Summaries of the 2015 KO2WC

[Freshmaker]

Gianni refers to the Kickoff2worldcup as Christmas. I like to call it the weekend of weekends.
Thanks to everyone for making this weekend what it is. I'll write up my story more later, just wanted to start the topic.

[iankay]

Hey all, brilliant weekend in Dublin. Many thanks to Danny, Pedro, Gianni, Pat, Steve, Pedro2, Cameron, Dino, and any others who helped with the organisation that I didn't know about or have forgotten. So great to meet all those people who up until now have just electronic friends, and all the newcomers. Main memories for me:
The symphonic quality of the national anthems; Danny's broken joystick from Bournemouth dangling amongst the flags; all those who prevented goals by sliding their Cox along the ground (Alan's stood out for me); my game with Rob where his lob, MrDig, dribble, Cambergoal, own goal and normal goals beat my trapmove, MrDig, walk of shame and two red cards; great humour in the penalty shoot out of shame; getting a table for four in the hotel restaurant, which eventually became about seventeen with the staff having to keep adding extra tables; and leaving the hotel bar with Jorn at 1am, only to see the Germans coming in, so obviously we had to turn around and have another pint.

http://www.ianjameskay.me.uk/20151108AndyFabio.jpg

[Binary]

At the end, only one man is World Champion, but everyone is a winner.


In the last 15 years I've read dozens of summaries of World Cups by other people, but only this time I realized how different it is to actually be there. Let me try:

FRIDAY:

Driving with Junior and a car full of hardware, arrived in Dublin only a few minutes after the playing hall, a former chocolate factory Danny found, had closed, so had to leave my loaded car in the Gresham hotel (different from the official one) car park. Fortunately nobody noticed the fortune that 9 Amigas on the back seat represent, and nothing happened to it After check in, we went to meet the players for the draw on the Castle hotel's bar.



(Apology for the name typos... English is not Robert's first language)

It was good to review the 7 faces I knew from Luton 2009, even though I'm not sure all of them remembered me Also great to meet that night some new players and others I knew from forums/social media. Looking back now, it's interesting to see how these strangers will bond over 48h of geeky hard work

SATURDAY:

As much as we can plan ahead, getting the room ready takes longer than hoped & expected. We started a bit late after some hard work by Danny, Camber, Robert, Bob and I. As early as 10:30 the free free beer was already in some players hands, and the matches started...

MAIN COMPETITION:

What to expect of a player who has played possibly 10 KO2 matches since Luton 2009? Not much - and that's what happened. Most of my games were actually a blur, but here's what I remember:

vs Andy: lost 6-1 in Luton and lost 9-1 in Dublin. That's now the 3rd World Champion I score against!

vs Robert: lost 13-2 (really? wow) in Luton and 8-1 in Dublin. Quite the improvement heh?!

vs Stephen D: Stephen was kind enough to score 2 own goals. Unfortunately, he also scored 4 regular ones 4-2 final score

vs Alan: two players with only losses, my better goal average would put me through even with a draw. And 1-1 was the score in injury time when I gave away a penalty Oh well, that gave Alan the opportunity to experience the Silver Cup.

STEVE SCREECH CUP aka BRONZE CUP:

4 players only on the bronze cup, and I'm totally out of practice. It's going to be grand, they say...

vs Daryl H: 3-2, 3-0. Daryl was possibly more out of practice than I was, and this was the right motivation to keep me going. Hey I'm suddenly scoring and not conceding (one of Daryl's goals was an own goal). Can I avoid the shirt of shame? Let's see...

vs Dino: 3-1 . Dino was leading 1-0 in the first match when disaster struck: The Shirt of Shame song started playing on the room stereo! Old fears of regaining this shirt took control of his joystick, and despite him singing along, I made a comeback.

vs Gary P: 4-0 . Gary likes playing defensively using lockout, so he didn't find it very easy to break through my "five fwee too".

