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The
Swammi's Diary From The Madden Games
Showtime!
Well,
I had just started to get that serious sleep groove on after crashing
out about 3:00 AM. You know that groove I'm talking about, around
7:00 AM when the covers are just perfect and it is the most difficult
time toyour eyes. Well, that didn't last long as I heard a knock
on my door around 7:15 AM......It was P.C. As happy as I was that
he made it to DC safe and all was cool, I was too tired to care, and
was not jubilant at all about waking up. I was trying to get enough
rest to be fresh for the big day, so I could be mentally ready. (As
if I had a big game to play....) But here is this guy happy to be
in DC after all the hell he went through to get there, and I was like,
wasssup bruh....and I climbed right back into the bed. Pasadena Soldier
was sleeping in the chair (I was pledging him like he was in college)
so I woke him up, and he and PC met for the first time in person,
after much phone and forum conversation. Now I would say within 90
seconds of saying wasssuuupp, and dapping for the first time, they
had the controllers hooked up and loading their profiles. No face
washing, no brushing teeth, just hard-core balling right off the bat.
I was like...dude, yall (you know my Texas accent is heavy)...yall
are too deep for me, as The Swammi tried to get his sleep groove back.
But it was useless. I kept finding myselfng one eye checking
out the game as Pasadena and PC were going at it. I finally dozed
off, only to be awakened by several outburst of...c'mon....catch the
%$^&%$ ball. Aw, hell, that should a been a pick! And so on......
I finally
got up around 9:00 AM knowing I had to make my presentation at 10:00
on starting a league. PC and I discussed some notes, I showered, got
"Swammi Fresh," and rolled down to the lobby lounge
to get set up. It was about 10:00 AM when I arrived and only The Director
and his dad were there. 10:15, 10:30....still no one. A little after
10:30 a few ballers arrived, but we were just getting the TV's set
up and moved from where they were stored upstairs. So we decided to
get all the games and TV's set up and then PC and I would do our presentation.
PC was going to talk about setting up your league on the world wide
web, and I was going to speak on starting and developing a league.
We had quite a bit of interest in the presentations, so we figured
we would get the TV's set up and then we would go with the presentations.
Afterwards we would just start the games. But no one told that to
Bulldog and Mackavelli. No sooner than the TV's were hooked up, they
were going at it. By the time we were ready to start our presentation,
Bulldog had already scored the first touchdown of nationals. It was
on! PC and I decided that we would save our presentation for Sunday
AM, as the ballers were eager to get started. So I declared the games
officially underway.
Only
The Strong Survives At Nationals
Before
I could get communication central up and running, the scores were
coming in fast and furious. There were few surprises early, and several
blowouts. The BDFL, seemed to be taking it on the chin the worst.
Papo Swing and Tabasco Cat's crew were getting it taken to them early,
with only Tabasco really representing. DCFL also found the competition
to be intense. It was becoming evident that most ballers were feeling
what I was saying in the weeks leading up to the games. THIS IS
NATIONALS. Only the strong survives!
The
Beast Is Insensitive, And Uncaring
You see,
Nationals (The Beast) doesn't care how well you did in your own league
at home. It doesn't care how many championships you have won in your
local tournaments. It has no respect for how many blowouts you have
recorded against yo boys at the crib. Nationals is it's own monster.
For proof of that, ask James Brooks. The PFL champ went 15-1 in the
regular season, and won the PFL Superbowl. Yet at nationals, he went
0-3. Ask Jay Kearney, who is respected in the PC world as one of the
best in the nation. Yet at nationals he endures a vicious 92-61 beating
from Winky White. And even White himself has fallen to The Beast (Nationals)
in the championship game two years in a row. It's cruel, wicked and
vicious. The BDFL found this to be true first hand. Of course I tried
to warn Papo and the rest of his crew that your domination at home,
doesn't mean you will dominate The Beast. All of the hours you put
in at the lab at home, would be equaled and perhaps doubled at Nationals.
Only Tabasco Cat (2-1) could muster better than a 1-2 record in the
round robin. But even he, disappeared in the second round of the playoffs
when he DNA (Did Not Appear) in his match vs. PC. The Beast is unmerciful,
as Mad Guru witnessed. After scoring 102 points on Big Poppa of the
BDFL in the first round of the playoffs, DC scored 80 on the Guru
to knock him out of the tourney. The Beast will have you go toe to
toe against your own league (BFL), only to survive by the skin of
your teeth. The Beast doesn't care what League you represent, BFL,
DCFL, PFL, or No F.L. And that was what everyone began to realize
on Saturday.
The
First Day Is In The Books
As the
day came to a close, the seeds were set, and the first round playoff
matches were established. 32 would survive another day. 11 would watch,
go home, or see the city of DC as a tourist. Meanwhile, T Philly White
decided to set up a classic team tourney. You see they don't call
him T Philly for nothing. He was decked out in his green Eagles jersey
sporting a Randal Cunningham #12. This guy is a hard core Eagle fan.
