Action Challenge I..."I was there!"

bob_bushka

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I was there! What a display of pure pool talent and power! Seeing this live, in person, and seeing pool history in the making, I'll treasure forever. Some observations with my forty some years of playing...Shane will be the Tiger Woods of billiards. 24 years old, doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, looks professional, acts professional...His break sounded like a M-80 going off in a garbage can. Race to a 100...who can beat him? Tighten up the table? Wrong idea, make it looser and someone might actually stand a chance. Who wants to put up the 10K? He might soon be investing in land aqcuisitions on a certain island chain in the Pacific. Remember this was a brand new Diamond Pro they played on and wham. I helped level the Diamond Pro. No ball was hit on the table until both Shane and Corey were both there, out of respect to them and the event to be held the next day. It was great to watch and many kudos to Corey as he did get a few more bad rolls, played and acted very professional and is a fine upstanding young man. Corey stayed and signed every autograph afterwards and shook everyones hand. As did Shane. What a class act by both players! The crowd obviously wanted SVB to win but not so much as to ever be rude. Corey was well applauded on his wins and great shots also. The crowd was simply engossed to what was going on and treated to a fabulous event. 2 consecutive days and 16 hours of pool with 2 of the worlds finest players, head to head with nowhere to go, until someone gets to 100! Final score...Shane 100, Corey 70. Someone kept stats and I'm sure they will be posted. On the downside, since I was watching live I could not hear the commentary by Grady Mathews and Bill Incardona from the sound booth. There will be a DVD released on this thru theactionreport.com and I am sure to get one just for this aspect alone. All Grady "The Professor" Mathews could do was shake his head in amazement as Shane basically locked up the match near the end of day one by winning like 14 straight games. I heard more than one comment from well respected pool affiocianados that with this format, "No one in the world can beat this kid." Sure, everyone has heard of the Manila, Phillipines and its impact on pool. But this kid, The South Dakota Kid, Shane Van Boening, just vaulted Sioux Falls, South Dakota to the world center of professional billiards, if not for a brief moment, but possibly forever. What can I say about theactionreport.com...all they did was take an idea, a couple young progressive players and make pool history happen. Who is Kevin Trudeau? Congrats to Justin and Chad. Looking back upon this event I can say I was very lucky to be there and sit on the edge of my seat, watching the huge break of Shane, the sweetness of Corey's stroke, the ingenuity of their safeties and pattern play and how flawless each of these players played. No jump cues...what a breath of fresh air, nothing like dancing with the gal that got you there. Ah, what the heck, just another day in my life. Yeah right.
 
Easy Bob... take a breath... just slowly back away from the computer... that's it.... eeeeaasssyy Bob. :D

Gotta admit that was probably, as far as I can remember, the most impressive display of pool shooting I've ever seen. To play that well for that long without hot and cold streaks, just game after game of almost perfect pool, was really something to see.

Congrats to the SD Kid.

As for the Action Report. I sure hope they can make some money and keep this up. That was fun.

Eeeeeesay Bob. Take a breath, drink your coffee, have a smoke. :D
 
I'll second the kudos to theactionreport.com. Their live feed was unbelievable. I really hope they keep it up. With a good flat screen monitor it was just about as good as watching it on a tv. Unfortunately, my job requires complete audio attention so I couldnt pay much attention to the commentary, but what I did hear was great. Wish Id had the opportunity to see it in person. Nice description of your experience.
 
On the Computer?

poolnut said:
I'll second the kudos to theactionreport.com. Their live feed was unbelievable. I really hope they keep it up. With a good flat screen monitor it was just about as good as watching it on a tv. Unfortunately, my job requires complete audio attention so I couldnt pay much attention to the commentary, but what I did hear was great. Wish Id had the opportunity to see it in person. Nice description of your experience.

You were giving the blow by blow from you computer? That's amazing. I thought you were at the match. Extra Kudos to you sir. You did an excellent job. A high five for you!!!
 
