Rebound
The Halloween Foosball Tournament looks to bounce back

 Unless your name is Greg Ouellette, chances are the 2007 Halloween Foosball Tournament was a bit of a disappointment.  In the eyes of many, the twelfth annual event did not live up to the standard set by its predecessors or even the expectations heading into the October 28th evening.  Low turnout directly led to a convoluted tournament bracket.  There were many people leaving early, some dedicated foosballers unable to attend, some less dedicated ones just blowing the tournament. Even Jim’s surprise Borat costume reveal ended up totally rushed and poorly executed.  For the first time ever, there were serious doubts about the long term prospects of the venerable institution.

That’s not to say the 2007 edition wasn’t without highlights.  On the contrary there were many great aspects to the tournament.  But there was a real sense that there were too many negative factors that needed to be addressed.

But instead of being discouraged, the Halloween Foosball Committee has become more committed to delivering an entertaining experience in 2008, and in fact are taking the 2008 Olympics in Beijing as inspiration.

“I was very down on the 2007 tournament, things should have went better.  I don’t know why some of the bad stuff happened, but it did, so we move on.  2008 will be great.”

The #1 most important issue on the Halloween Foosball Tournament agenda is turnout.  “We need to get back to a full 16-person tournament.  Last year was a travesty.  I think Steve and Greg had great stories, and congratulations to Keith on his first final four, but the way we had people re-entering, top seeds playing, second seeds getting byes.  It can’t happen again.”

The turnout problem was certainly aggravated by the unexpected absence of several long time Halloween Foosball competitors.  Wilson Rith, Angel Nales, and Kenny Stuart each were regular HFT players who weren’t in action in 2007.  Other people had been expected to attend for the first or second time but simply no-showed, some possibly out of spite.  Then there was the issue of people, mainly girls, who just came and didn’t participate.

To help solve the turnout problem, Jim is pushing the idea of an earlier start time, and possibly two “sessions” of foosball.  The HFT’s traditional date as the last Saturday before Halloween puts it in conflict with many Halloween parties.  People who want to go out later at night will be invited to stop by in the afternoon as the party will be going full strength all through the day.

Jim also wants to eliminate byes from the tournament.  He’d rather have a system of “second-chance” matches if it comes to that. “Byes can leave you cold, going into a quarterfinal match with no competition under pressure.”  In his ‘emergency’ scenario if only 12 players signed up, then players seeded 1-4 would face the players seeded 9-12.  If the top seeds advance, then 9-12 would face 5-8 in the other round of 16 matches.  If there was an upset, (very unlikely) then the top seeded player would take the other player’s spot.