Looks like this one goes down in the books as a spirited competition all around.

Several new titles released, gamers coming from four different continents, a new ACAM record for score submissions during an event and several world records being set.

Congrats to the winning gamers, and as always thanks to Gary Vincent and the ACAM staff for hosting yet another impressive and memorable event.

Robert

Now that's really something...a new world record on a title that is almost 40 years old !!

If you think about it, there are not all that many arcade titles that have verified world records from the mid-70's and prior. "Sea Wolf" and "Night Driver" come to mind but that's about it, so being one of the group that effectively owns all the world records from 1976 and prior arcade releases is an elite membership indeed.

Congrats on the new record...well done :)

Congrats to everyone who won! The three of us who traveled from Chicago in order to represent the Galloping Ghost Arcade had as good of a time as we could have possibly imagined.

Although none of us were really major competitors in any of the tournaments, we were all so excited to travel to Funspot in order to experience the tournament, and also to meet people and take the whole scene in. We also couldn't wait just to experience the arcade.

I'd like to extend a very special thanks to David Hernly and Graham Ogilvie, who welcomed us warmly and made sure we were able to meet many people both in the tournament and outside of the tournament. Graham also took the time to take personal scores for each of us for at least a couple of hours on two separate days. David and Graham also had breakfast on Saturday and we threw around ideas for events and other things.

People like David and Graham do this because they love it, and it really shows, because their dedication in terms of time and energy appears effortless. This aspect really matters a great deal in a scene rife with ulterior motives.

I'd also like to thank Gary Vincent for being such a wonderful host and ambassador to the arcade gaming community. He sincerely loves gaming, loves Funspot, loves the players and the tournament. It was great to see him smiling all weekend - it was clear he was having an absolute blast.

Last but not least, I'd like to thank the amazing, fantastic players we met for being so gracious, kind and wonderful - Nick Lombardo, Mike O'Neill, David Nelson, Steve Wagner, Don Hayes, Robert MacAuley, John McAllister, Aaron Laberge (congrats on Death Race, WOW!), Jeffrey Ruehs, George Leutz, Martin Bedard, Joel Hedge .....the list goes on and on. I could name literally almost everyone. Everyone was so, so, so great to all of us, and they were also world class players. I had fun just watching Don play Star Wars and kill screen Kick Man, and watching Martin and Mike SP go back and forth at a level none of us could touch on Jail Break.

We felt right at home from the minute we walked in the door. The spirit of inclusion is the way the arcade scene should be, and this tournament was exemplary in terms of a lack of divisiveness and factioning that I have heard may have unfortunately plagued events like this in the past.

All of us are really looking forward to next year already. We also spoke a bit about doing an event hopefully this winter between Galloping Ghost and Funspot. Not necessarily a battle of the arcades, but maybe 16 man tournament (8 from each arcade) and just doing it very informally in order to get something going between the two biggest arcades in the country.

We also had a chance to visit Pinball Wizard on our way back to the airport for a couple of hours. We ran into Nick and Joel again ....WHAT ARE THE ODDS! Sarah and her staff went out of their way to take scores and show us around everywhere as well, including the back. The pinball machines were in amazing condition and we will definitely be back there as well, as all of us are huge fans.

Suffice it to say, if anyone is coming to Chicago, and I met you at this tournament, all you have to do is message me - my house is 20 minutes from the Ghost and I have a spare bedroom. I'm happy to put you up and give you the grand tour.

Thanks again to everyone. What a positive experience.

Glad you guys had such a good time. Sorry we didn't get to chat more, tourney time is kinda crazy.

GG guys were super friendly and great to have a beer with. It was good to meet you 3 and I really want to visit Chicago in the next couple years.

Mike O'Neill wanted me to send his thanks to the GG guys. He had a great time with you guys and you represented very well. Him and I would like to take a trip out there sometime in the future. I've been there once and really enjoyed it, but I wasn't there long enough. We will have to be in touch.

What an awesome tourney!

It was nice catching up with some of the guys I had spoken to at length from previous tourneys, especially after having missed last year.

It was great reconnecting again with fellow canuck Rob (Bob) Ross, though I missed catching him working on his Super Sprint record.

It was a ton of fun playing with Mike Chase, Rob Ross and Robbie Lakeman on the Death Race machine. I am utterly convinced that the score for DR can go higher and any of those guys are capable of pulling it off, so it will be exciting to see how it goes down in the future.

Thanks to Robert and Matt for the kind words here, I am thrilled to finally have logged a record on that unique machine, that alone was worth my 12 hour trip to and from NH haha.

There are so many people to thank and shout out to for the event, all the Galloping Ghost guys were awesome, Rob Ross and the "brew crew" were a great time, all the guys chasing Death Race and as always everyone in the tourney were just great to be around and hang out.

I really enjoyed the atmosphere and friendly nature of the tourney this year round and getting to mess around on unique machine like Flower was great.

I also want to make a special shout out to Graham Ogilvie, he was great about logging my scores for Aurcade and was all around great at encouraging my push for the record.

As always, ACAM and the Aurcade crew made this a great event and I owe them my thanks as well as everyone else who participated in the tourney and all those who came to hang out around Funspot.

I hope next year the 2nd player on Death Race is fixed up 100%, I'd love to chase the 2 man record with the DR crew from this year!

Can't wait for the next tourney already!