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Going to an NHL'94 Live Tournament Guide Notes


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Gentlemen,

As we continue to hold more and see and more live tournaments (KO94, Edge of 94, NYC, LI Retro, Montreal, etc), I want to come up with some bullet points to share with folks who are considering attending, but are on the fence.  I have a feeling that the "tournament" aspect gets overplayed when we promote these events, and we forget that it's actually fun to just attend.

At least that has been my experience when talking to everyone at these events.  I am also trying to be self-aware as I have always placed in the top 2 at these things, so I don't want to be ignorant/arrogant in my view.

So, please help by responding to this thread with any bullet points that you think would be good to share for people considering attending an NHL'94 live tournament.  I'll keep a running list on this OP:

Going to a live NHL'94 "Tournament"

  • The goal is to have fun and be a kid again for a few hours!
  • Players of all skill levels are welcomed
    • Don't think you have to be the best competitive player to attend
    • Some people have played consistently for the last 20+ years
    • Some people haven't played for 20+ years!
  • There will be competitive games with people of similar skill level
  • Bring a friend and claim your bragging rights
  • Reminisce about the players and games of the 90's
  • Meet up with friends you haven't seen in a while
  • Consolation brackets, giveaways, prizes, and raffles are found in most events

 

 

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Hi Gents!

I don't have any bullets to add as I have only attended one event but I do have a suggestion (if you don't mind...).  One thing I would suggest is name tags.  Yes, it is corny.  But, it helps folks who are new to the crowd to have some names with the faces.  Maybe a tag with their real name and forum name.  I got to meet some cool folks like @kingraph, @chaos, @Evan and @CoachMac when I attended NYC 2019 and definitely agree that friendships can be forged at such events.  Me, I'm fairly out-going so I'll just walk up to anyone and introduce myself but not everyone is that way.  If memory serves, I think Raph and Chaos had lanyards with their names - I can't recall how I knew it was them (as I never met them prior to the event).  But, I felt bad asking them to ID other forum posters to me as I knew they were busy.  Anywho, just a thought.  It's what frustrates me when I see the great pics posted on this forum, for events, and I don't know who the H half of the people are, in those photos.  LOL

I will see if I can make it out for NYC 2020.  I enjoyed going last year as I like playing some exis and drinking beer.  I would encourage folks to go even if they don't play in the tournament.

Cheers,

Sauce

Edited by The Sauce
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Good Stuff Raph

Yeah it comes down to playing a game we loved as a kid and going to these events you normally meet some pretty great people with the same interests.

I think having more events with Duke style as an option is key.  

I couldn't make it out to the MN tourney last week, and told my crew about it and a few expressed interest, but in the end they didn't want to pay the event fee to get their butt kicked.  They still have flashbacks from a tecmo tourney I brought them too where they said the other players made roster changes so quick from muscle memory that they just saw a flickering screen. :) 

 

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5 hours ago, segathon said:

Good Stuff Raph

Yeah it comes down to playing a game we loved as a kid and going to these events you normally meet some pretty great people with the same interests.

I think having more events with Duke style as an option is key.  

I couldn't make it out to the MN tourney last week, and told my crew about it and a few expressed interest, but in the end they didn't want to pay the event fee to get their butt kicked.  They still have flashbacks from a tecmo tourney I brought them too where they said the other players made roster changes so quick from muscle memory that they just saw a flickering screen. :) 

 

muscle memory is enough to make a grown man reconsider going into these tournaments....separates the true gamers from the wanna be's...looking forward to making it out to one of these events, first time for everything!

KUDOS to all involved in setting up these events, forums, podcasts, videos...the community is the real deal!

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There is generally something set-up on the Friday evening, mainly for those arriving from out of town the day before the tournament.

At this most recent event in Minnesota, even the local event organizers booked rooms at the hotel in order to hang-out for Friday night exis/2v2.

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The King of 94 and Edge of 94 Midwest events always had some activities the day before.  The NYC tournament has only been for the day.  NYC has been opportunistic in that we obtain a good deal on the bar space and can keep the entry to a pretty cheap $25.  I figured it would mostly be locals given the dense population but we had about 10-15% travelers.

