Fanzine

[C-Fan]

Top post painting:

Pablo Picasso, The Dream, 1932.


Picked that one, since sleep is the most precious and rare commodity in our life these days. I actually think our baby is pretty good in terms of sleeping and temperament, but its still a huge challenge to deal with his sleep needs. The wife and I basically trade 3 hour shifts around his feed times, where one of us sleeps and the other watches baby. It's harder now that I'm back at work, but I'm still trying to pick up shifts in the evening and morning to give Haley breaks to get through the day. Much coffee.

My last post in the 'Zine was my first Vlog, and I was happy with how it turned out. I got a lot of positive response on it, which encourages me to do more in the future. The reason I'm writing a post now instead of making another vlog, is that footbag-wise I don't have a lot to report. Mostly because I haven't had much opportunity to play lately. I don't think I'll have the time or energy to play during weekdays because of the baby and associated sleep schedule, so my best hope is to get in a couple sessions on weekends. We'll see if I can pull that off. I'll make another Vlog next time I get to play.

Here's a random video I shot the day Mariusz Wilk friended me on Facebook. I decided it was finally time to hit flip Marius, and I did. Probably never doing that again. The final trick in the video is a joke inspired by Lon, who claimed that any trick is easier when you do it in slow motion:


The biggest issue facing me with footbag now is deciding if I can go to Worlds. I have the funds, vacation days, and motivation to go. What I lack is any kind of certainty about how much time I'll have to prepare/train before the tournament, because of the baby. If things continue the way they are now, there's no way I can prepare adequately and it'd be a total waste for me to go. But it's likely that life with the baby will improve, in which case I might eventually figure out a schedule where I can train enough to give me a shot at doing well. The problem is that I don't know for sure that things will improve, and even if they do I have no idea when that will be. By the time that all becomes clear, it will likely be too late to get flights and lodging at reasonable prices. So basically I am forced into betting on whether or not I think I'll be able to train in time for Worlds, which is entirely contingent on something I have no control over and no experience with. The way I see it, I have 4 possible outcomes. From best to worst they are:

1. I buy tickets now, the baby starts sleeping through the night, the baby gets less fussy, Haley and I get back into a normal schedule, and I have time to properly train for Worlds. Because I bought tickets early, I'm able to go to Worlds and have a realistic shot at achieving my goals.
2. I decide not to buy tickets because there's too much uncertainty about what the next few months will be like with the baby. Sure enough, August rolls around before I know it. I haven't had time to prepare for Worlds, but I also didn't spend money buying tickets or make my parents or Haley sacrifice anything so I can go. I don't go to Worlds, but I also didn't waste resources needlessly.
3. I don't buy tickets since I don't know what to expect in the coming months. Happily enough, life with baby improves and I'm able to begin training. I decide to go to Worlds, but now tickets and logistics are a lot worse. Depending how bad they are, I may or may not go.
4. I buy tickets now, but life with baby doesn't improve, I blink and it's August, and now I'm going to Worlds completely unprepared with no real shot at doing well.

Maybe I'm looking at this wrong though. Perhaps the better question is more along the lines of: "10 years from now what would I regret more: going to Worlds unprepared, or not going at all?"

[Asmus]

Damn! I can't believe I missed that top post painting. Have you read John Berger's Picasso book? It is amazing. Really changed the way I look at Pablo and formed part of the way I look at art in general. Here is a link: https://www.amazon.com/Success-Failure- ... er+picasso

Maybe I'm looking at this wrong though. Perhaps the better question is more along the lines of: "10 years from now what would I regret more: going to Worlds unprepared, or not going at all?"

I think that is super easy to answer.. Especially if the family can go with you.

[boyle]

Option 1 sounds pretty good. Also, it's good to make use of the fact that kids can fly for free when they are under 2. Particularly at that age, under 1, they are generally pretty easy to fly, particular if the distance is not too big. I've said it before, but I think you could have quite a good tournament with no training at all, you've done so much of the groundwork in the past years. There's also that historic value of Worlds being in Portland, back to where it all began etc, although you would have been to plenty of US Opens etc there so maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal, but maybe yes.

In reality that's probably the only thing that's keeping me a chance of going. In reality I don't have the funds, the time off maybe/maybe not. But we'll see a bit closer to the date.

