4th Annual Midwest Tournament - - Fairfield, Ohio

This year's Midwest Tournament was triple elimination. I like this much better because if you have a bad game, or get screwed by the Tecmo gods you are not necessarily done. In my first game of the day I played Dallas from Plainfield, IN. He won the toss and deferred to me. I chose a San Diego/Denver matchup playing it safe against someone I did not know. He chose the Broncos and that made beam. It was really an easy game. I won 24-0 and ran the final break away run out at the 1 yard line.

My second game was against tournament director Chris V. (vogdtcd11) from Fairfield, OH I won the toss and went with Detroit/Minnesota. He took the Vikings and I was happy with that. This was the closest back and forth game of the day for me. 14-14 with a little under 2 minutes to go, he connects to Hassan Jones on two consecutive CC's. He wins 21-14.

My third game was against Tony G. from Toledo, OH. He won the toss and went with Bears/Raiders. I took da Bears. Things looked bad at first when I fumbled the opening kickoff and a 60 yard later in the game with Johnny Bailey, but the Bears come up with 3 picks and two fumbles of their own to secure a 38-7 victory.

My fourth game was against Matt M. (ones11fahzu) from Elkart, IN. This was the most ridiculous game of the tournament for me. He wins the toss and defers for P1. I go with Chargers/Bengals he takes the Bengals. Game was pretty even in the first half tied at 7-7 at halftime. In the second half I play it safe and kick the 3 to go up 10-7. He drives and I get a stop and force him to 3 of his own. With B.J. in Excellent, he burns David Fulcher with 94 PS to go up 17-with a minute and 34 seconds to go. Forced with a long field at his own 7, he completes a diving CC to Holman (also in Excellent), runs a few runs, and then bombs a 70 yard JJ to Holman as time expires. In OT he wins the toss. Chargers play good defense and get the stop with an INT around his 35. Butts runs to about the 5 yard line goes to the out of bounds line, fumbles completely out of bounds, and the Bengals recover out of bounds. On the very next play, James Brooks runs 60 yards as my MAN defender got bounced and my drones turned to ghosts and wouldn't tackle him. Another diving CC and two Brooks runs later he wins 23-17. I felt that I played well enough to win this game.

In my fifth game I played Matt M. from Cincinnati, OH. I won the toss and picked Chargers/Lions. He took the Chargers. This guy played mean run D. I was only getting 7 yards at max with Barry. After the first quarter I nearly passed the rest of the game. At one point in the game, Vlasic throws a ball to the top of the screen, Quinn Early gets the jump cut screen, ball goes off his hands, cut scene ends and Blades INTs the pass, but play is called dead. Chargers retain the ball on 3rd and 10. Very next play, Chargers had called pass, but there were no icons to thrown to. Never seen this happen in real life. Crazy stuff. I won this game 28-0, but this guy was good. I just played good defense and pass well.

In my 6th game I played Tony O. (averageTSBPlayer) from Madison, WI. He picked ATL/PHX. With my despise for ATL I went with PHX. ATL continually tried to force the ball to Rison who was mostly double covered for the entire game. Even when Rison cleared some space between the defenders both Chris Miller and backup Hugh Millen couldn't time the JJ or dive correctly. PHX got timely runs from a BAD Johnny Johnson, and good passes from Tom Tupa who "managed" the game very well. Final score was 21-7.

In my 7th game I played Aaron H. (ahake21) from Fairfield, OH. He picked ATL/NYJ. I went with the Jets. ATL lost 2 fumbles in this game which was pretty much the story. O'Brien was in Good during the 4th quarter and made good passes and QB runs to avoid a turnover. Final score was 21-7

In my 7th game I played Matt M. (ones11fahzu) again. This time I call Packers/Saints. I was hoping he would call Packers, but he was smart and gave me the passing team. I thought everything was gravy when I went up 10-0 in the first quarter, but Matt Played well using N.O.'s strong OL to break long runs with Hilliard. Before I knew it he was up 14-10 going into the final half of the 4th quarter. I take the ball the the 3 yard line on 2nd and goal. With a BAD 38 MS Woodside, I could not turn the corner to get in the end zone. Saints get the stop after a failed 4th and 2. I play great defense and force a punt which would have given me about 1 minute to bomb to Sharpe, but the punt was fumbled and he takes it in to win 21-10. Another good game with Matt. I didn't feel as bad on this one because Matt made the defensive plays to win it and I had about 80 yards to go with Sharpe besides the fumble. Matt played really well and had a strong showing which should not be overlooked at this tournament. He went on to beat Chris V. in the next round and what I believe to be the game of the tournament against Mort in a double overtime thriller in the next round. Great job Matt. Way to represent the Hoosiers.

Matt O'Toole beat Mort in a very good game the next round. O'Toole lost to bigmv the next game. bigmv played well against Josh H., but came up short when Josh gets an onside kick with John Carney against the Bucs. In order for Josh to win he had to beat his brother Chet 3 times. Chet had to beat Josh twice. First game Chet wins 35-21 with Rams over Redskins. Not enough Kevin Green cryptonite in this one. Chet goes 28-21 Giants over Bills in next game with Greg Jackson taking MVP honors.

Great tournament Chris. Love it and will be back next year.