Topic: First Tournament/Practice Tables

[Syronis]

So I've been a casual foosball player for quite a few years now. I was originally hooked on the Leonhart, P4P, Lowen play style that I developed when I picked up the game in Germany. When I came back to the states I found myself in a small town with one table, that nobody played. Since then I've moved to an even WORSE situation with no table in a 30 mile radius (that I can find) and people who WOULD play foosball if a table was available. This situation has made me consider possibly attending some tournaments, as well as trying to purchase a used table from... well from somewhere. Now for the questions part..... I'm very unsure about the situations surrounding tournaments, and was contemplating attending the IFP Missouri State tournament in November.  Is there any preparation I should consider prior to attending a tournament? In this regard I don't mean simply practicing, rather trying to find partners for certain events, or can you sometimes find them at the tournament?

The other part of this was about practice tables. I've scoured the internet, both ebay and craigslist looking for a good table that would meet both my needs and budget. I currently lack good transportation and don't know quite how I'd go about picking up a table. Has anyone purchased a table from craigslist and had it shipped? Is it worth the extra money to buy a used tornado table? Does anyone have any recommendations as far as what brand makes a good practice table on a low budget?  All the tables I've played are relatively foreign to the US, and Tornado tables are obviously very pricey even if you're looking at a used one. I guess I'm generally just looking for recommendations on how to approach the situation.

One last offshoot question, the closest places I can think of that may have some sort of weekly foosball would be the quad cities, quincy, and maybe even Galesburg or Peoria. Is anyone familiar with Illinois foosball scene? I saw a blog for the quad cities, but it hasn't been updated since May so I wasn't sure if there were still small tournies up there.

[bbtuna]

In order -

Prep for your first tournament - don't do anything special except to get comfortable with what you know and then use your first tournament to learn...you can almost always find partners at the tournament and if worse came to worse and you could not, you could play all the singles events and all the specialty and DYP events meet people, learn a ton, and see how deep foosball really goes with talent

Buying a table - IFP will be using Warrior from now on but the table really isn't widely available for people to buy yet and they have some first run quality issues though the overall table play characteristics were very positive from all the feedback I have read - added ball control seems to be the most positive thing and it appears banking is much improved - banking is improved by the man foot design and ball control mainly by the ball but some from the man a good friend tells me who was in KY for the first IFP/Warrior tournament last weekend
The ball is from what I have been told the Yellow Dynamo ball...I bought a bunch and have been playing with them on my Tournado and it is a gas...doesn't help tournado bank but ball control is the bomb and as far as I can tell, the ball is just as durable as Tornado and play characteristics don't change very fast if at all...can't believe Torn didn't move to this ball a long time ago, it rocks
Depending on when you want to buy a table will depend on advice for buying a table - since Warrior isn't easily available I guess it really isn't much of an option for a while and I could not with a good conscience recommened it until they fix the quality issues (even though I want to do banks in the worst way)
so, if you are going to buy any time soon, you still want to buy Tornado...the transition to Warrior is literally like 15 min from what I hear
When do you want to buy and how much do you want to spend?

[bbtuna]

there is foos in the Quad Cities and some in Peoria (at least when I was there 1 1/2 ago) I don't know about Galesburg

where are you located?

oh, anc if you find a table locally, you should find a friend with a truck, meet a friend with a truck, ask the person selling if they have a truck, or plan to rent a truck for a couple hours

[Syronis]

I'm currently located in Macomb, IL. It's about an hour and a half from the quad cities, and a little closer to 2 from Peoria.  I guess I'll just keep an eye/ear pointed at the quad cities, and try to figure out when and where they have foosball.

I've  scoured craigslist and the closest 'good' tables I can find are either in STL or Chicago. I guess it's not a horrible drive to either, just going to be a challenge to find a friend with a truck willing to drive up to chicago or down to stl to pick up a foosball table with me. It's simply a passion that most of my friends fail to understand.  I really only have three hobbies, Foosball, Disc Golf, and regular Golf... and foosball simply seems to confuse people, which just motivates me more to buy a table and show them the joys of foosin.

You know what warrior tables remind me of? The new Fireball table that just came out in germany. The figures are very very similar, and support a tornado style man, and a 1 goalie style playing field.