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This was my first real live tournament with competitive competition. I had went to one in my city and placed 3rd for Sega, and then joined the online league about 6 months ago, and worked my way up and lost in the finals of B division, and even won a few in A division, so I was feeling pretty confident. We arrived at the Moxy and they effed up my reservation and gave away my room with the 4 twin beds to someone else! I was about to become Canadian enraged, which means passively aggressively saying "eh" a lot, when they offered me a second room at no charge!!! So for $79/night, I got 2 rooms for myself, my bro, my buddy, and 2 kids. It worked out well. That place was happening!! So I put the kids to bed, and came to meet everyone. Played one exi with Toronto against a guy who turned out to really hate Sega so I won 8-1ish (what up Hank!?), but he really loved Dr. Mario. I am the #1 ranked Dr. Mario player in Regina, SK, Canada, so I figured I'd give him a chance at redemption. He won 8 of 9 before I could take no more. Wow. I have a lot to learn there. Immediately jumped into 2v2. Me and @kevincabarello were an amazing team! sniping one timers out of nowhere and defeating @kingraph and his partner twice in a row, along with another group. We were eventually defeated by Raph, but we had our moment. I believe we actually shut them out. Raph hasn't been shut out since 2002 I think! Everyone started clearing out around 1 and I kept trying to keep the night going, but nobody else wanted, so I went back upstairs to get a good night's rest after buying the boys some fireball and Jager! As you can see, Raph loved it a lot!! Woke up refreshed, and had some hotel breakfast and made the short walk to the Pour House Uptown. Played a couple exis on the CRTs to warm up. Things were rocking. I was definitely nervous. Heartrate was up and hands were jittery. I was smiling ear to ear when I heard my national anthem sung by @Edge of '94 Midwest Troy... But I wish I had read the sheet that said "you aren't going to win the first time you attend. You should focus on winning one game" because alas, I did not. My goal coming in was actually to lose to Raph or AJ in the semis. I thought that was very possible based on my previous online play. But I had a very hard draw with @Scribe99 @angryjay93 Eric and TecmoDPS (Daniel Slattery). But I only knew AJ from online play. I chose to play him first to get that loss out of the way. When I went down 5-0 in the first, I was worried, but I managed to stave off the mercy win and lose only 7-2. I thought "hey man, you're still in good shape! He's probably going to win all his other games by 6 goals, so you're technically in 2nd!" Next, I went for the 5th seed Eric so I could build up my ego and get an easy win. Fail. He won 2-0. This is fine, I told myself, as my next opponent was also 0-2. There's no way I'm the worst in this division, after playing over 1000 games in the last 6 months online. We have a very defensive battle between @DPS and myself. We go to OT 1-1. All I gotta do is win, and with my low goal differential, even 1-3 should be enough to make top 16. Nope. He wins it in OT. Time to take a break, do something different. I order a burger and she asks me how much pink I want in it. That s**t's nasty. In Canada, it's illegal! Anyway, I order my WELL DONE cheeseburger and find out they don't have paralyzers in USA, they are called Bulldogs. So I grab one of those, double... Then another double... then when I try to get one more, she tells me it's 2-4-1 time for happy hour. Still undetermined whether or not those were doubles also, but I got another 2 and then another 2. I wasn't drunk for my last game when I lost that also in overtime to Scribe, but as it rolled into my "Joes" division matches, it was starting to hit me. First series against an amateur, and I had to purposely make sure I didn't win by 6 to be polite. Then, match 2 against Eric again who shut me out in group prelims. Game 1 he shut me out until midway through third. that was 5 and a half periods that he shut me out. He's no "JOE" if you ask me! I scored one or two, but he won that I think. I took it to game 3 where he dismantled me. I won something, but didn't remember until I saw the pic. Watching Raph and AJ duke it out for Gens was incredible. I wish we could have had it to go best of 7! I continued those drinks, and played my SNES matches. I don't remember much of that, and then I did colour commentary and don't remember much of that. Then my phone died, so I couldn't google random facts about players anymore. That's when it hit me.... the bulldogs weren't happy with me. I spent the next 90 minutes in the bathroom and definitely did NOT miss the group photo and have to photoshop myself in later... any similarities to the pic above are strictly coincidental. Someone told me that I went 3-1 in SNES and even won a playoff round. I'm shocked, but maybe I have a future in SNES? All told, we drove 2500 km on the trip (y'alls religious billboards are HILARIOUS, call 1-888-83-TRUTH for evidence!), and I went 0-4 in prelims and 3-3 in B division, scoring 23 and allowing 23 in my main system (Genesis), and had a total blast. 100% would do again. The people are some of the purest gems in the world. Would give you the jersey off their back. Talking to Americans about politics was sure interesting. I'm a massive Bernie Sanders supporter. Many Americans I met seemed to love Canada, but hated simultaneously both Sanders and Trump. Sanders' platform is basically to make USA more like Canada. It's only socialism in as much as your school system, roads, garbage collection, fire department, medicare, medicaid, policing, social security, etc....... Every time someone wants to make a change that actually helps the people, the billionaires will brand them as socialist or communist. Don't be fooled! I wish America the best outcome possible in November, and I really hope you all make the right decisions between now and then on the candidate. Hope to see you in NYC! Much love from Canada.

