R.B.I. / Tecmo Bowl Tournaments (Omaha, NE 3/4/2017)

[TβG]

Fantastic.

[Darky]

Those are the greatest ads I have ever seen. Loved the Bash Brothers ad.

[TbT]

[TbT]

More clemens...

[TbT]

The mini "free tournament" is tomorrow night.  I tossed an ad on facebook for 5 bucks and got a decent response.  20 likes, 12 shares, and a handful of comments.  I dropped off flyers for the free tourney at the bar on sunday.  Got 3 TVs/NES ready.  If I get 5- 6 players for Tecmo at 6 PM, that would be perfect.  With any luck some of them would stay for RBI, or catch some drinking/eating that will see Tecmo and want to play RBI.  Got some adds made up to hand out tomorrow to prospective people for the March 4th event. 

As for the main event in a couple weeks, all I really need to do is organize some equipment, acquire 1 or 2 cheap TVs, and get my paper work in order for charting results.  I'll have some last minute shit to do the week of, but I want those last 4-5 days to be pretty stress free and ready to go.  I really feel like I can get us a field of 20 Tecmo Bowl players.  I'm not so confident about RBI's turnout, just because there were more options of baseball games back then.  Some people only like fkn baseball stars for example which i think is OK, but not that special.  My guess...RBI tourney will have 12-14 players.  Most of my guys will be playing in both tourneys so we have a good base for an RBI turnout.

[TbT]

Event flyer.   With the power of MS paint and some other bullshit free online photo editing stuff, I can almost make a good a poster. 

[TbT]

Just a few days out, and my to do list isn't very long.  Get some brackets printed off, fix pins on 1 of my 10 NES, and load the wife's van up friday night.

Winning the NES classic and TV in columbutt helps a lot with the equipment that i want to make available for spectators.  As usual, there is the torture of not knowing if the event will have a decent turnout or not.   

[Brookensrules!]

No pre-registration?

[Gantry]

Knock em dead buddy

[TbT]

RBI Cotut founder Beales was in the house yesterday.  We had 16 players for Tecmo, 14 for RBI.  A good portion played in both.  There were some awesome groups of guys, including a trio of brothers that boozed all day and were great to hang with.  These 2 different groups of guys drank for 8 hours and kept their shit together.   
 
A Local guy knocked Beales out in the semi-final best of 3.  That guy has some top shelf pitching skills.
I didn't get to see much of the runner-up, but he had was certainly a mid-level guy at worst that hung in there during the RBI finals best of 3. 
Beales and the champ exchanged info.

Payouts netted 1st place 80-ish dollars for both games.
   

[TbT]

I rolled through both members of Team Canada in the semi-final & championship to win the Tecmo tourney.  5 tournaments is a row baby!  Nate finished 4th.
Got Cam 13-0 w/ SF over CHI in semi-final, and beat Derek 7-0 with IND over CLE.  Derek reached about the 5 yard line as time expired.  Major prevent defense effort there to hold him out.  Last year in Omaha tourney I used CLE to beat IND(Cam) 17-0.  Nice script flip there.   

Nate's 11 year old daughter played Tecmo.  Went 1-2 in group play, and she's not bad passing the ball.  A regular joe off the street isn't going to be able to blow her out.

Lots of Tecmo played between USA and Canada this weekend.

On Thursday night I went 3-0 vs Nate, and was feeling good.  On Friday night team Canada arrived and we played a 4 game deal.  Nate went 4-0 including 3-0 vs Canada and won it.  Nate posted a major 13-6 win with NY(P2) vs Derek(CHI).  That is an impressive win and point total for NY's crappy offense vs the CHI D.  I went 1-3 on Friday, and 1-2 vs Canada.  Things weren't looking good for me. 
Then I proceeded to sweep Canada yesterday, and Nate got swept by them.  We went full on "rock paper scissors" this weekend between the 4 of us.