By now I was making moves I had never done before. Stop & go? Check. Trapgoal? Check. Where is Pedro and who is this ugly mofo scoring goals who took his place?!

SUNDAY

vs Dino 2-0 . On our second game, my 5-3-2 was exemplary and two breakthroughs made the difference. I think Dino was already resigning himself to the strong possibility of winning another Shirt of Shame! "I need to have some strong words with my game when I get home!" he joked.

vs Gary P: 2-0 . Once again a very defensive game from both sides where my more accurate shots on goal made the difference.



A very respectable 19-3 goal difference and top of group! By now I thought this was over and the cup was won but apparently the top 2 players had to play a final! So we did...

Final vs Gary P: 2-0, 2-0. Gary played very well and had some chances, but in the end his failed lob attempts and more defensive play made the difference. The first Steve Screech cup was mine!

"So you got a trophy Pedro?!" well not exactly! We decided to do this Bronze cup after we bought the trophies so in the end we opted to call it Steve Screech Cup (with his permission of course) and the prize would be an autographed KO2002.

We also gave another one to Gary P



Bar below the venue was closed on sunday, so nothing like calling for pizza! I asked for some extra (surely me and Junior don't eat two large ones... well teenager appetites are legendary!!!) so I could share with any of the players going in and out. Money well spent and bellies well fed! (Jorn's photo here:)



In the meantime, I lost track of what was happening in the main competition until the semis, which we had to speed up due to lack of time (more on the semifinalists below).

After that... packing up and goodbyes, and a night drive to Galway.

NEW NICKNAME?

"I see what you're doing!" Screechy jokingly told me "Losing all games in the first day, pretending not to know how to score, and then beating the opposition in a weaker competition, like those pool players"

"Oh, so I'm a hustler then! The Kick Off 2 Hustler!"

"Exactly!"

So there we go. Pedro, The Hustler.

No really, I totally suck at this game. But I like the nickname

THE SHIRT OF SHAME ... x2

Thanks to Michael Ma's "spare" SoS from 2013, both players in the Penalty Shootout of Shame were "lucky" to be awarded a SoS So when Dino thought he was off the hook after winning the shootout and Daryl having been presented with Johnny Logan's "sponsored" SoS...



...Dino got yet another SoS for his collection! "Ohhh I can never escape it!" he said

THE SHIRT OF GLORY

My preccccciouusssss...



SOME OF YOU MAY NEED NEW GLASSES

"That's your SON?!" - "How old are you?" - "39?! Thought you were younger!"

Had quite a few people following this line of conversation with me during the weekend Yes yes, the latin blood keeps me young and handsome but ... come on, people!

BEST MOMENT

The Steve Screech Cup winner!



WORST MOMENT

Just a few seconds after... the photo speaks for itself!



FAUX PAS OF THE WEEKEND

I assisted Carley and Paul, two of the media people present, to have a go at Kick Off 2 in one of the Amigas. After about 1h, I spotted Carley and asked her "So, how did you enjoy your attempt at Kick Off 2?" . She forced a laugh and said "Attempt? That's a bit rude isn't it?"

Pedro you smooth talker you. Think quick and get out of that one now...

"Well, I've been attempting to play it for 25 years and I'm still terrible at it! It's a complex game."

Quick save, enough to follow up with some small talk, but still...

A WORD ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS

Danny was the driving force behind this WC. Sometimes he looked exhausted, sometimes he looked lost, but he always kept moving and kept the WC running. We pulled it through mate, and it was great doing this with you. FOR RONAN!

Jorn was the voice of reason and experience for the last 6 months, keeping me and Danny on the right tracks. He was undoubtedly the 3rd Organizer. Bro, you're the man, and a worthy receiver of the Lifetime Achievement Award



I often call Gianni by Champ and it has nothing to do with his KO2 titles He looks after software, pairings, rules, gives a comforting word for those who need, has time to answer questions, seems to be in all places at all times and still has time to play the game at the highest level. A true gentleman, it's impossible not to love Gianni (NIAGW).

