2019 KO2WC - The Stories

[Freshmaker]

Please, remember the great KOA-Tradition of sharing YOUR story of the World Cup weekend.

I'm busy writing mine. Will update asap.

[iankay]

Mine started with a 04:00 Friday alarm clock to drive to Manchester Airport for the 07:00 flight to Hamburg. Quick train to Bremen and a short walk to the hotel, a few texts and I had the pleasure of Lee and Steve C coming around to take me to the venue, which already had ten Amigas in place, a Jaegermeister machine, too many beers to count, and great news from Peter and Michael that we had the place to ourselves 24 hours a day.

That led to a cracking afternoon of catching up with old friends and meeting new ones, a few friendlies, a few lagers, discussions on politics with Jorn and Michael, a chat with Manfred about Bert Trautmann, the excitement of the draw, and then off out to the festival ground for a great night in the Bayern tent. My memory is kind of hazy but I do remember us being ushered out as the last people in the tent, and Peter K topping up my glass every time it was empty.

Somehow I felt good enough for Saturday breakfast but I was increasingly panicky in my first game when Hannes kept me blank for over seven minutes before I finally broke through. I was happy with 10 goals scored and 25 goals conceded from my three games against Gianni, Chris, and Alessandro, before the crucial matches. I hit form at just the right time to beat my good friend Jorn 4-2. After he beat Peter K by the same score, I figured a one goal loss to Peter would put me in my first Gold Group, while a loss by three or more would put Peter through - but if I lost by two, Jorn would overtake us both! Thankfully the last of my energy gave me the victory before I went back to the hotel for an afternoon nap.
I would happily have taken one point from my first Gold Group, and that's exactly what I got; I was battered by Thor, Chris, Steve C, and Lee, but ran Jacob and Marco close, before finally holding Lorenzo to a 2-2.

Saturday night brought the return of the much-missed doubles, and the famous Karaoke, which I've already mentioned elsewhere. It was even better than the year before (although I hope next time we'll have Panni to sign the Proclaimers again), with everyone being persuaded to get up and give it a go. 3am was bedtime for me, although for others it was time to go out drinking.

Sunday brought a ride on the Commander rollercoaster followed by a defeat to Frank but I got what I wanted, a late goal that meant I scored in every game in the tournament, and after playing Michael and Freddy I was delighted to end 13th after coming 19th/21st/24th in previous years. My memory fails me again about Sunday night but I do remember talking to Paolo about Toto Schillaci.
Monday was an early start, a discussion about the beautiful game with Michele on the train to Hamburg, and another good sleep flying back to Manchester.

I always feel bad with the thank yous because there will be so many people who have contributed that I never knew about, or forgot, but I have to mention Steve C for the technology and the outside broadcast, and Peter K and Michael for fantastic organisation and picking the weekend to coincide with the Bremer Freimarkt.

[Freshmaker]

Thanks for sharing Ian! Damn!!! Did you beat me there in our first-round-match. On the good side though, that gave me the opportunity to secure my long awaited Sliver Cup, so I guess we can call it good enough.
And I still remember you having your floored sleepytime in the gameroom.

[Torchiador]

Thank you very much Ian, very nice reading! and congratulation for your first Gold Group qualification!

[Freshmaker]

This year my travels started on Wednesday. Direct flight from Tromsø to Fankfurt, then a short hop from Frankfurt to Bremen. And lucky me got picked up at the airport by no other then Michael. We drove out of town and to Peters place, where I was staying over the first two nights. After the a couple of hours of talking we said goodnight. As the old geezer I've become, I always have to get up during the night to go pee. Forgetting to lock the door was not such a smart thing, so you can imagine the shock Peters 7 year-old daughter got when she thought it was one of her parents who'd gone to the bathroom at 5.30 in the morning, and then found a tattoed twat who couldn't even understand her language She seemed cool about it when I got up a few hours later though...

We spent the first day hanging around the house, so I got to know Peters lovely wife Nicole and their incredibly cool kids Juliana and Nicolas. Ffs Peter! At least something you've done right!!! Peter and I took care of testing his Amigas, so I got my first KO2-action since the previous World Cup
This was on halloween, so Peters wife took the kids to go trick or treating, and Peter and I took the train downtown to go to the Freimarkt. Incredible how much them germans can drink...

The next day it was Friday, and time to go to Bremen and set up. The plan was to have the gameroom divided into to gamerooms, but we did some adjustements and managed to cram everything into the one room, and I think that was a success. The hotel was 100 meters away, the Freimarkt next door, the Gameroom was way cool, located in the coolest building every, with The Eye of Sauron on top. Way to go Peter and Michael!!!

As usual, seeing people arrive one by one, group by group; it's the best feeling in the world. World Cup Friday must be the single best day of the year. Every year.