Overall USA was 6-4 vs Canada.
Nate 3-2
Brad 3-2 

For the record in 5 tournaments, The 4 of us have combined to go 59-1 vs the field.  Of 20 games we played vs the field yesterday, only 1 guy was able to stay within 1 score.  12-7 Nate win, and he was up 12-0 at some point in the 3rd.  12-0 that late is basically a game over score vs us, let alone a guy off the street. 

[Gantry]

Good to see the next generation playing...

[TβG]

Dang. So TBT is the best in the world at Tecmo Bowl?

[TbT]

Dang. So TBT is the best in the world at Tecmo Bowl?

My resume over the last year makes that claim seem undeniable.  With that said, any game between the 4 of us is a toss up.  I've attended 5 of these tournaments, and won all 5.  However 3 of them ONLY featured either Cam, or Nate.  In yesterday's case, Cam, Nate, and Derek were all in attendance, making it the only tourney at full strength.  If all 4 of us attended the 5 events, I'd probably still have a title or two....maybe even 3, but no way I'd have 5.  That's a gauntlet nobody is getting through.

Historically I have Nate's number.  I've beaten Cam in 5 of my last 6 games with him.  2 for 2 in championship games vs those 2. 
I feel I have the upper-hand or just flat out the answer vs those 2 by a slim margin. 

Derek still gives me fits though.  His defensive calls and adjustments are incredible in clutch situations.  I do tend to struggle vs him in the 1st game or 2 we play.  He has a unique style compared to the other two that requires an adjustment.  I think I have a little more progression to go before I think I'm "better" than him.     

I'm 2-4 in my last 6 with Derek dating back to 2015.  I personally think he's the best of us 4, by a slim margin and perhaps the other 2 have different ways that they match-up better with him than I do.  I played Derek 3 times this weekend, went 1-2, and only have a (-5) point differential with the losing record.  Even in defeat, shit is razor thin.

I don't care about perceptions of who might be the best, I'm just focused on being the best I can, and beat either of those guys in the next game.  I will say that nobody in the group has worked harder to raise their level of play than I have in the last year.  That's been the difference in a couple of those title games.  Always knowing what to do at any moment and in any situation is a huge asset.                 

[TβG]

You deserve a ton of credit both for setting up your tournaments and for the work you put in to stay at the top of competition.

Congratulations on your championship.

[TbT]

You deserve a ton of credit both for setting up your tournaments and for the work you put in to stay at the top of competition.

Congratulations on your championship.

The hardest part is getting to tourney day and being completely exhausted.  Stressed out and not sleeping the week of.  I played Tecmo late with Nate on Thursday night.  Already tired on Friday we stay up till midnight with Canadians playing Tecmo.  I think I'll sleep until 6 am on Saturday, but fuck no.  I was wide awake at 4:30 on tourney day.  4.5 hours of sleep and 3 hours of brutal set up later...It's noon and now I have to fucking play a tournament.  Which features the other 3 best players ever.

No idea what I was functioning on Saturday, but I felt pretty decent all day and most importantly I was mentally sharp.  That's the grind there.

Derek has a flight home tomorrow.  We split 4 games of Tecmo tonight.  Overall went 5-4 vs Canada.  Not playing Tecmo Bowl for a long time!       

[TbT]

RBI final 4


L-R
4th-Derek (Canada)
3rd- Beales (Chicago)
1st- Victor (Omaha)
2nd- David (Omaha)

Good job out of Derek placing 2nd and 4th.    Derek beat Cam in RBI round of 8, and Nate also lost in the round of 8.  Good showing from the Tecmo guys.  I didn't play RBI because the swapping of carts from Tecmo to RBI didn't go so smooth.  I feared mass equipment failure and sat out to be ready for issues.  Only had 1 game of RBI reset. 

[TbT]

Final Tecmo tally of games between 4 of us, with records between USA & Canada
I played in the most by hosting in Omaha. Nate arrived Thursday, and Derek's flight left Tuesday.

USA 8-6 vs Canada.