Danny's friend Winger kept the World Cup going by looking at the small invisible things that need to be done. From trash bags to pens to helping with the scores to looking after the factory doors, he was always in action.

Pedro Junior and Screechy Junior took a crash course in Italian (just kidding!) and spent the weekend looking after the scores and the software.

Bob Lewis, an unknown amongst all of us, lent us hardware and came into the hall in the first day to help things up. Even went to the point of going out to rent more TVs for us! An unexpected organizer who was vital.

Thanks also to Robert for his voice Jaaaaaacob for the disks, Ian for the water supply, all the people who helped carry stuff etc etc... and everyone in general. Wouldn't have been possible without ye.

A WORD ABOUT THE SEMI FINALISTS

I watched Chris play a few times and I was very impressed as how he played an organized attack with short/medium passes from defense to attack. Unsurprisingly, reminded me of Dagh. What I think played against Chris was his nerves - he seemed to be the most nervous of the 4, and I believe that had some influence. IIRC he even was ahead on the 3rd place final very close to the end when Oliver struck twice to take the lead and the bronze medal.
Anyway, Chris has skill and it wouldn't surprise me if we'd see him grab the title one day.

Oliver is a very quiet guy who got his best result ever. I don't have numbers handy but I believe his semi-final vs Andy was quite close. I think better nerves got him that bronze medal in the end. An overall solid performance and well deserved.



I said most what I could have said about Gianni. It is really amazing how he's doing everything for the tournament and at the same time delivering high quality performances. This was not his WC, but I do not doubt that he'll bring the title back to Italy in the future. A legend of the game!

Andy's first KO2 tounament was my own very first KO2 tournament (Luton 2009). Now Dublin 2015 is my 2nd tournament and Andy's (first!) WC title England regains the title with a new champion who is completely opposite from his 2002 predecessor (with the exception of the BLCs! ). Andy is a true gentleman who kept his cool and very deservedly won the title this year. His final is a masterclass of KO2 and I don't believe many players in the world can score so many past Gianni!

FINAL WORDS:

I believe during the award ceremony Dino was a bit lost for words, but he caught me in the end while packing up and asked me to share his message with all of you:

"Thank you for keeping my baby alive."

And, my own personal thank you, goes to all of you for making me feel I contributed to something so good and worthwhile some of you would consider Christmas. It's been a pleasure, and an honor, and I can't wait to see you all again.



Pedro

PS: A dump of the photos Junior and I took can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/UmLdv

[Freshmaker]

Perfect write up Pedro. Loved it! Thanks

Still working on mine

[Abyss]

Lovely write up! Confirmado!

[TheFoxSoft]

Just a small remark: Oliver is not quiet, he is shy

[Freshmaker]

[Danny D]

The below is from Stephen D:


Just wanted to say thanks again for a brilliant tournament and in fact a pretty good weekend break! The friendliness of your invitation and the good humour in the World Cup website tempted me out of retirement and back into the nest of personalities that is the KO2 community, at least temporarily, and I have no regrets whatsoever. Perhaps if I had practiced before going out there I might have performed better in the earlier games, but despite not having picked up a joystick in probably a year and a half I managed to win 9 and lose 9 of my official contests, if you take friendlies and seperate legs into account then I won more games than I lost, and I am proud of that fact, more so than I would have been had I practiced and arrived with at least some expectations. I was fully braced to finish near the bottom and pleased to retain my mid-table credentials from back in the day! Still not sure if I could change 1 result whether it would be the Silver Cup quarter-final where I was out-lobbed in extra time, or Robert Swift's last minute winner against me.

I kept wanting to ask Danny for a friendly but every time I looked your way you were intensely involved in some important task or enjoying a very well deserved moment of relaxation. I guess if you're the best player from Eire, by default I'm almost certainly the best Northern Ireland native. Perhaps one day we will have an all-Ireland decider, I might be tempted to come over if there is ever an Irish Championship.

