The 2011 IBM Basketball Finals!!!

Back in Februrary, I told you about the IBM Basketball League starting up again. Well, we're actually at the end of the double-elimination tournament now with the championship game being held tonight and you'll be happy to hear that yours truly is back there to defend his title!

The road to the finals is never easy.  This year I was back on a team that I had played with before where the captain (Adam) is arguably the best player in our league.  Size is not a problem on this team, but we really only have two capable guards while I'm the only true point guard.  My job is to get and keep everyone involved on offense while still finding my own shots.  My role is pretty important to the success of this team and it seemed like the games where I didn't have a good game, we ended up losing.  Our season record finished at 4-3.

Our first game in the  double-elimination tournament was already a challenge.  We were missing Adam and thus everyone else had to step up.  We ended up squeeking by the first round in a close 43-42 victory where I led our team with a robust 17 points.  We were somewhat fortunate that the other team didn't have their big guy either and so with no one in the middle to contest the lane, I drove to the hoop for several layups and got to the line quite a bit.  Winning this one without Adam was huge.

The second game was a tough one.  We played arguably the best team in the league and one that had been undefeated up to this point.  Adam was back for this game, but the opponent had an interesting yet effective strategy: box-zone +1.  It's basically a 2-2 zone with their best defender on Adam at all times, basically forcing the rest of the team to step up since he was almost always double-teamed.  Fortunately, our teammates stepped up to the occasion and we were able to hold them off in a 50-47 victory.  Yours truly chipped in 14 points.  It was key to win the first two games (especially for me) since a loss would've sent us to the loser's bracket.  In that case, we would've had to win two games back-to-back the next week, a week I would be missing due to an earlier planned trip to Washington D.C.

The third game was one the one that I ended up missing and with no losses so far, I felt comfortable knowing that even if we lost, I'd still have games to look forward to when I got back.  Fortunately, the opponent also had a key guy missing, so with my DNP it was almost like a wash.  Our team took care of business and actually had a great game, coming away with a 65-48 victory.  Our role players are hitting their peak at the right time!

So now it's on to the Finals match. This will be my 5th appearance in 7 years, and my chance at a repeat championship.  Ironically, I'll be facing the team I was on last year, so one of us is going to be denied a repeat.  Fortunately, we'll have two chances to put them away since we haven't lost a game in the tourney yet but hopefully we won't need to play that second game.  The key to the game will be using our size advantage, keeping up with their guards who can shoot and score from anywhere, and denying the fast-break opportunities.  They are a quick team and will be tough to keep up with, but if we play our game and stay in control, I think we'll have a good chance.  Wish me luck! I'll try and provide more pictures and hopefully I'll be bringing home another trophy! :)

DC Trip!

So I went to D.C. several days ago and haven't had a chance to blog about it.  Nate's been hounding me to write an entry, but honestly, blogging about trips usually takes a while since I have to pick out several pictures that I feel accurately describe my trip and then make sure I summarize everything I want to blog about.  I usually write such entries during down-time at work, which I've not had too much of and is why this entry is coming a week later than my actual trip.  Posts like the SC2-related ones are much easier since it's one picture and maybe a paragraph of actual verbiage.  So anyway, enough with the excuses...here's my blog regarding my trip to D.C. to visit one of my best friends.

I got into D.C. on Wednesday evening and Mike greeted me in the Reagan airport.  No car or anything, all we had to do was go one metro stop to get to his place in Crystal City, close to the Pentagon where you can actually see it from his balcony.  Once I got in, there wasn't really any time to relax...we quickly hit the local sports bar and proceeded to drink profusely while we watched several hockey playoff games and baseball games.  I love this part: We were watching the Yankees-Orioles game and I called A-Rod's first at-bat live to Mike. "3-run bomb! 3-run bomb! He's gonna work the count to 2-0 and get himself into a good hitter's count.  Then he's gonna go yard," I said.  A-Rod turned on a 2-0 fastball and sent it to the seats in the opposite field.  I started laughing hysterically at how I actually called it.  I laughed so hard that I think Mike was actually embarrassed to be around me in the bar, lol.  Wednesday night was the night I'd say we drank the hardest, probably 'cause he had dumb (or genius?) idea to end with a Four Loko, haha.

