I have to say that on a personal level DCC 2010 pretty much sucked. The only thing that really made it not completely horrible was seeing all of the friends and TAR supporters who are the bright spot in an otherwise stressful event.
Not sure what it was this year but as Jay Helfert mentioned earlier in one of his posts there seemed to be a tension in the air that I have never felt before at Derby. I was talking about it with Nicholas Leider of Billiards Digest and he agreed that something was different. Still can't put my finger on it but IMO it was real. Maybe its the uncertainty in the economy or maybe it was just me but people seemed to be a little more on edge this year.
For me personally I felt like I never really got out of the hole preparation wise. We did some new things this year with the PPV, a projector outside the room, bigger focus on merchandise sales and a new style PPV schedule. There always seemed to be one last minute detail after another that required action right now. As has been documented pretty well already there were some internet issues which caused everyone involved some grief. The biggest issue was running 24 hours. It fried everyone.
We had some great ideas for this year and most never even got started due to one thing or another. I feel like I missed some great opportunities.
I dont want to write a day by day thing so I will just post some of the pictures I have and relate some stories that go with them. Most of these are the best parts of the trip with the people who make it all worthwhile.
One of the best parts of the trip was starting a new tradition. With the help of Greg Sullivan and Steve Booth we started what we hope to be an ongoing tradition. It is called The Action Report Patron Award. This award is for the people who help make the biggest action matches happen. The people who are behind the scenes and often finance the the great match ups we have been fortunate enough to put together since TAR's inception.
Through out history great artists have had patrons that would commission works of art. These patrons made it possible for masterpieces to be created that otherwise would have never been seen. That is the way we feel about some of the matches we have done. Without the patrons providing the support for the players to play the matches would have never happened.
This is not just an award in name only thanks to Greg Sullivan. Thanks to him all TAR Patron Award winners will receive free hotel for life at the Derby. Steve Booth of OnePocket.org and organizer of the OnePocket Hall of Fame Dinner graciously allowed us to present the award during the dinner.
The first recipient of the Patron award is John Mars. John has been involved in more TAR matches than any other person. We are proud to call him a friend. John is the model of what the pool world needs. He is a complete gentleman at all times and win or lose is gracious and friendly. I will not detail all of his involvement but suffice it to say if you enjoyed matches like SVB vs Alex, SVB vs Bustamante, SVB vs Efren, Moore vs Bartram, Chohan vs Owen and others then you have John Mars to thank for help making them possible.
From all of us here at TAR and for pool fans everywhere I want to thank John for all he has done. Below are some photos from the award ceremony during the One Pocket Hall of Fame dinner.
John said something at the podium that cracked me up. "Most of the people here like players that bet there own money. I like the ones who don't." It got a good laugh from the crowd.
Here are some shots of the TAR room and the set up. Andy Chen and I started on Wenesday night and finished up Friday afternoon. Andy always busts his ass during set ups and he went above and beyond on this one.
Here is a shot of the room during the Bartram vs Bustamante match as well as a shot of the projector we set up outside the room so people could see what was happening. It was crazy to see people camped out watching on the stairs.
A pic of Steve Lomax putting a leather wrap on a South West I trade for. Steve's work is top shelf and he makes a hell of a cue as well.
We at TAR think so much of his work that we partnered with Steve to do a limited run of TAR branded cues and jump cues called TAR by Lomax. Here we are looking at them before the event started. I will post more on these shortly.
While Steve was working on my cue my little buddy came by to pick up his old Schon that Steve rewrapped for him. This is the one he used back when it was hard.
Not sure what it was this year but as Jay Helfert mentioned earlier in one of his posts there seemed to be a tension in the air that I have never felt before at Derby. I was talking about it with Nicholas Leider of Billiards Digest and he agreed that something was different. Still can't put my finger on it but IMO it was real. Maybe its the uncertainty in the economy or maybe it was just me but people seemed to be a little more on edge this year.
For me personally I felt like I never really got out of the hole preparation wise. We did some new things this year with the PPV, a projector outside the room, bigger focus on merchandise sales and a new style PPV schedule. There always seemed to be one last minute detail after another that required action right now. As has been documented pretty well already there were some internet issues which caused everyone involved some grief. The biggest issue was running 24 hours. It fried everyone.
We had some great ideas for this year and most never even got started due to one thing or another. I feel like I missed some great opportunities.
I dont want to write a day by day thing so I will just post some of the pictures I have and relate some stories that go with them. Most of these are the best parts of the trip with the people who make it all worthwhile.
One of the best parts of the trip was starting a new tradition. With the help of Greg Sullivan and Steve Booth we started what we hope to be an ongoing tradition. It is called The Action Report Patron Award. This award is for the people who help make the biggest action matches happen. The people who are behind the scenes and often finance the the great match ups we have been fortunate enough to put together since TAR's inception.
Through out history great artists have had patrons that would commission works of art. These patrons made it possible for masterpieces to be created that otherwise would have never been seen. That is the way we feel about some of the matches we have done. Without the patrons providing the support for the players to play the matches would have never happened.
This is not just an award in name only thanks to Greg Sullivan. Thanks to him all TAR Patron Award winners will receive free hotel for life at the Derby. Steve Booth of OnePocket.org and organizer of the OnePocket Hall of Fame Dinner graciously allowed us to present the award during the dinner.
The first recipient of the Patron award is John Mars. John has been involved in more TAR matches than any other person. We are proud to call him a friend. John is the model of what the pool world needs. He is a complete gentleman at all times and win or lose is gracious and friendly. I will not detail all of his involvement but suffice it to say if you enjoyed matches like SVB vs Alex, SVB vs Bustamante, SVB vs Efren, Moore vs Bartram, Chohan vs Owen and others then you have John Mars to thank for help making them possible.
From all of us here at TAR and for pool fans everywhere I want to thank John for all he has done. Below are some photos from the award ceremony during the One Pocket Hall of Fame dinner.
John said something at the podium that cracked me up. "Most of the people here like players that bet there own money. I like the ones who don't." It got a good laugh from the crowd.
Here are some shots of the TAR room and the set up. Andy Chen and I started on Wenesday night and finished up Friday afternoon. Andy always busts his ass during set ups and he went above and beyond on this one.
Here is a shot of the room during the Bartram vs Bustamante match as well as a shot of the projector we set up outside the room so people could see what was happening. It was crazy to see people camped out watching on the stairs.
A pic of Steve Lomax putting a leather wrap on a South West I trade for. Steve's work is top shelf and he makes a hell of a cue as well.
We at TAR think so much of his work that we partnered with Steve to do a limited run of TAR branded cues and jump cues called TAR by Lomax. Here we are looking at them before the event started. I will post more on these shortly.
While Steve was working on my cue my little buddy came by to pick up his old Schon that Steve rewrapped for him. This is the one he used back when it was hard.
