Great event. Unfortunately, I got there late and didn't have much time in the vendor room. The gaming museum was very cool. 99% of the game systems in there I had never even heard of, since my gaming background is primarily Atari, NES, SNES, N64, etc. They had tons of games sitting out that you could just walk up to and play. This was my first video game convention (other than the NWC), so I don't know if this is typically what to expect or not.
The tetris competition was a blast. The qualification round took the top 4 scores in Tetris Game B speed 5, height 5. Based on the posted top scores, you needed a minimum of 2 tetrises during your game. Doable, but not incredibly easy (there is a bit of luck involved as far as getting the straight piece at the right time). At only $2 per entry, I purchased 5 entries right off the bat. My third entry qualified me (29,997 points), and my fourth entry was even better (31k). Sorry UncleTusk, I think it was me who knocked you out. You rocked though (as did NESKing and NESQueen - they just didn't get the straight pieces they needed).
It was me against 3 other guys in the finals, 1 person eliminated each round. They had 'interesting' game modes for the finals. First mode was straight up tetris for 1.5 minutes. One guy messed up a single placement and he was eliminated. Next round was Level 0, Next piece off, 45 seconds. I was on the chopping block, but the last guy that played failed to get a tetris (all double and triple lines), so it was me against another guy for the last match. The mode? Level 9, NO ROTATION. Ugh, what a crappy way to select a finalist. The other guy ended up getting several more lines cleared, and got the better score. So, I ended up with 2nd place, and my prize was a Tetris ice cube tray, hehe.
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Proud replier of post #1000 in the infamous Joel thread 