I shared a room with Peter, and he was nice enough to provide me with a wake-up service every morning at 5 a.m. as he came crashing through the door, falling asleep before hitting his bed. That's what I call german efficiency. Ordnung muss sein.

Saturday, and time for the games. I had a pretty good map of my Group 1 matches; who I'd lose to and who I'd most likely beat, apart from that one player; Ian.

Jorn F 2 - Ian K 4
I can't seem to recall ever winning over Ian in a match prior to this World Cup, and our Group 1 match proved to prove that point. Ian is one of the nicest, friendliest and funniest guys around, and having him as a regular is important for the WC-experience. He beat me, and he won all the other matches he needed to win, hence I missed my seeding. Bummer. On a good note though, it provided me with a better second stage.

Gianni T 7 - Jorn F 3
Even though I had at least 1 uplifting result in the first group, playing 7-3 as Team B vs Gianni. I was even up at both 0-1 and 1-2, but then in second half Gianni seemed to remember he was at the World Cup and not at his country house, so he showed me some of his magnificent skills to park me.

Jorn F 3 - Hannes B 0
Other matches saw me getting my first official match vs Hannes, the crazy Austrian attending his second World Cup. This time he brought his 16 y.o. son, crazy family. A real pleasure spending time with Hannes again, and I'm sorry I had so much stealing my mind this weekend so I didn't get to talk with him as much as I'd like to.

Alessandro V 6 - Jorn F 2
Funny how you have these guys you truly love being around, but hate playing KO2 with... Alessandro knows the game so well I never stand a chance, but at the same time we have so much fun talking while playing. I might consider challenging Gianni for a fight on who gets to be his cousin.

Jorn F 2 - Christopher D 8
I played one good match vs Chris. Once. Our first match. In Voitsberg 6 years ago. After that one match he just puts all my efforts to shame. I don't stand a chance. Easy as that. But what a good dude, and it's nice to get a chance to chat in Norwegian.

Peter K 2 - Jorn F 4
It's obvious Peter was suffering from organizers syndrom. He was stressed out and unfocused. Something I surely won't see in any correlation to his superdrunk friday night/saturday morning collapseasleep and up again after 3 hours. Nope, no way, never.

Robin H 0 - Jorn F 1
Then you have that bloody bananapeal. The one bugger I thought couldn't bother me at all, and he end up costing me my Best Defence trophy.

Round 2

Jorn F 5 - Cornelius H 2
I remember some years ago Cornelius was one of the opponents on my own level I used to fear, 'cause we had some very hard-fought matches, but these last few years, when we meet it feels like I've got a pretty good control. However, Cornelius was up early with a 1 goal lead, and he played well. Luckily, I managed to score, and then I got a 2-1 lead, and it seemed like he lost all confidence. Rest of the match was almost too easy. Sorry about that Cornelius. I sure hope you manage to get back to form. Great guy, and DAMN do we have a new Karaoke-star here!!!

Joerg P 3 - Jorn F 2
Another player I feared for Round 2, my nemesis from the Silver Cup final in Birmingham, my good friend Panni. And damnit!!! We had a totally hard fought match, and it could've gone the other way, but it was a fair victory for Panni. I was shaky and sweaty after this match.

Jorn F 1 - Knut L 3
Next up was Knut. It was rather obvious he'd been out of the game for years and years, as his resluts was all over the place. Winning some matches he "should" lose, losing matches he "should" win, etc. Getting that early 1 up gave me a confidence-boost, and for a while I felt like I had full control, but then he hit me with the lob. And again. And again... A deserved win for a really cool dude I hope keeps on attending World Cups.

Jorn F 7 - Manfred S 1
A newbie, and a good dude. Manfred was a in over his head, sporting his Quickshot 2 joystick, but he seemed to be enjoying himself. I have to say I enjoyed his company during the weekend at least. And I certainly hope he returns. But maybe with a joystick more suited for KO2

Wolfram H 1 - Jorn F 4
How clever am I? I was walking around, trying to figure out who this "Wolfram"-dude I was gonna play was, until I actually asked someone (can't remember who, maybe Camber), and I got this really strange look in return. "Are you serious?" - "Yes, who is it? Is he a local, a newbie?" - "Oh, ffs! It's WOLF ffsmate!!!" - "Oh, ffs..." My ability to sort out names are totally on par. Poor Wolf, he'd taken a break saturday, and ended up playing all his Round 2 matches back-to-back sunday morning. But he kept his spirits high none the less. Always a pleasure, always a good and friendly talk. I have some matches earlier had problems sorting Wolf's playing-style out, but this time it went rather smooth.

