crew showed up. later i dropped off some equipment at the badger bowl and played some scrimmys....i got to meet and play ashman. Then i picked up mort from the airport around 10 central...the tecmo celeb had enough time to do a lil appearnce. We went back and played more scrimmys at manyo's room with kamp, coco, odell, toolie, woodshed, and others. The only game i remember was me vs toolie....trailing 9-0 pit vs phx....i rallied to 7-9 and get in range for the game winner f.g. but i screwed and pulled a chris webber up cuz i thought i had a timeout left...and i could not get the kick off in time. I decided to go bed at this point and call it a night.

 

Sat tournanment notes

1. It was great meet some online tecmoers for the first time to meet hankthetank, sconnie,  basementnemesis, gridiron, bruddog, manyo, kamp, coco, gats, ashman prob others im leaving out. It was good to see knobbee again...you played great man. Other console tecmoers i got to  meet for 1st time like ryan k. (hoggiard from nyc).(did heyward bust any big kickoff returns and get the over 1.5 hehhheee???)

2. I spent about a good 6 hours in prep. about what matchups to call and all day everytime i lost the coin toss in every game lol

3. David Murray Streaming games took things to a new level...loved having a score ticker man

4. the costume contest was good....I thought the tecmo ninja got robbbed ...the tecmo gods went with the bunny in the end. Joey browner got 3rd.

5. Congrats to Reg for winning... man on a mission...now i get to say ive beaten two former madison championship winners in console tecmo tournament games

6. I can still taste the spotted cow two days later

7. So bummed that Pete "Cuban Tecmo" couldn't make it due to being sick.

8. Tony's #eatshitorenga crew was just as pumped as ever

9. 513 tecmoers played excellent tecmo...keep it up

10. chet's safety hack just killed skunkers momentum in the elite 8 game...congrats to both of you in your runs

11. Jimmy B. takes a year off and goes to the elite 8 again with strength of right and a ...nice job man

12. I spilt a couple of games vs coco...and wished i pick him in my bracket after he got the elite 8.

13. Odell great run man....perhaps staying up 2:30 was the right call after all!!!!

14. man did Chet call it right...when tailback king put the jink on kamp....sorry about the bad breaks in your first madison game kamp...shake it off man. gl (dont let callmefair win is what i mean) to you and manyo in pnc tourney)

15. Is it safe to call the flo suicide watch off yet man? Ty flo for the shirts man. One day you'll conjure up the magic you had in the ryder cup II

16. how about all 4 back and b-burkhardts all making it out of group play

17...Sorry mort about the bad-break in round of 64 loss (den over dallas)...that partuclar matchup....2 years ago in madison opening round i coughed the ball up twice just like you did..and was down 0-14 just like that. I'll never call that matchup ever again. bad vibes

18. Hey Ryan K. of nyc did anyone making any bets for your props?

19. Will the madison tecmo brain-trust consider doing a big pre-seeded double-elimination tournament next year???

20... Its not the mecca of tecmo but lets keep the tecmo magic going....sign for upcoming tournaments in buffalo ny at http://www.northeasttecmo.com or check out the 513 midwest tournanment page at http://mwtecmo.com/ or the message boards on tecmobowl.org

21. I took off of work today so i could write my recap so enjoy and #longlivetecmo

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My games Pool Play were tough but I went 3-0 and won my group. I won 1st game handly 35-7 minn over dallas vs ryan t., 2nd game i won game winning fg as time expired 17-14 was over den vs david b. (fulchers love child)...3rd...14-10 w no over atl vs ryan k. (hoigard)

Round of 64 28-14 win nyg over oak ...over ???

round 32      14-3 win dallas over pitt ...over???

round of 16---17-21 loss oak over chi vs vogtcd...I score after some nice runs but neal coughs it up but luckliy i recovered for a fumble-rooskie td....he ties it....i kick fg before half...he gets ball we trade td's in 2nd half...im up 17-14...he scores 1 more td in the 4th,...and the ball with 2mins and change or so but i came up a lil short. I took too much time on the last  drive.  gg man

 

I think i played by best two games of the day  when the "rikster" challenged me to two cash games afterwards..if i would just hanged on to that lead or came back vs chris i knew i would made a run in the elite 8. but oh well...i'd had lots of fun..hopefully ill get better and win the upcoming buffalo and midwest tournaments.

