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The
Swammi's Diary From The Madden Games
GAMEDAY!
Well
the big day was finally here. I was excited for two reasons.
I was looking forward to watching the big games and seeing how
the day would unfold. Then on the other hand, I was eager to
play in the tournament and show that I could ball with the best
of them. The only thing I wanted to do was stay calm and not
get sweaty palms. After all I had fared well in The PFL reaching
the final four, and my game was tight, I had been working on
my defenses, and had diversity in my offense. I was ready for
the all of the hurry up offenses, and up tempo games I was going
to see. So with that in mind, I rolled down stairs a little
late. I should have been at the arena at 8:30
but I didn't make it downstairs for breakfast until about 8:50.
Thankfully P.C. had my back, and already had the room
and had the TV's set up and everything was ready to go. So I
grabbed some breakfast then returned to get ready for my game.
We still had to deal with two no shows. The guys from Carolina
had not made it New Orleans, and we had two try and fill those
two spots. By then it was game time for me, and I had not made
any updates to the Internet, and I was supposed to broadcast
a live update on the web right before my game. So it was all
closing in on me. Plus I needed to keep a running tab of the
scores so that at the end of the day I would be able to pull
up the point differentials. So I finally sat down to play my
game, about fifteen minutes late. D-Mac, my first opponent was
real cool and patient. But the moment I sat down, I drew blanks.
Pressure
Bust A Pipe
I once wrote on a post that The Beast (Nationals)
doesn't care how well you do in your local leagues, or how good
you think you are. The pressure of nationals is intense. And
I was feeling it. My opponent DMAC was feeling it too. Neither
one of us wanted to be the first one to make the big mistake.
Nevertheless we both finally broke the ice scored and went from
there. DMac eventually won the game, and I experienced my first
frustration at Nationals. As a matter of fact I was only frustrated
twice during the weekend. My loss to DMac, and my loss to Donnie
B! Nevertheless, it was hard to stay disappointed long, because
the tournament was going so well, and that was my main focus.
While I ended up 1-2 for the day and missed the tourney, I was
thoroughly pleased with the way the Nationals III was going.
Setting
The Stage
The first big moment of the day was Pasadena Soldier falling
behind Che' in his round robin matchup. Che got out to an early
lead and lead by as much as three td's before Soldier mounted
a furious comeback to win the game. The room was going crazy
as Soldier fell behind early, but it began to quiet as Soldier
made his comeback. For as much as everyone at the tourney recognized
that Pasadena is really a cool brother, many wanted to see Che'
or The Director Joe Fraizer him. However, that would not be
the case, as Pasadena would emerge from his round robin 3-0.
But his games would be tough, thus his point differential margin
would only be high enough to secure a #4 seed in his region.
Blow
Out City
HMFL champion TrapJaw had been a scoring tear the entire round
robin. After plastering Slayer Min and Wicked Wel, Trap lambasted
Scrubby P! of the BFL 81-0. The other shellacking came at the
expense of another BFL member as champion to be Lou Tillery
bust the clock on Ron
Wilborn 106-14. Unfortunately for Trap, he would end up experiencing
the humility of a blow out loss in the next day. Nevertheless,
this offensive explosiveness would earn these two ballers the
#1 and #2 seeds overall in the tourney.
Things
Begin To Take Shape
The creme began to rise to the top. All of the expected names
seem to be posting 3-0 records in their respective round robins.
No one figured Trapjaw would emerge with the type of dominance
he displayed, crushing his opponents by a average margin of
victory of 67 points. And then there were the other big names
of course, the defending champ Candyman, Mad Guru, Wink Dawg,
Pasadena, and Jay Kearney, all gaining high seeds. I was glad
to see my boy James Brooks get off the Nationals schnide! I
knew he was a strong baller and had a good chance to win it
all, but he never showed his true skills in previous nationals.
Maybe he was like me and felt the pressure. But he balled strong
and earned a #2 seed in Region II. Then of course Ryan Collins,
he had his afternoon tirade. A wild trash talking session with
Will Stitt of Denver. These two went back and forth through
out the afternoon as it showed that Collins had taken advantage
of the hotel's happy hour. Nevertheless, that was the only time
Collins had his outburst, very reminiscent of a PFL Sunday afternoon,
later he settled in and returned on Sunday focused and ready
to do battle.
The
BFL Continues To Show Their Depth
The Atlanta crew rolled in feeling confident that this was their
year. They hit the town 12 deep with their eyes on the prize.
Winky White had come close twice and he was playing as good
as he had ever played. DC was strong and so was defending champion
X. And then there was Fruitman, D. Rob, Dru, John B and so many
others with strong game as well. By the end of the day, 8 of
the 12 would find out they made it to Sunday. No other league
would place as many in the Single Elimination field. The Atlanta
crew loved their chances going into Sunday, but the tide turned
quick and by noon Sunday, some of the big names were surprisingly
out of the tourney.
Setting
The Brackets
Bulldog, P.C. and myself locked ourselves in Diamond A to set
up the field of 36. We wanted privacy to avoid influence from
other members in the field, and to be able to concentrate and
think. We had devised an excellent system using the regions
to set up the brackets. This gave us flexibility to move like
seeds from one region to another region to avoid like league
matchups early in the tourney. We set up the #1 seeds, TrapJaw,
Lou, Candyman, and Mad Guru. From there it was so easy we could
not believe it. P.C. and I were so proud that it worked out
like we hoped. After all, he drove down from Los Angeles after
working all night to meet me in San Diego while I was on vacation,
just to review our notes and make sure we had the bases covered.
We set up the tourney bracket system then and even walked through
potential scenarios. It was good to see our time had not been
wasted.
Closing
Out Saturday
I signed on the net to broadcast the Round Robin Wrap Up Show.
Mike Blaze and Afro Man joined me for about an hour of hilarious
comedy. And although I was disappointed on my performance in
the round robins, I was at home in control center. Comfortable
and relaxed and excited (not nervous) about Sunday. Had I made
it to Sunday, I probably would have been a nervous wreck. But
now I was cool, and I was looking forward to seeing who the
last man standing would be.
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