Being one of the select few individuals to make it to all 5 NHL events that Troy @Edge of '94 Midwest has put together, it is incredible to see how far we have come. Every year the production value, quality of the competition, contributions from the community, and the fun experienced at the event goes up. If for some reason you are on the fence about these events, you need to jump right off that fence and get involved immediately. Win, lose, or draw you can not beat the amount of fun to be had at these events, bring your friends and make a day out of it. We enjoy a good time as much as we do good 94. This time around I had a very pleasurable experience from beginning to end. Moving the location for tournament from Green Bay to Minneapolis allowed for me to have a direct flight, a rare luxury for me to most of these events. No longer do I have to do the Sacramento-Phoenix-Atlanta-Minneapolis-Green Bay red eye flight the evening before a tournament. I felt so good about this trip that I even left the sunglasses at home. Once I arrived at the Moxy, I knew we were in a good place because I saw a few different NHL 94 setups in the lobby that were adjacent to the in house bar. Can't ask for much more than that type of setup. The discounted room rate was a great touch as these rooms really suited my style with their simplistic yet comfortable design. The location was fabulous as we were just a couple blocks from the venue and we were surrounded by a wide array of cuisine and drinks. I played a couple games before heading out with @IAmFleury'sHipCheck and his brother to one of the local spots for some high quality Italian food. By the time we got back to the hotel lobby it was getting a little late, I opted to stay away from the exi and 2 v 2 in an effort to get to bed at a reasonable hour. In retrospect this may have been a mistake as I instead was engaged in a conversation with EA, his brother, and KingRaph. During this conversation two girls from the bar were walking our way, the one girl who was a little less drunk than the other and almost literally dragging her friend out the door made eye contact with us and proceeded to say "My friend really wants to make out tonight but not with any of you!!!" Suffice to say, I was crushed by this revelation and I retreated up to my room shortly there after where I cried the night away thinking about my wasted opportunity. The next morning I got up early, got a coffee and some breakfast before heading over to the venue to help set things up for the tournament. I thought I was arriving pretty early and had a lot of heavy lifting ahead of me but boy was I ever wrong. By the time I arrived, things were already moving along smoothly, Trojan, Leif Eriksson, Darik Aho, Mort, Hank the Tank, and others were already well ahead of schedule at ensuring we would have an amazing tournament that day. There was the massive projector screen that allowed anyone and everyone within the venue to see what we were streaming on youtube. We had plenty of high quality CRTs, consoles, and controllers just ready and waiting for everyone. And oh yeah, there were also holograms and pyrotechnics! This event just continues to impress every year, I can't say enough about the thought and quality that goes into every aspect. The tournament itself was a blast, I had a really competitive group that included @danTML7, TecmoDPs, and @Scribe99. Getting to play with Scribe was a pretty big deal for me as he was one of the OG's from this site as he joined back in 2005. There was a time where Scribe was my main exi partner and it was incredible to see how much he still enjoys playing the game even though he hasn't been online for sometime. The man could still play as I sneaked out a win in group play and played a tight 2 game playoff series with him in bracket play. Mort also had an incredible showing and really impressed me with his play in our semifinal playoff matchup. This was all preamble though as I encountered Raph in the finals yet again. The last 2 GENS finals losses at Green Bay and the overtime loss in our 7 game epoch at Toronto were still fresh in my head. I did a little something different with my training this time around as the weekend before I went to visit @CoachMac up on the Nevada side of the Sierra Nevada mountains. We took advantage of those mountains as he and I literally climbed a couple different mountains, a small highlight real can be found below. Seriously though, we climbed mountains. And that's after we had been descending for a few minutes! My mettle was tested quickly as Raph won game 1 decisively and was up 2-0 early in game 2. I was able to reset mentally after that and the rest is all history. Raph and I hope to have some video breakdowns for everyone to view sooner rather than later as we want to try and share our thought process with the rest of the community. Raph and I are certainly rivals but the time is near where I think some other people will start making finals appearances of their own. For the time being, the frequency at which we face each other in the finals has been incredible and we may not ever see anything quite like it again. The SNES tournament was a rip roaring good time, the happy hour really spiced things up as the drinks were flowing around freely. Raph had my number that go around as I was unable to sweep the day and defend my SNES crown. We certainly had an incredible group of guys all contribute to a weekend that won't soon be forgotten. I want to thank @LeifErikson and Darik Aho for playing a huge role in helping make this tournament happen. Also thank you to The Shield for contributing all sorts of prizes to this event, I don't think I saw anyone walk away empty handed and we have you to thank for that. Major shout outs to the travelling folks @jer_33, @danTML7, @seventieslord, EA, @Votaw, Mort, DPS, Phil from Dmen Tap, @Mitch Kramer, Kevin Cabarello, and @kingraph. It is with your presence and your faith in these events that we are able to grow something from very humble beginnings to what we have here today. And lastly, thank you again to @Edge of '94 Midwest, you put on an absolutely incredible event and I can't wait until next year as I know you will do everything in power to make it another memorable experience.

