2010 Borderland Classic

I want to start this off by saying how much I like the El Paso pong community. These guys are great to play against and hang out with, and are all generally nice people. Though I have a lot of criticism about what became of the Borderland Classic, I don’t hold it against the EP players in any way. You guys are awesome and I hope you keep at it regardless of what happens as a result of Tuesday.

Now to the criticism. Before we even left ABQ on our way to El Paso, things were starting to look bad. El Paso’s website advertised that the tournament’s registration would begin at 12, and that tournament play would begin at 2. That was great; plenty of time to set up, warm up, and get everyone organized. I found out the day before that registration would actually begin at 2, and the tournament would start at 3. This made me a little nervous. Having run a prelims-oriented tournament myself, I knew how much of a hassle it was going to be to set up prelim groups. That stuff takes a lot of time, but hopefully teams would be prompt (haha!) and we could get going in a timely manner.

ABQ sent two teams: Gabe Montoya and I played as Open for Free Play, and Ted Wallace and John Dubois played as Risk It for the Biscuit. We arrived at the venue in El Paso at 1:30. I had wanted to get there a bit early to offer my help in setting up the prelim grouping. We walked in the bar and nobody was there save for three employees setting up chairs (not a pong table in sight). The manager told us that he thought the “beer pong thing” didn’t start until that evening. Uh oh. Nevertheless, Messiah G. assured me he was on his way and things would start on schedule.

So we shot pool for awhile and around 2:00 Messiah and his crew showed up with the tables and started setting up. It cut a little close for my taste, but I trusted EP to know their scene. Around 2:30 AZ’s Nate Cunningham and Matt Stinson show up with some more EP players, and we get to practicing. At this point there was no computer, and no list of teams being tracked. I knew we weren’t going to start anywhere close to 3:00.

At this point I should point out what was going on behind the play area in the bar. I guess they decided they needed to remodel and add wood flooring, and what better day than Tuesday? Throughout nearly the entire tournament there was construction work going on about 10 feet from the play area, complete with loud power tools. I don’t hold this against EPBP, but it definitely added to the tone of the tournament.

Anyway, an hour later the computer finally showed up and a list started getting put together. There were 13 teams. I had been warming up with singles and doubles practice games for two hours. The drink specials were pretty damn good, but that could only hold us over for so long. I started pressuring them to get the tourney going, but I was assured more teams were on the way, and we were just waiting for them. This was at 4:00.

An hour later things still hadn’t started. I was done practicing, as were many of the players who had migrated to the pool tables and various other places in the bar. There were 15 teams registered. It was finally decided just to start the tournament, with the first seed winning a buy in the bracket. At this point money was collected. I thought we were ready to go, but then we had to wait for the guy with the microphone. I personally don’t know why this wasn’t set up during the preceding three hours, but whatever, I was resigned to a late night.

Another thirty minutes went by and the microphone guy showed up, set up his equipment, and we were ready to start the tournament. After pooling teams into prelim groups and getting them to their tables, the first games were finally able to begin. It was 5:45, almost four hours after the advertised start time, and three hours after the last minute changed start time. Though I was incredibly unhappy about this, I couldn’t be too upset about playing in a 16-team tournament with a $2k prize pool. I was shooting damn good during the three hour practice session, (didn’t lose a single bo3, even against the great Nate Cunningham!), and liked my odds at that sweet prize pool. You’ve probably already guessed what my next big disappointment was going to be.

With only 16 teams at $50 a pop, the tournament only generated $800. As an organizer, I never advertise something that I can’t follow through on. The only exception I’ve ever encountered had to do with a King of the Cups satellite, but I don’t think I can be blamed for how that turned out. With our sport so young and new to the public eye, I know that it is incredibly important that organizers maintain professionalism in their events, especially after the PongLeague debacle. Sure SWBP lost money hosting the Championships this year, but we promised $1500 and we paid in full, that day, in cash. How would anyone respect us and continue to attend our events if we hadn’t?

Unfortunately, the organizers of the Borderland Classic hadn’t planned for the event of a low turnout. Instead of the $2k advertised, only $800 was paid to the finalists. When alerted to this information, John (who ended up taking 3rd with Ted) talked to Messiah about getting his 3rd place money, and was actually given $50. Not quite the $150 advertised, but I’m pretty proud he at least got something for his troubles. All in all though, the prize money situation was something that I can’t forgive, as the large prize pool was a lot of the reason we made the four hour drive out there (I don’t even want to think about how long AZ’s drive was).

As far as the tournament itself, I have to say that in spite of everything it was run pretty smoothly. There were eight tables set up, meaning each round of prelim play could be played at a single time, and the bracket games actually went by pretty quick. The finals started around 10:30 or 11:00, hours earlier than I had anticipated (but I hadn’t taken into account how few prelim games would need to be played with only 16 teams). AZ’s Southern Discomfort played EP’s Pill Poppin’ Animals in a best of five series for the finals. Though AZ snapped off the first win (as everyone expected) they choked in the next three games, including one game that went to quadruple-OT. Stinson wasn’t even really drunk, which may have accounted for his poor play (I can finally say I’ve seen a finals game involving Matt in which he didn’t knock over a cup). Regardless, I do have to congratulate the boys of PPA, as their 3-1 cup was pretty clutch.

So though it was a disappointing day of pong for me (both for what I’ve mentioned so far as well as my own lackluster shooting in my last few games), I do hope El Paso learns from it and keeps at it. As I said before, they are great guys, have some real talent, and are very driven. Their next big event is a Series satellite run with All American Beer Pong as a part of their tour, taking place on Friday, September 10th.


-Clawless

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