[C-Fan]

Wind cut short my session yesterday. Also really messed with the GoPro's audio recording. Good lesson learned there...if it's windy out don't try and film a Vlog. Here's what I managed to salvage:

[C-Fan]

[C-Fan]

It was absolutely gorgeous summer weather yesterday, even after work. Haley very kindly agreed to take baby duty even longer to let me get in a shred, which I really appreciated. My body and mind needed a shred, and I ended up having a good session. I filmed, and plan on doing Vlog #4 with that footage, but I've been having issues with my laptop (including the micro SD card reader) so I couldn't pull the footage at home. I'll try again today, but worst case scenario I can use my work laptop to pull the files from the card, then transfer them to my home laptop via flash drives. Clunky, but at least the footage isn't lost.

Speaking of vlogs, here's slow-mo on the blurriest swirl in my last vlog:



I went into yesterday's shred with the goal of working on longer strings. While I still haven't made an official decision on Worlds, I'm trying to approach my sessions as if I am going to go. Worst case scenario, I don't go to Worlds but I'll have spent time on basics, stamina, and breaking in my final pair of G-Units. No harm, no foul there. Best case scenario I do go to Worlds, and the shoe mod plus these stamina sessions will pay off when I have to compete.

Shredwise I felt pretty good going for longer strings. I want to work to the point where 20 contacts is pretty automatic, and then 30 contact strings happen with some frequency. The end goal is to get to the point where 50-60 guiltless is something I can get a couple times a session, as I think having that kind of stamina and consistency is going to be key for doing a good routine. Like, if I can do a 50 contact guiltless string with only around 10 BOPs, then I should be in good enough shape to do a 2 minute routine with choreographed pauses and some tricks under 3 adds. I still have a long way to get there.

Towards the end of the session I decided to work on toes a bit. In Derek's honor I hit a toe-to-toe (t2t) quad a couple times, and a couple t2t back-to-back links that are hard for me. Toes are a lot of fun...other than the add devaluation I don't understand why people don't do more of them.

On the Worlds front I still haven't bought tickets or officially decided to go. In good news though, I did devise a plan that I think could work. It relies on my parents being able to come to Denver to care for the baby and the dog for a couple days, but if that works I'd be able to go. I'm hoping to get an answer from them in the next couple days, and if they can help us out I should be able to buy tickets. Fingers crossed.

Closing out with a video from when Gatesman was in town in January:


Oof. Evan's too good.

[boyle]

Nice videos. I reckon on the toe to toe, a lot of people have their left and right foot with a big difference in level (maybe less so on clipper, I know that's how it is for me), so it can be difficult to do those back to back combos. I imagine the lack of adds would put some people off, but not that many.

[C-Fan]

[boyle]

how about a toe ducking symp dlo for the next vlog?

On judging - this is something where I think freestyle football is somewhat ahead (although the judges quite often get it wrong, this is mostly due to the rules though, but usually in the competitions the first though is on bringing out a judge. I think the pre-training is a really good idea. You had some really good long runs in there, though I was hoping after saying "I'm going to work on stamina" that there would be a 50+ contact run straight off the bat.

[Allan]

I'm really, really digging these vlogs Ken. Thanks.

An idea: consider publishing the series under The Symposium name; a "podcast" doesn't have to be exclusively audio, and since you are attempting to engage directly with the community, asking questions and following up on them, I think it still fits; you could just create two categories: "Audio" & "Video." I'm a little unsure about how it would work from a technical standpoint with the podcast feed and podcast apps, but I don't think you need to be constrained by that ...

[Asmus]

I agree with Allan on this. Having a succesful podcast or vlog depends on: content, consistency and promotion.
Obviously your podcast having been laggin the two first ones lately, so doing the 1-2 punch combination could help out.

A podcast I recently started following does the vlog / podcast combo aswell.
Here is a link.

[C-Fan]

I was hoping after saying "I'm going to work on stamina" that there would be a 50+ contact run straight off the bat.

That's definitely the end goal. May take me a few sessions before I get there. There's also the question of what that 50 looks like. I bet I could get 50 pretty easily if half of it were BOPs and bails, but I'd like to get a meatier string in that range (i.e. more genuine links and hard tricks). Probably not a bad idea to work on both approaches, as they should both help me get to my end goal. At this stage I feel like a 60 contact BOP-heavy string would help me get ready for Worlds more than a 10 fearless string.

how about a toe ducking symp dlo for the next vlog?

OK.