Nate got in on Thursday and we had to drive to Dulles airport to pick him up, which ended up being a long 2-hour trip due to traffic congestion. Nate had brought burritos from the Senor Taco in Arizona with him that we quickly scarfed down before we headed to the Nationals-Phillies game.  This was a game to remember...particularly for Nate and I.  Cliff Lee was pitching and it happened to be the week I was facing Nate in fantasy baseball where he owns Lee.  Of course, Lee goes and pitches a shutout with like 12 K's against the lowly Nats.  I must've dropped the F-bomb at least 20 times during the game.  I think the guy behind me thought I was a die-hard Nationals fan, LOL!  The game was quick at 2 hours and 6 minutes of play, but it was still cool to check out the stadium, something I try to do during every vacation to a different U.S. city.

After the game, we met up with Peyman and had some drinks at R.F.D., a bar known for serving a wide variety of different beers. I was glad that we were able to have a bunch of our friends come to D.C. for this trip.  My old roommate Ben also came out since he is training in Norfolk, VA and was only 4 hours away.  He got in on Friday, a day that we were supposed to plan for Nate but ended up leisurely executing it.  Nate wanted to see a ton of stuff around the National Mall on Friday, but we ended up making beer stops in Georgetown and the Waterfront and by the time we got to the mall, I had to go back to meet up with Ben.  Nate was very displeased with Friday's outcome. :( I guess we have different goals when it comes to vacationing.  But fortunately for Nate, he found time in the morning to check out more stuff that he wanted to and we would eventually find our way back to the National Mall on Sunday when Mike had a football game out there.

The weather was pretty good this weekend except for Saturday when it rained.  It influenced us to stay in most of the day playing Castle Crashers on the XBox 360.  We still went out on both Friday and Saturday night, which was basically the same as going out in Arizona: same kind of bars, different city. I will say however that I like the girls better here in Scottsdale and Tucson. :) I guess D.C. sacrifices some beauty for brains. ;)

There was one thing about the trip that really got to me although, and that was the allergies.  From all the flowers and cherry blossoms blooming, my allergies were out of control.  Ugh...

The other great part of the trip was the food, which in my opinion was highlighted by Ted's Montana Grill.  It was the first time I ever had a bisonburger and I really enjoyed how juicy and tender it was.  Other notable places were Hard Times Cafe, Italian Store, and Ray's Hellburger.  I felt Ben's Chili Bowl was slightly over-hyped.

Overall it was a great vacation and I'm glad to finally have visited Mike since he's been out there for ~5 years already.  Certainly should've visited him by now, but oops, my bad!  I also guess I hadn't really started making it happen until last year anyway. ;)

2v2 Master League

Tonight I placed into 2v2 Master League on StarCraft 2 with a buddy.  Our MMRs were already fairly high in the diamond range and when we went 5-0, we beat 4 high diamond teams and a Master's team on our last match to get in.  It feels kinda silly to be able to place directly into Master League, since it's supposed to be so prestigious.  I feel like one should have to earn it through a higher amount of games, but it's possible that we just got really lucky, although we did have to play well on our final placement match.  Anyway, there's only one mode left and it's arguably the toughest league to get: 1v1.  I'm not looking forward to it, but I guess I should at least try...

4v4 Master League

Well, that was quick...I really didn't even think I was that close in this league.  Good night to get promoted!? :D

StarCraft 2 - 3v3 Master League

I am elated with joy right now.  Can't tell you how happy I am to finally get promoted to Master League  in one of my leagues!  I've literally been trying so hard for the last few weeks to get into a Master League in StarCraft 2.  In case you didn't know, Master League represents the top 2% of active players on battle.net.  There are four different gaming modes, but for me, to get inot even one league is a great feeling!  Before my promotion, I had literally lost maybe 7 games in a row after going what I guess was 39-17, but perhaps I wasn't getting promoted because my Match-Making Rating had too much variance and unstability from winning a bunch of games.  Although I had been playing with and against other players in Master League, because it took a while, I was beginning to think that getting into Masters might be impossible.  Either way, this is truly a reason to celebrate!!! YAAYYYY!!!