I nearly missed my flight by the way, I left the venue at 19:45 before the third place play-off finished (who won?) and managed to get to the airport gate by 20:50 with 10 minutes to spare! Well done to Dublin's transportation network and airport staff!

Please also pass on my thanks to Pedro, Dino, Steve S, Pedro and Screech Jr, Winger, Camber, Gianni and anyone else involved in the organising. Both the outgoing and incoming champions are total gentlemen and both wholly deserve the title.

Slainte,

Stephen D

[Oliver St]

I don't know where to start guys when I look back to this awesome weekend of awesomeness. First of all we cannot thank the organizers well enough for their hard work and comittment to make these unforgettable events happen every year. As an ex-organizer I am aware of this.

Regarding my own performance I still hardly can believe what I have achieved. It was not only making history by being the first german player ever to reach the semifinals and bringing home the first medal for Germany. I also won against 4 players (Gianni, John, Sandro and Robert) that I had never beaten before plus once again I could beat the forthcoming champion within the tournament. Furthermore I ended up 2nd in the group of death only beaten by Gianni. All this together was a very sweet mix for me.

Reaching the semifinals has always been a dream for me. I had been in the quarter finals 3 times before but with Gianni (2008) and Dagh (2010 and 2012) I always had opponents that were too strong for me to prevail against. This year I had created myself a better position for the quarter finals by finishing 2nd instead of 4th in the gold group. Of course you never have any easy opponents in a quarter final but I knew that against Thor I could have a chance in the right moment with some luck on my side. I was very well aware of his strength. How could I forget my extra time defeat in the game for position 9 in Copenhagen. This year our games turned out pretty much the same way and the 4-4 in the first leg game showed that another extra time session could be very likely waiting for us at the end of the second leg. When Thor was leading by 5-4 at the beginning of the second half I thought for a moment that my dream of the semifinal could soon be over again. But i immediately erased these thoughts from my mind, pulled myself together and consequently carried on playing my game without getting any anxious or nervous. Actually I successfully managed to play that way throughout the whole tournament and that was surely the key for my success. So I could even afford an awful defensive mistake in the last minute in which I gave away the ball away frivolously which enabled him to score an easy goal. It was still 9-6 for me when the final whistle was blown and I had finally got where I always wanted to be. In the coming minutes I was like in an inebriation trying to realize what just had happend.

With tears in my eyes I was searching for a quiet corner to calm down before I witnessed Andys victory against Fabio which made him my opponent in the semifinal, my beloved friend Andy which I had beaten 6-4 in the gold group. I knew that even the final could be possible for me since I often tend to beat Andy even though he surely has the better technique. Anyway Andy and I decided to enjoy every f...... second of those big screen games and that's what we did for sure. Honestly I was a bit scared that I could be heavily beaten by him with everyone watching in the audience and on youtube afterwards. But I could keep up in both games in which I even took the lead a few times and finally a 5-7 and 6-6 is not the worst result. So I really was not disappointed to go out at that point of the tournament at all. Instead I was really happy for my friend and regarding myself I was still highly motivated to win the 3rd place game against Chris, who had beaten me on day 1, to grab that medal. The rest was pure joy and relief. Oh, how much I love that game and how much I love you all guys.

[Danny D]

The World cup started early for me, back in May 2015 when I bid to bring the World Cup to Dublin. Jorn was instrumental in getting the Irish bid across the finishing line by promoting the Dublin bid to the KOA elders. Pedro came on board and the deal was signed.

Thursday
After work I got my hands on the Kick Off 2 van and drove 120km to the Kick Off house.

Friday
I departed Cork and 260km later arrived at the Chocolate factory at 16:00. The group draw was in four and a half hours so the pressure was on! This was too short to setup the venue. The chocolate factory floor was empty, bare, blank. First thing I checked was that the beer had been delivered! Next I checked that the tables had been delivered. Myself and Winger then proceed to locate the 25 tables.Then it was time to hang the flags. Upon a particular descent I lost control of the ladder. Luckily the ladder fell two feet to the left of Winger but I managed to twist my knee in the chaos. We finally left the chocolate factory and checked into my cheapo hotel at 20:10.I rushed and was able to make it to the group draw at 20:40. After a bit of organised chaos Rob and Gianni stepped up and took control of the draw. Finally it was time to relax and meet everyone.