While I like the idea of having my Vlog supplement my Podcast, I kind of view them as thematically different. I see my Vlog as an extension of my blog, where it's a personal space for me to document my shred and my thoughts mostly for my own selfish benefit. Like a snapshot of where I am on a given day, that I can look back on later to reminisce about the journey. With the podcast I had a very different goal in mind, which was to document some of the history and relationships in the sport, for the enjoyment of others. The whole choice of the name "Symposium" was intended to denote a conversation like you would have over dinner with a friend. For that reason, I feel like my first 5 Vlogs don't really fit with that vision. But that doesn't mean I couldn't shoot future Vlogs to supplement the Symposium, if I did something like an on-camera interview. I dunno, something to consider.

On the Facebook group I started a thread where I asked people to post a video of the "best trick they've ever seen." It now has over 70 comments and a ton of videos. Definitely a testament to how insane our sport can be and how athletic some of our players are. It was also cool to see some older tricks make the list, and to see such a variety of players on there too. It makes me a bit sad how all topics on Facebook eventually disappear forever, so I was stoked to see Mikko compile a sampler video of some of the better tricks listed:



Life-wise things are going pretty well. I'm lucky if I get to play footbag once a week, since the baby takes up so much time and energy. When I do play, I don't feel out of shape, but I also suspect this schedule isn't ideal for training up to Worlds shape. I guess the hope is the baby starts sleeping more through the night in the next couple months, and if he does then maybe I can get back to a place where I can play more regularly. The way our paternity/maternity leave worked out, Haley and I were both home for the first 6 weeks, and now I'm back at work for 4 weeks while Haley is home with the baby. Then we go into a cycle of each alternating 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off until we exhaust our vacation and we can get Griffin into daycare. We're very fortunate to be able to do this (by American standards), but it's still tough, especially since we have no family nearby to help. Most days I get home from work, either watch the baby for an hour or walk the dog, we do a quick dinner and put the baby down, then I take baby duty from like 8-11, Haley takes 11 to 5, I take 5 to 7, then I go to work for 9 hours, and the cycle starts over. Sometimes I can get some sleep on my evening or morning shifts with baby, but sometimes he's fussy and I can't. I still think I have it easier than Haley who spends all day with the baby, but I'll be in her position soon enough. But yeah, if the baby doesn't get to the point of sleeping through the night in the next few months and I do decide to go to Worlds, I feel like I'm going to be at a pretty bad disadvantage in terms of preparation. I'm hoping I can pull it off though, and if I can make it to Worlds and perform decently, I think that may mark the end of my competitive career. At least in terms of spending so much time and energy preparing for comps.

[boyle]

I don't think the facebook posts do disappear forever, you just need to hold on to a link for them. For example - https://www.facebook.com/groups/footbag ... 254800005/ is the link to your thread (just click on the date below your name when you make the post).

But I think as time goes on it becomes much more difficult to search for these things if you don't have the link.

On the long, easier strings vs big fearless, I think that's the reality - a 60 contact string is going to be a lot better help for routine stamina than a short burst of fearless. Even though the fearless would feel like a bigger achievement.

[C-Fan]

I haven't been playing regularly, so I'm not in a routine in terms of charging my camera, patching my equipment etc. It's bitten me in the butt recently, which is annoying because when you only play 1-2 times a week, you want it to be good. I got in a session yesterday and wanted to Vlog it, but my GoPro wasn't charged, so I only got like 20 minutes filmed. Better than nothing I guess:

[C-Fan]

I can't believe 2017 is already about 25% done. I am getting a bit more cautiously optimistic though that we'll get the baby to a point where we can sleep more normally, and we'll regain a sense of partial control over our lives.

No sessions since my last Vlog, but had a bunch of thoughts I wanted to get down.

First topic I wanted to bring up was the Hall of Fame (HOF). In the past I feel like most people were unaware of the HOF or the nominating process because it wasn't very visible, but this year it became a topic on Facebook and for that reason I think it got a lot more visibility. A bunch of proposed names have been floated, and some humorous discussions have bubbled up here and there, but the whole thing to me just emphasizes that most people don't understand the purpose and criteria of the HOF, possibly including the HOF itself. I conducted an experiment on myself and Nick Polini, and I encourage anybody reading this to participate in it as well. The basic premise is that anybody reading my blog is probably a hardcore footbag nerd, or my Mom (hey Mom- I'll send more baby photos this weekend), and if you're enough of a footbag nerd to be reading this you probably are the target audience of the HOF. Or you should be. So I made a 3 question HOF quiz to see how well current hardcore footbaggers understand the HOF. If you want to play along, please pause after each question and actually write down an answer.

