Well what a weekend most seem to have had! I only managed to make it on the Saturday since it was my daughters 2nd birthday on the Sunday, however it was a great day!
Firstly was great to see "Jersey Jack" Himself - Really nice guy, happy to talk to anyone if he had the time. I sorta muscled in when he was talking to one of the French and one of the Dutch guys - he had his ipad out and was hapilly flicking through some shots from the factory etc etc - Some great pics and videos in there!
Then the shocker of the tournament - Entered the open as per usual as a complete no-hoper - Ended up after the first round in thirty-something position (was either 31 or 34 cant remember), and noticed (just before i was about to head home) that there was a "B" league - So ended up in this secondary group. First game on Stargate, which i'd never played before however a respectable 208Mil, to strangely slip into the 2nd round, which was on TAF. Now I have an Addams, however it's been in "hundreds" of pieces since i started to tear it apart for referb around 3 years ago, so i may as well had never played it before! A REALLY tight round though, and I feel I have to apologise to Paul Owen for pushing him out into 3rd by a meagre 400k points!
So into the final. WPT. Was quietly optimistic since I'd rolled in around 11th in the qualifiers on this machine - and if I'd have gotten the same score in the final as I did in qualifying then I'd have won! Well done to the others, Dave Langley, Phil Eaton and Adrian Donati for getting there, and i ended up sneaking into 3rd place (congrats to Dave for winning and Phil for coming second (maybe the stance does work!), and apologies to Adrian who rolled in 4th - I dont think he liked this machine!
How incredibly unexpected but pleasing to Come away with a trophy!!!
Nice to See loads of you there - Good to see Andy N and Sir Squires outside in the sun mending a power driver board (did that end up working in the end??), and met with the guy that apparently managed to flood half the hotel out on Friday night... Good to see the usual suspects (Phil, Nick, Greg etc) keeping the British fighting spirit going up there at the top of the leaderboard!
Just to echo many others - Many thanks to Andy H, Martin A and all the tournament team, Gary F, Andy N and his incredible support for show after show, and in fact everyone else who made the weekend what i feel to be a great success.
Just a final note. Never got to play on Tron due to a couple of guys who decided to hog it for best part of 30 mins having game after game. I'll be honest and say that all I came across on the Saturday were people who played game after game on the same machines. Was a little annoying since never really got to warm up or practice at all, however I guess I'm in the lucky position oh having one or two machines myself, so wasn't too aggrieved, however I do feel sorry for some others who clearly wanted to get on and couldn't. NOT a criticism, just an observation.
Paul
Firstly was great to see "Jersey Jack" Himself - Really nice guy, happy to talk to anyone if he had the time. I sorta muscled in when he was talking to one of the French and one of the Dutch guys - he had his ipad out and was hapilly flicking through some shots from the factory etc etc - Some great pics and videos in there!
Then the shocker of the tournament - Entered the open as per usual as a complete no-hoper - Ended up after the first round in thirty-something position (was either 31 or 34 cant remember), and noticed (just before i was about to head home) that there was a "B" league - So ended up in this secondary group. First game on Stargate, which i'd never played before however a respectable 208Mil, to strangely slip into the 2nd round, which was on TAF. Now I have an Addams, however it's been in "hundreds" of pieces since i started to tear it apart for referb around 3 years ago, so i may as well had never played it before! A REALLY tight round though, and I feel I have to apologise to Paul Owen for pushing him out into 3rd by a meagre 400k points!
So into the final. WPT. Was quietly optimistic since I'd rolled in around 11th in the qualifiers on this machine - and if I'd have gotten the same score in the final as I did in qualifying then I'd have won! Well done to the others, Dave Langley, Phil Eaton and Adrian Donati for getting there, and i ended up sneaking into 3rd place (congrats to Dave for winning and Phil for coming second (maybe the stance does work!), and apologies to Adrian who rolled in 4th - I dont think he liked this machine!
How incredibly unexpected but pleasing to Come away with a trophy!!!
Nice to See loads of you there - Good to see Andy N and Sir Squires outside in the sun mending a power driver board (did that end up working in the end??), and met with the guy that apparently managed to flood half the hotel out on Friday night... Good to see the usual suspects (Phil, Nick, Greg etc) keeping the British fighting spirit going up there at the top of the leaderboard!
Just to echo many others - Many thanks to Andy H, Martin A and all the tournament team, Gary F, Andy N and his incredible support for show after show, and in fact everyone else who made the weekend what i feel to be a great success.
Just a final note. Never got to play on Tron due to a couple of guys who decided to hog it for best part of 30 mins having game after game. I'll be honest and say that all I came across on the Saturday were people who played game after game on the same machines. Was a little annoying since never really got to warm up or practice at all, however I guess I'm in the lucky position oh having one or two machines myself, so wasn't too aggrieved, however I do feel sorry for some others who clearly wanted to get on and couldn't. NOT a criticism, just an observation.
Paul