Edited March 10, 2014 by red98sethuthut

[SlaughterHouse]

John F here or the guy from South Carolina or now otherwise known as the long lost Freeman Brother.

 

Josh and Chet, thanks to you and all the people who put in the tremendous amount of work to put together the tourney which gets better each year.

 

For the first time I went to the Friday practice round and that was a lot of fun, will do that again.

 

Ashman, Trevor, the Freeman's, great meeting you guys and getting some games in, look forward to doing it next year.

 

Always good seeing some of the guys I played in the past, Lee, Justin G, Troy H.

 

Group 29 was fun, a lot of good guys, I hope to see next time.

 

Still did not get out of the round of 64.

 

maybe next year!

[averagetsbplayer]

Tony was that you recording our group.

Nope, it was Mort

[Coconuts]

Was an excellent tournament! Once again, big thanks to the whole Madison crew - Chet, Josh, Tony, Bailey, all the women of Tecmo, Dan D, the guys helping out with the scores, and everyone else who helped, awesome, just awesome! 

[rmm1976]

Sounds like fun, I would like to fly up from FL someday for one of these.  Are there any thoughts on making it a 2-day event?

 

Anyone have pictures of the "women of tecmo"?  Sounds like there needs to be more than 11 of them.  Maybe cater in some Tilted Kilt or something in the future lol...

[Neerrm]

I had a blast in the tournament. It was wild to see the sheer amount of people there and the amount of interest in a game that's almost older than I am. Was really great to meet bruddog, dave, manyo, and many, many others throughout the course of the day. The amount of organization and everything that keeps the game going is astounding and Chet, Josh, and the entire crew have the ship running smoothly. Props!

Gameplay wise, I actually did pretty badly. The first two games of my bracket were relatively easy (no offense to the two guys I played!), I won with MIN over WAS 28-7 and PHI over PIT (!) 24-0. I then met manyo in a battle for the group win, and I ended up losing that one 10-14. O'brien through a pick to a diving Lonnie Young (or was it McDonald?) in the endzone with about a minute to play. I had the game in my hands, even had an open receiver I could've hit to extend the drive, but made a bad decision and manyo made a great play on the ball. That was a frustrating loss, and a great game played by manyo who earned every bit of that win.

After witnessing the debatable lurch to end the game that led up to my next one (by tournament rule, it was a lurch, and it'd be debatable anywhere), the next game was the only one I got to call all night, Cle/GB which I won 35-7 I think with the Packers. So I survived the group of 8.

My first match in the Round of 64 was against skunker, and he called MIA/SD. In hindsight I should've taken the run heavy team in SD (I did outtap him), but for whatever reason I went with Marino and the Dolphins. He dinked and doinked with Tolliver and had solid Butts play, and I faltered in the red zone not once, not twice, but three times, and skunker cruised to a 24-3 win. He outplayed me for sure, as those red zone stops completely demoralized me. I even had an RB in excellent and still couldn't get anything going. No excuses, outplayed again.

So the two games I realistically could have lost, I did. From a gameplay perspective, disappointing. But, I jumped on the mic after that, and everyone heard me and ryan11p and Kevin broadcasting up a storm up on Dave's stream (hope those watching enjoyed it!). I helped Dave set up in the beginning and get things rolling, and he had a pretty wicked setup, complete with some pretty ingenious methods of getting things updated. Had a blast overall and met a bunch of people, got to talk a lot with bruddog, and all in all had a good time. Can't complain one bit.

