Jump to content
NHL'94 Forums

[Aug 13, 2016 - Long Island, NY] - Long Island Retro Gaming Expo


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 66
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

good luck buds.

Its extremely important you provide as many updates on results as possible through the day in this thread. I need to see progress throughout the day. This is why I live in the world.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Calamity struck for me today as my basement was flooded when I returned home from vacation. I can't even express how disappointed I am, given all the planning leading up to this event.

Good luck my homies, I'll be thinking of you as I'm wet vaccing my friggin' basement.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Recap:

Unfortunately Raph couldn't make it due to his basement flood emergency. We hope that all gets sorted soon and missed you much!

We shared a nice sized room at the LI Retro Gaming Expo with the Smash and Techmo guys. At least 1 of the Techmo guys played in the tournament. All very cool guys! Also George, one of the guys running the expo constantly came around making sure everything was cool. So big shout out to George too! There were Ghostbusters, Storm Troopers, Darth Vader (who we really wanted to play), and various cosplay dressups about all day. I managed to steal a blaster from a Storm Trooper to get a pic above.

We ended up with 26 players signing up (the only '94 forum guys being AJ and myself). Chaos and Egg were present, but opted to help run the tourney and let me play (I love you guys). Now, we were really a bit disappointed that NO ONE else from the forum came down to the only '94 tournament in the area this year. We went with a simple double-elimination bracket that was maintained on a "challonge" page. Most of the participants hadn't had much experience (if at all) playing NHL'94. We found a few guys who used to play and could get into it, but no one with the caliber of our "A" or even most "B" tier players.

As you can imagine, AJ and myself were basically playing to the finals. No surprises in the final either, as he took it home with STL over TOR 6-4. I blame Chaos for coming over and saying "wait, Evan is winning?" earlier in the game to jinx the rest of the game. Just kidding, AJ is a stellar player who is at a higher level of gameplay. It was a great finals game. AJ got the '94 trophy, and a Brian Leetch jersey donated by the expo. He was a gentlemen and let Egg have it (who helped out at the tourny and did an awesome job!). Congrats to AJ, and well done on attending yet ANOTHER '94 event!

Big thanks to Chaos, Egg, and AJ for helping out all day and making things run smooth. Chaos, are we able to get the bracket posted or numbers put in here? I'm actually curious how many games I ended up playing?

Enjoy!

-Evan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Egg was awesome and a big help! I don't know how we could have done it without her!

George from the Expo crew was great. I had a good talk with him later on, he really appreciated how we ran the tournament. He didn't have to worry about using any of his volunteers with us, since we had everything set. We would love to go back next year.

Shout out to the Tecmo guys, they were awesome! Poor Brian lost the Tecmo finals, I was rooting for ya bud.

It's amazing how many Smash people were there. Huge following, all ages. 107 people signed up for Smash, 20 for Tecmo.

I saw the Nintendo PlayStation in person, and played AJ in Mario Kart on it (and I won!). My life is complete.

Raph used his basement as an excuse so AJ couldn't kick his ass. AJ was on fire. Evan too. I believe Evan was winning 3-0 in the finals when I mentioned he might beat AJ, so I do take the blame ;)

There were a ton of people at the Expo. I was really surprised how popular it was.

Oh, and a funny side note. Evan put labels on all his controllers and systems. The systems were named after goalies, and the controllers were named after players. Before we started, we allowed some free play. One of the controllers stopped working...It's name was Lindros. One of the systems were not working...It's name was Sidorkiewicz.

Our Setup:

post-1232-0-16734900-1471146948_thumb.jp

Yes, that's all people playing Smash Bros. in the background:

post-1232-0-08386800-1471146951_thumb.jp

Vendor Area:

post-1232-0-07490000-1471146954_thumb.jp

Final Matchup - I wanted to take video, but my phone ran out of memory halfway through the first period :(

post-1232-0-81637500-1471147017_thumb.jp

Nintendo PlayStation

post-1232-0-29200500-1471146945_thumb.jp

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice write up Evan!

Here's the bracket.

http://challonge.com/LongIslandNHL94

There are some mistakes in that bracket, that the site wouldn't let me correct. Though most of the Winners bracket is accurate.

