Sunday, February 5, 2017

2017 Cincinnati Championships

Last weekend my college friend fatferris61 ended up not being able to make the journey to Bloomington, Illinois for his first Tecmo Super Bowl live tournament experience.  During the week this past week I saw a post about a bar in Harrison, Ohio where the Vogts were planning to attend.  I asked fatferris61 if he would be interested and he sounded like he was so I signed up for the tournament as it was only 40 minutes from my parents place.

On Saturday morning I went to my son's basketball game.  Fatferris61 arrived at my place around 2 PM.  We drove down to Greensburg and dropped off the kids at my parents place and ventured to Harrison.  When we arrived in Harrison the addressed given to us did not bring us to the bar.  We were in an area which reminded us of Sling Blade.  Rural trailer parks, small older houses, one which boasted a confederate flag.  We drove up the road a little further and found a gem of a bar called Danny B's.  The bar was small, but was decorated nicely.  Several red neon lights on the walls, plenty of seats for dining, and a nice bar.  The back of the bar had an open area for cornhole and aerial bowling.  I kept asking myself why there was such a nice bar in this backcountry area.



Fatferris61 came in and we played some warm up games.  All the televisions were flat screens.  Some of the televisions had minor lag / input delay, while others had input delay that rivaled play on Nesticle.  It wasn't going to be pretty.  The tournament directors Anthony and Mario did a random draw and filled out the double elimination bracket.  With some of the talent here this was turning out to be more like a Mini-Midwest tournament.  I got a first round bye due to the odd number of pairings on the 22-man bracket.  Fatferris61 drew Chris Vogt for his first game.  Fatferris61 called a matchup that he had success with me in, but lost 28-14.

After sitting for my bye, A.J. "Six" Fullam got the victory and would play me.  He won the toss and called Atlanta vs Phoenix.  I took Atlanta and regretted it.  Great game throughout.  I started with a Greg Davis field goal.  Six answered with a touchdown.  I punted.  Six grabbed a field goal.  In this game, Six won the taps 2-1.  In the second half I barely got to touch the ball as Six played ones ball.  Rison was overthrown on five long JJ attempts.  I did score a touchdown making it 10-10 late in the third or early fourth quarter, but my ensuing kickoff was a lag-induced onside kick.  Six scored a touchdown with about a minute to play.  Rison bomb attempts failed again and I lost 17-10.  The picture of the blue screen didn't take because it was so out of focus.

My second game was against tournament director Mario.  This game was played on the big projector.  Minimal to no lag here, which was nice.  He won the toss and called Bengals vs Chiefs.  I took K.C.  First play of the game he fumbles and I house it for a 0-7 lead.  First half was all Chiefs as Okoye ran wild.  Second half was a lot of Okoye fumbling and giving it back to Cincy.  Mario capitalized on some of the turnovers and made the game more respectable at 17-35.




My third game was against Dominic Marino.  I won the toss and called Chargers vs. Broncos.  Dominic played well in the first half and made some great cross-field passes with Elway, but Butts stumbled his way to 250 plus and Byrd got some picks late and the final was 42-10.



My fourth game I ran into Six again.  This time I won the matchup and called Redskins vs. Vikings.  He took the running back and went with Washington.  He scored early going up 7-0.  Then I had a long CC to Carter that was insta-fumbled and Six scored going up 14-0.  I started with the ball in the second half and ran off 24 points.  This game I won all of the taps and the final was 24-14.



My fifth game was against Steve Engel.  I've played Steve a few times online and lost to him at Midwest a few years ago.  That may be the only time we have played live.  Today I won the toss and called Redskins vs. Cowboys.  He took Dallas.  I scored first making it 7-0.  I ran early with minimal success.  Steve has good run defense.  He also was calling a great deal of runs it felt like so I started passing.  Humphries and Rypien combined for over 300.  In fourth quarter I was up comfortably, but a fumble and an interception on back to back plays made the game a bit more interesting.  Another pass and some runs tacked on a final score making the final 38-24.



The sixth game was for third place guaranteed.  My opponent was Matt Diaz.  Diaz won Midwest last year after losing to me in the winner's bracket and then beating me in the championship of the losers bracket.  Diaz won the toss and called Bengals vs. Dolphins.  I took Marino. Start of the game had some snags as the console malfunctioned and I got another stupid thumb cramp.  This one wouldn't allow for me to basically use the D-pad with any pressure so I knew I would be passing most of the game.  First half was back and forth.  Bengals scored on a long JJ.  Marino threaded the needle on a 3rd and 3 from the 3.  Second half I grabbed a 21-14 lead on some nice pass toggling.  Then I was able to get an interception, only to followed with a Sammie Smith fumble.  Diaz got a timed JJ, Louis Oliver got a pick to seal the deal.



Seventh game was against Chris Vogt with the winner to face Matty V. in the championship.  Chris won the toss and called Redskins vs. Vikings.  I normally take Washington in this, but I have had success against Chris in the past with Minnesota and I played well with them against Six so I took the Vikings.  Chris got up early 10-3 and was playing good defense.  He called many of my first couple of run plays and I still was having the cramps in my thumb so I decided I was just going to pass the whole game.  I was able to make it 10-10 after halftime.  Chris scored again with some superior chop blocks making it 17-10.  I managed a field goal after a stalled solid drive making it 17-13.  Chris then gets a long stride catch in which Kelvin Bryant was doubled covered.  Instead of an incomplete pass or a CC and grapple, Bryant just keeps running.  My defender of Millard was locked and stopped moving momentarily and the computer drone did the same.  Don't know if I have ever seen this before.  None the less he scores and is up 20-13.  Vikings pass deep four straight passes, but nothing materializes and Chris tacked on another touchdown making the final 27-13.



In the championship Chris played brother Matty in a Redskins vs. rams matchup.  Matty chose the Rams and was getting those burn routes early.  Chris keeps it close for a great deal of the game, but much to my surprise, Matty wins the Cincinnati Championships with Chuck Long for THREE quarters and rode the back of Curt Warner, yes Curt Warner.  MVP for MV was Bobby Humphries with two interceptions.






First Place = Matt Vogt
Second Place = Chris Vogt
Third Place = me





Matty got a t-shirt, a trophy, a copy of TSB 2016, and $100.
Chris got $80 and I took home $50.

Fatferris61 did well in his first tournament appearance going 4-2 with a couple of 40-point wins.  His only losses were to Chris Vogt and Matt Diaz.

On our way back home we stopped at the Harrison Buffalo Wild Wings.  It was amazing.  Then we picked up the kids and headed back to Indy.  From there Mike made the 2.5 hour ride home.

Two weekends in a row of Tecmo.  Looks like Madison will be the next blog.  Until then,

Long Live Tecmo

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