The New Dream Machine

June 25, 2009 on 8:55 am | In Funnyish, Insider View, Promotions by Josh Jones | 21 Comments

That's not as in beach, playa!

You may remember Dream Machine from such sports as basketball, basketball, softball, and basketball.

But what you may NOT remember is that we got in trouble with our building when they saw our elevator lobby table tennis shenanigans.

And what you couldn’t possibly remember, is that Micah and I have been working on our game since then and now are officially USATT rated (771 and 720 respectively).

Which is why I’m pleased to introduce for the first time… Dream Machine Table Tennis!

What’s it to you?

Well, we’re headed to the $100,000 Hard Bat Classic this weekend in Vegas, and anybody who shows up to cheer (either of) us on will get $1 in DreamHost credit for every point each of us score.. THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE TOURNAMENT!

That could very well end up being THOUSANDS of dollars of DreamHost credit .. or very well end up being TENS of dollars of DreamHost credit!

To illustrate, I will now relay to you a little story of the LAST tournament we went to, less than a month ago…

Or maybe you'd play ping pong.

The California State Open

The way USATT tournaments generally work is that everybody is grouped into four person round-robin contests, where everybody plays everybody else, and only the one winner advances to the “playoff” bracket.

When I showed up for my under-1100-rating tournament, I found my bracket on the board… and things didn’t look too good:

  • Jones, Josh 725
  • Lee, Kenneth 927
  • Liao, Hung Ju (Andrew) 844
  • Lu, David 958

    • Hmm, Jones vs. Lee, Liao, and Lu. Not to be prejudiced, but I was nervous.

    And in fact, it wasn’t good… I ended up losing all three matches, although I did win one game at least vs. Ken.

    Overall, it was still a lot of fun and afterwards I got everybody from our round robin together to take a picture to commemorate their victories:

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    Ken, Andrew (the winner), Josh, and David!

    See you tomorrow at the Venetian!

    21 Responses to “The New Dream Machine”

    1. vinn Says:
      June 25th, 2009 at 9:54 am

      hahahaha….

    2. Tim Says:
      June 25th, 2009 at 10:33 am

      >>”Hmm, Jones vs. Lee, Liao, and Lu. Not to be prejudiced, but I was nervous.”

      Why were you nervous? You are ranked higher than all the kids you lost too.

    3. sdayman Says:
      June 25th, 2009 at 11:29 am

      Ahhh! The humiliation! You lost to opponents who can’t even reach the net!

    4. Tim Says:
      June 25th, 2009 at 12:22 pm

      Josn

      Are you hold an orange pingpong protective paddle bag? (aka. pppp bag)?

    5. Josh Jones Says:
      June 25th, 2009 at 2:28 pm

      Yep, I am holding an oppppb!

      And actually, those are ratings, not rankings… like in chess! So they were all ranked higher than me.

      Heh, and David and Andrew literally couldn’t reach the net, not that it made much difference!

      josh!

    6. TB Says:
      June 25th, 2009 at 5:14 pm

      You should’ve pumped yourself up pre-game with a showing of Balls of Fury:
      http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424823/

    7. rcanblog Says:
      June 25th, 2009 at 9:27 pm

      Hey John,

      Cheers, be calm and concentrate on good service, spin and swing…also rather then lots of smash work on placements…it will give you good results.

      I am from , accept my best wishes !!

    8. Xkeeper Says:
      June 25th, 2009 at 9:45 pm

      Too bad I won’t be able to make it, despite only being a few miles away. The site doesn’t seem to give any help in terms of where it’s going to be (other than the hotel, which is more or less useless when it comes to finding these things). Oh well!

      Good luck regardless.

    9. Xkeeper Says:
      June 25th, 2009 at 9:58 pm

      (Also, many congratulations on getting a DH Newsletter out on time!… though the May one was on time, the December 2009 one was missed, so that doesn’t count.)

    10. Jacob Says:
      June 26th, 2009 at 12:04 am

      Yeah, I actually live in Vegas, and have the 26th off, figured it’d be neat to check this out.

      No time or location. I’m assuming it’s one of the Venetian’s ballrooms, but that narrows it down to only a couple square miles of floorspace :P

    11. J.R. Says:
      June 26th, 2009 at 9:16 am

      Also a Vegas resident and thought I might wander over, but . .

      I found the schedule – http://www.hardbatclassic.com/schedule – but no location within the Venetian (with its Palazzo add-on, the world’s largest hotel – and attached to the country’s third largest exhibition center).

      But even the schedule only works if we know what category you guys are in: Bars and Basements or Pros. I could hazard a guess, but prefer to be kind.

    12. John Says:
      June 26th, 2009 at 9:37 am

      I’m not going to be making the trek, and the pictures I’ve got in my head will likely not do justice to the real thing, but score a few for this keyboard jockey.

    13. Josh Jones Says:
      June 26th, 2009 at 9:38 am

      Yeah, I’m not sure myself WHERE in the Venetian it is.. but yeah, we’re technically “pros” since we have a USATT rating, so I think our stuff starts at 6pm.. tonight!

    14. J.R. Says:
      June 26th, 2009 at 9:53 am

      Josh -

      Then I’ll probably head over. How do we sign up to get the “fan” points (not that I wouldn’t be there, anyway, just to cheer you on).

      If you don’t know where in this monster complex the tournament is being held, you should find out early and head for it much sooner than you think necessary, if only to recuperate from the long hike before starting play. And when you do get the location, if you have time, please let us know, too.

      Good luck – and don’t let anything about your opponents make you nervous. After all, you have the power of the dream behind you. The best they have is, what, a lifetime of full-time training? Bah – no worries.

    15. Kidhack Says:
      June 26th, 2009 at 5:08 pm

      It’s in hall C. I’m there now!

    16. Josh Jones Says:
      June 26th, 2009 at 6:14 pm

      Us too!

      I’m at table 91, micah’s at table 71… Now!

    17. LA office space Says:
      June 27th, 2009 at 7:36 am

      Looks like you are all having a great time. Wish I could be there.

    18. Newegg Promo Code Says:
      July 1st, 2009 at 11:41 am

      I really like the picture haha. Can’t believe Andrew won!

    19. Soma Says:
      July 4th, 2009 at 8:40 am

      if only to recuperate from the long hike before starting play. And when you do get the location, if you have time, please let us know, too.

    20. Josh Says:
      July 8th, 2009 at 1:35 am

      You lost to opponents who can’t even reach the net!

    21. Jacob Says:
      July 8th, 2009 at 1:38 am

      You should’ve pumped yourself up pre-game with a showing of Balls of Fury:
      http://dhdphoto.com/detail.php?id=6639

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