The tournament is still the only one to have consisted of all 16 competitors, they were Greg, Jim, Steve, Pat, Jon, Billy, Paul, Nicky, Sean, Keith, Sothey, Wilson, Angel, Dale, Corey and the increasingly becoming legendary Chuck. The first round matches were as follows:
Greg vs. Jon
Chuck vs. Dale
Billy vs. Corey
Patrick vs. Sothey
Steve vs. Sean
Nicky vs. Wilson
Keith vs. Angel
Jim vs. Paul
first round: The tournament started off with a bang, as Dale dropped Chuck's alltime record to 1-3. Dale's upset led to a Shawn Michaels-like celebration by the HBK fan. Keith lost to Angel, in what was the Big Pimp's first Halloween Foosball action. Nicky defeated Wilson as Wilson was a last-minute replacement for the mysterious Chris G. Patrick, arrogant and smug, lost to Sothey, raising questions as to whether Pat could beat anyone besides his own brother, he was 0-4 vs. everyone else...hmmm....... Steve beat Sean, which he should have considering the age difference between the two. Then Billy, one of the surprise stories of 1997, lost to some unknown newcomer named Corey Pinkham. After a phone call from someone who was allegedly the president, (it wasn't really it was Heather actually)by Angel, Jim and Greg made their Roxbury guys entrance. The sight of the two of them bopping their heads in suit coats to the song "What is Love" is one of the lasting images in Halloween Foosball Tournament history (the entire Night had a Night at the Roxbury feeling to it...) Him defeated Paul, and Greg dropped Jon Casserly's record to 0-3 with his win to cap off the opening round. Greg would later comment that the tournament went pretty much as he expected, with the only surprise being "Corey"....OH THE IRONY
second round: Greg ended Dale's night by advancing in round 2 with a victory. After the match Dale left the Halloween Foosball world, because he "lost his smile". Steve faced Nicky in yewt another meeting between brothers. Now to most of the families in the Halloween Foosball tournament, the older sibling usually won....except in the Ostis family, where Nicky upset Steve just as Steve had upset Jim in 1997. Corey contiued his surprising run as he defeated Sothey and his special "sothey-style" of play. Then there's Jim vs. Angel. This match had some background to it, stemming from the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry... But however, the big story, (pardon the pun) was the outside interference and the match's tsoppage due to it. Jim was the victim of outside interference from Patrick. The fact that Pat would be anywhere near Angel in the same building that Angel smashed a baseball bat over his head was a mystery enough, however his interference and distraction caused a near-riot. Some of the highlights contained Wilson's open-field tackle on Patrick and the mob chasing Pat, and his supporter Ray away. Although Pat would later return, it wasn't until Jim beat Angel fair and square. semi-finals: The second Ostis vs. Ostis semi-final in as many years occured but it was Nicky this time instead of Steve. But the end-result still left Jim out of the finals as Nicky shocked everyone in the entire world by defeating Nicky causing a huge celebration amongst the little kids in attendence. Meanwhile Corey's success had been kind of hidden behind Nicky's success over his two older brothers. But Greg's lack of respect for Corey proved to be costly as greg lost in a non-taped match. Jim never witnessed his buddy's failure as the two heavy-favorites would see another year pass and the 1996 final still not held... So it was set Corey vs. Nicky, More people had the Rams and Titans picked for SuperBowll XXXII than that one.
The championship: Like Steve a year earlier, Nicky had the heavy fan support. Claims of "Flutie Magic" were there for Nicky, the shortest finalist ever. Sean O'Brien, Nicky's friend and his adviser said to "use your dagger" in the match. Alas, the fans went home unhappy as Corey won to a chorus of boo's. In fact Greg even refused to present the trophy to him. A rivalry was born between Greg and Corey, and a new champion was crowned as Corey Pinkham went from a nobody to "Big Story Corey"