[Chris R./Big Poppa Poops]

Like everyone else I would like to thank the Madison crew.  This was my 1st major tourney and had a complete blast even though going 1-2.  I expected to go 0-2 so I have to say the 1 win made this a successful weekend.  Being a complete noob to this whole scene it was really cool to meet everyone I got to talk to and learned a lot from watching everyone(But probably forgot most of it b/c all of the drinking though).  Thanks to Mort, Louis, and Gats for the ride from the hotel its really cool to help out a couple of guys who you didn't know.  That was just the beginning of the friendliness that I experienced the entire day.  The best players in the world and not a single ounce of ego on anyone I talked to. I look forward to making return trips back to Madison and think I might start trying to pick up some games online in the near future b/c I badly need to practice.

[SirTed]

Can't say I know you, Kweh - but I thought your commentary, specifically your analysis was excellent. You all asked  great questions of one another, raised interesting points during the game play, just did a great job. Good work.

[red98sethuthut]

Like everyone else I would like to thank the Madison crew.  This was my 1st major tourney and had a complete blast even though going 1-2.  I expected to go 0-2 so I have to say the 1 win made this a successful weekend.  Being a complete noob to this whole scene it was really cool to meet everyone I got to talk to and learned a lot from watching everyone(But probably forgot most of it b/c all of the drinking though).  Thanks to Mort, Louis, and Gats for the ride from the hotel its really cool to help out a couple of guys who you didn't know.  That was just the beginning of the friendliness that I experienced the entire day.  The best players in the world and not a single ounce of ego on anyone I talked to. I look forward to making return trips back to Madison and think I might start trying to pick up some games online in the near future b/c I badly need to practice.

Nice man...I saw you and your 6 or 7 buddies trying to get in this small cab. i was like that isn't going to work... so I figured you might need a ride....a big plus for the guy with the bills shirt on....i was like yep i bet these guys are going to playing in the tournament today. glad to help

[Chris R./Big Poppa Poops]

Nice man...I saw you and your 6 or 7 buddies trying to get in this small cab. i was like that isn't going to work... so I figured you might need a ride....a big plus for the guy with the bills shirt on....i was like yep i bet these guys are going to playing in the tournament today. glad to help

Who would have thought that being a Bills fan would pay off for anyone. Haha j/k

[sonofpatbeach]

Who would have thought that being a Bills fan would pay off for anyone. Haha j/k

 

Easy now, take it easy on us Bills fans!

 

 

Sounds like fun, I would like to fly up from FL someday for one of these.  Are there any thoughts on making it a 2-day event?

 

Anyone have pictures of the "women of tecmo"?  Sounds like there needs to be more than 11 of them.  Maybe cater in some Tilted Kilt or something in the future lol...

 

We've taken a look at the logistics of a 2-day event in the past, and they were very daunting. And opinions varied from tourney players: some favored the idea, while others liked getting it done in one day. Now that we have our early bird registration at Badger Bowl on Friday night (with more than 100 people taking advantage this year), it really has turned into a 2-day event for many.

 

We're hoping to load pictures to the site later this week, some of which will include the women of Tecmo.

Edited March 10, 2014 by sonofpatbeach

[tecmo_ninja]

Tecmo X... wow. I won't go into all the good things that everyone else hit on. Every time I saw Chet and Josh running around all I could do was thank them and offer my help if they needed anything... Here is some of my experiences I would like to share:

 

Laughter: So many tears shed this weekend over this. I drove from Cleveland to Columbus to complete the J.V Ohio Team (it wasn't said aloud but I presume that Team Vogt would be the Varsity Ohio Team). I started off the day being 2 hours late and was the butt of all jokes for timing this weekend. I drove around on the wrong street for like 15 minutes constantly calling Diaz to confirm the address. During 1 call I couldn't figure out how to turn off mp3 player on my phone and couldn't even hear him. Every conversation between Ryan Stewart and I turned into a heated argument all weekend leaving Diaz and Kevin C. entertained. I asked if Curt Warner on the Rams was the Beast from Seattle in mid 80's with the crazy rookie season at the time. Ryan begins to tell me about Chris Warren and being the all time rusher on the team... etc. etc. So many times google was the deciding factor for ending the arguments. "Who owns who in Tecmo?" Got intense... then had to log onto tecmoplayers.com.. than had to research league games..... all friendly advice for each of us falling on deaf ears with each of us telling the other person their strategy is all wrong.

