Wednesday, April 29, 2009

$50,000 Warrior - US Open

I recently traveled to Atlanta, GA to attend the $50,000 US Open.  This tournament was on Warrior tables.  Warrior tables are very similar to Tornado tables, but they seem to be designed to fill every gap or limitation that Tornado tables currently have.  

Warrior tables have awesome controlability, where pretty much anyone can catch a loose ball.  Now depending on who you talk to, this could be a good thing or a bad thing - it kind of lowers the bar on the required amount of consistency / skill required to win agaisnt the best players.   

You can also bank consistently on this table - which is something that Torando tables took away from the arsenal of old TS or Dynamo players.  My partner is Open Doubles for this event shot awesome banks from the back - which I would say had a large impact on our good showing.

The rods are solid and heavier, which is harder on the body than players are used to, so you see lots of players wearing out later in the tournament - especially pull shooters.  Even though i shoot a rollover, the muscles in my right forearm where close to cramping a couple of times.  This could attributed to me simply being out of shape, or the climate or lack of eating good, but i ate lots of bananas, and drank lots of water - so i'm not thinking it was a lack of potasium or anything.

The table is not quite built as solid as a tornado table, they're still working out the kinks, but overall the table plays awesome, and can't wait till they get a commercial level table built - where right now they have home models just available - which are a bit light.

The one major thing that Warrior has going on that Tornado doesn't is that Mary Moore is running her tour (IFP) on Warrior tables, and not Tornado.


Another thing that IFP is doing, is running a very nice points race, where the more you attend IFP tournaments, the greater chance you have to win trips to play at their year end foosball tournament in Hawii.

enough background.   I wasnt able to make as many video entries as i hoped, but here's what i was able to do while I was in Atlanta:

Day 2: Saturday morning - before Open Doubles thoughts:

Day 3: Sunday - quick tournament room walk through

Day 3: Mid day match result, I've just won the kings seat in Pro Singles, and find a nice hiding place to share my thoughts

Day 3: After winning Pro Singles, i share my thoughts on the match, and show off my new hardware - i love trophies.

Day 3: Finishing kind of a funny story - not really foos related, but me babbling along on the kong show it was when i purchased my tickets to fly to atlanta..