Being a tournament host one would assume I was the first to book the official WC hotel. Wrong! I left it to late and by the time I attempted to book the only room was €200 a night. In desperation I booked a cheap hotel that was nearby. Little did I know was that there was a heavy metal night club below. After returning to the hotel at 12:00 I had to wait for the night club to close at 03:30 before being able to get to sleep.

Saturday
Up at 07:00, three and a half hours later.No time for breakfast as I had to open the chocolate factory at 08:00.Frantic last minute attempts at getting everything organised meant that we delayed the official opening until 09:30. Bob Lewis was a life saviour, thanks Bob! Within the first hour 10 people had asked me what the wifi password was but nobody had asked where the toilets were! In the midst of this chaos I fielded about 5 phone calls and answered about 20 text messages! Finally at 11:00 it was time to make the opening ceremony and start the games.
Dinner Burger King.

My group games were a blur. I was fielding phone calls during games, trying to organise etc..All I can remember is playing two out of 3 Deardons. I also played quite a few Irish and got trashed 10-0 by Gianni.

Sunday
Up at 08:00, again no time for breakfast as the chocolate factory had to open at 09:00.Breakfast at 14:00 : Burger King with Robert and Jacob. We had planned to be finished by 18:00 but this didn’t happen. I was beyond exhausted and Mr.grumpy so I put pressure on Gianni to speed up proceedings. I was too exhausted to participate in the closing ceremony so Pedro stepped up. 13 hours later after opening the chocolate factory it was time to hit the road. I made it 1 hour outside of Dublin and checked into a random hotel for the night. 12 hours later I woke up!

Monday:
Made it to the Kick Off house by 13:00. Unloaded the van and drove another 2 hours.

Best memories
Robert Swift moaning about a particular Amiga and then storming off to play his game at a different table. He lashed out at the table and managed to semi collapse the table sending an Amiga flying. Somehow the Amiga stayed on and continued to work. Robert claims he didn't lash out in anger but nobody believes him

Another great memory was two Germans disappearing to the pub during day 1. I believe they had one game left to play and the Italians were going mad! All I could do was laugh!

I'm proud that we Pedro and myself managed to pull this off and I hope the slightly disorganised chaos didn't detract too much

Thanks
Pedro Pedro kept calm when I lost it under the pressure.He should have given me the red card and sent me back to the hotel to catch a nap
Winger     The hardest working man not in the KOA!
Jorn Nice shout out to Ronan!
Steve C     Mr  Videographer, Mr. Live Stream, Mr. 3 A1200s.
Thor          My duty free man!
Bob Lewis Mr Fixit.
Gianni+Robert      for doing the group draw at such short notice.
Pedro Jnr  for running the results desk
Cameron   for running the results desk
Lee W        for the gift of a Konix Speedking
 

Total driving: 760km.


A little Video I assembled from Steve C's footage:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP3D0UJoTQc

[thor]

First of all, a big thank you to everyone who made this event possible and a success: Pedro, Danny, Jorn, Gianni, Steve C., Pedro Jr., Screech Jr., Winger, Bob, and I’m sure a whole bunch of other people that I am forgetting.

Congratulations: Andy - You saved your best for last! Oliver - Not only for the 3rd place, but for consistent solid play throughout. Chris - I’m so proud of you! You showed that you have the skills to win the whole thing. Jacob; Quarter finals! Lee – Rookie of the year! Silver cup win is huge for your first attempt. Pedro - Nice hustling!

