rawlinson – us

Foosball – the fastest game a geek could know

We play a TON of foosball here at work. In fact we just finished our lunch hour full of CVS training and foosball. Crazy mix eh? Overall everyone here is getting pretty good at foosball – though there are still some stragglers who don’t seem to want to get any better; or they can’t. When we first got the table only two of us here at work were any good at table soccer – myself and EB. EB blew a disk in his back about a month after we got the table though and the doctor told him he couldn’t play anymore. It’s a shame really as he is quite good.

Luckily, for me at least, many of the guys who sucked when we first got the table have gotten much better. We have had the table for about two years now and it is in bad shape. We have replaced most of the parts on it at least once, if not twice, and it is in need of a huge overhaul. Its a cheap table our boss picked up at SAMS club for next to nothing just before Christmas and it has served us well – especially since we started using the ceramic balls (much like miniature pool, or billiards, balls) which the table was not designed for. The ceramic balls go really fast and are a quite a bit heavier than cork or plastic so they transfer some serious energy on impact.

To keep the game interesting we occasionally form a mini league at the office with random partner draws between the two general skill level pools – bad and good. We track the leagues progress on a small website on our intranet built using Coldfusion and generally talk plenty of smack. However, not even the league was able to keep us interested forever so we have modified the game some.

About two months ago we started playing “multi-ball” which is a game where both teams start with a ball to drop. We don’t use any rules really other than anytime a ball enters a goal it scores (even if it bounces out of the goal and rolls back in – that’s two points). Our only other rule is halfway to the agreed upon winning score each team has to switch positions. Basically, we normally play to twenty. So when your team gets to ten your offensive player and your goalie switch spots. This adds a bit of strategy to the game as you have to figure out when to put your better goalie in the net based on the pairing of players your facing and how they are starting.

The games go fast – even to twenty – considering there are two balls that could be coming at the goalie at any one time. Its a blast but it obviously wouldn’t work in a bar or pub where you have to pay for each game. Our next version of the game is in the works – imagine a mix of bumper pool, pinball, foosball, and air hockey and you might come close to what were planning – if we can build the table.