|
The
Swammi's Diary From The Madden Games
Showtime!
Well,
I had just started to get that serious sleep groove on after
crashing out about 3:00 AM. You know that groove I'm talking
about, around 7:00 AM when the covers are just perfect and it
is the most difficult time to open your eyes. Well, that didn't
last long as I heard a knock on my door around 7:15 AM......It
was P.C. As happy as I was that he made it to DC safe and all
was cool, I was too tired to care, and was not jubilant at all
about waking up. I was trying to get enough rest to be fresh
for the big day, so I could be mentally ready. (As if I had
a big game to play....) But here is this guy happy to be in
DC after all the hell he went through to get there, and I was
like, wasssup bruh....and I climbed right back into the bed.
Pasadena Soldier was sleeping in the chair (I was pledging him
like he was in college) so I woke him up, and he and PC met
for the first time in person, after much phone and forum conversation.
Now I would say within 90 seconds of saying wasssuuupp, and
dapping for the first time, they had the controllers hooked
up and loading their profiles. No face washing, no brushing
teeth, just hard-core balling right off the bat. I was like...dude,
yall (you know my Texas accent is heavy)...yall are too deep
for me, as The Swammi tried to get his sleep groove back. But
it was useless. I kept finding myself opening one eye checking
out the game as Pasadena and PC were going at it. I finally
dozed off, only to be awakened by several outburst of...c'mon....catch
the %$^&%$ ball. Aw, hell, that should a been a pick! And
so on......
I
finally got up around 9:00 AM knowing I had to make my presentation
at 10:00 on starting a league. PC and I discussed some notes,
I showered, got "Swammi Fresh," and rolled
down to the lobby lounge to get set up. It was about 10:00 AM
when I arrived and only The Director and his dad were there.
10:15, 10:30....still no one. A little after 10:30 a few ballers
arrived, but we were just getting the TV's set up and moved
from where they were stored upstairs. So we decided to get all
the games and TV's set up and then PC and I would do our presentation.
PC was going to talk about setting up your league on the world
wide web, and I was going to speak on starting and developing
a league. We had quite a bit of interest in the presentations,
so we figured we would get the TV's set up and then we would
go with the presentations. Afterwards we would just start the
games. But no one told that to Bulldog and Mackavelli. No sooner
than the TV's were hooked up, they were going at it. By the
time we were ready to start our presentation, Bulldog had already
scored the first touchdown of nationals. It was on! PC and I
decided that we would save our presentation for Sunday AM, as
the ballers were eager to get started. So I declared the games
officially underway.
Only
The Strong Survives At Nationals
Before
I could get communication central up and running, the scores
were coming in fast and furious. There were few surprises early,
and several blowouts. The BDFL, seemed to be taking it on the
chin the worst. Papo Swing and Tabasco Cat's crew were getting
it taken to them early, with only Tabasco really representing.
DCFL also found the competition to be intense. It was becoming
evident that most ballers were feeling what I was saying in
the weeks leading up to the games. THIS IS NATIONALS.
Only the strong survives!
The
Beast Is Insensitive, And Uncaring
You
see, Nationals (The Beast) doesn't care how well you did in
your own league at home. It doesn't care how many championships
you have won in your local tournaments. It has no respect for
how many blowouts you have recorded against yo boys at the crib.
Nationals is it's own monster. For proof of that, ask James
Brooks. The PFL champ went 15-1 in the regular season, and won
the PFL Superbowl. Yet at nationals, he went 0-3. Ask Jay Kearney,
who is respected in the PC world as one of the best in the nation.
Yet at nationals he endures a vicious 92-61 beating from Winky
White. And even White himself has fallen to The Beast (Nationals)
in the championship game two years in a row. It's cruel, wicked
and vicious. The BDFL found this to be true first hand. Of course
I tried to warn Papo and the rest of his crew that your domination
at home, doesn't mean you will dominate The Beast. All of the
hours you put in at the lab at home, would be equaled and perhaps
doubled at Nationals. Only Tabasco Cat (2-1) could muster better
than a 1-2 record in the round robin. But even he, disappeared
in the second round of the playoffs when he DNA (Did Not Appear)
in his match vs. PC. The Beast is unmerciful, as Mad Guru witnessed.
After scoring 102 points on Big Poppa of the BDFL in the first
round of the playoffs, DC scored 80 on the Guru to knock him
out of the tourney. The Beast will have you go toe to toe against
your own league (BFL), only to survive by the skin of your teeth.
The Beast doesn't care what League you represent, BFL, DCFL,
PFL, or No F.L. And that was what everyone began to realize
on Saturday.
The
First Day Is In The Books
As
the day came to a close, the seeds were set, and the first round
playoff matches were established. 32 would survive another day.
11 would watch, go home, or see the city of DC as a tourist.
Meanwhile, T Philly White decided to set up a classic team tourney.
