From Chico

[ta0]

 Met Jon and Cliff Coleman :-) at Bird in Hand.
The spintop banner arrived in time :-)  Tomorrow I will be helping putting it up really early. Thad told me he wants to see how the finances of nats are before deciding if he will charge us.
Mii is here and tells me they are now open to have tops in Tokio 2015, if we provide players and judges :O
I need to eat something ...

[ta0]

Met Tonysauce (and his bro sixtoe): he is ready for the battle! He will also do the sports division.

I know Alan has arrived but I have not seen him yet. I did talk to Richy, Miguel  and Yohans.

The battle top trophy is pretty heavy. With the grenade latch it may  cause a problem going through airport security!

[jim in paris]

GO CAT GO !!

let's Rock The Plaza !!


jim

[ta0]

It is 8:30 AM and the spintop area is coming up great! We have a 4-platform stage, 2 speaker systems with power, tent, chairs for the public. We just need to put up the backdrop, which looks ffabolous!

[ta0]

What everyone wants to know:
Freestyles:

1- Brian Caster (poptop)  New US National Champion!!!
2- Tony North (tonysauce)
3- Jon Gates
4- Val Oliver
5- Cliff Coleman

David Schulte won his 3rd battletop contest at nats.

[YodaGuy5]

Nice guys. No secret top releases at Nats?

[jim in paris]

bravo Brian !!
i'll pop a top to celebrate your victory
and
bravo Dave  !!
now you need a window display to show your battle trophies !

bravo to all participants and the crew at bird in hand   
i still hope to make it there in 2015,cruising downtown on a low rider

jim

[lincolnrick]

Congratulations to all the players who made it to Chico this year and to Brian for taking the Championship!!  And here's hoping the new battletop trophy will fit in Dave's car for the trip back (I hope he drove).

[ta0]

Nice guys. No secret top releases at Nats?

The only "new top" I saw at nats was the Nova from Spintastics. It is actually a QSH bearing with an LED light show module.  The one I tried was very well balanced.
By the way, the new Hollow Points width (clear) caps and diabolo tips will be called Hollow Point Hornets.
I did not have a chance to talk to yohans after Friday so I could not ask him about new tops. But Alan said something about having to talk with him about tops.

I am at the Sacramento airport and will not arrive home until midnight.

[the Earl of Whirl]

Glad to hear about all the great fun at Chico.  Congrats to all the top spinners on the nationals stage.  Sounds like a good competition.  Special congratulations to poptop on his fine victory.  He deserves it!!!

[Gustin Joss]

Last year, if I beat the guy who won this year, does that mean that my 2nd place finish from last year now means more? I am joking, of course. I am so glad you won PopTop. I was rooting for you.

[the Earl of Whirl]

How many participated in battle top championship?

Did many new people try top spinning?

Were there any other top spinners there outside of the ones already mentioned?

[YodaGuy5]

How many participated in battle top championship?

Did many new people try top spinning?

Were there any other top spinners there outside of the ones already mentioned?

In this battle top comp do they only use the ones made by Alan?

[ta0]

How many participated in battle top championship?

Did many new people try top spinning?

Were there any other top spinners there outside of the ones already mentioned?

In this battle top comp do they only use the ones made by Alan?

Yes, only the tops made by Alan could be used.
We had 8 participants in the battle top championship, plus Mark McBride who like always was our great MC.  We could have been more, but John Bozung and Richy Nye himself (!!!) chickened out  with the excuse that they were too tired.  I think they were afraid of the wedgies that traditionally those who completely miss the arena are subjected to. That in spite of the fact that for the first time we started early enough to finish with daylight.  In the end several players missed the arena but only Jon got a wedgie because  . . . he is Jon and he has no excuse to do that!  The result was decided by the scoring on the long duration rounds as nobody got points on the killer round    Both Jon and myself got very good hits (I left a mark on Dave's bottle cap) but our tops left the arena. We had the rule added last year that the striking top had to continue spinning in the arena to get any points.  I  think next year we should move it out of the grass and count tops that continue spinning outside.

Here is a photo of the winner:



Dave flew, and this is what he just wrote to me:

TSA was a bit tough....they inspected.....had me take it apart....inspected some more....and then let me through as long as I had it taken apart so it would not look dangerous to others.

It is a great anecdote!  But I am a little glad that I was second (my best performance yet on a battle at nats) and I did not have to go through that . . .

Somebody took a picture of the battle top group.  I will try to get it.

[YodaGuy5]

Yeah he posted about his TSA adventure on facebook this morning. Pretty funny.