So I went with my league team to the VNEA finals in Quebec. It's a pretty nice experience, just by virtue of staying in a beautiful city in a very nice hotel. From the Hilton, you can travel to a mini underground shopping mall, and from there another escalator takes you to the playing room... a huge (think hangar-sized) conference room stuffed with wall-to-wall barboxes.
Here they hold a double elim. tournament where each 4-man team plays through to the winner's bracket or until they lose twice, at which point they can enter a hard luck tournament with the other loser..err..unlucky teams.
Well, this year we got smoked pretty bad despite having what I thought was a pretty strong team. But the Canadian teams were stronger, we faced up against teams where all 4 players could run out in both brackets (and that's just the intermediate division). On the other hand it's on barboxes, the great equalizer, so I try not to feel too bad. We proceeded to lose to a team that we'd beaten last year (and then, due to time constraints, we had forfeited so they could keep going since we had to leave anyway).
So this year's trip was not quite as wonderful as last year's but it featured two things I really enjoyed seeing. These things made it all worthwhile.
· MAX - aka Maxim(?), is a 6 year old French Canadian wonder who you will probably be reading about more in the years to come on these forums. He's only tall enough to sort of sidearm stroke the ball, but shoots with uncanny accuracy and is well versed in the rules and in safety play.
Words like "genius" or "gifted" don't really have an impact until you see it for yourself. About 30-40 people would crowd around the barbox where max took on all comers and beat typical C-players who were not holding back on him. Watching him shoot is just eerie. He takes no practice swings, he just draws back, pauses, focuses, and then strokes at a medium pace... and the ball goes in every time. Long shots, rail cuts, thin cuts, no problem. I only saw him miss a handful of balls that he was aiming to make. When he couldn't reach a shot or he saw the table was too tied up to run, he'd declare safe and play a good, sometimes great safety. I watched him break and run 6 and play safe, and I have no doubt that with an open layout he can run out, and probably already has.
What makes it especially scary is his general awareness and knowledge of all the rules, including stuff some league players forget. He knows something has to hit a rail. If there's gonna be a close hit, he calls a ref over to watch it. He makes sure to call his banks ("Cross Coin!"). All in all it's a joy to watch and I never got bored watching him drill in ball after ball. He's a born entertainer too, making various cute comments that got the crowd laughing. I don't speak enough french to understand it all but I got a kick out of it when someone would line up a tough shot, and it didn't go, and he'd yell "NOPE!". Letterman would be thrilled to have the kid on.
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· PRO FOOSBALL - In the same giant room was a section devoted to darts and another to foosball. I assumed the foosball was there to keep the shooters entertained between matches but of course I was wrong. There are pro foosball leagues and tournaments and people travel great distances to play these things. I watched guys who were as skilled in their own way as the pool players and it was jawdropping. They bring their own handles with custom-taped grips. Some of them wear gloves =)
The skill on display is something else to see. They trap the ball, control it completely, pass from row to row, and when there's a shot on the goal they zigzag the ball and pass it between the front row players rapidly, keeping it trapped under their feet and then abruptly cutting loose with goal shots that are too fast to see, much less defend against. Goal shots hit with loud PLINK and the ball sometimes rebounds hard enough to leave the table. In practice, if the ball hits the goalie on the way in, it simply flies right through and sends the goalie spinning in circles. It's awesome.
So, despite getting reamed and enduring a tough 12+ hours of car time, it was pretty fun. I'm looking forward to next year.
Here they hold a double elim. tournament where each 4-man team plays through to the winner's bracket or until they lose twice, at which point they can enter a hard luck tournament with the other loser..err..unlucky teams.
Well, this year we got smoked pretty bad despite having what I thought was a pretty strong team. But the Canadian teams were stronger, we faced up against teams where all 4 players could run out in both brackets (and that's just the intermediate division). On the other hand it's on barboxes, the great equalizer, so I try not to feel too bad. We proceeded to lose to a team that we'd beaten last year (and then, due to time constraints, we had forfeited so they could keep going since we had to leave anyway).
So this year's trip was not quite as wonderful as last year's but it featured two things I really enjoyed seeing. These things made it all worthwhile.
· MAX - aka Maxim(?), is a 6 year old French Canadian wonder who you will probably be reading about more in the years to come on these forums. He's only tall enough to sort of sidearm stroke the ball, but shoots with uncanny accuracy and is well versed in the rules and in safety play.
Words like "genius" or "gifted" don't really have an impact until you see it for yourself. About 30-40 people would crowd around the barbox where max took on all comers and beat typical C-players who were not holding back on him. Watching him shoot is just eerie. He takes no practice swings, he just draws back, pauses, focuses, and then strokes at a medium pace... and the ball goes in every time. Long shots, rail cuts, thin cuts, no problem. I only saw him miss a handful of balls that he was aiming to make. When he couldn't reach a shot or he saw the table was too tied up to run, he'd declare safe and play a good, sometimes great safety. I watched him break and run 6 and play safe, and I have no doubt that with an open layout he can run out, and probably already has.
What makes it especially scary is his general awareness and knowledge of all the rules, including stuff some league players forget. He knows something has to hit a rail. If there's gonna be a close hit, he calls a ref over to watch it. He makes sure to call his banks ("Cross Coin!"). All in all it's a joy to watch and I never got bored watching him drill in ball after ball. He's a born entertainer too, making various cute comments that got the crowd laughing. I don't speak enough french to understand it all but I got a kick out of it when someone would line up a tough shot, and it didn't go, and he'd yell "NOPE!". Letterman would be thrilled to have the kid on.
==
· PRO FOOSBALL - In the same giant room was a section devoted to darts and another to foosball. I assumed the foosball was there to keep the shooters entertained between matches but of course I was wrong. There are pro foosball leagues and tournaments and people travel great distances to play these things. I watched guys who were as skilled in their own way as the pool players and it was jawdropping. They bring their own handles with custom-taped grips. Some of them wear gloves =)
The skill on display is something else to see. They trap the ball, control it completely, pass from row to row, and when there's a shot on the goal they zigzag the ball and pass it between the front row players rapidly, keeping it trapped under their feet and then abruptly cutting loose with goal shots that are too fast to see, much less defend against. Goal shots hit with loud PLINK and the ball sometimes rebounds hard enough to leave the table. In practice, if the ball hits the goalie on the way in, it simply flies right through and sends the goalie spinning in circles. It's awesome.
So, despite getting reamed and enduring a tough 12+ hours of car time, it was pretty fun. I'm looking forward to next year.