Practice night is January 8th.

Cost is $60/person and that includes the practice night and the awards dinner.

International Rules will be used, as well as the full field. The full field thing is new as typically Detroit has only used the bottom floor and their ramps for SM5 in the past.

The big difference in this tournament from others in the past is the positions will be done via random draw before each game, so there could be some VERY interesting match-ups.

If you don’t have a full team of 6, feel free to post in the tournament forum to find a team. The more the merrier.

The video starts off a bit slow, but then moves on to what we’d care about.

**Interesting discussion you have at the end there Newsmen Kris and Kelly…

I do agree with one thing that Kris said; “I do confess, I did enjoy hearing the Australian accent”
Don’t be ashamed any longer Kris, Stand up and be proud of what you love!

This video is so unintentionally quotable, so be sure to check out the comments section for it as well.

Always good to see the sport on TV

**Apparently the secret to being the best player in the world is to “Play lots of games.”
In that case I’ll be the number one player in the world in no time.

In the meantime, be sure to hang on to those “Rusty” autographs!

Well, unless I knock another tooth out between now and when I leave Friday. My wife has told me in no uncertain terms that she will ban me from going if I shatter out another tooth playing lasers.

I think I’ll be ok…

This should be one of the most interactive nationals ever, with plans to have the score monitor streaming (link when I have it) as well as game by game stat updates. Should be a good time.

Also, thanks to Shadow Dagger from the Chula Vista site for going through and creating this awesome google map with all current Laserforce sites on it. Very appreciated since I didn’t have to do it

I’m still going to post them here for completeness sake.

TEAM RESULTS
1. ANZAC
2. Chula A
3. St. George
4. Sacramento
5. Hybrid
6. Chula B

Individual Awards
Medic Killer: Tragedy
Golden Gun: Thunder
Sportsmanship: Tiny (joke) and Thunder (legit)

All-Star Awards
Commander: Rusty (ANZAC)
Heavy: Blunt Object (CV A)
Scout: GIO (CV A)
Scout: Tank (St. George)
Ammo: Kadaj (St. George)
Medic: Thor (St. George)

A massive thank you to Stewie (Chula Vista owner) for allowing the tournament to be held at his facility, and general props all around to everyone who was there and played.

The Syracuse, NY center has expressed early interest in hosting the 2011 US Nats. More information on that when I get it.

Also, Atlantis is working on getting the scoreboard for the tournament games to stream live over the internet. Failing that, the games will be uploaded to youtube at a later time.

*EDIT* EVEN MORE IMPORTANT – http://www.ustream.tv/channel/atlantis-scoreboard – live feed of the score monitor. Very cool.

This years US Nats has the distinction of being the largest tournament we’ve ever had in this hemisphere in terms of total sites being represented (8 different sites making up 6 teams). It also marks the 3rd time that the southern hemisphere will be represented at a US nationals – the 1st time with a full 6 person team [2002 had 3 southern hemisphere players, 2004 had 5]. Given the best the northern hemisphere has ever done as far as representation in the southern hemisphere was 2 people in 2001, we really are due to repay the favor with some sort of more complete team.

Best of luck to all.

Well, ok – I know in my case the answer to that question is “work”, “school” and “family” (not necessarily in that order).

In other news, I FINALLY got the games list fully moved over. Why’d it take so long? See the above reason.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in Chula Vista – should be a good time.