Yesterday was a rocky start for last years champions. Playing home, VDAJ were not to be able to confirm to last year’s glorious and mind boggling playing and lost their first two games. First lost was against Canada Wood - Paul (Malle Pietje). The Canadian Dutch team shot hard and accurate, winning 5-4. Next lost of VDAJ was against a hard as steel Steelcase. Steelcase by the looks of it had been practicing day and night at one of those winter training camps in Siberia, as their balls rolled with an icy cold accuracy towards goal leaving VDAJ goalkeeper Martin in tears. Steelcase more than deserved the best player award for their flair and finesse and goaly Kurochan accepted the price gladly. Old hands William Iron Fist Titus from H&R brought some new blood to the table in the hands of pedal to the medal David Lease Japan Ainley. Three wins but also three loses for H&R. Hako, also known as the Hooligans of the Vitafeetleague were rather quiet today, two wins and three loses, maybe their silence was still from the shock their received from the bloody defeat of last month’s friendly from VDAJ at Hako’s home ground. JAC showed their determination and force, three wins no loses gives them a strong start of the season. Only having to travel too far (Ibaraki?) to return home meant they only played three games. Four wins for new company but veteran player I LOVE THIS GAME Graham means a great start of the season for SPI. Other veterans of the Vitafeetleague and well versed on the carpet Oshima Pros made a surprise win against H&R. It shows that practice makes perfect. Last night saw a lot of new talent around the table. TedxTokyo, although not new as a team brought new players including Cara flown in specially for tonight’s game from Stanford. Other new comers included snapshotting Nacasa & Partners, spending a lot of time on our practice table and despite initial loses showing great promise for the season. Lutron keeps surprising us in finding new talent for almost each game they played last season and for last night’s game Kakoki-san brought in Panasonic’s Fujita-san for some heavy gunning action. JNS/Multiplan proved a combination to be reckoned with two wins, definitely a team we will follow closely during the season.
JAC at two wins, luckily it was only another one goal before they had to get their last trains
Hako explaining how to eat and play at the same time.
How do you rank yourself as a player? Here’s how you do it according to foosball.com
Rating
Rank
Comment
0
Marsupial (never played): Usually someone’s kid under the age of 4. My kids are here now.
200
Average person (played 10 times): Spin like and egg beater, misses’ the ball a lot. Not very good at all.
300
Better Player (played 25 times): Spins some, swings some. Can actually hit the ball most of the time.
500
Good player (played 50 times): Good player who does NOT practice. Can shoot the ball and block some shots.
700
Beats all their friends (played 100 times): Actually plays weekly. Learning to have a strong, consistent shot. Not very much controlled passing, just smacks at it on the 5-bar. Always beats their friends and the guys at work or the dorm.
800
Beats everyone they know (100’s of games): Has a good shot and is learning to pass the ball from 5-bar to 3-bar. Easily wins virtually every time they play at work or a bar/club. Thinking about going to a tournament at a bar/club and play for money. We suspect 50% of the people reading this are at this level. You think your good enough to beat anyone, sorry to tell you this, but you are going to be butchered for a couple years at tournaments. There are people who will make you look like an 8 year old kid on the table. Don’t get to disappointed, give it some time and learn!!!
900
Competitive Player (Just started playing competitively, under a year): This is the lowest level of “Professional Foosball Tour” players. They do not win very much, if ever, on the ‘tour’. You start to see the signs of an “un-raceable” shot or pass. This player would blow away any normal player but the tour vets are just too much.
1000
Tournament Level Player (1-2 years): This is a solid player: Starts to win money and prizes on the tour, lowest level “Pro” players. Has a strong shot, but the accuracy is not so great and the consistency is lacking. This player will have at least one “un-raceable” shot and maybe one pass. Needs more practice.