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22 minutes ago, kingraph said:

The King of 94 and Edge of 94 Midwest events always had some activities the day before.  The NYC tournament has only been for the day.  NYC has been opportunistic in that we obtain a good deal on the bar space and can keep the entry to a pretty cheap $25.  I figured it would mostly be locals given the dense population but we had about 10-15% travelers.

10-15% true disciples of the game LOL, to make the journey to the city that never sleeps for some NHL94 shenanigans, only in New York...

On another note, I was able to download Retroarch and Discord last night successfully, now I need to figure out how to navigate on both apps and make sure the settings are good for P2P play. Figure I can get in some good practice before April comes around...

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Something I've tried with the last Saskatoon tournament is to essentially divide the playoffs up so that guys are facing people at similar skill level. As Segathon mentioned, a lot of guys don't want to get their butt kicked. They just want to enjoy it.

The A, B and C playoffs that I had, everyone enjoyed it as a lot of their games were really close.  The top 3 guys in A still got rewarded with a rpize and the B and C champion also got to pick a really awesome prize. I think the guy in C won every playoff game(6 straight) all by 6 goals  1 goal. If we just had one overall tournament, he would've got slaughtered.

To me, that is the biggest difference in all of this and I also think the biggest factor in people wanting to come back.

I'm gonna test it out again with the Sega tournament I'm gonna do in late spring/early summer.

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27 minutes ago, halifax said:

Something I've tried with the last Saskatoon tournament is to essentially divide the playoffs up so that guys are facing people at similar skill level. As Segathon mentioned, a lot of guys don't want to get their butt kicked. They just want to enjoy it.

The A, B and C playoffs that I had, everyone enjoyed it as a lot of their games were really close.  The top 3 guys in A still got rewarded with a rpize and the B and C champion also got to pick a really awesome prize. I think the guy in C won every playoff game(6 straight) all by 6 goals. If we just had one overall tournament, he would've got slaughtered.

To me, that is the biggest difference in all of this and I also think the biggest factor in people wanting to come back.

I'm gonna test it out again with the Sega tournament I'm gonna do in late spring/early summer.

how many total players in this? at least 12 or 15? Measuring the skill level will always be a challenge, but then if gamers dont want their butts kicked why bother participating? LOL

Where are the SNES gamers at damn it!?!?!

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47 minutes ago, halifax said:

Something I've tried with the last Saskatoon tournament is to essentially divide the playoffs up so that guys are facing people at similar skill level. As Segathon mentioned, a lot of guys don't want to get their butt kicked. They just want to enjoy it.

The A, B and C playoffs that I had, everyone enjoyed it as a lot of their games were really close.  The top 3 guys in A still got rewarded with a rpize and the B and C champion also got to pick a really awesome prize. I think the guy in C won every playoff game(6 straight) all by 6 goals. If we just had one overall tournament, he would've got slaughtered.

To me, that is the biggest difference in all of this and I also think the biggest factor in people wanting to come back.

I'm gonna test it out again with the Sega tournament I'm gonna do in late spring/early summer.

I agree, and one thing that really worked well in NYC last year was the swiss-style or "progressive" round robins.  After 2 rounds the vast majority of the games were competitive and by round 3 they were ALL feeling like playoff games.  When we got to round 05, all the 2-2 matches were essentially playoff games because winner moves on and loser buys some beer.  This was a huge part of the success because no matter the skill level, you were playing some close fun games.  

Now clearly the 1-16, 2-15, 3-14 first round matches aren't close, but at that point we've had a lot of fun.  We could always consider doing 1-8 bracket and a second bracket of 9-16, but I think the 16 seeds work well.    

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1 hour ago, halifax said:

 I think the guy in C won every playoff game(6 straight) all by 6 goals  1 goal. If we just had one overall tournament, he would've got slaughtered.

 

I meant to say that he won by one goal each game (but i was probably thinking 6 goals total in 6 games).

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58 minutes ago, jmomonyc said:

how many total players in this? at least 12 or 15? Measuring the skill level will always be a challenge, but then if gamers dont want their butts kicked why bother participating? LOL

Where are the SNES gamers at damn it!?!?!

