Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Funspot 11

Triforce invited me to go with him to Funspot 11 and it was the offer I couldn't refuse. This was my second Funspot tournament and I was ready to live retain the reputation I have earned last year.

On Thursday night I met up with Triforce and Kubuu. In the morning we left to pick up Wes and Justin and then we were officially off.(We got a van for this year. Last year we too the Greyhound. I rode shotgun and stayed awake for most of the ride. The hilarious punchlines from Justin, Wes, and Triforce.

Once we got to NH first thing we did was take a look at the condo were were staying at. It more like an apartment-like condo compared to the cottage-type area we stayed in. We didn't take long too to check the place out because we only had two days to do our scores.

The moment I walked into the arcade I felt much different than my first Funspot visit last year. I was less starstruck now. There were people who knew who I was. And I would get asked to sign Twin Galaxies books. I liked the new feeling.

I walked around to play the different games. I didn't have much pressure to set a new record since I already have one that stood up for last year. I did try to go for the NBA JAM TE blowout record, though. I was on pace to actually beat it but the computer wanted to be started being a poopy head and closed the lead. I decided to save my quarters to play something else.

We touched base with Rudy Chavez, whom first met Empire Arcadia at last year's E For All. He helped Triforce with some of the few trouble area in Mercs. Both players maxed out the game and then later teamed up with Graham Ogilvie to post up a team score.

When the arcade closed we headed back to our "condo" and we to rest up and Rudy Chavez tagged along. I immediately got out my Wii to play some Punch-Out to work on some Punch-Out times. The "Ohio Refs", Dennis, Russel, J.D., and Dan, gave us a visit to play some games with us. They watched me deliver super quick Von Kaiser (contender) KO which was just over 29 seconds. Which became the official Twin Galaxies record. I also got to play Williams Pinball, and Mario Strikers Charged. It was good moment.

At the start of the next day I received some bad news that my time for First Kaiser was beaten by Russel. Can't do much about it now. So I went on to the machines. I was later asked by Stephen Nichols to watch him play a game called Leprechaun. He posted a top 4 score. Very impressive. Wes and Kubuu were working on some Smash Bros. Scores. In between Smash games Wes tried to go for today's mystery game Spectar, or "Pac-Man with a gun", as how Wes described it. He got 50,000 points, which is quite good. I suggested he officially submitted the score but I don't know if he did.

Another score I helped watch was Gorf. I don't know the guy's name but he scored in the 700,000's, beating Todd's golden age score. I'm glad I was summoned to view a portion of his score.

After the Gorf score was set Walter Day gathered us referees for a group photo. After that I got invited to dinner at a restaurant with Mappy record holder Greg Bond and the Crams. During the meal we talked about various topics such as video games, weather climate, and break dancing (Greg's hidden talent). I enjoyed the dinner. I'm glad I came along.

After dinner I rejoined the rest of Empire back at the arcade for the last hour of arcade time. Since we couldn't stay for Sunday, I decided to use my last tokens on Tetris with gaming queen Christian Cram watching. When the arcade closed for the night we headed back to the condo. I went straight back to playing Punch-Out!! while the rest of the crew picked up food. I later got a visit from...shot, a whole lot of people. I let them in and went on with working on getting my First Kaiser record. I had a few close ones but I finally squeezed in a 28 second time with milliseconds separating me and Russell. Triforce and the rest of EMP came back with the food and I told them the good news. After the brief celebration, a full blown session commenced. Of course Justin, Triforce, and I held up the Empire name while Kubuu and Wes slept through it all. :-/

On Sunday, after a shower and a breakfast of leftover pizza, I left the condo with the rest of the group and stopped by the arcade to say goodbye to everyone. (That was when I found out I lost the Kaiser record again!) After that we made hopped in the van and headed back home.

The trip to Funspot 11 was fun and I enjoyed chilling with familiar faces and competing. I'm glad I got to play this year.

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