Question #1: How many people are currently in the HOF?
Question #2: Name 5 people in the HOF.

Go ahead, write some answers. Question #3 gives hints for Question #2, so I'll ask it later in the blog.

The other question raised by all the recent HOF discussion, is: what is the criteria for making the HOF? Officially, I think it's something like "demonstrated leadership in the sport" plus a 15 year involvement requirement. To me, things that would meet this criteria would be stuff like hosting major tournaments (e.g. Worlds or Euros), hosting minor tournaments over the course of several years (e.g. Funtastiks), inventing an aspect of the sport (e.g. inventing a major competitive category like Shred30 or Circle Comp), contributing a useful tool to the community (e.g. internet forums, judging software, etc.), or doing major promotion (e.g. Taishi promos, etc.). And there certainly are many members of the HOF that cleanly fit into these categories. But then there are people in the HOF who don't fit in with these categories, like Vasek and Manu. Both were dominant players with unprecedented runs of competitive success, but it seems like they're being recognized more for being good players than anything. And if you can get into the HOF simply by being a good player, then why isn't all of BAP in it?

Onto Question #3 of my quiz: Of the following HOF members, how many have you heard of? Yacine Merzouk, Paul Mestas, Sunil Jani, Ahren Gehrman, Noah Merlin Dubreuil

To get a better grasp on some of these HOF questions, I decided to go to the source and talk to a HOFer. I chatted with Red on Facebook, and the sense I got from him is that you could get into the HOF if you fell into any of these 3 archetypes:

1. Contributions to the sport similar to what I listed above. You don't need to be an advanced player to get in this way. Think somebody like Steve Goldberg.
2. Dominant player with dominant competition history. You don't need to have hosted any tournaments, or done any promo work or anything else to get in this way. Think Vasek/Manu.
3. Hybrid between the two above categories. So a player who hosted USO multiple times and made BAP, but maybe was never World champ or hosted Worlds or ran a tournament for 20 straight years. Think Red.

But even if the criteria were crystal clear for making HOF, a few questions remain. To me, these include: do all current HOF members even meet these criteria? Who is the intended audience, and consequently what is the purpose of HOF? If you (hardcore footbag nerd reading a hardcore footbag nerd's blog right now) are the target audience of the HOF, how did you do on the HOF quiz in this entry?

Here are the answers:

1. There are currently 90 HOF members. Did you come in low or high? I was surprised there were so many, and I was also surprised how many I had never heard of, especially since I consider myself a bit of a historian of the game. Full list is here: http://www.footbag.org/groups/list/85
2. How many could you name? I feel like you should get 1 point for each correct one you named, but also points off for ones you thought were in the HOF but aren't. Which brings me to the next answer:
3. Trick question; none of these people are in the HOF. Neither is Red. Did you fall for this trick question? And if you did, what does that say about what your expectations are for who should be in the HOF?

If you're like me or Polini, you probably did worse on this quiz than expected. But if hardcore footbag nerds like us know so little about the HOF, then who is the HOF intended for?

I'll leave you with this vid of when Evan visited in January. It's the last I have of this session's footage:

[boyle]

My guess was at 20-30 for the total. Which is way off.

My guesses before looking were Derick Fogle, Jack Schoolcraft, Kenny Schults, Mag Hughes, John Stallberger, Mike Marshall, Vasek

The question said 5 or 6 I think, looking back it said 5. So I went over the top. Mike Marshall is not in it, well not in that list anyway. Jack Schoolcraft also not. I only thought of him because he added me on Facebook recently and posts weird stuff.

I knew that Red was not in hall of fame and thought it was some kind of trick question, I wasn't sure about the other ones that were post. Of all of them I'm a bit surprised Sunil is not.

Onto the list, I reckon I probably know half of the names here. Some vaguely, some are legendary. I don't know where I see myself in terms of footbag historian. There's some stuff I know pretty well, but there's other things I have no idea about (particularly related to net).

What do I think should get you in to the Hall of Fame?

- Breaking new ground (That's pretty much number 1 in your section). Either really pushing the sport somewhere new, inventing new types of competitions, getting serious numbers of people to take up the sport (like with internet stuff, some kind of mega campaign that gets people to start playing), also getting very good players started out, inspiring new generations etc (this can include with video).

