(Boston, MA)- When the 7th annual Halloween Foosball Tournament is concluded on October 26th, 2002, there may not be another whole year's wait before more intense foosball competition. The Halloween Foosball Committee has in essence approved the idea of holding several "secondary tournaments" throughout the calendar year. Each Tournament would be uniquely different to the Halloween Foosball Tournament.
"The HFT will always be the Wrestlemania of Foosball, what we're talking about now is adding a Summerslam or a Survivor Series to the mix, to make things more interesting." Jim was quoted as saying. Although he brought the issue up for discussion, he is still not 100% sure whether it is a good idea. "The key is keeping the original Halloween Foosball Tournament at the forefront and not let the others water down the HFT's significance. While one would assume that the history and tradition of the original Halloween Foosball Tournament would be enough to maintain that level of importance, you never know."
Another issue is the question of attendence. Getting so many people together once a year is a big deal, but can you imagine doing it three times? "The other important issue is that people don't go to these tournaments instead of the HFT. If they want to attend these secondary events, they should go in addition to the Halloween Foosball Tournament."
There's also a good chance that staging tournaments throughout the year will only help the Halloween Foosball Tournament's popularity. As it stands, for most people the HFT is somewhat forgotton between November and July. "You start to see attention building as early as August...September it gets bigger, and then October's the big month."
Staging the tournaments throughout the year could help keep the HFT in people's minds. And if "All Roads Lead to Halloween" it could work wonderfully.
Count Greg Ouellette as a firm supporter of the idea. Greg loves competition and a couple more major tests of foosball skills throughout the year would be a great addition. "Hell Yeah" is what Greg said.
The current proposal would call for two more events added to the Halloween Foosball Tournament calendar. One would be a "Holiday Foosball Tournament" held in December/January. The Other would be the "Sunkist Championship: 24 Can Challenge".
The Sunkist Championship almost took place this summer. It was supposed to be held in May 2002, however poor planning led to its eventual scrapping. One of the key ideas from the Sunkist Championship involved holding the tournament outdoors. That idea did come to fruition as the foosball table was moved outdoors during the summer months although it wasn't a rousing success, it was something different.
One of the best parts of this idea is the different formats that were discussed for these other tournaments. The Sunkist Championship was to be an 8 person double elimination tournament (following preliminary rounds). It was also going to be timed, as opposed to "first to X amount of goals wins." If the Sunkist Championship is to be held next year, expect those rules or a variation of them to be included. The idea of having a "World Cup-style" tournament is also being thrown around and could be in place for one of the tournaments. It would include different "Groups" competing in a round robin style tournament before qualifying for the single elimination tournament.
Right now the HFC's main focus is on the 2002 Halloween Foosball Tournament, so therefore any decisions concerning these events won't come until November at the earliest but at this point it is a definite possibility that the fun is just beginning on October 26th.
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