I asked Jim if he would do a little write up for his trip to Shanghai, this is his response....
Victor, you asked me to write a little story about the trip Neil and I took to China to play in the Shanghai Open foosball tournament, but I need to give you a little background first.
Neil and I are stepbrothers and we grew up in the same small town on Long Island. We started playing foosball in bars when we were 16 years old – back when the drinking age in New York was 18 years-old, and driver’s licenses had no photos. So it was pretty easy for us to sneak into a bar with our older brothers’ ID’s and play foosball all night.
We thought we were pretty hot because we could hold the table the entire night, and even win a few beers doing it. That was until we went to college at Colorado State University and learned there was a whole other level of foosball!
We became business partners 13 years ago, and we started playing foosball again. Discovering Fat Cat and the NYC foosball scene inspired us so we bought a couple of tables and started playing in a few local events when we could.
We have business in China, and we met Fred Gower the people in the Shanghai Foosball scene when we were there for business. We decided to help sponsor the Shanghai Open this year, and compete in it as well.
We had a conference in New York the week of the tourney, so we played in the Tuesday DYP at Fat Cat, which was a great warm up for us. Thanks! Then we flew out Thursday for Shanghai, arrived Friday afternoon just in time for the first event, a DYP.
The event was held in a hip area called “The Bund” in a Western style bar/restaurant. There were about 20 tables, and about 90 players attending, mostly from around Asia, but also some expats from Europe and USA. The competition was tough, with the best players at a very similar level as some of the better players at Fat Cat or even on the IFP Tour.
Snake shots dominated the tables, even more than you see on Tornado tournaments. So Neil had some success with his pull-shot and unorthodox 5-bar.
The Fireball tables and balls have a different feel than Tornado, but because we grew up playing on Hurricane and Million Dollar Tournament tables, we adapted pretty quickly. The next day we played in Senior Singles and Doubles, and Open Doubles, and we did not embarrass ourselves!
It was great fun and we made some great new friends. I doubt we will be flying to Shanghai for a weekend to play foosball again, but was a nice once-in-a-lifetime experience for us and gave us a chance to relive our youth a little bit.
http://www.table-soccer....open-2015-shanghai-chinahttp://www.iloveproduce.com/Thanks for sharing Jim and way to give back to the foosball community in China!! Amazing.
3rd Senior Singles - Jim Provost
2nd Senior Doubles - Neil Millman / Jim Provost
10 top in Open doubles - Neil Millman / Jim Provost
Nice work and thanks. Where do I find one of those cool Shanghai Open shirts?