I left Seattle on Wednesday and flew via San Francisco (2 hrs) to Dublin (9 hrs) and arrived Thursday morning. I waited for Chris at the airport and then we cabbed it to the hotel. After a nap, Andy showed up and we started setting up to play friendlies in the hotel room. I had brought my 1084S monitor and Chris had brought my original Amiga (which I have let him borrow for the last 14 years). My monitor only had a 120V power supply, so I had brought a travel converter. Everything powered on well, and it was nice to see the Kick Off 2 splash screen in front of us. Then it went black, followed by the dreaded hardware BBQ smell. FFS! Looks like the converter didn’t do its job. Luckily I had brought my laptop and joystick adapters, so we had a back-up solution.

We played friendlies in the hotel for the rest of Thursday and most of Friday and even John and Michael stopped by to play (they must have heard the familiar sound in the hallway). It was great to see everyone at the draw, and like last year it is always nice to meet new people and make new friends. I was pleased with my group, and excited to play Gianni in round 1. It would be a good measuring stick for whether I had improved since last year.

Due to jet-lag (8 hour time difference), I only got about 2 hours of sleep Friday night. I was so tired I could barely operate my phone, let alone play kick off. I was pretty depressed; did I really travel all this way to play like a zombie? I went to the store a got some Red Bull and it seemed to do the trick.

I won the first 8 games in my group comfortably, and set up a group-finale with Gianni that I had been looking forward to; last year he got me pretty good. Prior to last year’s WC I hadn’t really played much in 13 years, and I didn’t have an Amiga or joystick adapters, so I was not prepared. This time I had been able to practice a bit, albeit against the Amiga, so I felt I should do better this year. It was a close game, and Gianni prevailed 4-3 in the end. The main difference was probably the two goals he scored off a GK routine I didn’t expect. I did pick that up and used it later in the tournament (thanks G!). This was a validation for me that I can compete with the best, and if I can play a bit more consistently, I think I have a (small) chance to win the WC in the future.

My round 2 group was of course going to be tougher with Fabio and Chris, and Jacob who beat me twice last year. I was playing well at the end of Saturday and won the first 3 games of round two against Klaus, Michele, and Jorn, with an aggregate goal difference of 29-3. If I could play like this on Sunday, anything could happen.

I started Sunday by beating Michael Ma., and *finally* beating Jacob. I then chose to play Fabio, leaving my game with Chris for last. I didn’t play well against Fabio and lost 4-0. Zero. WTF! I don’t recall not scoring a goal in a game of Kick Off for a very, very long time. He is such a good defender, and he has a lot of good routines, etc. For me, Fabio was by far the toughest opponent I played this year, and I felt he was stronger than when we played last year. Until Andy beat him I thought he would win. But I will fix that and be better prepared next year.

Chris and I started playing Kick Off 2 when the game came out, and until I moved to the USA in 2001 we played more than 4000 games with recorded results. This was the first time we got to play in a WC, and the outcome of the game would be significant in terms of the seeding for the quarter finals. I took an early 3-1 lead and held a comfortable lead for most of the game, 5-3 with about a minute and a half left. I then made some tactical mistakes/offensive errors and Chris countered in 3 well-taken goals to win it 6-5 at the final whistle. I suppose I should have shut it down and secured the lead, but we’ve never played like that. It isn’t part of my Kick Off DNA. I’ll have to rethink that for next year.

This set-up a quarter final with Oliver, whom I had beaten 8-4 in group play and then 12-11 over two legs in the play-out last year. I was positive that this would be a close quarter final, but also confident that I had a decent chance of making the semis. Before the WC, my goal was to make the quarter finals, but now I was aiming higher.

The first game was a bit scrappy, 4-4. The second was better, and I had a 5-4 lead in the second half and felt like I was playing well. About the time when Oliver said he was thinking about losing, I was starting to think about the semi-final. For some reason it all fell apart in the last 3 minutes and Oliver prevailed, 9-6. I think he scored 5 or 6 goals off of corner routines over these two games. I knew he was excellent at this going in, but I just hadn’t prepared enough. Another thing to fix for next year, I guess. I really enjoy playing Oliver, and am looking forward to more games in the future. The 3rd place was well deserved, and the semi-finals with Andy were close games that he could have won. It just shows how close the level was between the top players.