16 players I had. It was an SNES tournament. There's lots of us. My point was, people don't want to pay to get their butts kicked if they are generally not good at the game. They'll pay once or twice, but I think that many eventually  will stop attending.

 

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37 minutes ago, kingraph said:

I agree, and one thing that really worked well in NYC last year was the swiss-style or "progressive" round robins.  After 2 rounds the vast majority of the games were competitive and by round 3 they were ALL feeling like playoff games.  When we got to round 05, all the 2-2 matches were essentially playoff games because winner moves on and loser buys some beer.  This was a huge part of the success because no matter the skill level, you were playing some close fun games.  

Now clearly the 1-16, 2-15, 3-14 first round matches aren't close, but at that point we've had a lot of fun.  We could always consider doing 1-8 bracket and a second bracket of 9-16, but I think the 16 seeds work well.    

To add to this, we did this swiss as well, which I agree, I think worked nicely for this size tournament. And then divided it at the end based on wins. 4 Game RR (3 wins or more in A), ( 2 wins in B), (1 win or less in C). So the math works outs to 5,6,5 based on 16 players. The interesting thing is that I also put in a rule that you could move up if you wanted to. Nobody exercised the option at a chance for the top 3 and preferred just to stay in their own bracket. Which (albeit a small sample size) told me that it was a good format for the crowd.

Ultimately, I think that for all of use as tournament organizers we want to determine what we want the outcome of our tournament to be. For the Saskatoon tournaments, I'll continue with this route since there's a smaller size and a very wide gap in skill between the top  players and bottom players.

For King of 94, It'll probably remain as is for a while. It's intended for those that want to be the best(or to try and beat the best along the way). 

The Duke of 94, which is kind of like a B tournament but it's not really restricted if a good player wants to play in it (Liek SOH last year). By making the Duke of 94 auto goalie only, I think it evens the playing field and it's less money to play in (and less prize money) so I think it serves it purpose in a different way.

 

Great thread. thanks for the discussion topic @kingraph. I could talk tourneys and formats and rules etc. all day. Just ask @smozomalol.

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31 minutes ago, halifax said:

16 players I had. It was an SNES tournament. There's lots of us. My point was, people don't want to pay to get their butts kicked if they are generally not good at the game. They'll pay once or twice, but I think that many eventually  will stop attending.

 

Understood....love that it was a SNES tournament. I thought people want to play to win LOL. Amazing there's a good following still for this 25 years strong! It's one of the only reasons I keep my SNES around is to host games whenever the guys are around...crazy 40 year olds still have a devout addiction to the best hockey game ever.

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I'm probably reiterating stuff already said but, it would be great if each tourney had two competitions - Hardcore Gamer Brackets & Causal Gamer Brackets.  Hardcore would be for the folks who enter because they are hellbent on taking down a @kingraph or @angryjay93 or whoever is the best at a given moment.  Basically, those who buy into Rick Flair's "if you wanna be the best, you need to beat the best" mentality.  But, also, a competition for those causal players who don't play in online leagues or maybe in even "walk-ins" who remember the game from their youth and wanna see how they'd do against similar skilled folks.   These people aren't likely to beat the best (ala 1980 Olympics) and probably, arent interested in trying and potentially getting humilated.  NYC beers are too expensive to effectively drown such sorrows.  Plus, there are plenty of folks around watching so getting your butt kicked in front of a group of folks stings that much worse.

Obviously, the winnings, for each scenario, should be very different.  However, if promoted this way, you "could" pull more folks out of their comfort zone to wanna try their hand at a tourney.  You would just need to figure out a way to seed each bracket based on the sign ups.  Maybe the winner of the casual bracket also gets entered into the hardcore bracket?  I dont know... just throwing ideas out there.

It's not just the idea of getting your butt kicked that can be a deterent.  Rather, it's "I traveled x amount of distance at x amount of cost to get here and be eliminated rather quickly by someone I had no business going up against."  (which @segathon discussed)

I definitely think how these events are shaping up is going in a good direction as it is fair and competitive but, yes, it could cost you some of the casual gamers.
 