Hank... I gave you the nickname Hank "the Tank" and man you lived up to it. I am putting a motion in to have you change it to Hank "got Tanked" or maybe Hank "is Tanked".... anyway, you're a cool dude and I had a good time hanging out and shooting the breeze after the tourney. You have added a new word to the common vernacular that is Tecmo:

Hanked: adj. To be drunk. ie. I am so hanked right now.  v. the action of wanting to be drunk or party  ie. Let's go get Hanked! 

Hank, I hope you take this with a grain of salt and find it as awesome as we found you to be

 

Diaz: Such a cool solid guy that I enjoyed spending the entire weekend with. Such a gentle Giant. Messed up the whole mystique of Team JV Ohio by getting to the Sweet 16. Couldn't have happened to a better guy. By Ryan making the big bracket and Kevin the previous year.. I guess that actually only puts me into the JV team going forward. 

 

Kevin: Playing 10 games on the ride home was so cool and I enjoyed it alot. I had just as much fun running around and cheering for my friends with you than I did playing! 

 

I met so many cool guys and can't make shout outs to all. I do have regrets being aloof for 1/2 the day trying to focus more to win than hang out. MAGNUS... I felt bad I didn't say more to you when I had the chance... you caught me at a weird time when I was enthralled in whatever just happened to me in that game. Ginge Man: didn't get a chance to see you  

 

Chet: I looked at a bunch of guys controllers because it always fascinates me how fast tappers hold their controllers. You definitely have the most unique way of holding your controller that I've ever seen. 

 

Fun part: The weird expectations vs. real life people:

VikingMoe: I had a great laugh with Eric over the fact that he was the exact opposite of someone who would go by Viking. Great guy and would've loved to have had a rubber match of our split games 1-1 for fun. 

 

Moulds: Not being a black man.. I was there for that conversation and for whatever reason it was fitting. We probably only played 1-2x over the years but was funny none the less.

 

Segathon: He is a 2 sport athlete (NES and Sega) had a good time talking about that and how 5 minutes later we all forgot everyone's real names and just was using everyone's "tecmo handle"

 

Bon Tempo: (I hope I spelled it right) I don't know anything about him other than a past champion... But I looked at him and envisioned if Chuck Norris was younger and played Tecmo.. that's what he would look like. 

 

Coconuts: again we've only played like once.. but based on all your profile pictures being of WWF stars I envisioned someone of larger stature... but I guess all the muscles you have are where they count (thumb and forefinger)

 

Ninja: I was balling in my Tecmo Ninja costume. I felt like a lock for contest winner. I adorned a ninja mask,  Tecmo red headband, ninja rope with hook, all black clothing of course with a nes controller shirt. i had a lightsaber flashlight, pouch full of paper ninja stars and paper footballs. then out comes the Tecmo Bunny for the contest.. his 15 minutes of fame was well deserved and i couldn't compete with him. only thing i felt cheated on was that i wore mine all day and night.. whereas, he did for literally 15 minutes. i'm not even sure dude was a contestant in tourney.. all i could say rest of the day was "fuck that tecmo bunny" 

 

So many other crazy times.... A quick recap of my personal games:

 

I won my first game easily. The 2nd game I lost to Todd (immortl) who was a very cool guy that I enjoyed time with alot in group 30 (minus the 20 minutes I played him of course) The biggest disappointment of my weekend. I called my new favorite trap matchup of Buffalo vs. K.C and he chose Buffalo of course which I wanted him too. We had a very good defensive battle. Okoye coughed up 2 fumbles (1 being a punt return that he ran in for TD). I felt like I should've won that game and would love to play that one again. I lost a total of 3 fumbles returned for TDs this weekend. (2 on PR and 1 on KR) my foolish pride was cause of 2 of them not going out of bounds and trying to grind out a few extra yards. The 3rd being PR not fast enough to get to the sidelines before coughing it up. I lost in the loser bracket final to Ashman. It was a drubbing and one sided by halftime.. (see PR fumble TD) and then a last second 80 yard bomb to end half 21-7. Johnny Johnson goes into BAD second half and stays there.. playing catchup with PHX passing game... you get the picture.

