Dan wrote all about the doubles stuff here so I thought I’d add my spin on things and how they went down.
I was debating playing in doubles or not mainly because Dan was saying how he felt tired on the Sunday the previous year in Houston after playing in doubles and I was playing in the weekly as well. But we had been playing so much air hockey lately at that time where I felt my arm would be okay and it could even be a neat warm up for the main draw. The weekly the previous night even helped begin to calm some nerves I was having and the doubles would do the same for singles. The one thing I wanted in doubles though was to have some fun. Rood and I tore up the amateur division the previous year but he wasn’t going to make the tourny this year so I could only think of one person to play doubles with…Mr. Meyer. It took him awhile to decide he was going to do it but he came around eventually 
Now as for a team name, I really wanted to go with Rainbows, Unicorns, and Pixies…mainly because they exist in my world. And what team would be complete without uniforms:
This is our wonderful team logo designed by none other than the amazingly talented Mrs. Sarah Quezada. (which was the most awkward thing to ask for over dinner one night). Now what color did Dan I choose to go for with our shirts? That’s right …. Wild Orchid. Here we are in our uniforms complete with rainbow wristband accessory:
(note, combined these guys are now >35 lbs lighter…in prime AH shape)
On to the tournament itself:
We pulled our draw of Jacob and Avery. Rood and I faced these guys last year and they nearly knocked us out. They’ve been practicing with Tim as their coach I believe and it’d be great to see where they’ve gotten to over the past year. These guys play pretty good. There are some really great shots taken by both throughout the match in the video. You can see that their skills are improving and they are approaching their games in a similar way that Dan and I started. Learning proper mechanics for complimentary shots, trying to set up those shots, and it’s what worked at the early stages of learning the sport for Meyer and me.
After a shaky start – and really, a very close set.. Q and I overcome these young upstarts. (Meyer, 2011) <–see Dan, it’s okay, I referenced your post, its not copying then.
Now our next set…..well it’s proof as to why people should play in doubles as well. As a relatively new guy in air hockey, I’ve not played as many different players as others have….for a trip out to such a large player base, if solely playing the singles tournament, the number of opponents you have is limited to your draw and how well you do (obviously). Doubles, while a completely different strategy than singles is a time to have fun and perhaps you get to try some of your best shots against other top players you wouldn’t normally face. Such was our next match with Danny and Ehab…the current 1 and 2 in the sport. I’ve only seen these guys play, never squared up against them. Dan and I wish we had this set on video….but random thought…there are some photos taken by J.Flores that are awesome from this match of Dan and I playing with Billy in the background watching. I may have to get one of those. The true highlight for me this match, was a run I made in the middle of the match. I think I scored 4 points straight against them:
It may have been a fanboy moment but it felt great to get some of those shots in against those guys. I forget how Dan played but I think he too got a few shots in against them which made him feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. We thoroughly did enjoy this match though and if anyone has video of it, I would really really like it.
Over to the loser’s bracket. Our match is against Travis Luscombe and Joe Cain, team FTMFW. All of the games in this match were close. It was a good test for Dan and myself. Dan put all the pressure on me though. He successfully got us up to set point 5 by scoring on Travis but then proceeded to score on himself to make it 6-6 and give us the puck. I call time out because I felt I had both the RWU and cut to go at Joe with. Dan and I discuss and we went with what my gut had said and that would be a cut (time delay, from left of center). Joe and Travis discussed what shot they thought would come during that time out and thought the cut as well so before I could notice and adjust Joe charged my cut but luckily sent it off of the table.
One of the shots that I hit out of the same look as the cut is my cross-hitch shot and I thought if Joe was going to charge again, he would think cut and the cross would go. He didn’t charge but I hit a great cross to end the set. Dan and I do a flying chest bump and on to the next match. I haven’t figured out which one of us is a bigger Chipotle fan yet but Travis and I joked around and had a mini-side wager going on this match. The loser would buy the winner a Chipotle burrito. Dan didn’t remind me of this during the match but luckily that boost of motivation is what I needed to persevere. Travis was great and bought me and Dan both a burrito for the win.
We went on to play another team – Mark Butler and Tory Evans. Mark plays a very fast rapid fire type of attack and Tory seems to try to overpower his shots with a superhard mallet. I don’t remember the exact scores but Dan and I steamrolled I believe.
Our next match was against Davis Huynh and Anthony Marino. Again, a chance to play a couple of highly ranked players you wouldn’t normally play against at practices and may not see in the main draw. I think this match lasted a little over 5 mintues to be honest. We got a few pretty shots in but felt like anything Davis hit found the back of the goal. Oh well, out of the main draw.
This tourney featured spinoffs… so we got one more chance to elevate us one more place higher. And we got to play a couple very old-school players, Tom Baldus and Robert Hernandez.
They like to play a back rail defense and do some bizarre shit. Tom hit tons of one-twos or just straight up volleyed. Hernandez also featured some great shots… but a defense that should have been much easier to score on. We lost this one but our highlight match was definitely the “Chipotle bowl” for the Chipotle bowls against Cain and Travis. We got to play some other top ranked/rated players and most importantly have fun doing it. Till next years’ doubles….where Dan and I will hope to amaze and amuse again if he’ll have me as a partner
Till next week reader….ta ta.
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