OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Definitely want to see some video of PRW and Doug! Could be quite Epic!

I'm sure Sergio Garcia has helped this all happen for you Doug...what an accommodating fellow LOL

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I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
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I'll be sure to take along a camera! I played Der Echte a couple of weeks ago, but unfortunately didn't have a camera then..

That's right Reb! Between the credit I got from Delta for their system crash and Sergio's Masters win, those two things had a significant part in paying off a lot of the travel expenses.

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"The greatest teacher, failure is."
USATT Rating: 1764
Blade: Donic Defplay Senso, Testing out many new inverted rubbers on FH and medium pips on BH

I'll be there. Playing mon, wed, thu.

Of course I'll be there - I live in Vegas.

Just be ready for long days. Some events start early and end late. After my 4th warmup or so I'm done

Great, thanks for the advice, wilkinru - we must meet!
Cheers,
Peter

Yes, would be great to meet up for a hit! And thanks for the advice.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is."
USATT Rating: 1764
Blade: Donic Defplay Senso, Testing out many new inverted rubbers on FH and medium pips on BH

Well could always use a warm up partner

With accommodations I would recommend making sure that the tram/trolly can get you to the convention center. The strip part looks small but it can end up being quite a walk from place to place and it is going to be extremely hot and dry out.

Also bring some snacks for the events. There are food stations but it can be pretty greasy and such. I don't do well with pizza/burgers just before my biggest match ever.

The floors for the round robin part will not be padded. Cement...so if you plan to buy new shoes or an insert then just before the tourney would be a good time to get those. Making sure the soles are somewhat clean before each set/match helps a lot with the grip. Some people wet a towel on the ground and touch it between points from time to time. I just do a quick wipe between games.

I've been to Vegas quite a few times (including in March of this year for a conference) so I'm familiar with how big Vegas is. Even though places look "close", they really aren't.

I think I've settled on staying at MGM Grand. Got a good rate there and it's got a great pool for my wife to hang out at on the days I'm playing. And it's on the monorail so I can just take that back and forth.

I read that about the cement. When the Killerspin Holiday Tournament in Chicago used to take place, most of the tables were just on cement. That's hard on the knees, especially as you get older. But that's good advice, I will definitely start breaking in a new pair of shoes a little bit before that.

I was going to ask about the food options there. I imagine if there are large breaks in between, it is easy to hop on the monorail and go somewhere else, but if there isn't a lot of time between, it could make things tough. Do you have any experience in the U2200 Tiered Super RR? How much time is there generally between the start of the morning groups and the start of the afternoon? I've read that can go REALLY late. I'm playing that on Monday, and then U-2200 at 9:45 Tuesday and U-1900 Adult at 12:45 Tuesday. I imagine if I can advance out of the U-1900 Adult that I will be playing late into Tuesday night.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is."
USATT Rating: 1764
Blade: Donic Defplay Senso, Testing out many new inverted rubbers on FH and medium pips on BH

My thoughts, based on last US Open:

* Concrete floor was not too bad, as far as knee stress is concerned. Make sure your shoes have good traction on concrete, though.
* There were food vendors right inside the hall: Pizza, hot dogs, coffee shop, and Chinese food (I frequented the last one and thought it was decent). While in principle you might have time to go back to the strip or to Wingate nearby, I never tried it.
* Tiered Super RR SE rounds are likely to be played next day (SF and Finals?). Same with some other events. I don't think matches went REALLY late.

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USATT: 1909| League: 1892

Thanks, it's great to get some first hand info on it. If I advance from U1900 and it goes to Wednesday I may have a decision to make because I have some plans with my wife that day. It starts at 12:45 on Tuesday so I'd hope that would only happen if I was fortunate enough to advance pretty far.

Would be great to have warm up partners, when it gets closer let's all PM each other and arrange to meet!

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is."
USATT Rating: 1764
Blade: Donic Defplay Senso, Testing out many new inverted rubbers on FH and medium pips on BH

Wilkinru I have sent you a couple of messages, I don't know if they went through to you or not (I don't see them in Sent Mail), would love to meet on Monday. If you don't get them let me know.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is."
USATT Rating: 1764
Blade: Donic Defplay Senso, Testing out many new inverted rubbers on FH and medium pips on BH

Had a great time at the Nationals, and it was a lot of fun to have a hit with you guys! I was impressed with the event for the two days I was there, everything was well scheduled, ran on time, and the volunteers were all friendly. It really is a great event, I'm hoping to go back again in the future.

Overall I played 17 matches in two days. Advanced to the quarterfinals in Group C of the U2200 Tiered Super Round Robin and advanced to the round of 16 in U1900 Adult (despite losing to the lowest rated player in my round robin). Yet again, I think I'm going to end up losing a fair amount of rating points, but I am happy with my results. The two bad losses I had, I was up 2-1 in each and lost close fifth games. Never thought I'd be able to advance out of two of my events, so I am pleased with that, and I think I have some things to build on. Not worried about ratings, the move back up will come if I keep working on the things I need to.

wilkinriu was a great practice partner and coach on the first day. He gave me a very good warm-up, great advice during the matches, and kept me moving later in the day when all I wanted to do is pass out in a chair (played 10 matches that day).

PRW also gave me a very good warm-up on the second day, I started off VERY sluggish but after some warm-up games I was ready to hit the ground running, and almost beat one of the ICC kids who was rated over 2000 thanks to the warm-up.

It was great to meet both of them, very nice guys, good players, it just helped make the experience even better!

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is."
USATT Rating: 1764
Blade: Donic Defplay Senso, Testing out many new inverted rubbers on FH and medium pips on BH

Thanks I had a bunch of fun. You might not lose too many points as people may get adjusted up.
Dwruck is one of the few long pips players that I've played that understands what his pips can do, attacks and not just pushblock with it. You should have seen him destroy a pushblocker who used to have a good forehand (but has learned to just use pips on the backhand).

I hope we meet again one day.

had a great time at the Nationals, and it was excellent to meet up with dwruck. Didn't get a chance to record a practice match with him - it was a very action-packed 3 days, with me balancing the need to loop if I was to have a chance of winning, against a very painful achilles.

I had some very enjoyable matches - one of the highlights a very tight match against a hardbat player, who is/was a member here - very skillful player, who could hit and loop with the Dr. Evil, making it essential for me to loop first or keep it very tight, if I was to win the point. Beat a couple of 2000 level players, and games off 2200-2300 level players, so should get some good points.

The tournament was very well run, and matches played in great spirit. Only two slight negatives - one where a guy about 200 points above me pulled out of playing against me, where he was injured (but continued playing other matches) - I had beaten him about 6 months previously - and the second the concrete floor, which was very hard on the ankle and legs.

I think I might be lucky you didn't get a match on video, you were playing very well and having a pretty good time against me.

I agree about how well run the tournament was, and the only drawback being the concrete flooring. I think next year with the World Veteran Championships there just a couple of weeks prior to the Nationals, they might have the sport flooring in the whole venue.

I'd love to go back sometime, in 17 matches I didn't have anybody that I'd consider a "jerk" and enjoyed meeting up with my OOAK friends and also friends from the Midwest who I've played many times before.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is."
USATT Rating: 1764
Blade: Donic Defplay Senso, Testing out many new inverted rubbers on FH and medium pips on BH