KO - Gathering

Hello there! The 10th Italian Kick Off 2 Championship will be held in Milan on Saturday 21th April 2012! The tournament will be hosted in the usual venue we used in the last few years, the most you know it as the "Kick Off Crypt".
The tournament is open to foreigners and of course you are welcome at the the Italian gathering even if I know that the World Cup upcoming conflicts with such April kick off holiday, and besides this, it is just one month ahead, so not much time to plan a trip, I expect a very low attendance of foreigners. But Thorsten could surprise me!
The main reason of the early date is that Sandro is coming here from Australia and he will stay just one month , actually in April.
The competition will start just after the pizza-time in the early afternoon and it will be a one-day-tournament.


Official KOA Hotel is: the usual http://www.hotel22marzo.com/ It is cheap, quiet, clear, 30 seconds walk to venue, 3 minutes walk to Kick Off House.
If you need it, please, ask me and I can reserve a room for you!
Usually I'm glad to host KOAers in Kick Off House but I cannot this time as my mother will be at home to mollycoddle Sandro as much as she can!
Of course KOH will be open to play KO2 for the whole week end with an amiga station up and running in the Kick Off Room.
The plan is to start the tournament at 14.00 after the pizza lunch. As usual we will have a dinner all together after the tournament If you need any info about hotel, travel, etc. please ask.

Confirmed Players:
1) Gianni T
2) Sandro T
3) Luigi F
4) Mario F
5) Fabio F
6) Lorenzo C
7) Flavio Z

TBC

Damn, would have been interested learning the Italian way of Kick Off, but thats my grandma's 85th birthday.
Can't leave that out so have fun guys!

Thanks Michael, next time we will avoid 21 april!
Added Flavio Z as confirmed player

the confirmed list is slightly changed: Diego D and cousin Alessandro will not make it. On the other side, The Fichera Bros come back in action, finally!!!. nobody remember the last time they joined a tournament together so I'm really glad for them.
Well, basically this is a tournament in which just "big screen" players are allowed!
Flavio breaks the rule just because he promised he will reach the big screen this year!

Just wanted to wish everyone a good time for the ICs this weekend. I wonder if Lorenzo C can maintain his amazing WC performance? Good luck everyone.

Thanks, I do think this tournament will be a nice test for every one.
I played Sandro these days and I can already say that his skills are intact even after the long inactivity.
I don't believe Tommaso was just a Birmingham's shooting star. I think he masters such knowledge of the game that he will offer very hard bread to his opponents. We will play X3 so I expect really interesting results!

A quick review will follow

Congratulations Gianni on winning the Italian Championship.

Your scores (6 - 1 against Fabio or 10 - 3 against wc quarter finalist Lorenzo) clearly show your outstanding quality.
I hope to make it to Milan this year in order to meet you again and to see more of your high class kickoff.

Thanks Cornelius! hope to meet you too!
To be precise Fabio and LOrenzo both reached the semi finals! getting the 3rd and the 4th place respectively. They weren't the only top guns here: Mario was the vice world champion in Richmansworth 2006 and Luigi was the vice world champion on Milan 2004, Sandro reached the semi finals (4th place) in Rome 2007. A bunch of stupid players!
About the results, being honest, I compare Kick off 2 to table tennis. when there isn't a big gap between players, in every game it could happen every result and it depends more to the performance of the moment, rather then the overall skills. Above all in a game like kick off, in which 6 players out of 11 when they kick the ball so badly that you even don't know where the ball will land, due to randomness factor in their feet...
For example I beat Tommaso 10-3 but I don't believe there are 7 goals between us, in fact in the return game he was leading 2-1 till the 9th minute then I had a lucky come back victory at the very last second.

Congratulations on your title Gianni amongst elite competition. And congratulations to Flavio for his bravery in just taking part!! Great team photo too.

And very interesting words on the closeness of KO2 battles - very true.

Thanks Garry!
Flavio was brave also because he faced a train strike! so he wasn't even sure to come back home, in fact he slept in KOH on Saturday night as no trains to catch! Also Tommaso was brave for the same reason, but he was lucky and he cough a train to come back home safety.
here some more pictures about the kitchen tournament.





Due to my terrible backache, so bad that I wasn't able even to walk straight, we was forced to play in KOH instead of the Crypt. Luckily in KOH we can handle in a decent way 3-4 amiga stations. of course no International Quality Swift Standard Facilities but I think that although players had to put their joysticks over books or whatever, they enjoyed the tournament.

So, also in real soccer it depends more to the performance of the moment, rather then the overall skills. Take Barcellona and Chelsea... and btw I'm glad for Chelsea getting the final: Barcellona was toffee-nosed.

What an excellent tournament, also the curtains fit with the bed linen
Would ask if Maria did it by her own, but because this site is not about crochet and knitting...
Congratulations Gianni for winning and to everyone else for beeing part of that strong line-up!

Ps:
Welcome back from australia Sandro