TBT  8-5 (5-4 vs Canada) (3-4 vs Derek)
Derek 6-4 (5-4 vs USA) (1-1 vs Nate)
Nate 4-5  (3-2 vs Canada)  (2-1 vs Cam)
Cam 1-5 (1-4 vs USA)  (0-2 vs TBT / 1-2 vs Nate)

Cam used to own me, by a lopsided margin.  Now he can't seem to buy a win.  He still doesn't throw fucking INTs ever.
I can definitively say what "thing" each player does the absolute best within our group of 4.  However, I'm not sure what my best skill set is at Tecmo.

-Cam's the most efficient QB.  Will not throw picks.
-Nate has best defender dive game, and is best with the super crappy pass 1 play(MIA/NY/WSH).  Its a timing and spacing deal to fit it in there.
-Derek is the best at jumping routes on defense.  He's also the most aggressive on O with his occasional "fuck it" throws deep. You have to stay 100% disciplined for those.  I picked one off in the tourney championship game, which was crucial.  I knew eventually he was going to take a chance. 

Derek got me on a deep throw in exhibition Monday night, which was the difference in a game.  Derek's aggressive style on defense also leads to him being hit deep as well.  I got a few of those on him for big yards.       

I might be the best at match-up analyzing, and knowing where/how to steer my opponent.  In 3 tourney title game wins vs Nate, Cam, and Derek I had the fortune of winning the coin toss, and calling the match-up each time.  In each game I threw out just an enticing enough match-up to get the team I wanted. 

USA has a winning record vs Canada at weddings.  We went 2-1 at mine, and 3-2 at Cam's.

MikeD or whoever called us frauds back in the day.  What we ultimately needed was to play a ton more games to catch up with Canada.  We put in the work and here we are.  They had logged like 1,000 games compared to our 600 by 2011.  We had a lot of minutiae and other tiny details to fully master before we could turn narrow losses into narrow wins.  Joe Dirt was really surprised at all the complexities I showed him when we got together a few weeks back.         
 

[Gantry]

USA has a winning record vs Canada at weddings.  We went 2-1 at mine, and 3-2 at Cam's.

Sounds like you and Nate need to take on an additional wife.  To be the best, you have to make sacrifices. 

At this point where do you go from here?  Do you have any concern that since you are so good that you'll have trouble getting people outside of Derek/Cam to new tourneys?  I know I wouldn't want to travel halfway across the country to a tourney where I have no chance...

[TbT]

USA has a winning record vs Canada at weddings.  We went 2-1 at mine, and 3-2 at Cam's.

Sounds like you and Nate need to take on an additional wife.  To be the best, you have to make sacrifices. 

At this point where do you go from here?  Do you have any concern that since you are so good that you'll have trouble getting people outside of Derek/Cam to new tourneys?  I know I wouldn't want to travel halfway across the country to a tourney where I have no chance...

My wife watches a lot of sister wives and it makes her get the crazy.  No way in hell,I'm getting a 2nd wife.

Omaha is big enough to find different people.  1st/2nd in RBI were local guys that I bet will be back next year, and a couple other decent local guys made the round of 8.  They all probably feel good about their game.   Plus we have enough additional perks.  3 games of group play before eliminations even begin for either game.  For $15 entry you are getting a solid 2.5 hours of entertainment. 

I get some sponsorships from the bar and gaming stores to give away gift cards, and we have some cool prizes we give away.  A Bears fan won a Walter Payton 20 x 16 print that he was pretty stoked about.  By now I also have a lot of video from the events to circulate to intrigue people.   

Having all 4 of us at the Tecmo tourney instead of the usual 2 wasn't really good for the field though.  It was a slaughter.  I'm learning the art of slowly bleeding out an opponent in a rather comfortable manner, so they don't fully realize the bludgeoning that's happening.     Its in bad taste for me as organizer and host to pummel everyone off the street.  Nate and Cam have followed suit as well. 

However there's always a fkn blowhard chirping off on facebook on one of the paid ad pages about how they have never lost a game or can't be beat.  Always!  They never show, but someday I will get my fucking hands on one of them.  They're going to get a special beatdown.