So anyone going ... Vengenance ??? (I can't) but was wondering if there will be any MAACA/TOPL presence

I'll be there

   I may be going  saturday morning pending a winter storm watch expected for friday night going into saturday morning in the Pittsburgh area.
   A quick note on tournament rules for this event (based on last year):
A first round starts as soon as they have 8 entries. which are then broken up into two sets of four(with PAPA style scoring). The top 2 of each set then go on to meet each other in which the top player moves on to the qualifying rounds(with number of players to be determined by times end at about 9:00pm), the second place finisher gets a free tournament re-entry.
   The machines selected are the same tournament dedicated machines used during the PAPA world tournaments with all the same difficulties adjusted.  So if anything, this makes for good practice time in preparation for the world tournament in August.

MOFO that was one crazy drive, 8 hours to make a 5 hour trip, but we made it. pretty crazy on the roads.

Congrats to Sean for winning Cupids and Cannines, he beat out the #2 player in the world to take the win Keith Elwin.

Keith Came in second.

I came in Third.

Congrats to Sean for yet another big win! Congrats to all for having a safe trip.

How many players? Whaddja win?

Congrats, Adam! 3rd is awesome.

Duane

Turnout was pretty small, the main event was canceled due to weather, the snow storm that hit there was pretty intense, the city was declared a disaster zone downed power lines and the whole nine.  It was 2 feet of snow that fell in the course of about 24 hours.   So maybe the tournament had 30 people.

Still with the likes of Bowen, Keith and Sean there I was happy to take third.  

Did Sean win an EM? / Did you win an EM, Sean?

Quoted from OTTOgd

Did Sean win an EM?

It was a circus EM and no they didn't give it away as a result of the poor tunrout and I don't blame them.  

Top 3 all got free registration and some entries into PAPA which is great, it only cost me $20 to qualify and I think it only cost Sean $5 so we get some savings there and the tournament raised $300 or so for the local charities.  

   We just got our computer working again so here's how the weekend went:
I left Newmarket at about 7:00am, no traffic problems anywhere. The border was hassle free, they just asked where I was going and that's it.  Gassed up and picked up a 6-pack of Canadian Ice beer and got onto the NY thruway, still no snow. I made it all the way to about 20 miles north of Pittsburgh when I saw the first snowflake, and that's when it started.  I checked the weather forcast before leaving on Friday afternoon and they actually had downgraded the storm to about 6 to 8 inches of snow, so I thought it would be fine, WRONG!!!  With only 10 miles to the PAPA facility I saw the first of about 20 jackeknifed trailers on the side of the road and several more that had slid off the on and offramps.  Thank goodness for 4 wheel drive on my Tracker.  Although the snow had stopped at around noon, the city was devastated, at the hotel I saw cars buried up to their windows in snow drifts and there was icicles that hung from the two story building that reached all the way to the ground.
   I made it to the PAPA facility just after 1:00pm, which really wasn't that bad all considered.  Although the charity event was cancelled, the PAPA staff whom I can't thank enough had opened the builing to us diehard pinheads who where insane enough to brave the elements.  It was a simple case of turning on the games you wanted to play and turning them off when you were done.  We even had a mini pinball gauntlet tournament to see who could complete the target score on five selected games in the minimum amount of time. As for the "main" tournament I managed to get into the finals after surviving a wildcard spot. I faired pretty good on the modern era games like Demoman, Jokerz, and POTC, but it was the classics like Bally's Fireball and Segasa's Monaco which were my weak point. At the end of the finals we went into a three-way tie which was decided on a Gottlieb's Jungle Queen that needed a very curious decision due to a unique game malfunction that was way too complcating to  be explained here.
   The next morning was just an eyesoar on the sideroads with cars everywhere still abandoned in ditches, but my good deed for the day was helping an ambulance out of a ditch with the help of some McDonald's staff
  Once again a big thanks to the PAPA staff, and I will be making a donation on their behalf to Camp BOW-Wow (a.k.a. Cupids and Canines)