Jorn F 5 - Christian D 2
At this moment, if I remember it correctly, we had this situation where I needed to get a good result vs Christian to secure my Silver Cup QF, so I was really worried with him being a bananapeal. However, it went the way it was supposed to (on my behalf), with a safe victory, placing me in the QF. Apart from the match, I'd have to say that Christian, making his comeback 16 years after his last World Cup, he made a quality impact on the gameroom. A very nice guy, friendly, positive, good vibes and a joy to be around. Please dude, don't wait another 16 years.

Robin H 0 - Jorn F 1
F**k off Robin. Damn you!!!


Then it's Quarter Finals in the Silver Cup!

Peter S 3 - Jorn F 3
Jorn F 4 - Peter S 2
Sum: Jorn F 7 - Peter S 5
In this match I meet Peter S! A loud player, with a way of playing that's kind of well balanced vs my way of playing, so we usually have very close matches. And he's a snidey lobber; especially from the Kick Off. Our first match I couldn't quite defend his KO-lobs, and I was so nervous, waisting lots of opportunities myself, ending with a stressful 3-3, but luckily; in Game 2 I manage to stop his KO-lobs the needed times, and I got control of my own nerves, helping me to land a sweet victory, putting me in the Semi Finals. Go me!!!

Jorn F 3 - Christian D 1
Christian D 1 - Jorn F 2
Sum: Jorn F 5 - Christian D 2
Once again I meet Christian, and after winning our previous match I felt kinda confident going into these matches. And luckily game 1 goes my way, but as we know, a 2 goal lead in KO2, with 10 minutes left to play, is NOT a good lead. But sorry for Christian, early in game 2 I get a corner from my fave corner, and I manage to pull off the Haydn-special. Then, a bit later, Christian offers me a second corner, from the same spot. And I pull it off again. Tbh, Christian managed to hand me a third corner, from the same spot, but this one I couldn't pull off. Yet, it was enough to secure the win, as Christian could only put the 1 goal behind my Fisher, putting me in my, what? 4th Silver Cup final?

Previous finals for me:
2005 - Loss vs Filippo
2011 - Loss vs Panni
2017 - Loss vs Lorenzo

I didn't quite feel up to it at all, afraid I was gonna jinx it with my bad history of finals, but I made one decision; I was not gonna try to relax before the final. I needed to stay "in the zone", so I kept on playing vs the Amiga. After a while Alessandro asked me if I wanted to play vs him, not for competition, but for practice. I guess we played somewhere between 5 and 10 matches. Then, afterwards Gianni took Alessandro's place and played a couple of matches with me, also for training. So by the time we was gonna play the final I felt ready to go, still in the zone, not shaky like previous times.

Jorn F 5 - Joerg P 1
I was nervous, but I felt as prepared and as ready as I could be. And oh boy did it feel good, throughout the entire match. Naturally, it started out really nervously, but when I got that first goal, and Panni didn't have an immediate answer, and then I got number 2; I almost knew by then that THIS was MINE! I was gonna break my spell, and win! I even felt so sorry for Panni not scoring any goals I had to score one for him. Because that's how nice I am.
Seriously, I think I was more releaved than I was happy. But it just felt good. And I was just happy I could play the final vs a quality guy as Panni.

That concluded the matches for me and now it was just to sit down and enjoy the pure class being displayed on the Big Screen between the Top Guns.
And that's the thing with being friends with the guys playing, I felt sorry for my good friend Gianni, not getting another title. I also felt sorry for my good friend Andy, for not getting another title. I also felt sorry for my good friend Fabio, not being able to retain his title. And yet, I also felt really happy for my good friend, and fellow Norwegian, Thor for being able to bring another title back to his home in Seattle.

But, least but not last, we had a fantastic weekend, impressively planned by Peter K and Michael. The layout was perfect, with the Hotel, the Gameroom and the Freimarkt all located in the same intersection, the food was good, the friday dinner at the Bayern Festhalle inside the Freimarkt was nothing but EPIC!!! The Gameroom was really cool, the Kneipe, where we ate on saturday (and thursday...) was totally cool, and then we had the Saturday Karaoke!!! If you've never been to a KOAOKE, you need to get your shit sorted. KOAmembers doing Karaoke, leaving all their shyness at home, going all in to entertain is nothing but AWESOME! There's too much to mention all, but the best perfomances strikes me as Ian K doing his Milkshake and his Firestarter, Cornelius doing Bad to the bone, Lee and Jayne recapping how Internet is for p**n, Andy singing Love me tender and the list just goes on and on and on. There's so much gold, I can live on this for a year while waiting to get my fave weekend of the year once again next year.

Sunday dinner was, as it uses to be, both a beautiful and sad moment. Spending those final hours with all these very special people.

In short, Thanks guys. See you all in Athens!