You see they don't call him T Philly for nothing. He was decked
out in his green Eagles jersey sporting a Randal Cunningham
#12. This guy is a hard core Eagle fan. He reveres Randal as
the best quarterback and the Eagles as the greatest team. That's
hard-core. I thought, this is an excellent time for me to get
some games in. So I told PC, to throw my name in the hat and
I would ball with the 77 Cowboys. Hey, after all, I'm just as
bad as T Philly when it comes to Dallas. Roger the dodger, Tony
D, Drew Pearson....shheeeee.....its on! So T Philly set up the
tourney, and my first game is against XR 2000, who is rolling
with the 89 49ers. Now XR2000 is a down brother who has some
game. But I didn't want to lose to him because he was the only
fella in the 32 field that didn't win a game in the round robin.
He was love - 3. So I thought, I know my game is rusty, but
the fellas might roll me if they found out I lost to XR. Fortunately
I pulled out a win and I was ready for the next round. But some
guys went out to dinner and the games were delayed, and the
next thing you know, we just said the hell with the tourney,
lets just ball.
More
Extracurricular Balling
I
probably should have gone to bed at this point. Its about 8:00
PM and I am really exhausted, trying to hang off of about 6
hours of sleep in the last two days. But hey, I didn't come
all the way to nationals not to ball. Since I wasn't able to
get into the tourney, I was going to get me some side games
in. So X (BFL) asked to get one in and I obliged him. I soon
began to feel like X wanted to impress The Swammi, and that
he did, as he mildly pulled out a can of W.A., BFL style on
me. The game wasn't even close. I got a taste of X's nasty defensive
tackle homemade stunt, where by which I could not pass the ball,
EVEN OUT OF THE SHOTGUN. Then he showed me why Jamall Anderson
and Tim Dwight should be recognized as all pro at the tourney.
So after the first 50 something to 10 smoking, I re-upped for
another one. And things pretty much went the same. Even though
I scored more this time, he did too, so it didn't make things
much better for me. We laughed, shared some strategies and talked
more about The Beast. So I thought I would go to bed then after
such a vicious lambasting. But old Donnie B. was in the corner
wanting to get a game in. He was already playing some else at
the time. So I said cool. Then Matt P. wanted to get a game
in with The Swammi. All of a sudden I started feeling like the
cheap whore....everyone was planning on passing me around the
room. I exclaimed vehemently, "Now..... The Swammi ain't
no cheap ho (ebonics) in this mutha...yall ain't gonna pass
me around the room. Somebody is gonna have to take an #$% whuppin."
So Matt P and I got it on. Now I'm thinking, Matt P went 0-3
also...and if I lose this one, it might be all over core magazine.com.
All of sudden I could see it, flashing like a banner on the
web site....Matt P dominates Swammi!!!! I said to myself holy
%$^&! I better try to get me a W tonight. So we played and
thanks to Madd Guru sharing some tips with me (to Matt P's dismay)
I pulled out a W. After Matt chased Guru away, we hung and shared
more tips, and talked more about The Beast. I could see that
was the trend here. Ballers go at it, Ballers share, Ballers
laugh. It was working real well.
Why
do we Lie To Ourselves?
Each
time I saw PC, I was like dude, I'm going to bed, and he would
say the same. Then we would see each other playing another game.
We lied to ourselves until about 1 or 2 AM. But I made it a
point to knock off. Pasadena had moved his stuff over to PC's
room, and I was holding tight just in case Teddy B. needed a
place to kick it.....But he rolled with Wink, DC, and Ron the
whole night. I would finally get a good night of sleep. I arranged
the storage of the TV's and left about 6 ballers in the lobby
loungestill going at it, and bid them good night.
League
Pride
The
biggest Madden Games fan in the madden community is no doubt
Air Attack Curry from the MFLA. He was literally dying, not
knowing was happening because we did not have the up to the
minute coverage on the web site as we did last year. When I
got to my room around 2 AM, I had about 5 messages from Air,
all about 10 minutes apart. "Swam, you know I need to know
what's happening....I'll call back in about 10 minutes."
And that he did, for about 4 more times. He finally caught me
in the room.....about 10 minutes after I walked in, and he wanted
all the details. I gave him all the info, seeds, scores, brackets,
etc. It was like Santa telling a kid what he was bringing him
for Christmas. You gotta love Air! So I hipped him on all of
the developments. I could see the pride he had in the MFLA when
I told him PC was the #3 seed. The next day in my mail, Air
had sent me a copy of the memo that he sent to all the guys
in the MFLA. He had written down everything I told him from
the night before, seeds, matchups, everything, and sent it to
the other league members. If that don't beat all......
So
I'm off to sleep, looking forward to seeing what the next day
would unveiled. Who would be our national champ. Would it be
Wink? Could Pasadena Soldier actually call his own shot? Is
PC strong enough to go all the way? How about this PC guy Jay....is
he as good as everyone says? Which one of the top 4 seed would
fall in the early rounds of the tournament? I never even thought
about Candyman......guess that goes to show you. That's Why
They Play The Games!
|