- Being good in a fashion that has not been done before (ie in the Vasek level), basically being the star of your current generation. It's interesting though, you would think there would need to be some kind of promo, and I do think that Vasek has inspired people to either start playing, be competitive, or try to beat him, but not necessarily through direct promotional activity. I think inventing large amounts of new tricks (particularly new sets or things that people thought "I didn't know that was possible" sort of stuff. This is basically your equivalent of Tony Hawk landing the 900.

About the intention, not so sure. I think it's started with the older players maybe not wanting to be forgotten, but I think the current format of it doesn't seem to be linked to the current generation, or maybe people who are kicking now don't really see themselves going into it. There are probably not so many "organisers", particularly of major, regular events that are on at the moment. A lot of the competition between the big ones like Euros, USO, Worlds are smaller jams.

Interesting topic, thanks for bringing it up.

[Asmus]

I can easily mention 5 and I could probably get 10+ right right off the bat.

I thought 50+ so not thaaaat far off.

You did fool me with this: "Yacine Merzouk, Paul Mestas, Sunil Jani, Ahren Gehrman, Noah Merlin Dubreuil", but I did think to myself "I am not sure any of these should be in".

I would like to make HOF one day. I feel it is good motivation for somebody like me, who will never like BAP, but would still like to do a lot for the sport. Nothing wrong with getting recognized for that.

I would also like to encourage people to nominate Allan Haggett. Here is why he should get in in his own words:

Footbag has been a big part of my life since at least 1994. I’ve attended many tournaments, but have only listed ones below where I’ve been involved in either competition, judging, or volunteering in some way. I’ve consulted on many other footbag projects than those listed. I’ve published hundreds of videos garnering tens of thousands of views, and acted as an ambassador to and promoter of footbag sports to countless individuals over the course of my career.

1989 First Hacky Sack (real blue-beige 2-panel pigskin)
1992 Started kicking in high school parking lot
1994 First saw real freestyle
1997 First Worlds. 27th place, Open.
1998 - 2002 [email protected] moderator
1998 Toured local school system giving demonstrations
1999 Started publishing some of the first online videos; to present, over 100 videos published
1999 Russell Promotions Ireland campaign
1999 - 2003 Busking on Victoria/Vancouver streets
2000 World Footbag Championships; Judge, 19th Open
2001 - 2011 RevolutionFootbags.com; FreeomFootbags.com
2000 Innovated “Trials freestyle”
2001 Cameo in “Aggressive Grounds”
2001 World Footbag Championships, Judge
2001 Colorado Shred Symposium; Inducted into Big Add Posse
2002 - 2016 footbag.org/Forum Moderator & Admin
2002 Featured in “Where the Ripwalk Ends”
2002 Cameo in “Tricks of the Trade II”
2002 Seattle Juggling Footbag Festival, 1st place shred :30
2002 World Footbag Championships, Head Judge
2002 Footbag Worldwide logo (I’m so sorry)
2002 - 2003 IFPA Communications Director
2003 - 2006 IFPA Membership Director
2003 - present footbag.org technical contributor
2004 Featured in “Fourkast”
2004 Swiss Footjam; Judge
2005 Flipsider.com Team
2005 Victoria Footbag Jam (May Dayz), Organizer
2010 World Footbag Championships. Judging Coordinator, VIP Volunteer
2010 - present modified.in/footbag hosting & admin
2011 WorldFootbag.com redesign
2012 Joulukalenteri 2012
2013 modified redesign
2014 Badges project
2015 Joulukalenteri 2015
2015 Initiated historical archive videotape digital conversion
2016 Footbag.org redesign consulting; reference section rebuild; new moves database
2017 Worlds website
2017 IFPA Membership Director

I once asked Mads Hole if he wanted to get into HOF and he said "I don't wanna be put in some goddamn hall". I thought that was pretty funny.

[boyle]

Yes, Allan was one of the first I thought of when thinking of current players who might one day go into the hall of fame. Ken would have plenty of attributes along the way too, particularly for his work in Japan, consistent competition results over a long time. Invention of new tricks (ps torque and I think leviathan come to mind), lots of videos etc.

I think for people like me and you there is some chance if we can stay consistent on the non-footbag side of things once we're not playing so actively anymore. I don't think either of us will go in for our changing of the game in the way someone like Vasek would...

Some other people who might go in some time:

Ianek (started Circle Contest, lots of different thinking towards footbag)
I imagine once Nick Polini is about 40 or so he will have left a pretty big footprint on the footbag scene.
Someone like Tina as well, who has come and set the bar much higher in women's competitive events.
Ken already mentioned Taishi and his promotional efforts in Japan, which are pretty awesome. I would like to see him spread that through Asia a bit more in the coming years, that could be awesome.

