Tuesday, November 25, 2008

twentytwentytwenty4 hours to go...

Actually less, but who's counting.

TTV: I never really imagined my little baby would grow up to be such a success!
I mean, five years we have been doing this shit! Five years of a video game tournament centered around one time of the year when virtually everyone is back home. I think that is the real beauty of it. It brings us all together. Every year I meet at least one new person, as I'm sure is true with every attendee. I can give you a story from each year- about Olsta peeing on things (and/or people), about random hookups, about the snowball fight Thanksgiving morning, about the crazy weather (from rain to snow to balmy temps), about the dance parties and the messes left behind for me to clean up the next day. In fact I have pictures to prove most of this. But, aside from the champions, I don't recall much about the racing itself...

Nintendo 64 is long forgotten by many. Obviously, not us. The system is possibly older than some of this years attendees. The game is half my age! But it's not about the game, not about the racing. Sure, bragging rights exist. But I think all four previous champs would gladly hand over their titles in exchange for the memories.

I know this is all a little corny and sentimental, but it's how I feel. And I'm sure most, if not all of you would agree. This is OUR Thanksgiving. The Turkey Tourney may have started out as something else, but what it has become is much, much more than that.

Whenever I tell someone about the Turkey Tourney, they are pretty amazed. I mean, who wouldn't be. We're getting together (nearly a hundred of us in total) to play a game that is 12 years old. Granted, one of the greatest video games ever made... but still. People started asking me about this back in the spring! I mean, yeah so I moved down to Champaign, but that's not going to stop me from carrying on this great tradition.

I hope we carry on this great tradition for years to come. Like when Mario Kart 64 is equivalent to Pong. I'm sure people will come and go, new faces will be seen, old ones remembered... but when the rest our of generation goes out to party on "black Wednesday," we'll be staying in, playing Mariokart.

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