He reveres Randal as the best quarterback and the Eagles as the greatest
team. That's hard-core. I thought, this is an excellent time for me
to get some games in. So I told PC, to throw my name in the hat and
I would ball with the 77 Cowboys. Hey, after all, I'm just as bad
as T Philly when it comes to Dallas. Roger the dodger, Tony D, Drew
Pearson....shheeeee.....its on! So T Philly set up the tourney, and
my first game is against XR 2000, who is rolling with the 89 49ers.
Now XR2000 is a down brother who has some game. But I didn't want
to lose to him because he was the only fella in the 32 field that
didn't win a game in the round robin. He was love - 3. So I thought,
I know my game is rusty, but the fellas might roll me if they found
out I lost to XR. Fortunately I pulled out a win and I was ready for
the next round. But some guys went out to dinner and the games were
delayed, and the next thing you know, we just said the hell with the
tourney, lets just ball.
More
Extracurricular Balling
I probably
should have gone to bed at this point. Its about 8:00 PM and I am
really exhausted, trying to hang off of about 6 hours of sleep in
the last two days. But hey, I didn't come all the way to nationals
not to ball. Since I wasn't able to get into the tourney, I was going
to get me some side games in. So X (BFL) asked to get one in and I
obliged him. I soon began to feel like X wanted to impress The Swammi,
and that he did, as he mildly pulled out a can of W.A., BFL style
on me. The game wasn't even close. I got a taste of X's nasty defensive
tackle homemade stunt, where by which I could not pass the ball, EVEN
OUT OF THE SHOTGUN. Then he showed me why Jamall Anderson and Tim
Dwight should be recognized as all pro at the tourney. So after the
first 50 something to 10 smoking, I re-upped for another one. And
things pretty much went the same. Even though I scored more this time,
he did too, so it didn't make things much better for me. We laughed,
shared some strategies and talked more about The Beast. So I thought
I would go to bed then after such a vicious lambasting. But old Donnie
B. was in the corner wanting to get a game in. He was already playing
some else at the time. So I said cool. Then Matt P. wanted to get
a game in with The Swammi. All of a sudden I started feeling like
the cheap whore....everyone was planning on passing me around the
room. I exclaimed vehemently, "Now..... The Swammi ain't no cheap
ho (ebonics) in this mutha...yall ain't gonna pass me around the room.
Somebody is gonna have to take an #$% whuppin." So Matt P and
I got it on. Now I'm thinking, Matt P went 0-3 also...and if I lose
this one, it might be all over core magazine.com. All of sudden I
could see it, flashing like a banner on the web site....Matt P dominates
Swammi!!!! I said to myself holy %$^&! I better try to get me
a W tonight. So we played and thanks to Madd Guru sharing some tips
with me (to Matt P's dismay) I pulled out a W. After Matt chased Guru
away, we hung and shared more tips, and talked more about The Beast.
I could see that was the trend here. Ballers go at it, Ballers share,
Ballers laugh. It was working real well.
Why
do we Lie To Ourselves?
Each
time I saw PC, I was like dude, I'm going to bed, and he would say
the same. Then we would see each other playing another game. We lied
to ourselves until about 1 or 2 AM. But I made it a point to knock
off. Pasadena had moved his stuff over to PC's room, and I was holding
tight just in case Teddy B. needed a place to kick it.....But he rolled
with Wink, DC, and Ron the whole night. I would finally get a good
night of sleep. I arranged the storage of the TV's and left about
6 ballers in the lobby loungestill going at it, and bid them good
night.
League
Pride
The biggest
Madden Games fan in the madden community is no doubt Air Attack Curry
from the MFLA. He was literally dying, not knowing was happening because
we did not have the up to the minute coverage on the web site as we
did last year. When I got to my room around 2 AM, I had about 5 messages
from Air, all about 10 minutes apart. "Swam, you know I need
to know what's happening....I'll call back in about 10 minutes."
And that he did, for about 4 more times. He finally caught me in the
room.....about 10 minutes after I walked in, and he wanted all the
details. I gave him all the info, seeds, scores, brackets, etc. It
was like Santa telling a kid what he was bringing him for Christmas.
You gotta love Air! So I hipped him on all of the developments. I
could see the pride he had in the MFLA when I told him PC was the
#3 seed. The next day in my mail, Air had sent me a copy of the memo
that he sent to all the guys in the MFLA. He had written down everything
I told him from the night before, seeds, matchups, everything, and
sent it to the other league members. If that don't beat all......
So I'm
off to sleep, looking forward to seeing what the next day would unveiled.
Who would be our national champ. Would it be Wink? Could Pasadena
Soldier actually call his own shot? Is PC strong enough to go all
the way? How about this PC guy Jay....is he as good as everyone says?
Which one of the top 4 seed would fall in the early rounds of the
tournament? I never even thought about Candyman......guess that goes
to show you. That's Why They Play The Games!
© 2000, PFL Enterprises, LP PFL
and the PFL shield design are registered trademarks of the Playstation
Football League. The team names, logos and uniform designs are registered
trademarks of the teams indicated.
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