MTSA

New update below!!!

We are an association that organize a league, for approx 6 months from late august to middle february and tournaments around the year. Our ''home'' table is Garlando RWB (red white blue) and we take care of organizing both Passage and Fastball (no-passage) tournaments around different locations in montreal. We've been around for quite some time now... 5 or 6 years. We pretty much took it from where the qtsa left it. We are now trying to bring back that beautiful game, sport-to-be :D, give it a new face to the people.

Plans for the future (other than organizing our league and tournaments) :

1-Implant a ranking system - that could help us step it up a lil to a more serious level of gameplay
*ASAP*

2-Implant a good communication between the 3 ''main'' (possible to have more) foosball organizations here in Quebec (since we have 3 main tables). *This is not a goal particular to MTSA but to all organizatons I think*. And i think we have done a pretty good job having the 3 TSAC reps and main admins of the 3 organizations of those tables here in quebec meet recently in Quebec for a tournament last April (the only ITSF sanctionned event in Canada this year :D ) Another good way of going forward in that idea is to organize point 3 :P

3-Organize a multi-table tournament here in Montreal, Quebec in collaboration with the AQBB and TornadoQuebec. It would feature the 3 most popular tables in the area (and in canada i think) Bonzini, Garlando RWB and Tornado.
*would take place around the end of summer... end of august*

4-Reach out to sponsors, go out there, talk about our game/sport. It's potential in the future. Get sponsors that would help us grow the game/sport.
*ASAP*

5-Participate in the canadian foosball scene and promote our passion to something more than just a regular weekday night meeting in some bar! :P
*already in action*

6-Vague plans of promoting the game/sport in highschools and colleges and universities to increase the player base and love of the game/sport. This could be the biggest challenge we have to face in the next years to come, but its the most important and rewarding.
*would be easier to plan during the summer to start implementation in highschools and college when school starts in september*

Some more points could come in the future.
Feel free to share your opinion as it is greatly appreciated

***For all these beautiful plans to become reality, it is certain that we will need the help of TSAC and its members. Give out your opinion, ideas on the ways we find or you find to do the things we have in mind for the game/sport. Like :
+Ideas of promoting the sport in schools
+Ideas of attracting sponsors
+Ideas of getting a good ranking system up and running
and more... :)

Thank you for your attention
Derce May 9th 2008

Update- July 25th 2008...

After discussions with staff members of the other foosball organizations here in Quebec, TornadoQuebec and AQBB, the multi-table event we wanted to organize will not be possible. Looks like it would be a bigger job and bigger organization than we expected. I don't think that the idea is completely rejected, I still think that a major multi-table tournament would be fantastic for the promotion of the sport.

On the other hand, I must say that speaking in the name of my fellow staff members of MTSA, we are proud to see the nice communication we have established between the 3 major foosball organizations here in quebec. We have more and more players trying out different table types, switching tables, participating in various tournaments, even major ones. I think we are slowly but surely going in the right path for table soccer, getting people to open their eyes and seeing what is else out there in foosball, and not just our own 'home table' in our regular bar.

Other great news is the venue of our ranking system!! We are proud to announce that we have held on to our objective of building a ranking system for our tournaments. I programmed it myself to the best of my knowledge on excel :D. Take note that due to the fact that we hold tournaments in Passage and in Fast-Ball (no-passage), we will have 2 distinct rankings. We based our ratings system on the one aqbb uses. They have based their own on the ELO system used by Bonzini USA, a system used in chess tournaments and other games/sports worldwide. We hope this new tool will step it up for table soccer here in montreal, on garlando, bringing serious competition to our tournaments. Note that here in Montreal, the big majority of tables in garlando rwb, for we have had the only distributor of garlando tables in morth america here in montreal for years. We have a lot of tables, and players, but they are not comptetitive and just play for fun, that is our major obstacle in getting table soccer to be a more professionnal and competitive game/sport.

Next, the sponsors... that's a problem we really haven't faced yet. We need sponsors, like everyone else. We need to put a serious structure in place first, for us to base ourselves on something to show to sponsors. We have tried to talk to our tables provider here in montreal, mira amusement, who was supposed to help us with the tables for our tournaments, we had an agreement but they choked big time on us. That issue may be discussed in another time if any1 wants to hear about it. We will be working on the sponsors in the near future, because the sooner have solutioned that, the longer it will benefit us. I must say that if any1 has ideas or suggestions that have worked for you that we could use, it would be appreciated, share your success stories with every1! :D

Hum and as for our plans of developing foos here in schools in the greater montreal area, i have to say, that plans are getting clearer and clearer. We still have a lot to plan before anything gets done, but there is a good chance it might work. A lot of colleges and universities here in montreal have foosball tables, we could list all the places where they play foosball and draw their attention to what we do for the table soccer scene, and invite them to practice with us, to play in our league and in our numerous tournaments. And as for highschools, many already have soccer tables were a lot of kids play during lunch time, we could list all the schools and maybe organize a structure around those teenagers, in concert with the direction, to keep them playing foosball because most of them play during their highschool years and then totally forget about it. By maintaining a tournament structure and a promotion to a professional and serious table soccer, by showing them all that there is out there in foosball, maybe they'd be more interested in continuing to play table soccer in a more professional level. Making teenagers play in tournaments in their own school and/or tournaments with highschools facing each other like in a nations cup format or something like that. I have never seen any junior events take place here in montreal, and it would really be a giant step ahead in the table soccer community here in montreal. Like i said a lot needs to be discussed but the main idea and the intention is there. In the month of august we will be putting a lot more attention towards that.

Our association have acquired a camera to film the games and tournaments we run. We have had it for 4 months now and we will be using it for a 3rd tournament this week end, july 27th. We will have also be transmitting the image were filming, right as its being filmed, to a screen in the bar we will be playing. Trying to bring technology to our tournaments for more interactivity, and to have data, and archives of our tournaments.

**** PLANS FOR THE FUTURE!!!

Again we have some plans for a near to medium-long future. e have begun talking about renovating our park of tables to meet the international standards in garlando. We are planning to buy, maybe before the end of 2008, a garlando world champion, to our players here in montreal. We have talked about it a lot, measured the pros and cons, and it nearly looks inevitable that we uograde to that table. We have good players but on rwb, and old table. It would be nice to try to develop world class players one day, and who knows maybe one day we will have a garlando pro or pro master here in montreal :D (hey dreaming is legal)
If we see there is a good receptivity in the players regarding that table, we could then look forward to implant more garlando world champion around town...

In a long future, I am planning on going to the garlando Worlds next year. Obviously to get my ass kicked but hey, I am more looking forward to acquiring experience and knowledge than to win anything. Maybe by the time we get there, maybe i can convince some people from around or even from the whole country to come along with me... I'm not 100% sure of going, but i would really love to live that experience. Just to remind everyone that the 2008 garlando world championships are taking place as you read his from, july 23rd to july 27th...:D

So that's about it for the MTSA for now, hope you enjoy reading our plans, accomplishments and dreams. Again I'm asking out help, comments, ideas, critics, anything constructive that would help us improve the table soccer scene in montreal and in Canada. :D

Derce, MTSA staff member, july 25th 2008