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19 minutes ago, The Sauce said:

Hardcore would be for the folks who enter because they are hellbent on taking down a @kingraph or @angryjay93 or whoever is the best at a given moment.  Basically, those who buy into Rick Flair's "if you wanna be the best, you need to beat the best" mentality.  But, also, a competition for those causal players who don't play in online leagues or maybe in even "walk-ins" who remember the game from their youth and wanna see how they'd do against similar skilled folks.   These people aren't likely to beat the best (ala 1980 Olympics) and probably, arent interested in trying and potentially getting humilated. 

Now you're talking!

21 minutes ago, The Sauce said:

Obviously, the winnings, for each scenario, should be very different.  However, if promoted this way, you "could" pull more folks out of their comfort zone to wanna try their hand at a tourney.  You would just need to figure out a way to seed each bracket based on the sign ups.  Maybe the winner of the casual bracket also gets entered into the hardcore bracket?  I dont know... just throwing ideas out there.

Cash games can definitely make for interesting play, it could like you say draw more people out of the woodworks too...

23 minutes ago, The Sauce said:

NYC beers are too expensive to effectively drown such sorrows.  Plus, there are plenty of folks around watching so getting your butt kicked in front of a group of folks stings that much worse.

Lets get a keg going, or everyone BYOB, or recession specials beverages of the 'malt' kind, that should do the trick to ease the pain of a butt whoopin.

Personally, I am looking forward to the online P2P games and playing other gamers around the NHL94 Universe. I might even consider changing my name to Nature Boy :super_man:

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Nostalgia is a powerful drug, when I mentioned I play retro sports game tourneys to guys of a similar age their eyes light up.  But I have also seen that light get extinguished playing one of us superfans when we need to get a good "Point Diff" so we get a better seed come playoffs.  Sure Raph and AJ are 800 lb gorillas but most of on here can do some damage to a guy who hasn't played in years and their stiffest competition was their litter brother :)

To get those nonsuper fans in the mood, I may even say first game is against computer to see how many goals you can score and then sort people starting there.  Plus everyone should go 1-0 for first game!

Also what Raph said initially is a great point, have your buds come with, make it a fun night out more than a serious tournament.

With all that being said us Superfans are the guys that keep this crazy game relevant for all these years.

Also did some digging, a Tecmo Bud did this post years ago and I think works here as well here too

Quote

(After some more thinking, I thought I'd do a more comprehensive guide to a Madison First Timer. So, this is my advice to the world of rookies

 

The Comprehensive Guide to Being a Madison Tecmo Rookie

Hello. If you're reading this, you're likely signed up for Madison Tecmo XI: Apocalipps Now. Congrats. Many of you have played in this grand championship before, but there are plenty who have not. For those who have not, here are bits and pieces of collected wisdom for anybody making their debut. Before we get to the point by point gibberish, this needs to be said-

You're not going to win the tournament.

Seriously man. I know you're good and I respect that. But you're not going to win the tournament

But, but, but, but... No. You're not going to win the tournament

 

I cannot stress this enough. You're not going to win the tournament. On the morning of Tecmo XI, there are probably 225 or so (give or take) of the 256 contests whom you could look in the eyes as they arrive and tell them with a straight face "You have absolutely no shot to win this thing." (And that's not me trash-talking by any stretch. Believe me, I'm very firmly one of those 225 guys on the outside). What I've found in my X number of years in this tourney is that the guys who come in truly believing they'll be crowned champion, despite never having played in Madison (let alone another tourney), tend to be the jerks that everyone remembers. I've always believed that we will never see an unknown or first-timer come in off the street and win this tourney. If you're making your debut and you're psyching yourself up and dreaming of raising the trophy, the faster you get that out of your head, the faster you'll actually enjoy the experience.

"The experience" is the key phrase here. Outside of those 20-30 guys who could conceivably win the tourney, the real draw of Madison is the experience of it. Until you see a swarm of 400+ people surrounding 30+ televisions for 12 hours, you can't yet appreciate the electricity or the IMMENSE PRESSURE of playing in these games (this isn't you and Smitty from college drinking a 12er and playing a 7 game series on a Wednesday. Your heart will be pumping from the moment you arrive). For those of us who can't win, there's a list of 7 "Goals" you should follow on March 7:

1) Have fun. There are 256 pretty cool guys (give or take :smile: who all love playing the same game that have gathered together. Embrace that. Talk to them. Buy someone a drink, chat about strategy, past tournaments, yadda yadda yadda. The most important thing you should take away from Madison when you wake up on Sunday was "Damn, that was a lot of fun."