[Asmus]

I have a simple solution to the question "what should get you into the HOF (I think the 15 year time frame should stay)?":

It should just be that you "have caused lasting positive change in the game". This means you can get in for pushing the sport shred wise, competition wise etc. and also that you can get in for: inventing new competition formats, do big amounts of promotion, host tournaments etc. Even producing websites, videos etc. or inventing new stitching ways could then get you in.

[C-Fan]

Always a nice surprise to open up the blog and find multiple new entries to read! Thanks for sharing your thoughts guys. I've had similar conversations with other players, and I think my takeaway is that the HOF criteria is too nebulous, probably even to them. If HOF is about making a significant contribution to the sport, then that should be defined somehow. I think most of the overarching concepts have been laid out just in this brief conversation in my blog: promo work, hosting tournaments, building infrastructure, innovating new competition formats, etc. But a player's competitive career really feels to me like it should be separate, especially since we already have BAP to recognize that. Once we start trying to factor in a player's competitive career into the decision, you confuse the argument. Let's take a few examples.

1. Asmus brought up Allan Haggett. To me, clearly he deserves to be in HOF just for his work on footbag.org and modified.in. Throw in his IFPA work and volunteering at several tournaments, and that's a solid case right there. Was he also a great freestyler? Yes. Was that already recognized by BAP? Also yes.

2. Red. Basically revived the concept of a US Championship, and then proceeded to organize/host/help with a bunch of them. Combine that with his work on Worlds 2007 and his promo efforts for Sole Purpose, and that's his case right there. Clearly done more promo than pretty much anybody else in the US over the past 10 years. Was he also a great freestyler? Yes. Was that already recognized by BAP? Also yes.

3. Me. Japan. Done. Great freestyler? Sure why not. Was that already recognized by BAP? Also yes.

So in all three of these cases, the playing ability has already been recognized by another footbag entity which exists solely for that purpose. I don't see why that factors in at all for HOF.

The other realization I came to from the whole HOF discussion, is that we tend to look at achievements as quantitative as opposed to qualitative. This isn't unique to HOF, I think we do this as a society because its too hard to keep track of all the information out there. So if you're a HOF voter and you don't know all the candidates well, you'd look at their resume and get a feel for their career by looking at the bullet points. I suppose that's better than nothing, but it also leaves a lot to be desired. Here's a personal example that came to mind.

I've won East Coasts 4 times. To somebody looking at a resume, they'd assume that all 4 wins are valued equally. Maybe they'd look at that line and give some weight to the fact that I won multiple times, which shows I showed up multiple times, and probably didn't choke regularly. But the truth of the matter is that all 4 times I won East Coasts are NOT equal, both subjectively and objectively. Take a look:

2008- I went dropless, Bevier had a single drop, and I won in a close one. Objectively a tight contest with strong competition.
2009- I sucked in finals, everybody else sucked in finals, I think the second best player present was Ryan Thomas? But somebody had to get 1st, and that was me. Objectively and subjectively a crappy East Coast title.
2012- I had the flu and still competed. Routine finals were pushed back 90 minutes so Ted Fritsch could get to the site from the net site. All finalists were exhausted and pissy. Chris Dean put pressure on me with a strong routine, but I somehow willed a victory out and promptly collapsed immediately thereafter. Objectively? Not the best Finals routines from anybody. Subjectively? I was pretty proud of myself that I pushed past my sickness and the logistics to win it.
2014- I went dropless, Gatesman had a single drop, and I won in a close one. Objectively a tight contest with strong competition. Subjectively this was one of my favorite routines, and in NYC to boot, so I value this title the most out of the 4.

And yet this all gets factored as just: 4 time East Coast champ.

Anyway. Changing gears entirely, I recently won a contest hosted by one of my favorite Team Fortress 2 YouTubers. He hit 200K subscribers, so he created a giveaway and I won either a t-shirt or a color changing mug...it hasn't arrived yet. But yeah, it made me curious to check my own YT channel's stats. While I'm not at 200K subscribers...or even 0.5K subscribers, I was pleasantly surprised to note that I have now posted over 2,500 videos on my channel. Apparently I have 420K views of them...I wonder if I could find out how many total minutes of footage I've uploaded over the years. Kind of insane to think about.

Random closeout vid:

Next person to post, can you do a top post painting?