the annual

(once a year)

 

 

World Graphic Design
Foosball Championship

 

WGDFC 2007 REPORT
Early Morning of Nov. 17, 2007

Doyle Partners Chickens Out
Foosball is Played, Beer is Drank, Shit Gets Stolen
Non-designer Foosers Get Booed
New 'Regional' Format Gets Mixed Reviews

A new champion was crowned at the 2007 The World Graphic Design
Foosball Championship as last years winner, Doyle Partners, didn't show
up to defend their title. This opened the door for Sia Ea Graphic
Design (last year's 9th place finisher), which stormed thru—losing only
one game all night—to take the one-legged trophy.

Due to overflow crowds at last years tournament, a March Madness-type
regional tournament was implemented this year, with the 78 teams being
split up to play the opening rounds at four separate locations
(North: Pentagram, South: Number 17, East: karlssonwilker inc., and
West:Type Directors Club). The winners of the winner and loser brackets at each
regional then travelled to the offices of karlssonwilker and O.O.P.S.
for the elite 8 final rounds.

In the end, most elite of all was Sia Ea Graphic Design. The
combination of Sia's flashy defense coupled with partner Luis Gonzales'
unemotional, workman-like pull-shot (someone shouting "one trick
pony!") spelled doom for all challengers. This included former WGDFC
champ O.O.P.S. (1) (Paul Sahre & Michiel van Wijngaarden), who were
beaten twice by Sia and Luis. First in the winners bracket final and
then later in the grand final.

O.O.P.S. (1) won the South Regional and faced the North regional winner
Little and Company (Jamie Parker and Craig Phillips), beating the
Minneapolis team to set up its first match-up with Sia Ea Design.

The East Regional winner, karlssonwilker (Hjalti & Jan) had the
misfortune of facing the North champ, Sia Ea Design in the winners
bracket semis. This best of three was quite possibly the best foosball
ever played by graphic designers. In a seesaw match,
Sia Ea squeaked by karlssonwilker (5-4, 4-5, 5-3).

Meanwhile, in the losers bracket, Dreamo, a newcomer to the
tournament—who couldn't tell the difference between Helvetica and Comic
Sans—nonetheless raised the level of play and the noise level as they
were almost booed out of the South regional after being asked to show
their AIGA card by Mike Essl and not being able to produce it.
They were eventually knocked out of the tournament by the rods of KW after
they beat the Hi Lite Media team in the first round of the losers
bracket final.

Perennial foosball and branding powerhouse BIG (1) again made it to the
losers bracket semi-final by beating Perfect Fools and Little and
Company only to be frustrated again by KW.

Although failing to advance past their regional, other teams put in a
strong showing this year: Pentagram (2) was narrowly beaten in the
losers bracket final of the North Regional. The loud and reportedly
loaded crowd doing their best to help the home team. Knopf once again
put in a strong performance at the South Regional as did AR Media, and
the home teams: Number 17 (1 & 2). The East Regional teams from Fathom
(1) and Razorfish played well as The New York Times Magazine and Fathom
(2) from the West region (the Type Directors Club).

Even with the extra travel, the combination of some excellent foosball,
fun and beer made for a near-perfect evening.
Although, whomever stole the plastic dog from karlssonwilker:
YOU'RE SO LAME!

We also look forward to seeing some excellent examples of graphic
design on these sites in the near future:
www.dreamo.com
www.siaea.com
www.hilitemedia.com
www.nytimes.com

see you all next year!
(except the idiot who stole the plastic dog)

SEE PICTURES FROM THE 2007 EVENT

Please upload your images to Flickr tagged with WGDFC

 

WGDFC 2007 TOP 12

1. Sia Ea Graphic Design
2. O.O.P.S. (1) Office of Paul Sahre
3. karlssonwilker
4. BIG (1)
5. Little and Company
6. Dreamo
7. Hi Lite Media
8. Perfect Fools
9. Fathom (1)
10. Pentagram (2)
11. Knopf
12. The New York Times Magazine

 

Check back soon for next years date and time

The Previous Years

WGDFC 2004
WGDFC 2005
WGDFC 2006

 

about the WGDFC
the first official WGDFC tournament took place in 2004.
(scroll down for previous years’ tournament information & photos)
the coveted one-legged trophy (see picture above) goes to the winning studio.
the WGDFC tournament trophy is a challenge cup, so the winning team
better brings it back to the tournament the following year.

the WGDFC is a doubles tournament.
it is played by the united states table soccer association (u.s.t.s.a.) tournament rules
(see excerpt below).
it is a double elimination bracket tournament
(everyone stays in the tournament until they lose twice).
the WGDFC is played on tornado tables (see picture below).

rules
there are 3 golden rules for game play:
1. first team to 5 goals wins.
2. if a ball goes into the goal legally, it is a point, no matter who hit it.
3. no spinning the rods!

also good to know:
• coin toss to see who serves first.
• serve the ball through the hole any way you want,
but you must touch the ball with a man before you score.
• after goals, team scored upon serves the ball.
• ball off the table is given to the team last scored upon.
• if the ball stops moving and you can't reach it ("dead ball"),
give it to the team last scored upon.
• you can't reach into the table for the ball while it is in play.
• be polite & fair, no swearing (hahaha!), and have fun
• you can only have the ball for 15 seconds in any one place/rod.
• there will be no referees at the tables, so you’ll be on your own.

for info on where to play foosballl in new york, check out
www.nycfoosball.com

for everything else:
www.foosball.com
www.foosmanchu.com

international:
www.canadafoosball.com, www.britfoos.com, www.francebabyfoot.com, www.tischfussball.de
www.ficb.it, www.foosball.nl, www.kicker.be, www.metegol.org.ar