Another interesting note, we had 2 father-son groups playing, and the kids and fathers had the same names. Be original and give your kid his own name (this is coming from someone who is named after their father, too) ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

congrats boys on nice tournament and ah ftw! I wish I was there I got a 125 ticket

for drinking outta 30 people I was only 1 and I didn't have beer in my hand! while everyone else was holding 1......why didn't they just give me ticket for having a beard!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

AH = AJ

I wanted to talk so much s**t but i couldn't f**k them this dude couldn't even speak english and had an AR in the middle of front seat just hanging out and then told to stop looking at his computer it was so weird

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congrats aj, sounds like a fun time. We all know its totally possible to get some bad luck and lose a game or 2 to some randos, so its nice to see a dominating performance.

Come on kg we all know you skipped this event cuz you know you got lucky at ko94

:]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So much love for Chaos, Evan and Egg for handling this successful event! You guys are awesome...really missed hanging out with you all (AJ too), and playing. From the sound of it, it is highly likely we will be back next year and it's only going to get better. So all you mofapes can start preparing!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Get this s**t out of Long Island, bring it into the city, getting to LI for most is a cluster f**k. Even more so then getting to NYC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey were you 4 able to get any new players interested in the community/online/forum? Those scores...it was a slaughter out there :D. Were any of them pretty decent?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey were you 4 able to get any new players interested in the community/online/forum? Those scores...it was a slaughter out there :D. Were any of them pretty decent?

There were a few that were decent. Some guys did have questions about playing online. We told them to come to the forums and we'd help them out. I did describe what they needed to do to set up and play Classic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congrats aj, sounds like a fun time. We all know its totally possible to get some bad luck and lose a game or 2 to some randos, so its nice to see a dominating performance.

Come on kg we all know you skipped this event cuz you know you got lucky at ko94

:]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I apologize for the slight delay in posting but I have finally just found myself with a computer at my disposal.

Where to start with all this? It was certainly a colorful event despite the lack of 94 buds in attendance and I may as well try to give a brief recap of the opponents I faced in the tournament.

Round 1

AJ (TB) vs. Peter Pese (NYR)

Did I ever get an incredulous look/laugh from Peter when I selected this matchup. He obviously jumped all over NYR and proceeded to jump out to a 1-0 lead within the first 20 seconds after Messier 5 holed Young from the side of the net. At this point Peter started to lecture me about Tampa being terrible and how their goalie is the worst. He even asked why in the world would I pick such a matchup. I shrugged my shoulders and proceeded to show him why by scoring 6 unanswered goals in quick succession. I think Peter had a bit of a following as many people came to check up on him during the game, I managed to find out he was the one who actually won the 6 man tournament last year at the expo. After putting the finishing touches on him he didn't stick around for his loser bracket game. Not sure if he thought it was a single elim. tournament or if he was just that deterred by his performance. Later on Evan, Chaos, and I caught wind that Peter and other guys who entered the tournament last year were none too pleased to see that ringers like us had been invited. Guess I should have never picked such an OP team like TB, oops.

Result: AJ 9-3

Round 2

AJ vs. Eric G.

I don't remember the teams selected here. I wanna say NJ vs. NYI? Maybe Quebec? I dunno, Eric G. was a good bud. He tried his best the entire game, made no excuses and was a really good sport. The game just went my way from the beginning but Eric did manage to avoid the shutout. Kudos to him for that.

Result: AJ 8-1

Quarterfinals

AJ (Buf) vs. Evan (Van)

It seems challonge had a wild hair up its nose and decided to put me and Evan on the same side of the bracket. Looking back, I should have redrawn the bracket but it was the first time I had used challonge and I wasn't quite sure exactly how it worked. Never the less Evan and I clashed here and I decided to pick two highly skilled and competitive teams. I wasn't gonna try and pull any TB shenanigans here, I got way too much respect for Evan's game. My good friend Dale Hawerchuk carried me through the first half of the game with an early hat trick which bought time for Mogilny to work through his early game struggles and find a way to produce later on in the game when Evan had try and mount the comeback. Having Fuhr as the last line of defense helped keep things under control when Evan was able to create some really good scoring chances. A lesser goalie may have struggled under the pressure and caused this game to be much tighter.

Result: AJ 6-1

Semifinal:

AJ (PIT) vs. Dennis (Det)

I was very tempted to pick Detroit in this matchup as Dennis looked like a true gamer with his Tecmo Super Bowl shirt while making it to the 94 semis. I decided to go with Pit anyways as I felt that if nothing else I could CB check to keep things close. Turned out I over thought it as I got hot early and jumped out to a 6-0 lead after the first. Dennis did everything he could to try and keep himself from getting mercied but it just wasn't meant to be as Pit was absolutely clicking out there while the Detroit AI felt it was prudent to give up breakaway after breakaway. Dennis got the short end of the stick with the AI and I really felt he deserved better, I think the 10-0 score doesn't do him any justice. He's a great bud too, he and his friend whom I will get to next were the two people who were most interested in joining the site. I really do hope to see them around soon so we can help get them started and get some good games in online.