Having been “knocked out”, I played Fabio again in the play-out. I didn’t have much focus or inspiration in these games, and he won both comfortably. This set-up 7/8 place games with Jacob, and I won both.

I’m back in Seattle now with no-one to play against . If any of you are ever in the Seattle area for work or leisure, bring your joystick and let me know, and we can hang out and play some Kick Off!

I plan to attend the WC again in 2016, wherever it is. Hopefully stronger, and a bit more consistent. But most of all just looking forward to seeing my Kick Off friends again!

[r.cross]

The Venue
It might have been a little cool at times but it sure had character (and plenty of free beer). Unique and perfectly fitting if you ask me. Pat showed me that the entry code was written on the walls (which kind of reminded me of early role playing games) but Thomas proved that a strong German pull could solve the problem in a much quicker way.
Going to the toilet was a bit creepy and Gine proved me right' as her attempt of a panorama shot reveald that an evil ghost comitted his monstrous deeds in these ancient halls.



In other words: good choice Danny!

The Hotel
Moving through it's corridors felt like walking on a huge ship floating on an underground river. The floor was moving and everything you touched made sounds. I mean even the tiles in the bathroom were creaking! I slept well though and the breakfast was plenty. Irish coffee reminds me more of tea though, thank god they had an espresso machine. Well worth the invest.

The City
I knew Dublin from some job related stops in my mid twenties and I was thrilled to be there again. Just love people and atmosphere, Gine was particularely fascinated, she even started to like G(u)inness.



It's not cheap though, I'll have to do some long hours the upcoming weeks.

The Games
Generally I didn't feel all to good about my playing, timing was quite off the whole weekend and I hardly ever had any true mojo-moments. The main reason I managed to finish 10th was that I gathered some good experience during the last years, helping me to edge some narrow wins in situations where I would have been smashed to pieces a few tourneys ago. That way I managed to out-lob Camber and out-bastard Swift, whose I think both played better than me. But ruthlessnes is something the very same persons taught some time before - so there you have it . Yet those games where as close as they could get, real thrillers and great fun. Same goes for my first battle against Jacob, but somehow he managed to completeley prevent me from scoring in our crucial game for position 8. I suck using lockout and suck in trying to score against it. Much prefer using plain 424 like in 2013, but this time it would have cost me some places, thats for sure......and - I think I'll always play bad before late afternoon. Morning Kick Off still feels seriously unnatural for me.



Sorry Andy for playing my worst KO that weekend against you - you deserved better.
Thanks Klaus to grant me revenge for our 2013 battle.
Thanks John (who I never played to day) to finish behind me - somehow that sounds good
One thing I'll never quite get are Helmuts mediocre results in WC's. His style is beautiful and in our only friendly that weekend he finished me 1:3. Somehow something is going wrong here my friend...
Kudos to all the 'new' players, especially to Lee who showed some impressive skills. Come again guys!!



The Fun
Many hilarious conversations that weekend that were sugar coated by Thor's and Dino's butterfly effect talking Sunday night. I'm not going to tell that here until these two guys refuse to.



The KOA is just full of funny and smart characters, love you my friends.

The Organizers
I'll keep it simple and quote Fabio on that - 'Thank you!'



or better: 'Thank you - Thank you!!'

Lufthansa
Fuck off and give your people what they deserve. At least give them enough to make sure they don't go on strike during my christmas holidays!

[Torchiador]

very nice reading! Thank you so much for posting!
One above all who writes his first write up in a world cup: Pedro, this is the best writes up ever! I love you!
and thanks to Michael, Thor, Oliver, Ian, Stephen and Danny!

PLease dudes, in your following writes up, don't make reference to any scores, please be vague.
ALkis is noting on his notepad all the results you are writing. don't give him any hint!