Congratulations to all players who have confirmed for the event as the top seeds who will have dedicated machines for competition! It looks like there will be ten players (including Billy and Steve) who are million point players and the other two players are not far behind so this will certainly be a high quality exciting and competitive competition for sure! It's incredible that our community now has enough depth that such a strong group can be assembled despite many players being unable to attend. Personally I think it's great that it has worked out in such a way that Eric Tessler has earned a dedicated machine for this event since he has been a huge contributor to the longevity of this hobby and community.
Once again I want to thank Richie for the invitation and JC for giving me some flexibility to try to plan for this trip. Unfortunately I was just not able to make it happen this time and will be unlikely to attend. But it looks like it's going to be a great event. There will certainly be favorites and underdogs but with the current match style format for the event finals no results are guaranteed and anything can happen on competition day! So it will be great fun to watch how things unfold from home if such an option to watch is made available.
If for some reason something changes for me at the last minute and I am able to attend after all, I'm happy to try to play my way in as a wild card if that option exists for this event and/or just try to provide technical help or commentary for the event. It's unlikely at this point but you never know.
As always, I have the usual questions about event setup -- Is there a website which provides precise details about the event? Will regular updates about the event be posted somewhere? (This forum perhaps?) Will viewers have access to a live electronic scoreboard? (Link?) Will event and/or gameplay live streaming be provided? (Links?)
Thanks again to all of the folks who have been working so hard to organize, prepare, setup, run and breakdown the event. Here's hoping that even more live and online events will follow!
