post-MC2004

Thanks to Scott and everyone else who gave me tips. It’s appreciated.

This year was the polar opposite in experience in many different ways, and I’m not sure I’m doing this next year. I’d advise people not to bother if they asked right now.

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I don’t want to write this but I want to get it out of my system. Last year (in the old updates), I did a whole big narrative because I was so pumped ever 4 hours later that I couldn’t wait to tell everyone. This year, I just want to go do something else. But fair is fair.

Reasons Why Madden Challenge Was Better This Year:

They moved it from Crystal Gardens to the Grand Ballroom, creating actual standing room. They used the extra room to push people just watching two feet away from those who are playing, so you’re not being breathed on.

The line to get in the door was really short and organized this time.

They actually gave a $5 off any EA Game coupon I’d use, as opposed to the worthless things last year.

Reasons Why Madden Challenge Was Worse This Year:

They did not tell anyone they were moving the event from Crystal Gardens to the Grand Ballroom. They did not even leave a note or sign in Crystal Gardens. You only found out if you happened to wander a half mile more down the pier, where they put up signs.

Once inside, the line to actually get your seeding in the tournament was long, aimless, and unorganized.

Back in the first line, they did not bother to tell you that you’d end up playing the person ahead or behind you when you got your bracelet. (They had a sign when you showed your ID, but that’s it – a bigger warning was needed.) If you showed up in line with a friend – a completely natural thing to do – you had fifty/fifty shot of facing them, and you were only informed of the situation and their refusal to do anything about it when you were seeded.

So, the guy I’ve played against for the two weeks and went over strategies we’re using in case it helps the other person is of course the person I’m facing in the first round. (It doesn’t help that I’m running an unlikely 4 game winning streak against him and I know he’s going to go into a huge funk if he loses here.) We both try to convince ourselves it was good because someone would move on to the second round (of 9? I think), but seeing as we both thought we’d AT LEAST get to the second round, that wasn’t much of a consolation.

Another thing that sucked, as I’m going to start randomly switching between a list and a narrative, is they had a DJ and they were going for a loud booming music club atmosphere, and it obviously does not work when the people running the tournament are trying to shout out numbers and communicate with others about how long they’ll wait. We checked in, asked that question, and got a “[mumbles well underneath sound level”] answer as he walks away from us, at about 10:45. This helped oh so greatly.

You’d think, for a game that has an actual sound track, they could just play THAT. At a moderate level. I don’t mind hearing people talking.

The MC, same guy as last year – probably the DJ was too, but the sound system was horrible in Crystal Gardens so no one had to hear him – was a nice energetic guy but got incredibly grating over time.

Anyway, we killed time by heading out to the Beer Garden where a, uh, aged rock band who’s name I never checked out played, and killed time by eating lunch. I probably should’ve taken it as another bad omen that the “cheeseburger with nothing on it” I ordered came back with lettuce and tomato.

We ended up wandering back inside around 11:30, still not having a clue about when we’d play and not being able to get any answers about how far they were along. Like I said last year, watching a lot of Madden games at the same time and being able to catch a close one every so often is fun (though of course, the way this day was going, all the games seemed to be going on at the same speed, so you’d have 15 minutes with nothing and then 2 good finishes right near each other that you could barely see because there was such a crowd), and one of the best moments was this bizarre and close sequence:

WAS down 9 to PHI 10 with about 25 seconds left, after having just scored a TD. They’re lining up for an extra point, but PHI jumps encroaches for no particular reason. WAS decides now they’re going to go for it – and they get it, putting them up by 1. So all the have to do is kick it deep and hold the Eagles – and they kick it out of bounds. PHI throws an incomplete on the first play, then gets two complete passes to get to the WAS 43 with just enough time for a field goal. A 60 yard field goal. Everyone crowds around to watch, except for the guy playing WAS who doesn’t really want to watch. Kick is 98 power, 86 accuracy, sails sails sails, looks short, looks like it’ll make it, hits the front of the crossbar and bounces back into the endzone. Maybe 99 power, he hits it.

We also saw another game go to OT 0-0. Scores were lower this year. PHI was the hottest team (NE and CAR were up there), ATL was way down, TB was way down, WAS and GB were the surprise teams. No one used the Bears as far as we saw.

Watching gets old. Watching with no semblance of idea when you’re going to play gets old. Watching grounded to one spot like a tree because you don’t know when you can go gets really old and makes your knees wacky if you do it for long enough time. I get bored and tired of standing and take off to sit outside and catch a bit of the Air and Water Show while my friend goes to find a bathroom.

Not four minutes later, I hear them start calling out numbers really really close to ours, for the first time all day. Of course. It takes about ten minutes for him to show back up, and we go in and find out we have to play as soon as someone’s done. Fun.

Despite having more room as mentioned before, they still laid the consoles really goofily. You still don’t have much lateral room, and the block of consoles ran right into the stage, which means you had even less room if you had to play right next to the stage. So that’s where they stuck us.

I played bad. It didn’t help that someone knew the plays I liked running, but I also should’ve done a better job of cutting down the plays I knew he liked running. It wasn’t my best performance, and I’d like to blame the conditions but it was best for both of us. I did make a great deep pass to Owens at the end of first half to pull to a halftime tie, but I got shut down and threw a INT for a TD in the second half to kill us.

During the second half, this guy behind us shows an abnormal interest in what’s going on, peppering us with comments. The general rule is you stand and stare, but you’re not saying anything unless it’s a friend of yours. He was apparently unaware of the rule, and also oblivious to sarcasm I threw back at him.

After our game finishes, it becomes clear – he’s so interested because he’s playing next, and he’s scouting. Which is fine, people do that. But as I turn to leave after the game’s over, he starts trying to pry answers from me on the kind of plays my friend was going to use. He was trying to get me to sell out a friend – and he was aware we were friends stuck playing against each other – for no particular reason. I could not believe him. (I did what any good friend should do – lied.) This would be the least of Second Round Guy’s idiocy.

The rule has seemed to be, the two years I’ve done this now, they have the first round winners play their second round games as soon as they win (and so on for the first five? rounds), so my friend J (MIN) and Annoying Guy (BAL) are playing in the same place right away.

As I’m watching – and squashed by a mountainload of people trying to get a look at how a Madden Challenge Winner (all those people are quite lame but that