I have gotten a bunch of questions and just wanted to tell people what the deal is.
For months Mark and I have been talking about what we wanted to do going forward with TAR. 2013 was a rough year. The studio lease is up in July and we needed to decide what we both wanted to do. After many conversations today it was decided to wrap it up but no firm plans on exactly how it was going to be done. Just that it was over. Mark has put a good amount of money into TAR and I have sank the last seven years of my life into it. Neither of us like to give up but I believe its the right decision for both of us.
A lot of thoughts and emotions were going through me and I knew it was the right answer but I hate to give up. As I was thinking about all of this I was looking at the TAR 39 banner and thought "How can you ever do better than this match?" Then I started thinking about Chad and what he would of thought. He would of said "Thats how we do it."
Whenever I make decisions I try to think of things in the past I have experienced, read about or heard about that are relevant to the situation and try to take lessons from those. What popped into my head was The Band and their last concert which was filmed by Martin Scorsese and titled "The Last Waltz". They decided to go out with a fantastic last performance. Proud of what they had done and ending it on their terms.
I thought to myself "This is the best possible match we could have. How do you not end with this one even if there is a few months to cobble something else together that may or may not make a few bucks?" So I made my personal decision that this is the last TAR match for me. I am the type of person that is either on or off. You either do something or you don't. So if we are ending this thing lets end it the right way. Thats why TAR 39 is the end of the run.
Efren and Shane are what Chad and I wanted TAR to be about from the beginning. The best going heads up. In the beginning it was in action. As things progressed it morphed into something more structured and better on the players but the core of it was the same. Two champions. One winner. Billy Incardona once said "I feel lucky to have been here when Efren was here to see him play." I feel that way about both Efren and Shane so thats why to me this is the only way to end TAR's run.
TAR is not going disappear on Monday. I have some commitments over the next few months and I will honor them. One is the US Bar Table Championships in Reno. I will be there with Andy Chen and Tim Wampler like last year to cover the events for CSI. Some decisions will be made about different things and I plan for the TAR archives to be around for people to see what we did but TAR 39 is the last one on one match I plan on ever doing under a TAR banner because it simply doesnt get any better. If you are going to go out then you should go out in style.
Thank you to everyone who has supported TAR through the years. Without all of you none of the great matches and moments we were able to capture would have happened. I can't begin to list everyone as it would take pages. Just know that I deeply appreciate the fact you have allowed me to do things and live a life that has been great for the last seven years. I hope everyone who can will join us this weekend for the last one.
For months Mark and I have been talking about what we wanted to do going forward with TAR. 2013 was a rough year. The studio lease is up in July and we needed to decide what we both wanted to do. After many conversations today it was decided to wrap it up but no firm plans on exactly how it was going to be done. Just that it was over. Mark has put a good amount of money into TAR and I have sank the last seven years of my life into it. Neither of us like to give up but I believe its the right decision for both of us.
A lot of thoughts and emotions were going through me and I knew it was the right answer but I hate to give up. As I was thinking about all of this I was looking at the TAR 39 banner and thought "How can you ever do better than this match?" Then I started thinking about Chad and what he would of thought. He would of said "Thats how we do it."
Whenever I make decisions I try to think of things in the past I have experienced, read about or heard about that are relevant to the situation and try to take lessons from those. What popped into my head was The Band and their last concert which was filmed by Martin Scorsese and titled "The Last Waltz". They decided to go out with a fantastic last performance. Proud of what they had done and ending it on their terms.
I thought to myself "This is the best possible match we could have. How do you not end with this one even if there is a few months to cobble something else together that may or may not make a few bucks?" So I made my personal decision that this is the last TAR match for me. I am the type of person that is either on or off. You either do something or you don't. So if we are ending this thing lets end it the right way. Thats why TAR 39 is the end of the run.
Efren and Shane are what Chad and I wanted TAR to be about from the beginning. The best going heads up. In the beginning it was in action. As things progressed it morphed into something more structured and better on the players but the core of it was the same. Two champions. One winner. Billy Incardona once said "I feel lucky to have been here when Efren was here to see him play." I feel that way about both Efren and Shane so thats why to me this is the only way to end TAR's run.
TAR is not going disappear on Monday. I have some commitments over the next few months and I will honor them. One is the US Bar Table Championships in Reno. I will be there with Andy Chen and Tim Wampler like last year to cover the events for CSI. Some decisions will be made about different things and I plan for the TAR archives to be around for people to see what we did but TAR 39 is the last one on one match I plan on ever doing under a TAR banner because it simply doesnt get any better. If you are going to go out then you should go out in style.
Thank you to everyone who has supported TAR through the years. Without all of you none of the great matches and moments we were able to capture would have happened. I can't begin to list everyone as it would take pages. Just know that I deeply appreciate the fact you have allowed me to do things and live a life that has been great for the last seven years. I hope everyone who can will join us this weekend for the last one.
