USBC Open Championship in El Paso

So I've been annually attending the USBC Open Championships with a team of 10 IBMers from Tucson.  You may recall last year I went to Reno to participate for my first time.  This year, the tournament is held in wonderful...El Paso, TX?  I've never actually been to El Paso before, but it was interesting how one could literally see Juarez, Mexico from the interstate as you are driving into the city.  My friend Chris and I arrived on Sunday, and downtown was as dead as could be.  We walked around Union Plaza, where there are a ton of bars and clubs, but they were all closed.  Unfortunately, we didn't pick the best nights to experience nightlife out here, as these places are only open later in the week.  Nonetheless, we found our way to Sparrow's, the only bar open in all of downtown El Paso.  They actually made an effort to open up the place with all the USBC bowlers coming to town, and I thank them dearly for that or else I would've been bored out of my mind.

There's really not a whole lot to do in El Paso (unless you're into Museums?), so I'll just cut to the chase.  Day 1 of Open Championships featured the team event, where teams of 5 try and post the best scores they can.  You're basically competing against everyone, so the goal is simply to bowl the best game you can.  The lanes are oiled to be extremely difficult, and missing your mark by just a hair or not adjusting as the games go on will cause you to miss the pocket and leave all kinds of nasty splits.  I didn't have many expectations going in, I just wanted to bowl a 500-series once and enjoy myself.

Day 2 featured the Doubles and Singles events.  I'll say for the Team and Doubles, I had paltry series of around 420 each event. :( Yeah, it's really tough out there.  However, I shined in the Singles event, posting my best games of 185 and 174, ending with a 484 series, which was pretty close to my goal, but just missed it.  While bowling is a dying sport in my opinion, I still love it and plan on going back next year, which should be back in Reno.

Up next, Japan!!!

Bowling Championships and Southwest Challenge!

Bowling Championships:

Last Thursday was championship night for the IBM Bowling League.  Since the format of the final night changed from 2 teams to 4 teams a few years ago, our team has not won the league.  The new format features 4 of the 8 teams all bowling against each other in a battle of total pin-count across 3 games.  Obviously, heads up is easier to win since you only have to be better than 1 other team on a given night.

We bowled pretty well through two games, but another team was just bowling better.  We found ourselves down by 91 pins to that team and ourselves well ahead of the other 2 teams.  So basically we needed to make up those pins in the final game to win it all.  A couple of HUGE performances from Matt (220 with a 157 average) and Chris (240 with a 190 average) really helped and we found ourselves winning total pins by 22 pins!  And so we've finally made it back to the champions' pedestal, our 4th championship in about 8 years of bowling.

Once we wrapped up the victory, I drove my way to Las Vegas to get ready for the APA 8-Ball Southwest Challenge.  I made the decision to bowl first then leave, instead of missing bowling altogether.  That turned out to be a key decision since had I not shown up, our team would've had -30 from me missing the night and we would've lost by 8 pins.  In other words, staying to bowl and leaving Tucson late was totally worth it!

Southwest Challenge:

Chris and I arrived at the Riviera in Las Vegas at 4:30am on Friday morning.  Tyler had gotten in around midnight, so fortunately he was able to check us in early in the morning at 7am (yeah, fuck that shit) and attend the players' meeting for us at 8:30am.  We also got lucky, receiving a first round bye and not having to play our first match until 2pm as opposed to 9am.  Chris and I were able to salvage some valuable extra hours of sleep before hitting up an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ restaurant for lunch before our 2pm match.

For our first match, we played a team from San Bernardino.  Their 3 beat our 5 (Chris) and Tyler (a skill level 4) lost to a 7.  Fortunately, Southwest Challenge is a single-elimination modified tournament, which means you are guaranteed to play at least 2 matches.  Our next match came at 5:30pm against a team from San Diego.  I (a skill level 4) beat a 5 to lead things off and Chris beat a 4 to send us to the next round for Saturday!  We made it to day 2!  However, we also had to play next at 8am in the morning... (yeah, fuck that shit).

Friday night was fairly low key since we had to be up early.  Chris, Tyler, Tyler's girlfriend Tina, and I walked down to the Palazzo to do some gambling.  The whole night we kept our Cereal Killer shirts on and got several comments and questions...almost too many LOL.  Chris and I played some blackjack back at the Riviera and called it a night around 1am.

