2012 Super Bowl Squares Article >>>

Hanover Horton Booster Club Monkeyball Registration (PDF)

One week until the big event, so it’s about time to unveil our traditional series of Monkeyball Worlds preview videos. Starting tomorrow morning on PlayMonkeyball.com, you can watch Andi Osters and I discuss all aspects of the big tournament while likely putting our proverbial foot-in-mouth for the whole world to see. New videos will be added every day through Thursday. We hope you have some fun with them, as we had fun shooting them. (Also tomorrow, updated rankings and the official MB7 brackets will be posted on the website.)

Please arrive no later than 9:45 next Saturday. Practice courts will be available starting at 8:30. Also, there are spots available if you want to invite friends to join us. It’s helpful if I know names in advance, but there should be room for walk-ups, too.

STORY – The MB7 first round opponent for the four-time champ has been announced. Read his opponent’s reaction.

Andy

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1. PLAYERS: Right now we have 90 players, so there’s still plenty of room to add more.  Please spread the word (even if it means having friends show up on game day). And if you know you’re no longer coming, please give me a heads up.

2. VIDEOS: Yes, Osters and I will again be airing our infamous preview videos.  Check back to the MB website starting next Sunday (July 31) for 5 straight days of Monkeyball TV.  And if you want to participate, grab a camera, press record, tell us your final four (or any other MB thoughts), post to YouTube and send me the link – I’ll post all of your at-home videos right next to ours.

3. FOOD: Instead of pizza we will have a smoker/grill whipping up some awesome BBQ pork sandwiches, burgers and dogs.  You won’t be paying more than $5 for a combo meal.  MORE IMPORTANTLY, all proceeds will benefit Grace’s Gang and its JDRF walk.  I look forward to telling you more about Grace and her daily battle in the coming weeks.

4. SHIRTS: T-shirts have been ordered, including a few extra of each size.  If you did not pre-order, but want to claim one of the extra shirts, let me know right now.  I’m sure there will be a lot of unhappy and shirtless people at MB7.

5. RANKINGS: For those who care (and there are plenty of you), final pre-MB7 rankings will be posted next Saturday.

As always visit this page for up-to-the-minute MB7 info — http://playmonkeyball.com/upcoming-events/8611-worlds-mb7/. The countdown is on.  See you on Aug 6!

Frush

The logo release also always coincides with my brain clicking over to Monkeyball promotion & planning overdrive.  We’re still 7 weeks out, but the buildup to the big day is already reaching exciting levels.  As of today 76 players are signed up, so there’s plenty of room for you to invite your friends, family and neighbors.

As always, huge props to Casey at CaseysHead.com for coming up with a unique MB7 design.  And if you have any ideas on making our annual ladder golf festival even more fun, please send them my way.

More 2011 World Championships info >>>

Commish

To learn more about MBX2, visit this official MBX2 page for updated info.

To learn about last year’s tournament, read this recap of the 2010 MBX-Man Tournament, or watch this video shot during the championship game.

To learn more about Monkeyball (our version of ladder golf ), read our slightly different rules and see the major differences between MB and most other ladder golf games.

MegaGate 2011

Thursday, 10:30p: The first singles tournament of the weekend is complete. 8-players competed late at the Rio Thursday night . Sean Dameron won the losers bracket and faced Andy Frushour in the championship.  Dameron won game one, giving both players one loss.  In the winner-take-all championship, Frushour skunked Dameron 15-0 raising his career record to 7-2 vs. Sean.  Bracket/Results

Friday, 2:30p: The first MegaGate tournament of the weekend has concluded.  Monkeyball led off the festivities with a doubles tournament.  The championship of the 8-team event featured two veteran teams: Andy Frushour & Sean Dameron vs. Andy Kidle & Dan Kidle.  Game one went to the brothers Kidle after a furious opening three racks.  (15-7).  Frushour and Dameron stormed back to skunk the Kidles in game two.  Game three was a back-and-forth match worthy of a MegaGate championship.  In the end Frushour and Dameron held off the brothers to take game three and the $200 prize, 15-11.  Bracket/Results (PDF)

MEGAGATE BACKGROUND
Anyone want to play some doubles Monkeyball for cash?  If yes, I suggest you head out to Las Vegas during Super Bowl weekend for MegaGate 2011.  MegaGate is a tailgating game extravaganza.  Not only can win $$$ playing M-Ball, but you can win at seven other tailgating games as well.  And if you do well at the other games, you can even take home the Mega Bowl and the mega-cash that comes with it.

