Psyop - The tournament winners




The MassMarket team














Location:
Los Angeles Athletic Club

Date:
December 12th, 2009

After weeks of vigorous training, hours of throwing balls, and emotions breaking down, it all came down to the LAAC 2009 Dodgeball Championship!

With the biggest turn out ever, nine teams built up of VFX companies in Los Angeles, participated in what is to be said a game more reputable then the companies playing. The tournament was set up as a double elimination bracket, which gives every team a fair shot at winning the championship. Each match lasted 12 minutes, or until one team has been eliminated from the court.

After two hours of playing the hardest games of our lives, three teams stood out as the strongest, Motion Theory, Psyop, and MassMarket. Psyop, being undefeated through the tournament, advanced to the finals no problem. Motion Theory and Mass Market, both with one loss, competed in the simi-finals for a shot at the Championship Match. Though Motion Theory packed high speed balls, agility, and great team work, MassMarket eliminated them, advancing to the Finals. "Going into this game, I knew we had to out throw, out duck, and out last, and by doing so I had to put my strongest team players forward," said Thomas Knight, Captain of MassMarket's team.

Spectators gathered by the thousands (sarcastically) above the court to watch the high intense final match between Psyop (Defending Champs) and MassMarket. "Psyop had a pretty stacked team," said Anthony Pangan, key player for MassMarket. "Ash Wagers was a monster, he could catch anything thrown at him, and throw anything given to him!"

The Final match is Best of Three

Game One: 6 on 6 (normal players allowed to play) - This was not going to be an easy task, however, MassMarket came in strong, winning an intense game that boiled down to one player remaining on the court for each team. Anthony Pangan was out via a technical rule, leaving Thomas Knight for MassMarket, and Cally Morton for Psyop. Thomas was able to knock a ball from Cally's hands, causing an out, which lead to a win for MassMarket. (1-0)

Game Two: 6 on 6 (each team allowed to rotate in all ten players rather than just the six, however playing only six on the court at a time) - It only took three minutes for Psyop to obliterate MassMarket. Very lopsided game (1-1)

Game Three: 10 on 10 (every player from each team on the court) - As crazy as this was, this was the game that determined the fate of the 2009 Dodgeball Champs. It was said to be the Kobe and Lebron match up of our time! Psyop came in with the momentum of the last game, which was tough for MassMarket to compete against. The final game came down to Rich Rama, EP for MassMarket, keeping the hopes of stripping Psyop of its belt alive. Andrew Romatz, Ed Anderson, Ash Wagers, and Barry Kriegshauser all had balls aimed at Rich. 1...2...3..., Psyop launched a ball attach on Rich Rama. In efforts to deflect any of the balls from hitting him, Rich threw up a diversion consisting of two other balls. Unfortunately, Rich's diversion did not work. He was riveted with balls, eliminating MassMarket. (1-2)

Psyop won their second consecutive Dodgeball Champion, and MassMarket winning 2nd Place.

The VFX community gets together to play quarterly and encourage more teams to play.