Topic: Harsh reality has hit hard...

[waterskier]

Of the 20 people in my group, about 16 of us play regularly (1-3) x 3 games a day. Over the last year our game play has improved a lot. However we still sometimes shoot from the back and use numerous angle shots from the front. A number of our group went to a local tournament and saw the more hard core passing game with almost every ball being fed to a forward and then followed up by a snake shot with about 90% accuracy. The first thing that happened was that a lot of people who felt like they were getting pretty good were demoralized. The second was that some of us felt that the game in it's more evolved state appeared less fun.

We have at least a dozen of us who are fairly well addicted to foosball at this point. A good chunk of them have some ego associated with being competitive within our group. I am now seeing a few individuals going in to practice shots by themselves and at least one person has talked about getting a table at home to practice with.

A good majority of us have been improving at a similar rate, so the games remain competitive, but I think we are getting ready to see a few people become foos nuts. I'm not sure if I should be happy about this, or if this will take some of the fun out of the game as a divide is created.

I think this is expected. I've seen it happen in every sport I have been involved in. Our social mountain biking crew was a lot of fun for the first 2 years and then a number of people started to race and rides became either social or hard core training rides. Pretty soon people started to drop out because their ego's were bruised and they were not training as much as others.

I just hope that this game which has been a great release at work remains fun.

[grandmaster]

This is the natural progrssion of a group of players. Some will go on to play competitive ball and some will not. It takes a lot of work to compete and some will make the effort. These are the ones called foosers. Others will remain recreational participants for life. Some will quit because it is too much work. Sumption once told me that it takes 6-18 months and access to a table and a pro to become one. But it is reality, harsh or otherwise.

[Chase Pennell]

That happend here in Athens too....we all played and then went to our first tourny....well some of us did well....not great but made them happy and others went 2 and out....well it made some people not want to play anymore....however it took the local game to the next level....people started learning more and more....and everyone did it at different rates....it is very cool to see the progression of all the players....the key is to make sure people have fun....and if there are tounry players in the goup make sure they know it is just for fun....


Chase