April 25-26, 2025 at the Iconic Blueberry Hill:
Thank you to everyone who came, bubbled, and celebrated a fantastic weekend in STL for the Showdown in the Lou II!!! I can speak for the organizers, Craig Cole and Harold Webb, we were so grateful you came to play, we loved seeing familiar faces and catching up with each of you. We are gonna have an even better tourney next year! Keep your calendars clear for next Spring!
The sky looked a bit ominous Friday afternoon, and in fact, the precipitation broke through for a short while. However, in what could be best described as something analogous to the heart of a true Bubble Hockey competitor, the skies cleared and optimism for a beautiful weekend won out.
Friday night was filled with a lot of drinks, a lot of conversation and a LOT of warm-up games. Despite Jg Johnnyg doing his best to keep his best moves close to the vest, in hopes that he could surprise everyone on Saturday, he wasn't fooling anyone. That concept probably held true for most of us, b/c what good is an awesome slapper, or Iceberg if you're not showing it off to impress and inimidate the rest of the competition? I mean, seriously?
Saturday began just as Friday night ended, only slightly more hungover. We found out that there were a few registrants that couldn't make it, so turnout was depressed by a couple, but still most everyone (minus ONE JOE JEZIERSKI *cough*) showed up on time and ready to bubble!!
Round Robin play really progressed smoother than last year, primarily due to the fact that we had so many returning players this year and people were already accustomed to the process of just finding their opponent and snagging a table when they became available. The B division players finished even earlier than expected, so kudos to you folks! The top seeds out of B (If i'm reading this bracket correctly), were Jason Stemm, Steve Celeste and Heather Boyer (apologies if I am relaying this incorrectly). IN ANY CASE, regardless of this author's poor research, it came down to TWO B players battling for the title, Heather and Alex Neisler. Alex, in his first appearance in this tourney as well as almost a brand new player to the STL league, took home the prize and also a giant target on his back, since Heather has become one of the most improved players we have seen over the past year. She will be back like the Terminator.
In between the A and B, there was a quick Doubles Tourney, the team of Shawn M. Smith and Dave Zavah were the ultimate victors, even if they aren't the best looking team (that title belongs to Hot Thomas and Marc Steele, IYKYK). Congats to you two regardless!!! Even ugly people find success!
Finally, the A group. BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH JOE LEWIS WINS AGAIN.
Not to beleaguer the point, but a lot of players were hoping their games were going to be up to par to at least make Joe break a sweat, and in the end, i don't think he even raised his heart rate a beat. We saw strong strong players get knocked down and fight back through the consolation, but in the end John Gaffney found his way through to meet Joe in the finals (we were one match, one goal away from a father/son showdown, after John took out George in a fantastic series... To be fair all of us outside of Detroit breathed a sigh of relief, we knew we would never hear the end of ANOTHER all detroit final). Joe dispatched of John, and that ended it. The birthday boy grandly celebrated 21. Congrats to John and George on their 2nd and 3rd finishes, respectively. Thank you to all for a great turnout! lets do it next year!! and of course, WAY TO GO JOE! You rock!
B LEVEL:
Round Robin:
https://brackethq.com/b/codic/
Bracket Play:
https://brackethq.com/b/jodic/
A LEVEL:
Round Robin:
https://brackethq.com/b/wmdic/
Bracket Play:
https://brackethq.com/b/indic/
Tournament Promos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cLWCsKHsUc
https://www.firstalert4.com/video/2025/04/25/bubble-hockey-tournament/
https://www.firstalert4.com/2025/04/25/showdown-lou-bubble-hockey-saturday-blueberry-hill/