This is my 3rd year attending the Edge of '94 Midwest, the previous two were in Green Bay and this one in Minnesota thanks to local host @LeifErikson for making this happen! First, I enjoyed the direct flights into Minneapolis. Much easier to get to than Green Bay. The hotel was awesome and very accommodating to our group. They allowed us to set up '94 stations all over the lobby, right next to the bar, we ordered pizza to be delivered and even bought beer from the liquor store across the street! I drank many a Furious IPA's! OMFGA 2V2 <3 The Pourhouse was absolutely insane. HUGE bar, about 100 televisions throughout the bar, and a giant stage for the featured stream. Leif's company AvForYou made this ultra-professional. I mean, holograms and god-damned fireworks, wtf. Need to belly up to the bar for a drink? No problem, you won't miss the action. Dynamite setups! D Darik and @IAmFleury'sHipCheck battling on the main stage \ Chris O and @seventieslord flipping the coin to determine their fates. LOVE the jerseys When I'm not playing, I get to do some color commentary (and eat @Edge of '94 Midwest's french fries)! Clark, Selanne and Sundin. Love the jerseys! My favorite part of these events is seeing some friends that I've made in the '94 community and meeting new buds who all love this game. It goes by quickly. As far as the tournament itself, it was very well run, efficient and awesome. I was impressed with Mort's upgraded game, and he proved it by going pretty far, even beating Chris O, who has proven to be a solid player! As expected, I ended up in the finals vs @angryjay93 for the 3rd year in a row. I got the better of him in the first two years, but ultimately he won our best out of 3 this year to take home the Genesis trophy. We duked it out again for the SNES title, and I was happy to win the SNES trophy this year (AJ won the previous and I the year before). After so many battles in the finals (including 2 separate KO94's and some random CT tourney), it's clear that AJ and I are '94 tournament rivals! It's awesome, and I always look forward to our battles. I'm upset that I didn't win this year, but at the same time it gives me more motivation to come back next year! Great job again Troy, love all the work on the stream and broadcast and all of the work you put in to making this happen. From the promotion, to set up, to raffles, etc. It's easy to get spoiled with all these live tournaments going on, but I try to remain grateful and humble that these happen. Live tournaments are special, and may not last forever. So thanks again for putting it all together and I'm so fortunate to be able to come, hang out, play, talk, commentate, eat, drink and be merry with all you good buds! Cheers!

MWW I show up at gaming night at my best-bro-from-works-new house and all my squadmates are there and I'm still super sauced from the quarterly-company-event from earlier. But I leave the bag with my controllers in the car. But I probably don't need em because most of these dudes are younger than me so I'll look ridiculous with my old-man-gamer-gear. Then I remember Steve said he got like 50 Genesis games for 20 bucks or something last month and the best one was Revenge of Shinobi. But I'd be trying too hard and no one is expecting me to bring them anyway. Then I remember that no one wears a suit to hang out and I could probably just stop home and put on a t shirt and jeans. But someone notices me and I've been waking back and forth from my car to the house for 5 minutes. The controllers though, they might think it's cool if I bring em. But my boy Mitch is approaching and he's drunker than I am. Then I see all the women are in the front of the house and my anxiety kicks in. I'm not attracted to any of them anyway. There's still a chance I'll have to make eye contact as drunk as I am. If I just walk with Mitch no one will notice how drunk I am because he's so wrecked. He wants us to get more beer before we go downstairs and I can probably just bolt and no one will even know I was here. Then we get down there and Kris and Gus are playing PS4 and Steve is actually playing Pigskin Footbrawl on a god damn Sega Genesis with Chad. But I haven't checked the forum for almost 3 hours and it's my turn to pick. Then I remember I haven't been in a league for like 8 years and I can post tomorrow when I sober up.

Quick and dirty, simple update to the original ROM that anyone can use to sharpen some of their skills. I created this to help me prepare for KO94. Nothing spectacular, but it is fun to play around with. If you want to get a bit better at dekes, you can try the 1 skater VS 5. Maybe you want to work on getting better at defensive positioning? Try playing with 1 D-man VS 5. For 1-timer practice there's the classic, two-forward, 2on2-style line. Lastly, there is a, "no skater," team. You can use this to practice your goalie control skills. This can be very challenging. However, the CPU goalie will have to make a save before you can go into the goalie control mode. This is because there's no skater to switch from No Skaters is Washington 1 D-man is Winnipeg 1 Forward is Wales All-Stars 2 Forwards is Campbell All- Stars If someone wants to do the rest of the teams with only a LW skater for 1 team, or something like that, I'll replace this one. NHL94training.bin

@angryjay93 I think one of your uploaded images is missing. Thank you, as well as @danTML7, @jer_33 and @kingraph for sharing your experiences with everyone!

36, or 90% registered! 4 spots left to go.

Jelínek as a national team captain was my favourite player in early 90s and later I was always interested in his career, I can guarantee you he has never played as a defenseman.

Best I could do in 15 mins

As I promised @IAmFleury'sHipCheck, I would talk about game 01 of our series as it unfolds. Let me know if this is of any value to anyone, and I'll do some more.