I manned up and woke up at 7am to go to our 8am match against a team from Las Vegas.  Tyler lead things off against a 5 but lost, and unfortunately I didn't play well enough to beat a 4.  We were hence eliminated from the tournament and had we just this one match, we would've finished in the money (around $50 for each of us).  Oh well, it was still a lot of fun and I would surely go again!

The rest of the time in Vegas was just partying it up.  It was Tina's 30th birthday and the U of A Wildcats beat the Ohio State Buckeyes.  We pretty much drank all day and eventually made our way out to Fremont street.  The rest of the night was a little bit of a blur as we kept the drinking going on and I actually forgot to eat dinner.  Whoops!

And so ended a fun weekend in Vegas.  As I've gotten older, I'm enjoying traveling more when it's for competition.  It gives you a reason to travel to another city as opposed to just wandering around and sight-seeing.  With that said, the USBC Open Championships will be in a couple weeks in El Paso come early April.  Traveling is also more fun with better comradeship.  Who you go with can really make the trip more enjoyable.

So far 2015 is off to a great start, and it's gonna be a great year!

Clutch Performance!

Thursday night was the final week of the regular season for IBM Bowling League.  Our team had not qualified for the playoffs yet and we were tied for 1st place on the 8-week session. The goal was simple, win 3 out of 4 points against the other team tied with us and we secure a playoffs spot.  In addition, I personally needed a 634 series in order to lock up a 190+ average on the season.

Game 1:
Game 1 was close the whole way through.  I found myself up with a spare going into the 10th frame and our team down by 17 pins.  I threw a good ball that left all but the 10-pin and we had won game 1!  I closed out with a 224.
Score: 1-0

Game 2:
Unfortunately, we got destroyed in game 2, as all of their bowlers bowled well above their average.  It was not looking good anymore.  They had won game 2 and we found ourselves down by 105 total pins.
Score: 1-1

Game 3:
Our season basically came down to this.  Bowl our minds out or go home losers.  The bowling gods must have been shining down on us this night, as Tony bowled a 225, Chris bowled a 249, and I bowled a 268.  We ended up winning game 3 by over 150 pins and thus secured the 3-1 victory!
Score: 3-1

I finished the night with a career best 686 series and it couldn't have come at a better time!  Our team will be playing in the playoffs next on championship night, a chance to get back to the winner's pedestal that we've been missing out for the last couple years!

To make matters a little interesting, championship night of bowling also happens to fall on the same day that Chris, Tyler, and myself need to go to Las Vegas for the 8-Ball Southwest Challenge.  In other words, if I want to do both, I'll have to bowl Thursday night and drive straight to Las Vegas immediately afterwards, which would get me in Las Vegas around 4am in the morning, LOL.  This may be one of my greatest challenges to Make It Happen...wish me luck!

In other news...

You might recall that I recently purchased a 70" HDTV.  This forced the 55" into my bedroom and I no longer needed my 46".  I ended up donating my 46" Sharp Aquos to my parents, who have been stuck on 32" and 34" CRTs for the past 9 years since I've owned this HDTV I gave them.  LOL.  Needless to say, they are quite happy with HD programming.

New DX Racer Chair!

I really enjoy my computer gaming, and as a gamer who will sit in gaming sessions for a few hours at a time, I started to notice my arms and shoulders getting more sore and tired over time.  Perhaps it's just me getting old, but I do believe in ergonomics and being as comfortable as possible, especially when you're staying seated for a while.

So one day I was watching another StarCraft player's stream and noticed his chair and an advertisement for a DX Racer chair.  I did some more research and discovered that many StarCraft players use these chairs, and they're used in professional tournaments around the world.  I currently was using a generic executive chair from like Office Depot, so it made more sense that I should get a chair made specifically for gamers.

I ended up purchasing the M-Series OH/MY07/NR, because it was one of the few models that offered adjustable arm rests and the ability to lock the seat in a rocked position.  I also lucked out because while I was patiently researching their chairs and deciding which one to get since I couldn't try them out in person, they changed their website and offered a 10% discount on all chairs.  Since the chair runs for about $450, this saved me $45!

 

So far I am very happy with my purchase.  The chair is very comfortable and the adjustable arm rests make it so that my arms don't feel uncomfortable when resting on the keyboard on my high desk.  I will say that the only con has been that the arm rests aren't as soft as my old ones, but you can easily add padding to it if you wanted it to be softer.  The adjustable arm rests can go in and out, forward and back, and up and down, so there's a lot of flexibility in finding the perfect position.

And as you can see, Duncan approves.  In fact, he loves it so much that if I even get up to go to the bathroom, he'll jack my seat!