Calgary & Edmonton & Saskatoon
| Topic: Re: Corporate Challenge |
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Hey Gang, As most of you know: this week I hosted a Foosball event for the Corporate Challenge. I just wanted to take a minute to toot my own horn here and to recognize those that helped make this happen. In a tournament of more than five hundred and fifty participants I saw maybe twenty players with any tournament experience. This doesn't speak to the level of play we saw, but it does preface the type of environment that was created. Each team consisted of between four and six players. All teams had captains, some had coaches. It seems like they all brought cheer sections. Each team had to field one man and woman for each match. That means half of those five hundred and fifty participants, in a male dominated sport, were female. They were good! We had three different types of tables at this tournament. One was a home table from a local supplier with a one man goalie. The others were Tornado and Fireball tournament tables. The general consensus was that the Fireball and Tornado's played great and the other brand a little less so, but the only complaints I had were from players who had some tournament experience. Everyone else was too busy having fun with their team mates to complain. We didn't get any complaints about balls, leveling, or lighting (we had no table lights). A good number of players commented to me about how fun this thing was and that Foosball HAS to come back next year. This tournament was an absolute pleasure to direct and I'm really looking forward to bigger and better things next year. I think we, as tournament players, need to learn from this going forward. We don't need to wonder why people don't like our game as much as they used to. They do. If there's anything I've learned from this whole thing it's that Foosball isn't a niche sport like we assume it to be. There are thousands of Foosers out there. In the age of technology and instant gratification: we just need to take the onus on ourselves to make Foosball attractive enough to get their butts to our tournaments again. The Corporate Challenge sent an event photographer to catch some of what was going on, and though the pictures were amazing they don't tell the whole story. Unfortunately there aren't many pictures of the crowd that formed around the table during the final match of the tournament and I can't explain to you how loudly the hundreds of fans watching from the stands cheered for their respective teams, especially during the medal presentations. Nor can I measure, adequately, how much fun each team had while playing foosball, even though the majority of them had never played competitive Foosball in their lifetime. Luckily, my lack of adequate verbiage doesn't translate directly to the memories shared by all involved. To title this event as a complete success would be understating the obvious. With that, I'd like to thank the players for proving to all of us that Foosball is still, very much, loved by the general public, even if they don't play at a tournament level. I'd also like to thank my crew, for which this tournament wouldn't have happened without. Dan – Dan was the go-to-guy for volunteer coordination and teardown. He was there for everything and definitely made this thing work. Helped with any table maintenance that needed doing. Bouncer. I couldn't ask for a more reliable number two. Simon – Chauffer and staff supervisor. He supervised as he and Christian left the rest of us to build tables while they went to go have beers. But his driving skills are unmatched and we wouldn't have had any tables to play on without him helping us get them there. Hazel – Friday rolled around and she was the only one at the mall with me until 4pm. Helped me move all 20 tables to where they needed to be. Thanks for being there. Chris M – A buddy of mine and has absolutely no interest in Foosball, but he's still willing to help make things work, out of friendship. It was great to have you down there, thanks! Tammy – Tammy was our Corporate Challenge rep. She stayed through the whole event making sure our first year went smoothly. She trained the volunteers, she made sure I made games run on time and just generally kept my head on straight with 550 people running around. Thanks for everything Tammy! Chad – Psychiatrist and logistics guy. When it didn't look like we were going to meet our deadline for setup – he stepped up and made sure things got going. He did a lot for teardown. Ben – Helped load/unload tables on Thursday and built his very own Pathmark (with Nikki's help) everyone copied his design and that helped get things going. Nikki – See above, very inspirational table builder! Garret – Was a machine on set-up day. He stayed nearly as late as I did. Whatever needed doing, he was there. Roger – Brought good tools and a great attitude, always a pleasure having you around Rog! Mike J – Helped on Thursday, great guy to have around, great guy to play Foos with. Ray – Helped build and setup tables on Thursday, thanks for your time man. Tobin – Helped load and unload tables on Thursday, thanks! Christian – Helped unload tables on Thursday. Christian, Garry, and Will – Thanks for coming down to talk to people during the course of the tournament, it was good to have a league presence there, even if it's just to regain some interest in the sport. Thanks to all of our 40 volunteers. Sorry if I forgot anyone, I had a lot on my plate and it took a lot of man hours to make this thing float, couldn't have done it without any of you. Some pictures of the event can be found here: http://photobucket.com/ccfoosball2011 |