Action Challenge

Bob,

This is a great post and I wish I could have been there also. I'll have to settle for watching it on DVD when they are available and I hope the guys at Action Report will have more matches like this in the future. I've never seen Shane play, but i'm looking forward to seeing him at the US Open in October because if he handled Cory 100 to 70 he's got to be the real deal! Cory is one of my favorite players to watch and now i'll have to add Shane to my list of favorites.

James
 
I enjoyed the webcast a lot. This is an interesting venture. It would have been a lot more exciting if it were a closer race. I thought theactionreport.com folks did a terrific job. I like the 10 ball format.

The race to 100 is a little too long for my tastes. Maybe 75 would be better. Or two races to 35 and an 11 game tie breaker.

Billy and Grady were a kick as usual. I liked hearing Jimmy Wych talk in the booth too. He's pretty hardcore!

Chris
 
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Great idea! I think it would put a little more "heat" in the match also. A race to 100 is still a race to 100 and so unique it is appealing also. I realize when I watch football(except for da Bears), when a blowout is going on, I am surfing channels for a better game to watch. I'll make sure Chad and Justin get your idea or you can post it to them on theactionreport.com.
 
i like long races, A players true colors come out in them, sometimes it dosent take 100 games, but if it was close wow it would have been exciting. Watching Cory get reduced down to playing bunt pool was amazing, it take alot to knock his dick in the dirt like that. Cory is a class act and was very professional til the last autograph was signed. You wouldnt see him get beat like that in a race to 25 or 50, big races are great-unless you have 2 slow players then forget it. Archer and Varner in a race to 100 would be tourture to watch and I like Archer alot, but I couldnt watch that game. So Chris is right a race to 50 or a different format depending on who is playing is key-being flexable depending on the players are and the game.
 
I was there too...

On Sat. only. But, it was still great! Loving this game and seeing everyone on TV only is one thing, but as soon as I walked into Lucky's I saw Grady, Billy, Shane, and Corey and I was like WOW I'M ACTUALLY HERE!!! Then I saw Lil' Joe and Jimmy all close enough to touch. Very surreal. Absolutely great job TAR. I heard a rumor of your next Action Challenge (Don't PM me, I won't tell), all I can say is WATCH OUT!!!

Thanks again guys,

Dean:D
 
Awesome event - I hope this is the future of pool!!!

Bob,

I agree 100% with everything that you are saying. I know Shane well and was excited to see him play so well, but I was also very impressed with this entire event. I cannot believe the class and character that Corey showed by not getting upset or giving up and by sticking around and signing all the autographs after the event (yes we saw that online). Pool needs these sort of respectable class act players and I was really impressed with how professional both Shane and Corey acted the entire match. I am excited to hear that Shane will have another match with Earl in the future, I just really hope that Earl shows the same level of professionalism and class.

This format could really be the future of pool if events keep going this well. I thought the online was great, the quality was top notch and who could ask for more than 16 hours of pool for $20. I have purchased the US Open and other online events before, and honestly the quality of this event was MUCH better. My hat is off to JCIN, Bignasty, and also Chuck and Jason for hosting this in their pool room. I really wish I would have been there, but it was awesome to watch online as well. You can be sure that I will buy future events and I will probably still buy the DVDs since this was just an incredible pool matchup that will be remembered for many years to come!

Spencer
 
Nice to hear from you Spencer. How is the thro's of North Dakota? I just sold my 5th custom cue! I did not realize the Podcast showed the autograph session. That was neat, then. There was so much good to say about this event that I could have wrote 3 or 4 pages. Been some flap about Earl in the next match but I think it is great. Hopefully, I can help with the next event and I'll keep you in mind for a 8x10 glossy with signatures of course. I think Courtney is getting some prints made of Corey and Shane so you might want to get a hold of him. theactionreport.com will be posting some memorabilia signed by Corey and Shane also. I think there was like a dozen cue balls and a couple 10 balls. I got a cue ball and 10 ball signed courtesy of Gary at JJ's. Gary had it on his big screens both days!
 
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