 

Overall I went 3-2 on game day. I was 4-3 in practice games Friday night. I was in every contest and lost within 7 pts on all of them minus the PHX debacle... I played really well and beat some really good players. Winning over 1/2 my games in a weekend full of all stars I say is a win in my book. I made some really great guys and these friendships have endured a long time with this weekend solidifying them. 

 

i couldn't play one more game after i was eliminated... later that night i couldn't even pick up a controller. I never felt so rejuvenated as I did on Sunday morning ready to rethink my game and take with me what I've learned. Sorry if this is long winded.. but be thankful you didn't spend 10 hours in the car with me lol than you would see how long winded i can be!

[OL' Dirty Tecmo]

I hope Travis' headstone reads. 

 

MOULDS

"Not a Black Man."

Edited March 10, 2014 by diazzhole

[moulds33]

Easy now, take it easy on us Bills fans!

Speaking of, if anyone sees an XL Moulds jersey somewhere in downtown Madison let me know.  It smells like cheese curds, rum, and broken dreams.  I don't even have a hilarious drunk story to tell, it just fell out of my damn pocket.  I was either too worried about the gigantic slice of pizza I was ready to inhale or whether or not that girl passed out in the booth was really a dead hooker.  (I'm still leaning towards yes)

 

I echo all the sentiments of everyone else, if you play Tecmo you have to come to Madison at least once just to experience it.

 

A few quick things:

 

BAD

- 400 lb Bertha sitting next to me on my 1st flight in a tiny regional jet

- Losing my Moulds jersey

- Losing my first game of the tourney (Toon was wearing cement shoes, not 1 JJ attempt!)

- Getting fries when I ordered cheese curds

- Not getting to talk to everyone as much I wanted too

- Not picking MIA in the loser's bracket final, when they are probably my best team.

 

GOOD/FUNNY/GREAT

- When Knobbe realized the Tecmo Ninja, was actually...wait for it....THE TECMO NINJA!!!

- VikingMoe thinking I was a black dude.  I'm still laughing about this!

- Getting "The Book of Tecmo" autographed by Butt Douglas

- Watching some great games and meeting so many new online guys

- Mort falling asleep in the front row during the championship game

- Louis "falling asleep" in the bar about 6 hours later

- Dave giving me the best hug I've had in over a decade when he left

- Manyo letting Orenga have the rams after my only advice to him about Orenga was, "just don't give him the rams"

- Going to breakfast at Bennett's for "porn in the morn", maybe the weirdest thing ever...I blame my opening game loss on this.

- The late-night Plaza crew guys, you know who you are for being awesome and destroying my liver.

- Joel & Beth for letting me crash at their place, super friendly and awesome people.

- Simms going into excellent for O'Dell helping him beat a great player in Jeff B, pretty soundly.

- Watching the N Dakota guys play super spike vb and little league world series from across the bar.

[moulds33]

 

Bon Tempo: (I hope I spelled it right) I don't know anything about him other than a past champion... But I looked at him and envisioned if Chuck Norris was younger and played Tecmo.. that's what he would look like. 

 

THIS

[T.Mann]

Who would have thought that being a Bills fan would pay oit got mef for anyone. Haha j/k

ha ha. I knew being a bills fan would pay off one day! Even though it wasn't in the form of a super bowl victory, It got me a free ride to Madison with some of the best tecmo players out there. Thanks again guys for the ride and maybe one of these days I'll hit you up for some tecmo when I head that way for another bills game.

