Tournament Nite 17 (The Farooqui Cup)

"A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions"
- Confucius

So the Farooqui sponsored trophy was held last night in Leeds. Both players admitted to a little practice but neither was prepared to predict the outcome.

1UP - Sonic Boom. This is one of those very difficult top down shoot-em-ups. Buks was up first and amassed a reasonable score which Balki was unable to surpass. A better score for Buks in the second game, only to be bettered by Balki. Into the third game and Buks managed somehow to increase his previous scores which proved too much for the ailing Balki. Buks leads 2-1.

2UP - Popeye. A great looking game from the early eighties. The animation on the characters was brilliant in its day. Balki took first dibs and scored a reasonable amount which Buks should have been able to beat. But didn't. The same story for game 2 - Balki had an average game only it was good enough for a below par Buks. Balki leads 3-2.

3UP - Solomon's Key. The game of the evening and one Buks promised to go back to as he was unable to advance past a certain level. Balki claimed to be "not very good at this" which is often used as a ploy in tournaments to give a false sense of security to the other player. Not so in this case - Buks went on to post his highest score to date. Balki stepped up and played a respectable game but was outclassed by Buks. The second game proved to be more of the same with Buks increasing his personal best once again. Buks leads 4-3.

4UP - Tengai. A sideways scroller but with a Japanese/Samurai theme. Quite an excellent game this. Balki needed to win 2-0 to claim overall victory, Buks just needed one game to claim a draw and force a tiebreaker. Balki stepped up, chose his character and dived in. One thing the players noticed is that this game starts at random levels so no two games play in the same order. Balki was disappointed with his score as he felt he could have done better. But was it good enough ?

No.

Buks pulled a blinder out of the bag and beat Balkis score. Would this prove too much pressure for Balki ? He now needed to win both the remaining games to scrape a draw. And what a game he played. Beating all other previous scores, Balki managed to amass an unbeatable score. Buks was unable to score anywhere near and the point went to Balki. This meant all rested on the final game. A win for Buks would see the trophy coming home, a win for Balki would see a tiebreak game to decide the winner.

Balki was on form once more and his score was nearly double that of the first round. Buks stepped up and was just getting into his stride when he lost the first life. The second life was lost moments later. Thins were looking bad. But. He. Played. On. Good use of the smart bomb against the larger foes meant his score eventually surpassed Balkis and victory, and the trophy, were his once more.

Some good games this evening. The players were graced with the presence of Davs who played the odd game and may even be invited to a 3-way tournament in the future (as long as he doesn't pick Defender).

Next tourney may be a "pick of the best" from previous tourneys where each played picks 2 games that they excelled at (Buks is already whispering Solomon's Key).

Over and Out.