Posted: Jun 6 2011 12:58PM
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I was just going to log in and write a thank you to you and everyone who helped with this, the corporate challenge was great in every aspect. There were so many teams that played so well throughout the whole thing, the atmosphere was amazing, everyone was loving it. Im guessing this tuesday will be very packed full of new players. I know that i got a few emails today at work from people who had never played prior to this that are now hooked on the game! So thanks again Darcy and gang! |
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All i can say is FOOOOOSBALLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!! Awesome job Darcy. It turned out better than I could have thought. Seeing some old faces from the past was a blast too....Hopefully people in other areas can take note of how much of a success this was and use it to grow their own player base. Big thanks to everyone who put in time to get this done. Simon and I couldn't have had those beers without your support  Assistant Staff Supervisor out. |
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Oh, and Katie.... How could I forget. Possibly the worst Shrink Wrap artist I've ever seen, but a good person to have around and helped alot on tear down. |
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Hey Darciey she spells her name Katy. |
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You just got edumacated! |
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Sorry Chode! |
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I gotta say it is really impressive Darcy! The biggest tournament ever run in Western Canada I would guess, by both number of tables and number of participants. Probably had the loudest crowds too, it was amazing. Great exposure for foosball, hopefully tonight we get at least 10-20 new players from that! |
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Tomorrow..? I wish it was tonight =( |
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Thanks Darcy, but I was only suppose to be the driver. The supervisor thing was only a temporary position until I found someone to go to the bar with  Darcy, you pulled of a huge event that will hopefully get more people playing foosball on a regular basis. Kudos to you for doing this. The amount of help you got on Thursday was impressive. It was cool to see foosers, wives, girlfriends and non fooser help with the set up. It took longer than it should have to tear down, pack up and move. I think if you had a couple more people show up on Saturday we could have all been finished a lot sooner. Dan was definitley the MVP in the moving department. |
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I can only reiterate what is already stated here, but the job that Darcy did was amazing considering the # of players & tables. Kudos to everyone involved. Being there briefly Friday, unable to be involved with building/teardown was an incredible experience. Seeing some old faces that I haven't seen for, in some cases 25 years was great. Doug McCarthy, Jack Chong, Dave Chong, Mike Murphy(25 yrs), Kevin Shepley & others were great, but it also made me realize that through the years we have lost some great players & characters for different reasons, and our sport would be alot different if they were somehow at least occasional players. More recently I have to think about Shane, Tom, Dale...all great talent that have left for various reasons. Even looking more recently at Roger, Lindsey etc. With the growth that Will & Chad & their team have done in the last 2+ years, having some/all of these players would make us that much stronger. Once again great job!  |
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Rodger! come back!  |
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Mike Murphy was at the 2003 cofc |
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This totally reminded me of when Eric Dunn and I did one too. My sister, Kim was with me for it too then. Soooo cute!! Had totally forgotten all about it. I usually don't like doing these things cause I'm shy at first, but once you get me going, there's usually no shutting me up..as Eric well knows. :p It was super fun. I forget who it was with/for tho. Eric knows I'm sure..but there were a lot people who were super interested. Definitely a great way to get exposure out there. Great job everyone!! Takes a team to build a mountain..and a fortress. Keep it up Alberta, you guys rooooooock!!! :) *hugs* |
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"Mike Murphy was at the 2003 cofc" Really? I don't remember him there, but I am getting old with a failing memory! |
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Yeah he was there with Doug |
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