[kamphuna8]

 

Ninja: I was balling in my Tecmo Ninja costume. I felt like a lock for contest winner. I adorned a ninja mask,  Tecmo red headband, ninja rope with hook, all black clothing of course with a nes controller shirt. i had a lightsaber flashlight, pouch full of paper ninja stars and paper footballs. then out comes the Tecmo Bunny for the contest.. his 15 minutes of fame was well deserved and i couldn't compete with him. only thing i felt cheated on was that i wore mine all day and night.. whereas, he did for literally 15 minutes. i'm not even sure dude was a contestant in tourney.. all i could say rest of the day was "fuck that tecmo bunny" 

OMG so priceless. The tecmobunny was freaking awesome. Ninja, you're getup was freaking awesome. And you did sport it all day, that should get you some reward. And did Knobbe really "realize" that you dressed as the tecmo ninja were actually thetecmoninja? LOL at that.

 

Anyway, all's you can say about the costume contest was you got #lewised. Who knew the tecmo bunny was all about the USFL

[hoigaard]

Not much I can add to all the lauds, so I'll just agree and say that once again this was a blast and it's so much fun adding more and more names that I meet each year (like Knobbe said earlier, there are so many guys at this thing it's impossible to talk to everyone in one day). The Madison crew puts on the premier event in Tecmo. Companies should hire them out to put on events for other industries across the country ("Madison Tecmo Presents: The World Rubiks Cube Championships, Live from Richmond, VA!"... and it'd be an outstanding event just because the Madison Tecmo crew set it up).

 

One thing I considered not bringing up because I worry people would read it as raising a stink, but ultimately I wanted to mention this: I definitely noticed a tonal shift in Tecmo X vs the previous 9. Specifically, it seemed to focus a bit on the younger contingent of entrants and/or how people handled losses. A couple of us talked about this throughout the day. It's not like any guys were raging mad or people on the brink of fights, nothing like that at all. But there just seemed to be more of a bitter and angry edge this year throughout the tourney and excuses for losses being thrown about. I do think (again, nobody specific, just a general vibe/observation and I'm sure many of you noticed specific instances of your own) some people showed up genuinely thinking if they didn't make the Elite 8, there was no possible way it was their own fault (and in some of the write-ups, there is evidence of this).

 

The thing I stress to people every year who are new to the tourney or ask me about it when I've told them I've played is that unless your name is Regulator or Chet, it is not your birthright to make the Elite 8 or have any deep run. As many have pointed out so far, the gap between #3 and, say, 100 so noticeably closer than it was even a year ago. This tournament and game is incredibly unforgiving and you just have to roll with those punches.

 

Again, I can't quite put my finger on it, but the competitive edge/attitude just seemed to be ramped up this year. I don't know how I feel about that if it continues to trend in that direction. Hopefully now that more people are breaking their Madison hymen and make repeat trips and grow older we'll trend back to what Regulator has in his signature (paraphrased), "Shake hands, say GG, harmony in Tecmo." 

[Tecmo Psycho]

Blog Recap

[Deleted Account]

I guess I will post a recap of my weekend.  I had a great time and really despite the surprising early out I am not too disappointed.  I'm more sick of how many times I had to explain what happened.  This is the last time

Dal vs den I called it and he choose Den.

On my first pass attempt I would fumble on a guessed play.  That fumble was ran in by the defense for a TD.

After that I got up 14 to 10 at halftime and he threw an interception at the 50 with two seconds to go.  Yet the field goal would fall short.  I thought it was perfectly lined up and my conclusion was Dal's kicker was in bad,

We exchanged scores in the third and I really had little contain on the run 4 offset up the middle.  No matter how I tried to defend it I was isolated against his blocker.  Then on his last drive I guessed that run a bit too much.  I was gambling on containing his pass for the last 2 mins.  But I got myself caught in no man's land around the 50 against the pass 4 redgun shotgun.  He got it to Humphries and I was out of position.  I auto dived and he ran it in for a td with 40 seconds.