2) Pay attention. So, you're a rookie. You're not going to win (have I mentioned that yet?). But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to walk away from the tournament as a better player. When you're not playing, watch other games. Examine the playbooks people use. Keep a vague tally of matchups you see called that make you go "Hmmm, interesting. I may try that one." See how guys hit hot routes on called plays. Watch some of the better defensive players in the tournament and pay attention to who they use on defense and the angles they use to stop plays. If you liked how some guy played and want to emulate their style, wait until some point in the day when you see them not deep in conversation and then introduce yourself. Tell them you admire their play. Pick their brains, ask questions. Don't get clingy (nobody likes a tagalong), but use those 12 hours of Tecmo to take in as much advice (and booze) as possible.

(Notice how the "Goals" haven't yet mentioned anything about your own gameplay?)

3) Win a game. This should be the base goal of every player in the tourney. Win a game. 25% of the field will go 0-2. If you win a game as a rookie, you should walk away from the day feeling proud, regardless of how the rest of your tourney played out

4) Win 2 games. So you won a game. Nice job. Think about what worked for you in that game and what didn't. Make an adjustment and try to win a 2nd game. I mentioned 25% of the field will go 0-2. Important to note that another 25% will go 1-2. That means if you can win 2 games, you finished ahead of 50% of the field. That's nothing to scoff at for a first timer. It's a huge deal, actually. Walk around with your head held high.

5) Make the bracket. You have to go either 3-0 or 3-1 to make the final 64. Assume that roughly 40-45 of those spots can be written in pen (we all know who they are), so that leaves between 19 and 24 or so spots truly up for grabs. A large bulk of those will be claimed by guys who don't have the capacity to win the whole thing, but have previous Madison experience, so they overcame the intimidation to make the cut. If you can claim one of those last remaining spots as a rookie, you need to be very, very proud of what you accomplished.

If you don't make the bracket, who cares. Stick around and watch the games, make friends, enjoy the atmosphere.

6) Win your own "Super Bowl." This goal falls under both Pool Play and Bracket Play. The 225 of us who cannot win the entire tournament have to focus on smaller, step-by-step battles. We won't make the championship, but there's a really good chance you are going to play someone who's in that elite category. That's your Super Bowl. That's the big one. If you can knock a big name out, man, who gives a s**t if you win it all at that point, ya know? You ruined so-and-so's day! You're a giant killer! A couple years ago I faced off against Chris Vogt in the opening round of 64. I KNEW that was my Super Bowl. I played that game like a motherfucker and came up 4 pts short. But I felt good afterwards (mostly because Chris is a solid human being and that made for a really fun game), because I got a chance to go heads-up with a big name and I took him to the wire.

We all know who some of the big fish are, so no need to name names and start little turf wars about who is "a name" and who isn't. That's not the point. The point is you'll just KNOW when you're about to go up against a monster. That's your Super Bowl. Embrace it.

7) The last and final goal, Don't be a jerk. Tecmo is a Gentleman's Game. This isn't the Madden Nation tour bus on ESPN from a few years ago where guys swing their dicks in each others' faces after scores. Celebrate properly when something good happens, don't flip out when something bad happens. That's Tecmo. We've all been there. Shake hands after the game and move on. Have fun. Both in playing the game and enjoying the surroundings. In past years, the Herd Mentality of the collective group can tell who the jerks are. Don't be one of them.

Hopefully this all helps and doesn't come off as too preachy. Just know that, as a rookie, the experience and atmosphere is the biggest thing you'll take away from this. I started playing in this tournament many years ago when I was still a Milwaukee/Chicago guy. I've lived in New York for 3 years and have gone back every single year. Not because I think my name can be etched in the Hall of Champions, but because it's fun as hell. Hopefully you'll walk out of the Badger Bowl on Saturday evening feeling the same way.

 

 

 

 

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These are thoughts and conversations constantly being processed year to year with our events.  Trying to balance nostalgia and quality of competition are of constant concern.