[Torchiador]

Jorn, this, more than a post, is practically speaking a promotional campaign to not miss the World Cup! simply fantastic!
BTW I didn't realise it was your 4th Silver Cup final! congratulation to finally hit the mark!
I laughed like a stupid I am at the part you woke up in the night at Peter's house
What is possible to add after this?
I'll try for few details then!
Thank you very much for sharing this.

[Freshmaker]

I laughed like a stupid I am at the part you woke up in the night at Peter's house

Dude... How do you think I feel; knowing that that poor girl is now so old that her memories, especially first impressions, will stick with her for the rest of her life?

[Danny Boy]

Nice stories, guys! Very nice. It's always cool to hear how everybody's experience is a little different.

I can offer you the story of somebody who didn't compete and that will show that the KO2 World Cup is an event that anybody can enjoy, whether they play or not.

So Andy and I arrived on Friday afternoon. The first person we spoke to was a Turkish taxi driver who told us that we were staying on the doorstep of all the action. When we saw how close the hotel was to the Freimarkt, we were really impressed. At least we wouldn't get lost getting back at night. During check-in, I got to see some of the competitors, but it wasn't until later that evening that I got to meet all these amazingly friendly and fun guys that Andy had been telling me about. I was a bit confused though, because none of these guys looked like work class footballers. And where were all the Japanese? This is a video game competition, right?

Friday night at the Bavarian tent was epic. I don't think I ever been out with so many guys at one time and still had a boner. Those German girls were all stunners (or maybe I was just won over by the outfits). Plus I broke a 10 month dry season by getting shitfaced on beer and Jagermeister because there wasn't much else to drink. Well...I wasn't gonna drink Coke at a beer festival.

Things got even more amazing when they kicked us out and we went back to the game venue (or as Christened by Jorn as "The Eye of Sauron". Peter put on some amazing music and we started to sing all the metal songs from my university days. If it was a screamo World Cup, "I could've been a contender, Charlie" Then Peter took us down town for a kabab and we ended the night falling into bed after 5am.

Saturday neither my cousin nor I could speak and he wasn't in any rush to get up, so I dragged him out of bed and got him to get his ass down to the game room. My plan was to take pictures of the players over the weekend. I wasn't sure whether I'd pull it off. I saw Jan and his PENTAX and I thought: "Is his bigger than mine? Let me get my zoom lens out. That's better. Stick to your joy stick, bro."

I didn't pay too much attention to the games, but I was highly entertained by Thomas shouting: NEEIIN!!! And then everything is rather hazy until the evening when The Postman turned up with The Harvest (those who know, know). I don't remember, was that before or after dinner?

Karaoke: This should be in every religious calendar, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. Or may even a religion in its own right. Everyone was a superstar and everyone was so encouraging. I think this was probably the point at which I decided that I have to go to every KO2 World Cup from now on. And I would especially like to thank Lee for getting me up on the stage and for everyone who cheered me on and made me feel as though I was actually Liam Gallagher if he wasn't a cunt. And my respect goes out to everyone who took that stage and made it a night to remember. What a lot of people don't know is that some of us went back to Sauron's for a second round of karaoke at about 3am and I got to sing Rammstein. I haven't felt that alive for a long time. If I would've know Peter before, I would've asked him to organise my wedding.

Back to bed again around 5:30am and then up on Sunday. More photos. Glad you guys liked them. And then, I remember sitting to watch the finals and I was impressed at what a tense event those are. It's like watching the actual fucking World Cup, but in some ways it's better because you're there and it's all so intimate. It was also nice to see how respectful everyone is when they are watching the finals. So, I put my camera away and enjoyed the games - and also watching to see of Thor's facial expressions would change when he scored a goal.

The last dinner together was really nice, but I felt so tired by then. And there was also this sadness about the weekend coming to an end.

I could write a lot more, but I've been driving across England since 5am and I'm sitting in a coffee shop waiting for my second espresso to kick in. So, you get this short version.

I want to thank every person who played in Bremen this year. You all made the event something memorable. Thanks also for letting me steal your smiles and frowns for the pictures. Thank you to my cousin Andy for brining me along. Thank you to Peter and Michael for the organisation and for showing us how to party like the Germans. And thanks to everyone who made me feel so welcome and like part of the event, even though I wasn't playing. It was a weekend that I will remember forever and I feel like I made some really cool friends.

A great event and a great community!

Until Athens...

[Freshmaker]

Danny. What can I say? Speechless. Thanks mate. And thanks for showing up. You're a quality dude, and I really appreciate our conversations during the weekend.

[Torchiador]

If I would've know Peter before, I would've asked him to organise my wedding.

At this I was near to wake up my kids laughing
Lovely write up, thanks Danny! If my memory is not wrong, this should be the first write up ever of a person who joined the world cup as not a player.
Thanks again!

[Danny Boy]

Thanks guys!