Result: 10-0

Winners Final:

AJ (EDM) vs. Scott S. (HFD)

Scott gets my vote as the most online ready non forum guy at the tournament. He had one timers, it looked like he had some dekes, he had a decent grasp on defense, and he had a very respectable manual goalie. To be completely honest, I wasn't ready for his manual goalie and was thrown off a bit by this, even by the end of the game I still had issues solving it as I just couldn't get a good feel for his mindset in such a short time frame. Scott grinded it out and if it wasn't for a big Craig Simpson performance (4 goals) then I may have been in much more trouble. Great guy, very savvy, eager to learn how to get better at 94 and Tecmo. If he manages to find his way online I think he could be a very respectable player once he gets past the adjustment stage that most every player goes through.

Result: AJ 5-1

Grand Final

AJ (STL) vs Evan (TOR)

Both Evan and I managed to avoid being upset during the tournament to set up this battle of online buds. The matchup was courtesy of Evan after much deliberation. While I'm not quite sure what the thought process was, I would guess that Evan was looking to limit the fire power somewhat and grind out a low scoring game with some tactical play. Evan got off to a great start and jumped out to a 2-0 lead. I brought a goal back but Evan quickly recouped it and was up 3-1 before Chaos opened his big trap and jinxed Evan. By the end of the second I was able to get Hull going a bit and bring the game to a 3-3 tie. If I remember correctly, Evan managed to strike first blood in the third to establish a 4-3 lead putting all the pressure on me. Hull answered with a huge slapper from just inside the blue to bring it to 4-4. One more Hull shot later and I was up 5-4 with just a couple minutes to go. I did everything I could to keep Evan out of the prime scoring areas as he pressed hard to force the game to overtime. With about 15 seconds left I finally got my insurance goal as Evan had sold the farm at this point to try and tie the game. Chaos ribbed me a bit for scoring at that point but I wasn't gonna leave anything to chance, Evan was playing too well and there was too much on the line! This was a great game worthy of a final, Evan brought his A game and very nearly forced a winner take all situation.

Result: AJ 6-4

In the pictures posted above you can see the slick Brian Leetch jersey donated by the expo and the equally as impressive hardware which Evan and Egg donated to the tournament. That Leetch jersey was so slick and it fit me like a glove but I figured it'd be best to leave it where it would be best put to use, in New York. The trophy on the other hand, I was more then happy to take home, that bad boy is going on the mantle...which oh yeah, I need to buy a mantle.

All in all, I think the turn out (aside from forum people) was amazing. We had 26 players including a couple of youngsters who may not have even been half as old as the game, that is nothing to balk at. It was a bit more laid back of a tournament but we kind of expected that and the format we decided to go with turned out pretty well. Hopefully we get a couple of new buds out of all this and make the community stronger.

Having Raph there would have helped build our profile all the more. Being the world record holder and the best player in the community (imo), he would have only helped us draw people into playing 94. I also would have loved to have had the chance to take him down in live play but that time will have to wait as I will do my best to attend more events in the future. I absolutely love attending all these events, I get to see forum people and different parts of the world doing this, what's not to like?

Speaking of people, Evan, Egg, and Chaos made this event one to remember. Egg and Chaos took one for the team by opting to stay on the sidelines by making sure the event ran as smoothly as possible, which it did. Chaos also did me a major solid by opting to pick me up and drop me off in NYC as this tournament was about an hour away from the city. Without him, making the event becomes a much bigger headache for me. Hopefully next tournament we can get something closer to NYC but that can be tricky due to the $$$ involved in that. I wish I could spend some more time on the East Coast each year, we got some really good buds and budettes out there.

I'm doing my best to make Green Bay happen, if any forum people want to go, hit me up and maybe we can plan some things together.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At this point Peter started to lecture me about Tampa being terrible and how their goalie is the worst. He even asked why in the world would I pick such a matchup.

I laughed at this. I can understand Peter's frustration at getting his ass kicked, but perhaps if he handled it better I would feel bad.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Btw, I think the Tecmo guys had like a $20 sign up for vets, and either a discounted or free entry for new folks. Something to think about, I kind of like that idea, though would be hard to police if some forum guy didn't disclose he was a vet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Who's Online   0 Members, 0 Anonymous, 69 Guests (See full list)

    • There are no registered users currently online

×
×
  • Create New...