I challenged Goran recently. Chris Lee is coming into town and Goran is top 10. I’ve done well against him lately and our last challenge went 7 sets. I thought it was pretty legitimate and it’s been pretty common for someone to have to defend after a nice little jump in the rankings. We played at Goran’s with Billy, Q, and Mike reffing. We’ve all been playing a lot lately, and Goran’s experience just won out the day. He played very smart – didn’t do too much chase bullshit and we both just played really well. In between sets, I asked Billy if he had any advice – and he had next to nothing. This means I was playing very well. Actually, we both played very well. Goran won this one… and we both elevated our defenses to levels we’ve never seen. I know there was one game I was down 6-3 – and came back to win. Tons of fun and it was a great experience.
Must’ve been something in the air because Mike challenged Q. They played last night and Q just beat the ever living shit out of him. It was gross. Mike just had nothing… couldn’t adjust on defense and his only response was to hit the puck harder -which just caused the puck to fly off the table. It was grim as Q beat him 16-1. I actually felt a little sorry for Mike… there was just nothing he could do. We looked up the stats and discovered that Billy beat Accrocco by an even worse margin. I can’t even imagine someone beating a top 10 player by that much.
The match was over so quickly that we played a couple games of press your luck (I suck at this game… never been good at it). Mike won one of the games, though he may have had a little help. Then we played a little round robin tourney… where I lost to both Q and Mike. Q made a surprising win over Billy. All of the matches were 2 of 3. Nick looked really sharp after he got warmed up. God, it would be great to have these guys come out once a week again.
I really thought Mike had turned his appearance around. After I humiliated him at the Blackhawk tourney (the DJ asked me how I’d do against him on the air – and I said a lot of off color shit about him… calling him a child who can’t dress himself was probably the nicest thing I said) I thought Mike had gotten his act together. He stopped playing air hockey – and I think this was his big mistake. He got “too busy” after he turned 21 and got a job working at a bar. His pictures on facebook made it look like he’d learned to ditch the messy long hair, the dark goth-cartoony t-shirts and the super baggy jeans that hang around his ass. He was sporting a new look at the bar. Spiky, but clean cut mohawk, clothes that fit and didn’t project an image that he cuts himself in the dark of his self-created depression. It looked like he could actually land a girl… and here he is again… playing air hockey – and he’d slipped back to his old ways. I suppose it didn’t help that he’s working as a mechanic and can’t be bothered to wear nice clothes (understandable, because he’s covered in fucking grease the last couple times I’ve seen him), but he let his hair grow out and it doesn’t look like it’s seen a comb or a shower in weeks. And the pants. fuck. the pants. Dude wears jeans that are 10 sizes too big and what gets me is that he wears a belt with it… but he’s still having to pull them up because they sag to mid-ass.
Goddamn it Mike, get yr shit together. Go ahead and get freaky hair – but put some effort into it. I don’t care what you do, just make it look intentional. And go ahead and wear the hole-y jeans… but make them fit. That baggy shit makes you look like a child. You can do any weird shit you want so long as you make it look like you put some thought into it. That’s what we liked about the mohawk.
Goddamn it Mike, we’re going to miss you if you make it to Florida like you keep threatening. I hope you’re full of shit.