1200
Solid tour players (3 years): This person can go to a local tournament and place in the top 5 or so. This person has a good shot, a good pass and very good defense (the key is their solid defense). A 500 point person (your average good player) would be destroyed by this person. An average player (200 points) would be lucky to score on this person more then 1 time a game. Accuracy is there, consistency may need some work. “Un-raceable” in many areas, you will start to witness shots and passes which are “Un-seeable”, you just can’t see them and you have to say what just happened. An average player would not understand how good this person is because the game would be so controlled and so quick it starts to look ‘easy’ to an observer.
1500
Very good tour player (5 years): Places in top 10% in all events they play in. Can compete with all but the best players in the world. This person shoots and passes at a 95% range on lower players. We are now at Accuracy and Consistency, always. This player hits the spot they are shooting at, every time. Now surely you will witness shots that you do not “see”. This person is going to do stuff that seems unbelievable, but they will do it over and over again. The 800 point player (likely you) is going to be smushed. But this person is far from the best in the world.
1800
Best ‘normal’ human player (10 years): Top of the game. This is the best the average person can get. If you do not have a ‘knack’ for the game, you will never get any better then this. You could practice 12 hours a day for 10 years and unless you are quick like a cat and smart like a fox, this is the best you can be. Everything they do is “un-stoppable” and mostly “un-seeable” to an average player. You will have fun playing this person, if you have a good sense of humor, because it is going to be funny how badly you lose. If you score on this person, celebrate like you just won the super bowl, it will happen that rarely. If it takes them more then 3 minutes to beat you, that also would be a miracle. Don’t be surprised if they only shoot trick shots, their normal tournament shots would be silly easy.
2000
Fantastic player, top 1000 in the world (playing whole life): This person is a foosball machine. Can do any shot and any pass at any time and blocks everything you try to do. This player will play at such a level they will beat anyone and everyone who walks up. These players catch any ball bouncing around the table, they block most every shot and the shoot like lightning. If you are so drunk as to play a player at this level for money, I hope you have a good job to earn the money back because you are going to LOSE EVERY SINGLE TIME!!!
Above 2000
Foosball players from mount Olympus (Playing before time started): This is where the players who win $1,000’s of dollars are rated. These people are just ridicules. No matter how drunk you get, you will never think you could beat a person of this skill level. These people could beat you with 1 arm and an elbow, I actually mean that.
Hot summer games in Jiyugaoka yesterday. While the Japanese Olympic team was losing against the US team, about 10 teams competed in our monthly Vitafeetleague. The ahum, “vintage” Harvard table, (look at the pictures to see this poor old battle-hardened table)
did at some point not withstand the brutal force of some of our shots and one of the players broke in half. Fortunately, the always resourceful SPD Meiji came well prepared and brought some tape. After a patch-up by Aaron the player was as good as new and the games continued well into the night.
Aaron patching up the broken player,
SPD Meiji shooting some sneaky shots,
Yas, Makino from Clestra (seeing something weird on the ceiling) and James Ferrer from Snack Treat,
Nakashima from Schiavello enjoying the evening while Toshi is having a peak at Japan’s Olympic team on the screen,
Oshima Pro’s highly concentrated at play,
Cassina did not get time to order a drink, the moment they arrived they had to play,
Another Vitafeet League night was held on Tuesday 7/8/08 in Roppongi’s Bagus game hall.
It was the first night away from the home field at VDAJ. Our initial venue no-longer had a table so everyone was diverted to Roppongi thanks to some quick Ota-style sleuthing. Games began around 7:30 with many close final scores, partly due to the foreign table. VDAJ was finally beaten by the Steelcase team lead by Aoyama-san in a back and forth grudge match (final:5-4). And a newcomer, the Reuters team took claim to the evening’s bragging rights and VDAJ-wine prize.
We thank all the participants that made it to the night’s games despite the last minute location change.
Despite the guerilla techniques were used as you can hear and see here:
VDAJ again managed to clench on to the tittle of having scored 6 points out of 6 games played. Obviously the home advantage is working, or was it the beer?
Jonathan and Aaron working hard…
And this is what the Vitafeetleague does to some people…
Nichiai ended up as second best for the evening and clearly were very happy with the results!