I absolutely love Swiss format.  If system bandwidth is there, I think it's the best format for smaller to medium sized tournaments.  If not,  time can be a major issue  Last weekend we actually used it for SNES to accelerate things, as there weren't many ranked SNES players present, and we were down to 16 SNES players, with more than enough systems to accommodate them.

To ease the blow, we let those that got eliminated grab a Starting Lineup or Headliner figure as a thank you.  Ultimately, everyone who doesn't get 1st place in the bracket ends their tournament in defeat in disappointment.

Pros/Joes brackets are great if you have the numbers, but they aren't foolproof either.  In November in Tecmo Cleveland two guys came in off the street and signed up for the Pros bracket.  They also happened to be my first two opponents.  I shut them out by nearly 80 points combined.  At that point they were doomed to enjoy any level of success against actual pros.  Point differential mattered there, and I think it's important for Swiss to use the "Bucholz" score factor to be the mechanic for ranking, followed by head to head, and then point differential.  That way when if a pro gets up, they don't have to keep pressing for mercy.

Despite how players get matched up, I do think the same gameplay and team selection methods should as close as possible, if not the same in both divisions.  Our tier selection process does give players flexibility, but does prevent them from using the same team over and over again.

@segathon we are strongly considering Swiss format next year with Genesis with additional group play rounds, which would hopefully ease your local buds minds knowing they get a ton of games for their dollar.  On that note, some guys really got the screws put to them and didn't seem to mind as they got to play in a consolation bracket anyway.  I do hope you'll reconsider for 2021.

Thanks @kingraph for starting this meaningful dialogue.

 

 

 

 

 

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12 hours ago, kingraph said:

As I read the guide and will modify, it really just applies to Genesis, so I'll make it clear for NYC   Every friggin SNES tournament had a random new guy win, lol. 

Sipping my tea.....

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My revision ( @segathon, can you let me know who wrote that in the original Tecmo?  I'd like to makes sure I can give proper credit for this hijack).

Comments/Feedback appreciated, I will post this to the social media outlets after a few days:

Guide to Being a Sega Genesis NHL'94 Tournament Rookie

Hello. If you're reading this, you're likely interested in signing up for the NYC NHL'94 tournament. Congrats!  Many of you have played in live tournaments before, but there are plenty who have not. For those who have not, here are bits and pieces of collected wisdom for anybody making their debut. Before we get to the point by point gibberish, this needs to be said:

You're not going to win the tournament.

Even if you took the Kings to the cup against the computer with offsides off (LA is such a finesse team).  You're still not going to win the tournament

But, but, but, but... No. You're not going to win the tournament.

There are probably 32 or so (give or take) of the 40 contestants whom you could look in the eyes as they arrive and tell them with a straight face "You have absolutely no shot to win this thing." (And that's not me trash-talking by any stretch).  If you're making your debut and you're psyching yourself up and dreaming of raising the trophy, the faster you get that out of your head, the faster you'll actually enjoy the experience.

"The experience" is the key phrase here. Outside of those 6-8 guys who could conceivably win the tourney, the real draw of the tournament is the experience of it. Until you see a swarm of people (many in their old hockey sweaters) surrounding CRT televisions for many hours, you can't yet appreciate the electricity or the excitement of playing in these games (this isn't you and Smitty from college drinking a 12er and playing a 7 game series on a Wednesday. Your heart will be pumping from the moment you arrive). Here’s a few simple goals to guide you on April 18:

1) Have fun. This is the most important!  Have. Fun.  There are around 40 pretty cool guys who all love playing the same game that have gathered together. Embrace that. Talk to them. Buy someone a drink, chat about strategy, past tournaments, yadda yadda yadda. The most important thing you should take away from the day when you wake up the next day was "Damn, that was a lot of fun."

2) Pay attention. So, you're a tournament rookie. You're not going to win (have I mentioned that yet?). But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to walk away from the tournament as a better player. When you're not playing, watch some other games.  Ask questions.  Check out the matchups you see called that make you go "Hmmm, interesting. I may try that one."  Watch some of the better players in the tournament and pay attention to how they play. If you liked how some guy played and want to emulate their style, introduce yourself.  Pick their brains, ask questions.  Use those hours of '94 to take in as much advice (and booze) as possible.  I guarantee you everyone will be excited to talk about the game!