Then on my last pass I had both Irvin and Novacek open deep.  One on one with his defender.  I caught it on the dive around the 20 yard line but I was brought down.  I'm sure I was out tapping him so I suspect that was one of those passes they will not let you tap out off.

To be honest I am not even the least bit upset by the loss.  I did everything I could do to win the game.  If just one play turns out differently I would have won or gone to overtime.  You can't win them all.  I suspect in the future the parity at Madison and other events will increase.  The cat is out of the bag and I have more than my fair share of involvement on letting the cat out.  I'd rather have it this way.  More fun.

I had a lot of fun that night and my only regrets was that I forgot about daylights savings time and that I did not have a day to take off work.  Missing most of the tecmo friday was a mistake that will not happen again.  For now I plan to win the next two major tournaments on my schedule so all is good.  Those would be #BuffaloBountyII and the #MidwestVII

[OL' Dirty Tecmo]

Great read TP!!!

[joeygats]

Blog Recap

awesome man!

[DFM]

Tecmo X: The Gannonball Run

 

My excitement for Tecmo X started near 6 months ago. I've been watching a lot of Twitch live event broadcasts and set out to recreate a Cristal stream on a PBR budget.

 

After many threads on T-Borg, emails conversations with Chet & Josh and phone calls with the Badger Bowl IT crew, we had a plan in place. I built a PC with a PCI-e capture card so I could use a miniITX board and case. I brought SM58 mics, a mixer and 1/4" splitters to have audio in its own channel. Here we go!

 

Bruddog and I got in Thursday evening. I get to the hotel dying to get out of my shorts because Wisconsin is cold as crap. I rip open my bag and.... no clothes. Now, what in the eff? I rip through my stream bags to still find zero clothes. I call home and my wife answers the phone by saying, "I am so sorry." I already know. She took  my clothes out to de-wrinkle them in our new dryer, which is awesome if you PUT THEM BACK IN MY BAG. Anyways, she rules. I ain't even mad. We decide to head downtown to grab some food and end up at the Natt Spil which is a low-lit, take your hot date there, trendy joint. We had some delicious pork sandwiches and high-tailed out of there. Brudizzle met up with Manyo to get some practice games in, while I was calling it a night because my throat wasn't feeling right.

 

Friday! I wake up and, yea, no voice. I sounded like a 60 year smoker. Such is life. I am rocking Bruddog's 6'5" man jeans and he, Manyo, and I seek out some delicious breakfast. We find a nice looking hipster joint near the square. Bruddog orders a massive stack of french toast covered in jam of sorts and a quite large chocolate mocha. He had to have been on a sugar high. Manyo and I get a super greasy egg sandwich which was pretty dang good. Coconuts scoops up Manyo and they part ways. It can be assumed they green house the Toyota the entire trip back. Total guess though. We meet up with them after our Target run for jeans that fit and meds. We get some practice games in and head to the Carbon4 brewery with Knobbe and his bud Joel. I am the only man to order an entire pint of something while these other three Marys order flights of a million various beers. They then pretend to be beer connoisseurs and were dropping literary descriptions such as: "This beer is bad." "The porter is bad." Someone call The Badger Herald because we found some new talent.

 

It's work time! While at the brewery, I get a SOS text from Chet so we pack up and hit the Badger Bowl. Upon arrival at 3PM we find out that Orenga pushed back his arrival time until 8PM. I cannot test my stream until he brings the monitor I have to use. Seriously, eat shit Orenga. What do we do with 5 hours to kill? Drink Spotted Cow. We played some practice games, had beers and just had a great time. Bruddog was crushing fools and getting super pumped for the following day. We ended up hooking up with Kweh, LodgeFather and Butt Douglas. We hung for a bit and called it a night. No stream testing happened. We decide to wing it.