The event is at the Rio Hotel from Feb 3-6, and the official Monkeyball doubles tournament is at 9:30 Friday morning.  We’ve already got 6 MB regulars making the trip out to Vegas (Andy Frushour/Sean Dameron, Dan Kidle/Andy Kidle and Ryan Lepeak/Joe Pudil) but would love more.  Starting Thursday night and then throughout the day on Friday we’ll host numerous additional singles and doubles tournaments for cash.

For more information, shoot me an email, go to the MegaGate 2011 website, read this MegaGate 2011 FAQ, and like them on Facebook.

A note about the shirts… they’re American Apparel brand shirts – just like the blue MB6 shirts that everybody raved about.  They’re super soft and super comfy, and they tend to run a little smaller than the average t-shirt.  The shirt color is Heather Black, and  it’ll probably be a little darker than shown on the graphic at the right.  I ordered 12 XL, 12 L, 8 M and 4 S – so we WILL run out of sizes.  (Sorry to the 2XL folks.)

Email me now to reserve your shirt, and then you can pick it up at the next tournament or make shipping arrangements.

Although imperfect, the system over the years has done a good job of ranking players.  The formula benefits players who: 1) do well in tournaments, and 2) play in many and/or large tournaments. The logic is anyone can do well in one tournament, but can you play consistently well in many tournaments against many other players?

The system also only uses the last two years worth of data so that: 1) a bad tournament will eventually come off your record, and 2) the ranking is an indication of how you’ve played recently.  (Just for fun, I figured out rankings based on a few other time windows.)

So the ranking system seems to be giving credit to Sean for all the bigger non-Worlds tournaments he’s played in and done very well in (tournament sizes of 96, 36, 19, 18, 34, 70, 31, 110, 21, 35, 29, 32, 16 – all in the last two years!).  And the system seems to be penalizing Dean for playing in only three tournaments – he won MB6, but was a Sweet 16 loser in a 30-person tournament and only a quarterfinalist at MB5.

We all know Dean is arguably the best Monkeyballer on the planet, and I’m guessing Sean would even tell you that #4 is too high for him.  Ultimately, though, I think this is exactly what rankings are for: they give us something to talk about.  You still have to play the game, and the rankings make the build-up to the game a little more fun.

I’d love to hear your comments, whether it be on the current ranking system or on your personal top 10.  I don’t want this conversation to degenerate into a trash-talking mess (don’t blame Sean, blame the computer) – I truly do want your opinion.  Help me out: should the system be changed, or is it just fine as is?  Do you know a statistics guru that can help me make a new model — one I’m currently not smart enough to do myself.  I initially thought I may make some changes to the formula, but right now I’m leaning towards making no changes at all; it’s worked just fine in the past, why question it after what just may be a small hiccup.

(In case you’re wondering, here’s my personal post-MB6 Top 10: 1 J Salmon, 2 D Allen, 3 A Frushour, 4 C Trinoskey, 5 K Hagen, 6 K Singleton, 7 B Morrow, 8 D Kidle, 9 E Trinoskey, 10 S Dameron.)

• Recruit more players!  We’re at 96 right now, but I hope to get to 120.
• Measure courts at the Old Orchard.  Dad and I will paint white dots where ladders will be placed on game day.
• Finish outlines and notes for the preview videos.  Osters and I will be shooting sometime next week.  (It’s not too late to send us your questions.)
• Finalize rankings.  The Top 16, seeds for the other four groups and complete brackets will be officially determined on Sunday, July 25.
• String together a few more new Monkeyball ropes (see pic at right) to be used at both MB6 and the doubles event at MIS.
• Order beer and pizzas.  This is one of the most important to-dos.
• Prepare game day registration lists and t-shirt orders.
• Find time to practice.  Usually doesn’t happen in these last few weeks.

There’s still plenty of room left if you want to play.  Let me know ASAP if you want in.

Looking forward to August 7,
Andy
andy@playmonkeyball.com