3) Win a game. This should be the base goal of every player in the tourney. Win a game. 25% of the field will go 0-2 to start. It’s a mathematical certainty.  But then you’ll then face another 0-2 player.  And it keeps going as you have 5 games to try!  If you win a game as a rookie, you should walk away from the day feeling proud, regardless of how the rest of your tourney played out.  You will definitely end up playing some good games with people with similar skill levels. 

4) Be a good bud. NHL'94 is a Gentleman's Game.  Celebrate properly when something good happens, don't flip out when something bad happens. That's '94. We've all been there. Shake hands after the game and move on. Have fun. Both in playing the game and enjoying the surroundings.  

Hopefully this all helps and doesn't come off as too preachy. Just know that, as a rookie, the experience and atmosphere is the biggest thing you'll take away from this.  So let’s enjoy the day to play some NHL’94 and talk about how you wish you could make Lil Wayne Gretzky's head bleed for super fan 99 over here. 

Edited by kingraph
Revised with good advice below
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16 minutes ago, kingraph said:

4) Be a good bud. NHL'94 is a Gentleman's Game.  Celebrate properly when something good happens, don't flip out when something bad happens. That's '94. We've all been there. Shake hands after the game and move on. Have fun. Both in playing the game and enjoying the surroundings.  

will be sipping on some Gentlemen's Jack enjoying a day of hockey among avid gamers....only in NY 

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Here's the link

https://tecmobowl.org/forums/topic/63039-madison-wi-030715-tecmo-xi-apocalipps-now/page/13/?tab=comments#comment-432510

He went by hoigaard on boards, but his non nerd name is Ryan Krebs, I can connect you on the F book if you want, he's a pretty cool guy, I think he used to run the NY tecmo scene originally so he's in your neck of the woods.

Love the swingers reference, I think that is the key connector to most NHL retro guys Nostalgia.   I'd probably mention that movie right away.

And i'd put your reference  up near the top like  "you're not going to win the tourney, even if you took the Kings to the cup against the computer with offsides off.  LA is such a finesse team...."    And then you could tie in Swingers again at the end as well with something like  "So let’s enjoy the day to play some NHL’94, and talk about how you wish you could make Lil Wayne Gretzky's head bleed for super fan 99 over here"

 

 

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8 hours ago, smozoma said:

Small thing, mention that they still have 3 more games after going 0-2, against closer competition!

Good stuff, I expanded that section.

 

8 hours ago, segathon said:

Here's the link

https://tecmobowl.org/forums/topic/63039-madison-wi-030715-tecmo-xi-apocalipps-now/page/13/?tab=comments#comment-432510

He went by hoigaard on boards, but his non nerd name is Ryan Krebs, I can connect you on the F book if you want, he's a pretty cool guy, I think he used to run the NY tecmo scene originally so he's in your neck of the woods.

Love the swingers reference, I think that is the key connector to most NHL retro guys Nostalgia.   I'd probably mention that movie right away.

And i'd put your reference  up near the top like  "you're not going to win the tourney, even if you took the Kings to the cup against the computer with offsides off.  LA is such a finesse team...."    And then you could tie in Swingers again at the end as well with something like  "So let’s enjoy the day to play some NHL’94, and talk about how you wish you could make Lil Wayne Gretzky's head bleed for super fan 99 over here"

 

 

Fantastic suggestion, I did just that. 

If you can let him know I'm using his guide as the basis for this one, that'd be great.  I do want to give credit where due.  Can be FB or email, whatever

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Sure thing Raph, I'll send him a DM.  I'd even call out the Movie Swingers right away for those who may not pick up on the joke..  Not exactly sure how to word it though.  

Troy, I think the majority of people that have fond memories about the 16 bit era of their childhood remember the NHL series in general.  From my talks with people most played/owned more than one version.  Got to remember we are in a superfans bubble, most people haven't given this game much thought since they had pimples on their back.  Even in the Swingers Movie, they talked about how the programmers took out fighting because kids were hitting each other but you can still make a guys head bleed. Not correct as both were removed but most people remember that and think it's correct, because again they haven't played the game since they stopped buying OXY pads. 

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