 

Saturday is go time. My voice? It is gone. Kweh, Bruddog and I get to the venue at 8AM. I know what you are wondering at this point, "Did the Badger Bowl actually upgrade their internet as promised?" LOL, nope. Kweh is the man. He helps me set everything up while I am running around trying to get my stuff sorted with the venue. We ended up setting up the rig on stage. This is important to know because our view (and subsequently the camera view) was freaking AWESOME. The crowds start pouring in. The main room is packed with people. I counted way more than 11 women. Let's be honest here. (RMM, you should come next year.) 

 

The games are going great. This year was much more fluid than any other year I remember. Turning in the scoresheets per game is a great idea. (Thumbs up Madison crew) Watching the Orenga posse was awesome. I hope his opponents take it in stride because it is a staple in the experience. The big names start dropping off like flies - Kamp, Gats, Moulds, Mort, Kweh, Bgboud. The competition has become more fierce which is awesome. The round of 16 ends up being pretty stacked, the games become closer and the overall tension rises again. Thankfully Kweh and Ryan11p picked up the stream slack so I was able to wander a bit prior to the elite 8. I witnessed Little League World Series in a heated battle from the ND crew. They captivated 20% of the crowd during their epic war of the other great NES sports title. (Suck it, RBI.)

 

The elite 8 rolls around and Regulator is on a mission. I don't think anyone stood a chance. The loser's final of MattyV vs Chet was epic. Wow, what a game. The crowd was super pumped and the emotions were high. This game sucked the life out of them. The three-peat final of Chet vs Regulator was surprisingly silent. Regulator handled his business, but the crowd was too tired and drunk to really get into it. Kweh, Ryan11p & Kevin C did a fantastic job with the play by play. I hope they all return to do it again next year.

 

The player's party brought out some of the old and a lot of the new. Leonardite buying shots. Louis being hammered out of his mind. At one point I shared a urinal visit with Louis. He turns to me and says, "Dave Murray! Happaity Dappiry durpalerp *hiccup* zippitay boppaa!! Hahahahaha!" I legitimately have zero idea what he was trying to say, but he passionately yelled it at me. Beefjuice is hilarious. If you did not spend time with him I feel sorry for you son. Josh & Chet let loose and we were able to shoot the breeze with Josh about a lot of things not Tecmo which was refreshing. I got to hang with the Godfather. I was able to witness fanboys flip out when they met "Bruddog." Diaz is a massive man. Moulds likes high school girls. It was an awesome night.  

 

After shots with Leonardite, I forgot about the time change. I woke up an hour late and had to get on a flight in 90 minutes.... in Milwaukee. Gannonball Run 2 happens. I get to Milwaukee airport in 57 minutes. (Sorry Interstate 94.) I was the guy running in the terminal tripping on his laptop yelling, "WAAAAIITTTTTTTTT!!!" I ended up making the flight. My bags did not. I get them tonight hopefully.

 

I have to say Gats is a trip. That dudes LOVES Tecmo. I hope everyone got to meet him. I was bummed we weren't able to get him on stream. There are just so many games happening. Picking and choosing random games to be played on a specific station was just not in the cards. You never mess with a well-oiled machine and I am thankful for the games we got. Maybe we bring two setups next year to flip between matchups? *GASP*

 

Overall, this year is going to really hard to top for me. Tecmo XI is going to be insane. 292 sounds like the magical number to me. I hope they can find the time to throw the greatest video game bash there ever was for an eleventh time.

 

A sincere thank you to all that make this possible. It is a spectacle and is so well run. Congrats, Kyle! The Millers are great people. Their height disparity is hilarious.

 

Final stat: The stream disconnected 31 times. THIRTY-ONE! This more than triples the amount of disconnects from last year. I have a love/hate relationship with the Badger Bowl at this point.

 

One more thing: Where were all the chat trolls? MrTSB? chekreyes? TSBgod? The only thing we got was bradbears complaining about something free not being perfect. I am le disappoint.

[OL' Dirty Tecmo]

Dave. You sir are the greatest [insert anything] I've ever [insert anything]. FUCKING SERIOUSLY!

zippitybeebopglurpglurp

#davehugs